Chapter 13
833 Words
13
Milan looked over at Zoran as he slept in the corner of their tiny room. He didn’t know how his friend could sleep. By now, it was becoming clear to Milan what they were here for. This hadn’t been the work or lifestyle they’d been expecting.
When Alexei offered them work, Milan assumed they would be labouring on building sites, cleaning toilets or picking strawberries in the fields. He certainly didn’t think they’d be doing… this.
He’d brushed his teeth eight times, but he could still taste the man’s semen. ‘You’ll be looked after,’ Alexei had said. ‘You’ll earn big money.’ Milan couldn’t see how any of the boys were going to earn big money if these were the conditions they were being kept in. ‘Just until we can get you into a hotel,’ Alexei told him.
They’d been told they were not to discuss their clients at any time — even to each other. That was fine with Milan. He didn’t want to tell anyone about this. Not ever.
It had taken him a good couple of minutes to accept what he was being asked to do. Alexei had sat them both down separately and told them there were some very wealthy people who had certain needs, and they were willing to pay good money for those needs to be fulfilled. This was big business, Alexei told them. What did it matter about the work? So you had to suck a few c***s every now and again. Big deal. This sort of thing went on all the time, but most people didn’t get paid handsomely for it.
Many of the men just wanted company, Alexei said. Despite that, they’d still pay well. Others might want more in the future, but they could cross that bridge when they came to it.
Milan’s first client had been described to him only as Robert. One of the other boys, Andrew, the only English person he’d met since he came here, took Milan to one side and told him Robert was a High Court judge. Milan wasn’t up to speed with the intricacies of the British legal system, but even he could work out that the High Court was pretty important.
‘Got to look after these guys properly,’ Andrew had said. ‘They’re very important people.’
Milan’s English was only conversational, but he understood the subtleties in what his new English friend was telling him.
The rest of it, he tried to forget. Zoran didn’t seem to be as worried, and if it hadn’t been for his friend telling him it really didn’t matter — it was their opportunity to make some good money — he would’ve said no to Alexei and walked out there and then. At least, that’s what he’d keep telling himself.
He got the distinct impression they wouldn’t just be allowed to leave of their own accord. When they’d arrived, the front door had been locked behind them and they’d been led to their room. The clients wouldn’t come to their room, Alexei told them. That’s what the entertaining rooms were for.
Their room was down a narrow corridor, off which were another three rooms and a communal bathroom. The room at the end was Andrew’s, but he hadn’t seen the doors of the others open at all since they’d arrived last night. The entertaining rooms were at the other end of the building, past the lobby, which was manned by a woman Milan thought was either Russian or Ukrainian.
He looked over at Zoran again, cursing him for sleeping so soundly. He leaned over the edge of his hard mattress and kicked his friend gently with the heel of his foot.
‘Zoran,’ he said. ‘Are you awake?’
‘I am now. What do you want?’ Zoran replied, the pair whispering in Serbian.
‘We need to go. We can’t stay here.’
‘Go where?’ Zoran said, rubbing his eyes. ‘Do you even know where we are? Which part of the country this is?’
‘No, but we can’t stay here. We can’t do this.’
‘What do you want to do? Walk around and find a nice hotel that’s going to put us up for free? Maybe they’ll give us a job too. They won’t mind that we don’t have ID or passports or anything. Come on, man. Be serious. We have a roof over our heads, we’re going to get paid good money, then we can go and do anything we like. It’ll do for a few weeks.’
‘Weeks? I can’t stay here another day. I can’t… How could you even do those things we had to do?’
Zoran shrugged. ‘Closed my eyes and didn’t think about it. It’s just the same as doing it to yourself.’
‘I still can’t get the taste out of my mouth,’ Milan said, not really listening to what his friend was saying.
‘Taste?’
‘Yeah, didn’t you have to…?’ Milan said, gesturing the action with his hand and mouth.
‘Jesus, no. Just the hand, man.’
All of a sudden, Milan felt incredibly sick.
‘s**t, I wouldn’t do that,’ Zoran said. ‘Not in a million years.’
‘You wait til you get this Robert guy, then.’
‘Is that what you had to do? You had to suck the guy off?’
Milan tried not to retch as Zoran said the words. ‘I thought that’s what you had to do, too.’
‘Jesus. No.’
‘Zoran, we can’t stay here. I’m serious. What if they… want more?’
‘More?’ Zoran’s eyes flickered, and Milan could see he was starting to understand what he was hinting at.
‘Zoran, I’m going. Are you coming with me or not?’
Milan watched as Zoran swallowed, pursed his lips and nodded.
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