Three

A month had passed since the last time Sara saw her friend Alicia. The latest news she had about Alicia was that she was now the Sugar Baby of an important man in the city. "You know how this works," Alicia told Sara one Saturday when they happened to run into each other at the park. Sara was shocked to see her friend, who now looked older due to the changes she'd made to her body. A little Botox in her lips and butt gave her a completely different appearance from the Alicia Sara had known months ago. "Well, what can I say?" Alicia added with an arrogant smile. "A nice wad of cash, clothes to look good in, my own car, and a man who knows how to please me."

Sara felt something churn inside her, but it was too much. Her friend Alicia had also been a girl with financial problems, and now it seemed like those days were behind her. But Sara still resisted the temptation to fall into this world. "Maybe you should leave behind that prude girl you are and let the real Sara out," Alicia said, as if she knew the deepest corners of Sara's soul. That day, Sara got angry with Alicia for what she had said, and two weeks went by without them seeing or speaking to each other. Their communication ended permanently.

Until, a month after their encounter at the park, something changed completely in Sara's life. Sara was in the kitchen of the rundown house where she lived with her brother Daniel and her father. It was her father, the man who was supposed to protect her despite his bad temper, who became the trigger for Sara leaving home and seeking an apartment to rent. What happened left a deep mark on her mind. Her father had come home that afternoon while Sara was preparing dinner. He grabbed her from behind and whispered something in her ear that made her skin crawl. "You smell good, you remind me of your mother," he said before kissing her neck and pushing her against the counter, trying to take off her clothes.

Of course, the man would have succeeded if Daniel hadn't arrived home at that moment after staying with friends. When he saw what was happening, Daniel grabbed a chair and hit his father on the head, saving Sara from being—well, it hurts even to say it—raped. So Sara left that same night, vowing never to return.

Now, two months after leaving her house, Sara had managed to get a small job at a café near the hotel where she was staying. But her finances hadn't improved much. Sometimes she struggled to pay the rent, so she often asked the hotel owner for more time. At this point, Sara was three months behind on her rent. She was under immense pressure, unsure of what to do. Tomorrow was the day she had to pay, and she still didn't have the money.

The day of reckoning arrived. Ramón, a 52-year-old man, stood in front of her hotel room door with a face stretched longer than pulled chewing gum. Sara looked at him with those eyes that her friend Alicia had taught her to use, trying to convince him to give her at least one more month to gather the money. But Ramón wasn't an easy man. Something about her attempt to persuade him caught his attention. "Well, how about a deal?" Ramón blurted out, moving closer to Sara than she considered normal.

A chill ran down Sara's spine from her feet to her head. She swallowed so hard that she felt it scrape her throat. "What kind of deal?" she asked, stepping back slightly to avoid any contact, still haunted by what her father had tried to do to her. "Relax, girl!" Ramón said mockingly. "I'm not going to fuck you. But at least you could show me those tiny tits of yours."

Ramón was clearly a man who didn't mince words when asking for what he wanted. Sara wanted to say something, but he didn't give her time to make up an excuse. "Do you accept, or are you leaving?" he demanded, his question sounding more like an order. Sara wanted to cry, but she had nowhere else to go. So, for the first time in her life, she allowed herself to be someone she wasn't. She lifted her blouse with both hands, turning her head away as if that would ease the shame she already felt.

"Too small for my taste," Ramón commented disdainfully. "Maybe you should take something to make them grow a bit." Sara wanted to curse him, slap him, run away. But it was done. She had taken the first step toward becoming what she had always despised.

That night, Sara stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. Her reflection seemed unfamiliar. Her eyes were swollen from crying, her mouth pressed into a tight line of contained anger. She wanted to break something, destroy the world that had brought her to this point. But instead, she crawled under the covers and tried to sleep. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw her father, Ramón, and all those girls on social media. She promised herself this wouldn't happen again, that she would find another way to survive. But deep down, she knew she had crossed a line that couldn't be undone.

The next morning, Sara woke up with a knot in her stomach. She knew things wouldn't get better easily. As she walked to the café where she worked, she thought about Alicia and how her life had changed thanks to her Sugar Daddy. For a moment, the idea of finding something similar crossed her mind. But she immediately dismissed it. She didn't want to end up like Alicia, selling her dignity for a few bills. Still, the need for a better life remained, lingering like a shadow she couldn't escape.

At the café, Sara served coffee to customers with a fake smile plastered on her face. One of the men who frequented the place looked her up and down and said something that made her skin crawl. "You've got potential, girl. If you ever want to make more money, let me know." Sara ignored him, but his words stayed etched in her mind.

When her shift ended, she walked back to the hotel with her head down. She knew Ramón would be waiting for some kind of payment for the extension he had given her. She didn't want to think about it, but she couldn't avoid it. She had already made decisions she never imagined she would make. What else was she willing to sacrifice to survive?