Abused {ACM}

Chapter 27

"Please..." Austin whispered. "Don't tell me another goodbye."

"I love you." I whispered. "Just remember that I love you."

"I'll be waiting for you." Austin murmured.

And with that, we disconnected.

Austin's POV

My hands shook as I lowered the phone from my ear and forced myself to click the 'End Call' button. Fear and insanity gripped at my heart - what if I never heard her voice again? What if that was the last time? What if she finds someone else? What if she forgets about me? What if she thinks she's not good enough for me? What if she just moves on?

What if her father finds her?

I shook my head and ran a hand through my hair. I needed to stop psyching myself out.

"Abby is going to be fine." I breathed. "Abby loves you. Abby called you. Abby's okay. Abby sounded healthy. She sounded marvelous. She still loves you." Somehow, that stopped my heart from concaving in on itself.

I looked over to Sir Squiggles, his plastic bead eyes staring back at me blankly. I clenched my hands into fists to stop them from trembling. A loud chime echoed through the empty house, and I raised myself off off the bed and opened the door, revealing a grinning Alex. His one dimple was shown on his cheek, and I stared at it cause I haven't seen him smile that big in so long that I forgot it existed.

And I smiled, a real smile - something that I've been doing a lot more often since I heard Abby's voice. "Hey, man."

"You're lookin' better." Alex pulled me into our handshake, then walked past me towards my kitchen. I rolled my eyes. It feels as if nothing has changed.

"So..." I trailed, closing the door with my foot and following him down the hallway. Might as well just break the news now. "Abby called. Last night."

Alex stopped, his shoes making an annoying squeaking noise on the tile due to the still-wet weather outside. He turned around, his eyes wide and sad and disbelieving. He didn't say anything, just continued to stare at me with those eyes. I shrugged.

"She...got permission from her aunt to call for ten minutes. I - we didn't really say all that much, we just -"

"No wonder you look so much better." Alex's surprised faced melted and formed into a new one, a happy one, an ecstatic one. "Is she healthy? She's good, right? Is her new aunt treating her right? Geez, I miss her."

I really did smile then, grinning from ear to ear, leaning on one foot. "Yeah, yeah she sounded good. Real good. She misses all of us, too." I lifted my eyes to my best friend. We usually didn't talk so seriously like this. But this has changed us. It's changed all of us. Everything going on in Abby's life really brought out the cruelties of life, and we're realizing now that even though we're teenagers in our supposed 'glory years', shit is still going to happen where and when we least expect it. So this time - we were ready. Ready for anything. "Just imagine, Alex," I continued, walking on to the kitchen and pulling out two water bottles, tossing one behind my back and hearing him catch it. "Two years. Only two more years."

Alex rolled his eyes around the water bottle. "Only?"

I rolled my eyes back and pulled out my vibrating phone. "It could be much worse. Robert wants to come over. Tell the others."

Alex grunted and pulled out his phone, texting everyone else to come. And for a split second - I forgot everything. I forgot about Abby's situation. I forgot about her dad still on the loose. I forgot that she was probably somewhere half way around the world, and not in this small town we all grew up in. For a split second, it felt like old times again. Texting each other to come over and do nothing together. Then that second was gone, as I scrolled past the 'A's in my contacts list and stared at her deactivated number.

Abby's POV

A week has passed since I've talked to Austin. Since then, I've been happier, better, more hopeful. The color returned in my cheeks and I've been eating more. Aunt Amy's noticed, I think, and she keeps smiling to herself. She introduced me to her boyfriend, Joe Solomon, who was a little too good-looking for a man his age. He ruffled my hair and gave me hugs and did everything that my dad didn't.

Needless to say - things were going pretty great. The home-school teacher comes by five days a week, from 9 in the morning to 4 in the evening. I just waved him goodbye and threw the pencil behind my back, sprinting to the kitchen to see Amy and Solomon cooking, arguing over which seasoning to put on the fish.

"Can I go out?" I blurted. I've been on constant lockdown, both of them always had an eye on me and I was sick of it. I needed some alone time.

They immediately stopped and eyed me. "Where?"

I shrugged. "I just wanna get some fresh - some New York City air." I stopped mid sentence and corrected myself, realizing that there was no fresh air around for miles.

Amy bit her lip and looked at Joe. He was still looking at me, his expression calculating. He saw Amy looking at him and blew out a sigh.

"Just be careful. And be home in an hour. And...put on a jacket!" He ordered.

I snorted. "Yes sir."

I shrugged on a jacket and pulled on boots, and stepped outside into the chilly air. I was immediately pushed down the sidewalk by the crowd, and I loved it. I loved being invisible. I loved being in this city where nobody knew my name.

I walked and just stared at the skyscrapers surrounding me when suddenly, something caught my eye. A little orange ribbon. It looked familiar to me, somehow. I bent down and picked it up.

And immediately stifled a scream. I jerked back up, tears immediately flowing to my eyes.

On it was Austin's handwriting from fourth grade.

I looked up, my eyes glazed over with fear. My breaths became short and my heart fluttered to my throat in panic.

This was one of the ribbons from the promise tree in my backyard.

My eyes scanned the crowd, looking for my dad's hair, the same exact color as mine. I whimpered, spotting another ribbon. I sprinted over to it, ignoring peoples' dirty looks. I picked it up, and there was my handwriting, the ribbon that made me promise to never eat dirt again because of the time I got sick. I looked around me, and they were everywhere. Dozens of ribbons getting stomped on, getting blown around in the wind, getting caught in taxi tires.

I imagined my father storming out to our backyard, ripping and yanking these ribbons off of the tree that's been long-dead. Clutching them in his big, violent hands. Reading the secrets and promises Austin and I shared. That thought made me angry. As if he had invaded our personal space.

"How did you find me?" I whispered, trembling.

Then I saw a black one tied to a street sign, right next to a coffee shop named 'Cammy's Coffee'.

Curious, I cautiously moved over to it.

Austin and I never used black ribbons - the Sharpie wouldn't show up on it. I slowly untied the ribbon, cursing at myself when I noticed how badly my fingers were shaking. They were like white blurs, and I clenched them into fists, digging my nails into my palm.

I slowly spread the ribbon out before me, and in white marker paint, there were three words.

I've found you.

Blackness seeped into my vision, and I stumbled back, my back colliding with a wall.

"You bitch."

"I thought I told you to never talk back to me."

Hands grabbed at my neck, elbows colliding into the small of my back, slaps directed at my cheek.