Cherophobia

11

Darien's POV

When the tears started running down her cheeks, my eyes began to water.

She was in pain. Well ever since I came back and saw the Keturah I left some years ago, I knew she was suffering and struggling, but she was always happy and content infront of everyone including her best friends.

I knew she wasn't deliberately faking it, it was something her mind made her do.

I knew that feeling all too well.

When I came back almost four years ago, I wanted to see her because ever since I left to stay with my uncle, I knew I had offended her and had to ask for her forgiveness.

Honestly, I really knew why I was always picking on her when we were young.

When I saw her at the park after she and her family moved into the hood, I thought she'd be fanning and flirting with me like the way all the other girls our age did.

I knew I was a handsome kid. My braces and my dimples justified that so it wasn't difficult to see girls asking me to be their boyfriend.

I was going to the twins' house the day she came to the hood.

The house they came to occupy had been vacant for almost a year but when she got out of the car to help her mom, I chocked on my breath.

She was so beautiful and what I liked about her was her hair.

It was in a sleek ponytail with nice edges. For a girl our age, she did have long legs making me go red.

I wanted to approach her instantly but I made my ego get to me. I thought she would come to me like all the girls I'd seen but no, she did the opposite.

That's why I was so mean to her at the park, my ego was bruised so I had to pay her back.

It got to a time, I said some hurtful words whenever I saw her thinking that will break her. But she just had this expression on her face like she didn't care.

It continued for a while and got worse when I saw her always peeping through the bush infront of my house. I knew the days she'd show up. It was thrice every week.

I didn't know why she was always there till I told our butler about it and he helped me discover her true intentions.

Honestly I thought she wanted a payback for what I was doing to her but no. She stood there, daydreaming about my house.

The house that looked nice and extremely polish outside but was tainted with violence.

My dad loved fashion ever since he was young and wanted to pursue something there but, he had to carry on with the business his father left him.

So he studied fashion and architecture, weird combination I know but he did both and became a fashion designer and an incredible architect.

My mom was simply in both businesses supporting my father since they got married.

Everything was perfectly fine when I was growing up but things changed when I hit ten.

I always found my dad early in the morning with bruises on his arms and face.

I would ask him about them but he kept on telling me it was nothing.

As a kid, I shrugged it off because I thought he had the bruises from the landsites he'd been working on.

One day when I decided to skip school, I run to my parent's room to let them know but as I got closer, I heard voices and screams.

I thought something bad was happening to them so I opened their door without knocking and what I saw, left me completely mortified and traumatized.