Corrupted

Chapter Ten

“Nothing lasts forever, I suppose.”

We get back to Derek’s car around ten. We drive down the road in silence, but the usual tension has faded. He strokes my knee as he drives with a grin plastered on his face. My stomach flips when he glances at me out of the corner of his eye and pulls his bottom lip in his mouth.

“Can I help you with something?” I question.

“No. You’re just hot as hell,” he replies bluntly.

I give a loud laugh. “Well, you’re not so bad yourself.”

“So I’ve been told.”

I frown.

“But never by a boy.”

“That’s supposed to make it better?”

“It should. You’re my first boyfriend.”

“Hmm.”

“How many boyfriends have you had?”

“Just one.”

“What happened to him?”

I close my eyes, shuddering at the thought of the memory. Aaron was a good boyfriend, but he didn’t last very long. “His name was Aaron,” I begin. “We met my freshmen year and we hung out a few times, at his place of course. Sometimes we would go out to hang out with his friends, but they didn’t like me very much.” I frown as the images replay over and over. “We went out one night and his friend was there. She hated me, like everyone else did. She knew my Dad was abusive, she just didn’t care enough to ask me questions, but she would see my bruises and ask if my deadbeat Dad did it, again and I would just stare at her. She never told anyone; she didn’t feel like it was important enough.”

“Bitch,” he cuts in.

“Yeah, she was. But she got pissed off because she liked Aaron. He was bi, so he could have swung for her, he just didn’t.” I hug myself, staring out into the trees passing by. “She got a picture of us kissing and sent it to my father.” I chew on my lip for a moment, so hard it bleeds a little. “When I got home, he was waiting for me. Said I was a worthless faggot and beat me, like always. After a while, the insults got to be a routine thing, so I just avoided it. Usually I stayed lost in my thoughts so much I didn’t even hear when he spoke to me. Aaron found out what happened and said he couldn’t handle it, so he dumped me.

After that, I kept to myself and like I said, stayed in my head. I was always in my own thoughts, no one else really mattered. People would bully me at school, because of how I dressed and sometimes smelled. But then my Dad caught me kissing Ashton in that damn alley,” I breathe. “And it got so much worse,” I whisper.

“Do you blame him, Ashton?” he asks after a moment.

I sit up straight, staring out into the night. “No.” I shake my head and repeat my answer. “At first I did, I think, because he didn’t want me, not like I wanted him. He just led me along and then dropped me when my Dad saw us, like Aaron did… but then he came back. I didn’t go to school for a few days, but when I did he found me and told me he would protect me. That’s when I realized, it wasn’t his fault my Dad is an asshole; it’s no one’s fault, not even mine. I also realized I didn’t want Ashton like that—I just wanted him to be in my life and he asserted himself without giving me a choice.” I let out a small laugh. “He was so damn annoying and persuading, that I couldn’t just tell him to leave me alone, so I let him take care of me.”

“And even now he takes care of you,” Derek mutters.

I whip my head over to him and raise my eyebrows. “Are you jealous?”