Baby Boy 2: Corrupted

my old man, so who's gonna protect ME from him?”
    “What about your Mom?”
    “She's stoned all the time. She's not gonna go against him.”
    A silence developed between the two. Baby stared down at his food before he spoke again. “I'd protect you,” he said sheepishly.
    Rex thought the idea that Baby Boy could protect him from the monster that raised him was ridiculous, but he recognized the gesture for what it was, an act of caring. Rex smiled at Baby in response.
    “Let's talk about what you're gonna do when the guys come over, because not all of them are gonna look like the man you were with last night. Some of them are straight out fugly.”
    “What's that?” Baby asked.
    “Fuckin' ugly.”
    “Oh,” Baby said looking back down at his food.
    “They don't usually pay for it if they have options. You know what I'm saying?”
    Baby did.
    “So you always have to choose someone else to picture them as before they get there. And even if you are looking them in the eyes you have to only see that other person. Maybe it's that person in a fat suit or a bear costume, but you have to do it unless there's a chance your dick won't work. And people get crazy when they think the person they're paying thinks they're ugly. They get fuckin' crazy. One guy almost broke my jaw. So, you got it?”
    “Yeah,” Baby said a lot more sober in the light of this new information.
    “And if you ever end up with a hot guy and he's really nice to you and begins to make you feel special, you have to remember that you can't fall for him. This is all pretend. Some of these guys are looking for the boyfriend experience.”
    “What's that?”
    “They wanna believe that you two are on a date. They want to be able to say things to you that they can't tell other people. They want you to be their boyfriend for the next hour. And if you start to believe it's more than that, it will fuck you up in the head.”
    “Did that happen to you too?”
    Rex looked away solemnly.
    Rex reached in his pocket and retrieved his phone. He read it closely. “Speak of the devil.” Rex looked up into Baby Boy's eyes. “You have a job tonight, 7 o'clock. He's gonna be sent to my place and I'm supposed to send him to you.”
    “That was quick.”
    “Are you ready for this?”
    “I don't know,” Baby Boy said hesitantly.
    “Well you better be, because he's coming and there's no stopping him.”
    Both boys looked at each other for confidence. When neither found it, Rex wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Let's go.”
    “Where are we going?”
    “Every gay boy's dream, I'm gonna take you shopping.” Rex smiled teasingly.

    As 7 o'clock approached Baby Boy sat nervously in his studio apartment. The room had undergone a makeover in the hours since he'd been awake. The bed now had new light colored sheets, there was a couch on the opposite side of the room from the door and he even had a 25 inch TV with a DVD player attached. The selection of gay porn that played belonged to Rex and when giving them to Baby, he made it clear that he eventually would need them back.
    Baby Boy had also undergone a makeover. Gone was his fresh off the farm look. He was now dressed like a trendy West Hollywood boy equipped with a selection of hip tee shirts and colored canvas tennis. Baby felt like he was playing pretend in his new clothes, and in a way that was exactly what Rex had told him to do, pretend.
    Baby's heart sunk when he heard footsteps walk by his front door. Trying to control his breathing he grabbed onto the new bed sheets under him. Baby considered sprawling himself onto the bed and greeting the stranger like glamorous women did in movies. But it became impossible for him to gather the courage when he heard a knock on his door.
    Baby's heart raced as he got up. When he reached for the door his hand shook. And trying to pull himself together he opened the door and peered out. It was Rex staring back at him, but behind him was his first client.
    “Azeere is here to see you,” Rex announced.
    “Thanks,” Baby said with his teeth chattering and jaw twitching.
    Rex had noticed the twitching but knew that this was something that he was going to have to figure out how to deal with on his own.
    Rex returned to his apartment and a potbellied, hairy Armenian man walked in. With the door closed behind him, Azeere spoke. “This is quite a set up here. It was like Fort Knox coming to see you. What you got must really be gold,” he said with a smile.
    Baby was