Pilot Pride (A Poe Dameron fanfiction -- Star Wars)

22 (Day 28). Rav's Pirates

Fifteen minutes later I was headed back to my dorm, happier than I could've ever imagined. The lights were off when I got back, so I crawled into bed and couldn't help rolling over happily a few times.

My body was tired, but my brain was wide awake, reliving the past hour I spent with Poe Dameron. I was ecstatic.

I already couldn't wait to see him the next day, but I had no idea what kind of thoughts awaited me that night.

_____

I was nearly asleep when a voice jolted me awake. 

"Tell me!" 

It was a hushed whisper, and I recognized it as Opi's. My eyes fluttered open for a few moments before I shut them again. 

"Opi, seriously."

"Come on, Rizee. Why can't you tell me?" 

I could no longer ignore Opi's whispers, but I kept trying to block them out and fall asleep. 

"It's personal." 

"Yeah, and I won't tell. I mean, if you don't want, you don't have to . . . But it would be nice to have someone who knows about your past." Opi reasoned. 

"Whatever, Opi. You want to hear where I'm from that badly? I'll tell you. But if you tell anyone, I will not talk to you. Again." Rizee enunciated every word, letting Opi know she was entirely serious. Opi had no reply.

"You still wanna know?" Rizee asked in a rude tone. 

"If you don't want to tell me you don't have to." Opi replied more quietly. 

Silence. 

Rizee sighed. I desperately prayed to fall asleep before she could begin talking again, but I knew it was hopeless. 

"Alright. I'm sorry. I'll tell you.

"I lived with my parents on Corellia until I was eight. We were poor, lived on the streets, and maneuvered as slaves for various owners for a good while. I remember the business of the city and our nice lives . . . I was always close with my dad, too.

"One night we were hanging out in a cantina. It was no big deal, just another night at the bar. The music was loud and there were large specimens of every kind roaming around. I was alone, quiet, shy, and far above all, way too young to be in a cantina; but because of my family's low affluency, that was the lifestyle I was destined to live.

"My dad went to the bar to get us drinks and, surely, extend our running tab with the bartender. Eventually I figured we might have to run away and relocate to escape our debt in the cantina before the bartender sent his men after us for payment, but the bartender had no clue about my dad's fleeing tendencies. It wouldn't have been the first time we fled from debt, either. But we were okay at the moment; not too large of a debt to the bartender, and a reasonable master who didn't capitalize on my young age and gave me a bit of sympathy. 

"I was sitting with my mom when my dad beckoned her to the bar. I peered up as she walked away and saw my parents talking with a couple of large guys, and the first thing I noticed with them was their strange tattoos on their arms. I figured my parents would be back soon.

"But I started getting a little freaked out when they returned with the three big guys. I mean, I didn't know them and they were terrifying. 'This is it?' one of them asked, inclining his head towards me. My dad nodded, and the three men looked at each other, as if communicating telepathically. Then the largest of the men stuck out a meaty hand towards my dad. My dad shook his hand.

"That was the last time I ever saw my parents. The men came towards me, and grabbed me, and of course no one in the bar could see or hear me panic because they enclosed around me and it was super loud in there. They injected me with something and I got knocked out. I woke up on their ship. My parents had sold me to them for what I'm guessing is a huge deal of money.