Pressure

[3] Paige

He cheated on you.

He,

Cheated,

On,

You.

How could he?

When he saw you looking at the panties,

All he did was shrug,

Like it wasn’t a big deal,

A flaw.

Multiple times,

He says it like it’s nothing.

But not anymore,

Because I love you.

You think about his words the whole drive.

It only took an hour to get there,

And you were on the other side of town.

It wasn’t a far move,

But far enough to be away from your mother.

You could still go to school;

Still have a life outside of Dan;

But only if he let you.

The house is very small,

And Dan’s renting it.

One main room,

With a kitchen,

Small TV,

Brown couch,

And matching brown carpet.

There’s one bedroom,

That I’m too scared to look in,

And a bathroom.

They were probably as disgusting as the main room is.

Why don’t we break this place in?

Dan grins at you,

Drags you towards the bedroom,

But you resist.

You tell him you don’t want to,

That you want clean,

Unused sheets.

We can’tafford them,

He sneers.

Deal with it.

He yanks your arm,

Hard,

Painfully.

And throws you on the bed.

It smells awful,

Like the sheets haven’t ever been washed.

Their stained by unnamed substances,

And a spider crawls over one.

You tell Dan not here,

Not now.

You don’t want to,

Not with these sheets.

But you don’t tell him the other half,

The rest of the truth.

That you just don’t want to,

That for once,

You just want to talk,

To have a conversation.

To,

Have,

Something,

More,

Then,

Lust.

You suggest watching TV,

Or going shopping for food.

No,

He snaps,

Leaning over you.

You tell him you don’t want to,

You tell him no.

Pleading,

Hoping,

Praying,

That just this once,

He,

Would,

Listen.

Don’t say no to me!

He slaps you,

Backhands you,

Hurts you,

Until you let him do what he wants,

Until you no longer resist.

When the torture is over,

He gets up,

And leaves.

I’ll be back later.

He doesn’t tell you where he’s going.

You roll off the bed,

And sink down into the floor in a hurt,

Broken,

Naked heap.

You cry,

Wail,

Sob,

Until there’s no more sadness left.

Finally,

Realization hits you.

He was going to cheat on you,

Again.