An Imperfect Beauty and Her Beast

Thoughtful Rope

“I didn’t really escape-”

“Does that mean you have to go back?!” Gina exclaimed.

“No. I’ve left for good.”

“Oh thank God!”

“Well when Jesse showed up, we were all shocked. Especially David.”

“What? Why?” Gina interrupted.

“Okay. So, apparently David saw Jesse in the woods looking for me. And Jesse asked where he could find where I was and David totally denied that he even knew me. Now you could imagine how pissed I was when I found out about this. So I told him that I couldn’t live with someone that I couldn’t trust and left with Jess.”

“That’s it?” Gina asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Well he didn’t fight Jesse? Didn’t beast out or anything?”

“What do you mean by beast out?” Jesse asked. I internally cringed at the question. Jesse doesn’t know about David being a beast. And I don’t think that it was my place telling him.

I gave Gina a weary look when Matt came in, “David has awesome karate moves. He can also box too. Wouldn’t want to mess with him.”

“Well he didn’t do anything. Well, except for maybe beg.”

“I really doubt what he was doing was begging,” I said. I hoped was more like it.

“I saw him on his knees.” I lost by breath as the words tumbled out of his mouth.

“You what?”

“I thought you saw too.”

“No. I didn’t.”

There was a pause and all I could hear was my loud heartbeat. Did I do that? Cause him to beg just by leaving? What would happen if I went back?

“You’re not...thinking of going back, are you?”

I took a deep breath and shooed away my thoughts.

“Nah you’re stuck with me, kid.” I gave them all a convincing smile, but the person who I was really trying to convince most, was me.

 ~~~~~

Dinner time soon came around and we were all still sitting in the living room. I told them stories of David’s home, but I never spoke of our true conversations. It wasn’t my place to tell them all of what happened. So I spoke of all the nice things he did for me and everything we’ve been through. Every story brought a small, knowing smile across my face. But I wiped it off before anyone could see.

“Let’s continue this over dinner. Jess, you staying?” Gina asked

“Is Giovanna cooking?” he smirked over at me.

“God no, we’re ordering.”

“Hey! I’m not that bad a chef! I’ll have you know that David loved my cooking.”

That quieted their giggles down a bit. I didn’t mean for it to though. 

“What are we ordering?” I broke in.

“Your choice,” Gina replied.

“Chinese!”

“Chinese it is.”

As Gina ordered the food, Jesse and Matt set up the table. I, on the other hand, went upstairs. I was still in my dirt covered jeans and sweater. It was still cold around here, but I wanted to test David’s garden and see if the flowers I planted grew. I guess I wouldn't find out.