Truth or Dare

Breaking away and other things

                                                                                                                    Lydia

"Hey baby, missed you at lunch yesterday. Maybe today you and me can go out to lunch," Brando ran up and put his arm around me. I rolled my eyes and looked over to Hayley. She nodded at me and took my friend.

"Sorry Brando, but Lydia is helping us with a project today. We need a quote for her for the school paper. It's about her training for the Olympic trials."

"Can't you just give a quote?" Brando glared at Hayley.

"No, I'm writing the story. I can't interview myself that'd be stupid," Hayley glared at Brando. "She'll see you later. Come on Lyd."

"Later, we'll talk later, I promise," I whispered and walked away with Hayley dragging me by the arm. Breaking up with him was going to be hard, but I had to. For my own good and for Charlie. We had talked about it on the ride to school, and even though he was incredibly pissed at me running away from the house last night, he was more understanding when I told him about everything. I had promised him I'd break up with Brando, and that did help smooth things over a bit.

"So when are you going to do it?" Hayley asked.

"I don't know, after school probably."

It was after school, after training even. When I walked out to his car I had promised Hayley that this was it, that I'd break up with him when we got to my house. She grudgingly didn’t argue and walked to her own care.

There was a part of me, a small part but one that was so controlling over the rest of me, and that little part wanted to keep him. Was convinced that he was all I had. So I gave him one more chance to prove that little part was right. I even convinced myself that I was silently begging for that part to be right.

"I didn’t like what happened at school this morning, Hayley pulling you off and all."

"Yeah, well neither did I. She hurt my arm when she pulled it," I rolled my eyes.

"No, I mean you letting her pull you away from me. I expect you to be available when I want to be with you," Brando looked at me out of the corner of his eye. "You know that already."

"What, am I a dog? When you say come I come, when you say sit I sit, when you say jump I ask how high?" I glared at him. "Well, newsflash Brando, I'm not a dog."

"No, you're rude. Someone should have taught you some manners."

"I have plenty of manners. You of all people shouldn’t be talking about rudeness and manners. I'm pretty sure it's rude to keep causing bodily harm to your girlfriend of two years. At least that's what everyone says. Even Wes, who lives in freaking Boston, knows that you're being an asshole to me," I yelled at him. He looked at me a minute, I could see him biting down hard trying to restrain himself from smacking me silly. He simply drove into a parking lot and stopped the car. "Are you going to make me walk home again?"

"No," he muttered. It was quiet for a moment before Brando broke the silence. "I thought I told you to stop talking to that island freak months ago."

"Yeah, just like you told me to stop talking to Keith and Jack and Alexi and every other guy friend I had and basically all my other friends. Newsflash Brando, I can talk to whoever I like." That's when he broke and hit me. Not just once, he leaned over and was smacking me in the face, over and over. "STOP IT! Brando stop!" He ignored my screams, actually hitting harder to make me shut up. The smacks turned to a fist before I could get a hold of his wrist and throw it away from me before slapping him myself.