Treat You Better

Chapter Fifty-six: The Turning Point.

Hale slammed the closet door shut and I screamed again through both of my palms pressed against my mouth.

What was happening?! I couldn't breathe... how...? Why?!

I stumbled away from him, putting my bed between us even when he stepped forward menacingly.

"G-get out of my room!" I croaked through the hard thumping of my heart against my throat, gripping my towel closer to my chest.

"Should have locked the door after your parents left." He said, a disarming smile on his face.

"Get out of my house!!" I screamed, much louder this time, desperate, afraid. "You can't just walk in! I-" Quickly grabbing my phone on the side drawer, I held the device tight. "I'll call the police, I swear!"

"Do it, I dare you!" Hale barked, eyes flashing dangerously from under his lanky hair, the skin around one of them a dark color, like he'd taken a blow to the face. "Just see how much worse this gets when you do."

I knew he had connections, I knew Franca did, and I knew it really wasn't wise to call his bluff, but I started to scoot backwards towards my bathroom anyways, scrambling to unlock my phone at the same time.

"You idiot!" I heard him say, and in a moment too quick to register, he had walked over my bed and up to me, smacking the phone out of my hand and slamming me against the bathroom door.

I couldn't help the screams that kept escaping me and I desperately wished I was something other than I was, someone stronger. "What do you want from me?" I asked, tears mingling with my voice and clouding my eyes.

Hale didn't answer right away, instead his fingers dug into my jaw as he raised my head to look into his face. I hated him, hated that I could feel his eyes roving over me, hated that I felt bare and severely underdressed.

"Are you slow? I already told you." He replied finally. "I came to take what's mine, I also wanted to get you to dump those good-for-nothing friends of yours..." he let out a disgusting chuckle, "but it seems you've handled that all on your own."

What?

"So now it's on to the next thing." Hale said, stepping back to pick up my phone from the floor. "Call Angelo, tell him you're done with him."

I physically recoiled so hard it actually hurt my muscles. "What?" My voice cracked.

"You see, your little boyf- plaything keeps getting in my way." He gestured vaguely to the black eye he was sporting as he fiddled with my phone. "I need him gone. Tell him it's over or I will have him killed."

I couldn't even find it in me to be threatened over something like that. Shaking my head vigorously, I spoke up clearly. "I would never-"

"DO IT!" Hale yelled and his hand collided with my face in a backhand slap so hard I fell over.

My teeth gritted as more tears spilled from my eyes onto my purple carpet. Choking on a sob, I gripped the top of my towel with one hand and clutched the carpet fibres with the other.

"What do you see in him that's so much better?" Hale asked kneeling next to me so he could grab me by my hair. "TELL ME!"

"He doesn't hurt me!" I screamed back at him with a jolt.

"Oh please, the only reason he doesn't is because you don't go against him." He spat. "Give it a try and you'll see how that ends up for you. We could have been perfect, but you just had to go and get so difficult."

I let out a wrangled cry when he yanked at my wet hair to pull me up but I struggled against him, battering him with my fists, telling him to stop.

"You see what I mean?" He said and something about his tone changed just as he suddenly let go and sent me falling back to the ground with a grunt.