My Shades of Gray

Shade 19 ~ Juneteenth

After seeing Ryan and confirming his location at the nightclub, I fled from the place without even once looking at the group. I knew I couldn’t do anything tonight in their presence and with Hunter’s gaze searching for me.

It was a harmless lie, but it turned complicated within seconds. I didn’t know Mikheil and even if by some chance I was interested in him. I would’ve gladly cut him from my life knowing it’ll only hurt Caroline.

In the small amount of time I’ve spent with my housemates, Caroline has become important to me and I also think of her as my sister.

The next day it was Juneteenth and my day off from both work and college. I skipped my breakfast because I didn’t want to face everyone’s questions this early in the morning. I also needed to come up with some lies about how I exactly met Mikheil.

I couldn’t tell them it was a last-minute plan.

I also searched for details about Ryan Freeman. He had no link with the porn site, which was obvious because he couldn’t do stuff like that out in the open.

I looked at the videos in the past years and in all of them, it was Ryan and another guy with other girls. None of the girls were aware of what was going on with them.

The website was on hype according to Rio a few years ago and he might have earned a good sum from the subscriptions. Around three years ago, men and women in masks came with the camera up close and from different angles.

I got the idea he paid people to act as porn stars and they kept their faces hidden so no one can recognize them. That was also the time he opened his club.

It was disgusting to watch the videos, but I needed to gather as much data as I could. I took screenshots of the girl's faces in the early videos. They seemed young, like my sister, and I thought some of them might be in Riley’s high school.

I made a folder on my laptop and saved the pictures. There were around twenty-five girls, including Riley, who were being recorded without their consent. Some looked older, like they were in college, and some were younger.

Ryan and the other guy must have played with them like my sister and it made me fume how he got away with this disgusting trick.

But I will not let him slide so easily.

I needed to make a perfect plan and keep my emotions in check before I did anything reckless. Ryan is rich, and he plays dirty. If he somehow gets the hunch of me plotting, he can easily wipe my existence. So I needed to be careful.

I also thought of taking defense classes. It would be wise to know a few kicks and punches before I throw myself at Ryan.

I searched for some classes in Dunwoody but couldn’t find anything except for a few gyms in the town. There were a lot in Atlanta, but I couldn’t drive there every day with my classes and work to practice.

My stomach grumbled around four o’clock and I put my research on hold. I took a deep breath as I walked out of my room and went downstairs.

Standing at the bottom of the stairs, I peeked into the kitchen to see it empty, and my eyes darted to the living room. Colton and Caroline were sitting on the couch watching something on the television.

Caroline’s head was on Colton’s shoulder, and her arms were wrapped around his waist. She squeezed him in a side hug while Colton was running his fingers through her hair.

If a stranger looked at them now, they’d definitely think of them as a couple. The two of them looked cute together, but I knew they were just friends.

“What are you doing?” I flinched from my position and whirled on my heels to see Hunter standing beside me.

Shit. I didn’t notice him coming out of his room.