Disclaimer: To my familiar readers, this story is a bit darker than my previous works. This story has instances of child sex trafficking, pedophilia, pedophile culture, and instances of attempted assault and non-con. I will attempt to make them as non-graphic as possible, and will put warnings at the beginning of such chapters.

Chapter 1

It's Not Simple To Say

"Welcome to Merv's Diner, home of the Paffle. My name is Sara, what can I get for you today?"

"What's a Paffle?"

"A pancake we put in the waffle iron. Comes with syrup, whipped cream, berries, confectioner's sugar, and six different sides."

Merv's Diner. The bane of Sara Morganson's existence. Neon green uniforms, matching go-go boots, tacky decor, and never-ending cacophony of obnoxious music, it was a headache in the form of an asbestos-laced building. That didn't even include the mix of verbally abusive truckers who liked to catcall and try to grope her, the lack of tips, a manager who liked to line his pockets with the contents of the register, and the bizarre hours.

Unfortunately, jobs in Bealego Ville were limited for a seventeen-year-old girl, and this was the best Sara could do. With a deceased father, an older sister out of state, and a mother working fourteen hour shifts at the hospital just to make ends meet, Sara could not just idly sit by and do nothing while bills piled up in front of her.

Over the summer, Sara had split her time between waitressing and babysitting nearly every child in the neighborhood. It had been tiring work, hearing stories of her people going shopping, to parties, on vacation, swimming, while she was stuck indoors serving artery-clogging breakfast dishes to impolite patrons.

Senior year had started up last week at Brennan High, and it seemed to both fly by, and drag on at the same time. Sara worked every day of the last week after school, and found herself too exhausted to do her homework at the end of the day, just crawled into bed and slept until her alarm went off the next morning.

It was hard not to let it all get to her, but Sara had grown accustomed to ignoring the stress and anxiety that came with it.

The customer gave their order and Sara walked behind the counter and stuck the paper on the wheel. She released a long, slow breath and picked up a napkin to wipe the sweat off her forehead. Her hair -long and curly and already unmanageable- was sticking to the back of her neck. Sara reached back and pulled the band out of her hair, shaking it out to try and smooth it before securing it back again.

"Oh, Stephanie?"

Sara's lip curled over her teeth and a shiver ran down her spine. Nigel was in today.

"Yeah?" she called, picking up two glasses and holding them under the soda fountain.

"Please, tell me I didn't just see you let your hair down," Nigel said as he approached, his clipboard clutched in his fat, tiny hands. Sara turned, looking down at her manager as he barely came up to her chin. "You are aware that's against the rules, right?"

"Sorry, I was just fixing it," Sara said, absently touching her ponytail resting on her shoulder.

Nigel clicked his tongue, adjusting his round glasses as he shook his head. "I don't want to hear a single complaint about hair on the food, do you understand me? This is a fine establishment and I won't have it closed down because you females care more about your appearance than the customers and their food."

Sara could feel her face growing hot, but nodded. "Right," she said simply, softly.

Nigel looked pleased. "Good. When you're done with the sodas, I need you to wipe down table six. Someone spilled syrup on the seats."

"Sure."

Nigel lumbered off, pushing the door open and walking back to the kitchen with a high pitched yell of where table nine's order was.

"Shit, he always talk to you like that?" a husky voice asked behind her.

Sara instinctively turned toward the voice, jaw dropping slightly. There was a young woman sitting at the counter, and she was stunning. She had incredibly long hair hanging over one shoulder, blonde with subtle light streaks in it. In the white tank top she wore, Sara could see how muscular her arms were, and it was low cut enough to give a glimpse of her very generous cleavage. Her skin was lightly tanned and... sparkling? Was that glitter on her shoulder? And in her hair?

But the glitter was quickly forgotten when their eyes fully met. They were bright green, fringed by long lashes, expertly traced with liquid liner with a touch of dark eyeshadow. Everything about her just screamed raw sexuality, and Sara suddenly felt very self conscious and flustered, in a greasy uniform with her hair soaked with sweat.

The girl's lips were pulling into a smirk, and Sara realized she had been asked a question.

"Uh, sometimes," Sara said, smiling sheepishly.

"And he's your manager?"

"Mhm."

The girl scoffed, running a single long finger down the side of her sweating glass of soda, her eyes still on Sara's. "That's fucked up," she stated bluntly. "He must have a Napoleon complex or something."

Sara shrugged. She often thought that about Nigel as well, but never had the courage to say it out loud while in the vicinity. Nigel had a tendency to appear out of nowhere and he did not take any form of criticism well.

She looked at the two glasses of coke on the counter and picked them up. "Excuse me," she said quickly to the girl, walking back to her table. With her back turned, she didn't see the girl's head turn to watch her, a smirk tugging at her pouty lips.

Forty minutes later, Sara's shift was down to its final minutes, and she couldn't help continually looking at the clock and counting the seconds. The lunch rush had passed, leaving only a few tables filled and people sitting at the counter, including the girl Sara had spoken to.

Sara had just finished cleaning the dishes off a booth when the chime above the door sounded and she looked up, face lighting up.

"Hey, Seth," she greeted, hauling the bus tub up her hip and heading for behind the counter.

"Hey." Seth Elsen took a seat at the counter, folding his arms on the shiny metal. "Almost done?"

"Yeah, just got to put these in the back." Sara wiped her hand across her forehead. "Did you get the tickets?"

"Right here." Seth patted his pocket, his smile fading just slightly. "Um, it's cool if Mira comes with us, right? I kinda invited her."

Sara's smile froze. Of fucking course. "No, that's fine," she told him. "Let me go take care of these."

"Stephanie, a moment?" Nigel asked, appearing behind her.

Sara froze, almost running into him. "Yeah?"

"You're not about to clock out are you?"

"Yeah, I get off at-"

"Because Fran just called off and I really need someone to stay for the dinner rush."

This was the worst version of Nigel. The I-need-a-favor-and-you-really-have-no-say Nigel. What made this Nigel so terrible was he seemed to know Sara was too timid to say no to anything he wanted and he loved taking advantage of it.

"I-"

"Excuse me!" Sara's response was swiftly cut off by the girl from earlier, waving a hand at them, a receipt between two fingers. "Can I get the manager down here please?" Sara noticed the collar of her shirt looked to be pulled down slightly, giving a better view of her cleavage and bra.

Nigel was at the other end of the counter faster than Barry Allen. "Yes, how may I help you, sweetheart?"

The girl's smile was Oscar-worthy, but something in her eyes flickered at the nickname. "Well, I'm just having a hard time totalling up my bill," she told Nigel in a soft, sweet voice laced with flirtation. "I'm so bad at math."

"Oh, of course, darling." Nigel took the bill. "See, what's important is you have to carry the one from this number here, over to this number here."

Over his shoulder, the girl's green eyes met Sara's brown ones, and the girl gave a slight tilt of her head toward the back door. Her intention was abundantly clear.

Sara moved quickly; getting to the back and dropping the bus tub next to the dishwasher and hurrying to the timeclock. The sound of the beep was all she needed to hear.

Seth was waiting by the front door when Sara snuck back out. She found Nigel still leaning on the counter, now explaining to the girl how to push the right buttons to make the cash register open. The girl was twirling her hair around one finger, her smile still in place but visible boredom and disgust in her green eyes.

Sara rounded the counter without Nigel noticing, mouthing a quick "Thank you" to the girl as she went. The cocky smile and wink she received was enough to make her face hot, and kept it hot all the way to Seth's car.

The movie theater was cool, dark, and uninhabited. It was the exact opposite of Merv's and Sara loved it. It was almost enough to distract her from the fact that Seth's lips hadn't left Mira's in the fifteen minutes since the movie started.

Seth Elsen had been her best friend since eighth grade. In the last three years, he had quickly become Brennan High's golden boy as the captain of the lacrosse team, perfect grades, and the chiseled good looks of dark hair hanging in his eyes, a strong jaw, broad shoulders, and gorgeous blue-green eyes. Add in the fact that he was dating the school's golden girl, and it was a perfect fit.

Seth and Sara often joked how he came from a home of cliches. His parents were high school sweethearts who completely doted on their only child, he received a new Jeep for his sixteenth birthday, his mother ran a series of charities, while his father ran his own advertising agency that quickly rose the Elsens to the status of BV elite.

His girlfriend Mira Pascal came from the standard Stepford Family background. With her blonde hair, blue eyes, modcloth dresses, and perfect smile, it was no wonder she belonged on the arm of Brennan High's most eligible bachelor.

It wasn't so much that Sara disliked Mira, it was that ever since Seth began dating her at the beginning of junior year, they had become inseparable. She had seen very little of her best friend this last year, thanks to his sudden dedication to Mira. Sara was sure there was more to this dedication than just a high school romance. Mira, much like Seth, came from a high powered family; her father owned a chain of ice cream shops, while her aunt on that side was one of the most feared lawyers in town. Practically everywhere you went in Bealego Ville, there was an ice cream shop or an ad for her aunt on a bus bench. And as an extra annoying bonus, Mira's mother was a dentist, so her entire family probably had the best teeth in town.

At first, she wondered if she was jealous of their relationship, as freshman year she had hindered a small crush on Seth. But now she realized it was a number of things; being face to face with the perfect relationship while she was single, constantly being the third wheel, and feeling like she was losing her best friend everytime Seth chose Mira over her.

Sara leaned her arm on the armrest, her thoughts wandering from the movie and back to the girl at the diner. She really wished she had at least gotten her name.

Sara declined Seth's offer to go out to eat with them after the movie, knowing she couldn't take anymore of Meth.

Seth drove Sara home in silence. Sara entered the dark house, disabling the alarm and clicking on a lamp.

"Mom?" she called out in the hope that her mother had gotten off early. There was no answer from her mom, but a small orange cat with big blue eyes quickly walked into the room, mewling happily at the sight of her.

Sara couldn't help but smile at the greeting and scooped the cat up. "You hungry, Marianna?" she asked, nuzzling her cheek against the cat's head. "Yeah, let's get you fed."

An hour later, Sara was lying on her bed beside her cat with an open textbook against her legs. She had taken a long shower to get the scent of Merv's off her skin and hair, but it still seemed to linger. Even in her pajamas she still didn't feel completely clean.

Tired, Sara closed the textbook and laid it on her bedside table, stroking a hand over Marianna's back and making her arch slightly.

"Alright, time for bed," Sara murmured, lifting herself up to slither under the covers, clicking off the lamp. Marianna purred in the dark, her tail giving a few light flickers against Sara's arm. "Mm, goodnight, kitty."

Sara fell asleep relatively quickly, the day having completely worn her out, with lingering thoughts of glitter and green eyes in her mind until she was out cold.

Oh my god, the first chapter is out!

I hope everyone enjoy this, I thoroughly enjoyed writing it. Feel free to tell me what you thought!

To any of my longtime readers, this will be different than what you are probably used to. This story will tackle several controversial topics and social issues.

Read and Review!