The Sound Of Us (#Wattys2017)

preface

Cerise grew up with luxuries others could only dream of. Her father, Christopher Laurent, was the leader of an international drug cartel in which Cerise spent her youth vaguely learning the way of life. They moved around constantly and Cerise often made friends with her father's employee's rather than children her own age. By the age of eight, Cerise knew enough of her father's business that he would even let her take reign of meetings, as he stood back and admired what he had raised.

By the age of ten, Cerise Marie Laurent was a name more well known within the drug rings than her father's.

It happened when she was about to have her sixteenth birthday, a week before the party she and her mother had spent months planning. It was quick and fast, happening in less than ten seconds. Her mother was about to kiss her goodnight when a single shot rang out through the hall, directly into the back of her mother's skull. The sound a gasp hit Cerise, seconds before the body of her mother fell onto her lap. Looking up towards the direction of the shot Cerise was met with the face of a man who she had spoken to the week before. She had dismissed him from his role in the organization for something she could barely remember, angering him to the point of murder. Cerise remembers little else from that day, except for the weight of her mother's dead body and the face of the man who took her best friend away from her.

After the death of her mother, Cerise lost her interest of being a normal girl. No longer interested in life outside of the ring, she began to work harder than ever. Cerise started going by Cherry, and she was at home less than she was at home. Her father, busy with the growing empire, gladly accepted any help Cherry was willing to offer.

The first time she was asked to seduce someone, it was by her father. He asked her to frame a politician's son, with a little baggy of cocaine. The task was simple enough, get him alone, stuff the bag into his pocket to be discovered later on by security.

"You want me to frame him? What's he done?" Cherry asked, feigning interest on why she was about to ruin a man's life.

She and her father stood on the edge of a room, which was filled with low ranking politicians and grimy businessmen, all fawning after each other's botox filled wives and gushing over their honor roll children . Cherry had dealt with enough of this kind of men to produce enough of a dislike of them that she would ruin all of their lives, one baggy at a time if given the chance.

"It's not what he has done, but more what he will do. He's passing a bill. Trying to make international trading more difficult. He has a lot of backers, but it'll all be meaningless if he's found with the drug they all spend their time trying to eradicate." Christopher smirked at his daughter, finding pleasure in the idea of a man's life being ended so quickly.

He had given her the baggie before they arrived at this party, and she had stashed it away in her clutch before sneaking their way past the security. Once Cherry's father pointed out the target he turned and attempted to make small talk with the others in the room, leading them away from her target.

Cherry knew she looked good. She was wearing a red silk slip dress, with a slit down the side and black thin strap heels. Her black hair was pinned up, with a few tendrils falling out of the bun, framing her face and brushing her shoulders. She walked over to the politician, a greasy looking man in his late thirties - at least. He was talking to another man, but when he noticed Cherry walking over in her practice prowl, he brushed the other man away. Cherry smirked internally, amused at the effect a sixteen-year-old could have on grown men. She feigned innocence as she reached him, putting on her most "fuck me" smile she could.

"Hi. I'm Cherry." She whispered, hoping the sound of her voice would head straight to his pants.

"Francis. Nice to meet you." He stuck his clammy hand out at her, but instead Cherry kissed his cheek, lingering near his face as she whispered;

"I know who you are. I've been watching you all night."

Cherry leaned back, putting her finger in her mouth before trailing her wet finger down her neck, stopping where her dress began to cover her cleavage. She knew she was probably going further than necessary, but she wanted to get the job over with rather than actually listen to him talking.

Apparently, though, she was going at just the right pace as he grabbed her hand and dragged her away from the middle of the hall into a dark secluded room, where he pushed her against the wall and began placing kisses down her neck.

Cherry cringed at the feeling, hating the way his stubble grazed her skin, but she moaned along, rolling her eyes at the way her moan made him kiss her harder.  She grabbed his face and connected their lips, distracting him enough for her to reach into her bag and grab the baggie.

With the baggie safely tucked into her palm, Cherry ran her hand down his shoulder on the side with the pocket. She knew that to slip it into his pocket that she needed a distraction. She used her free hand to travel to his belt, and then down to his zipper, an action that made him moan into her mouth. She stopped herself from physically gagging, and quickly shoved her hand down his pants, at the same time slipping the baggie into his pocket. The shock of her first action made him completely oblivious to her second, and it was at this point Cherry knew that she had succeeded. With a few more rubs and a few more moans that made her disgusted he climaxed into her hand and she immediately pulled it out of his pants, rubbing her dirty hand against the wall to clean it and leaving the room. She made eye contact with her father as she exited the room, and he waited for her by the front door as she grabbed a tissue from the table on her way out.

"Did you do it?" He muttered to her as they walked out of the politician's home. Cherry blocked out the thought of her father knowing what she had just done with the man.

"It's done."

From that night, Cherry's new role in her father's organization was set in stone.