Child of Youth

Chapter 8: Lady of the Night

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A/N: This chapter contains explicit sexual material that certain viewers may want to avoid encountering. Rated: R 17.

As a side note, (clarifying) prepubescents do have very small curves at the waist and hips.

Recently, Liana had started developing curves. Not where she thought they would be. Not at her waist, nor her hips, nor chest. But on her buttocks. Or rather, she had gained some weight, which had purely gone to her buttocks and armpits. Now her behind was rather round, lifted, firm, but still...she hated to admit it, large and odd looking compared to her long, skinny thighs. She had noticed how hard her 7 month old breast buds recently became.

In other places of her body, she seemed to be losing weight. Her face was now gaunt, there were dark circles under her eyes, and her cheeks were no longer the colour of lilies of the valley. She wore all the makeup she could to conceal this, and then, while looking in the mirror, she realized something. Another something. She was taller. She had grown 3 inches - from 4'10 to 5'1. To her, it made a significant difference.

Liana was now 12 years old, and Paul was 15. She had lied about her age to the cashier of the candy store in town, telling her she was 14, and wanted a little vacation job to keep her busy in the holidays. In her gray halterneck dress, which had now shrunk from 2 inches below the knees to an inch above, she looked ordinary enough, paired with a lavender purple eyeshadow, a little mascara, and soft cherry coloured glittery lipgloss.

Paul hated glittery lipgloss. But whatever. She was in a state of depression that made her stop caring about wanting to please other people in everything that she did, like the Bible tells you to. Liana wore her hair in a low, messy bun, and heels to make her look older. She was almost as tall as the cashier and the woman let her pass after a glance.

Liana wore a jacket over the dress to hug her aching breasts. The girl didn't know what it was, but some days, they just wouldn't stop hurting. The past few days, her stomach started to cramp also, for some reason. But she just kept dusting off shelves, checking that no one stole anything and got what they wanted. Liana also played the role of cashier when they had a lot of customers.

Many people who came in, for some reason, gave Liana the eye. At first, they curiously, but discreetly watched her from their peripheral vision, and when she got tired of ignoring it, quickly turning to see what it was they were looking at, there seemed to be something like admiration in their eyes.

She often heard them ask the cashier about her - usually strange teenage boys, and sometimes even grown men. Who she was, why she was working there, how old she was. Sometimes even where she came from.

Then Liana realized that maybe... They had seen a "Ran away" or "Missing" poster of her! It, of course, contained her parents' contact details along with multiple clear, full length photos of her with different outfits, hairstyles and facial expressions, making it easier to recognize her in any situation. Some even contained photos of her and Paul together.

The next day, Liana came to work wearing Paul's hat and a pair of green plastic tinted glasses she had bought at a first second notice. She had also cut up all her dresses to make a whole new outfit for her that they wouldn't recognize from the photos.

She worked till her back and head ached - she was prone to such hurting now - and then went home with a 20$ in her hands, the same as she had gotten yesterday. Paul now also had a full time job - he worked for a farmer who lived near their home forest, chopping wood for him, and earned 60$ a day.

He never said anything about that to Liana though... Never made her feel bad for earning less than him or bragged or made chauvinistic jokes about it.