When you think of the word 'Valentine', you usually think of Valentine's Day. A day of love and affection. A day of celebration. But for me, that's not really the case. To me, the word 'Valentine' is a curse. It reminds me of the day this all began, on Valentine's day, funnily enough.
~Flashback~
Today was a day for celebration. A day full of love, kindness and affection.... yeah right. I had already been called 'nerd' , 'bitch' and 'slut' multiple times today just to name a few. It was part of my everyday routine. Come to school, be called names and shoved and thrown around like a ragdoll, go home and sleep. Today was no exception.
However there WAS a slight alteration. Today, the Holy Terror of the school had come to join in on the fun.
Graysen Valentine. It began with the usually name calling that everyone loves to take part it. But it was far from enough. He had decided to take an even harsher route. Physically violence. He harshly shoved my against the lockers and sized me up, glaring down at me with an evil, mischievous glint in his eyes. He reached out to grab me and my instincts kicked in.
All those years of self defence had payed off as I kicked him in the balls. HARD. He doubled over in pain and I took this as my cue to run. Graysen, however, was one step ahead of me. He stuck out his foot and tripped me over, me falling on my face, before slowly walking closer to me, his face etched with pain.
"Your going to pay for that Amber Riley", menace leaked from his tone.
He grabbed my ankle and I kicked him in his beautiful face. His hand quickly released my ankle to cradle his now broken nose, blood now leaking through his fingers. I shot up and ran, ran like my life depended on it. Probably because it did. I ran to my car and sped off.
~End of Flashback~
Ever since that fateful day, I had been living my school life in fear. I had kept on the down low for the last couple of days ever since I broke his nose, hoping he would forget about the whole ordeal. Unfortunately the people in my school revelled in drama and would constantly draw attention to me, hoping the menace would find me, and do some ungodly thing to me. Probably kill me, might I add.
I had been counting the days of luck I'd had so far. 3 days. Hopefully I'll live to tell the tale, but unfortunately, that would probably never happen. I knew my luck had ran out when I stood, gawking at my vandalised car. My once white Toyota Corolla hatchback had been drenched in a sickly green paint, the words "WATCH YOUR BACK" scratched into the drivers door.
As if triggered by the words harshly scratched into my car, I looked behind, only to see students filing out of the school, yearning to go home. I turned back to my car and sighed. I'd have to drive back home in a car that looked like Shrek's aftermath of Taco night. As I sat in the drivers seat and put the keys in the ignition, I jumped as I felt an arm wrap around my shoulders from behind.
"I told you to watch your back didn't I?", he whispered huskily into my ear.
I gasped and was about to scream when my mouth was covered with the man's free hand, silencing me. I then felt cold metal, press up against my temple, and the click of the gun loading.
"Drive", he ordered
I nodded my head ever so slightly before turning on the engine to my car. The man uncovered my mouth before leaning back into his seat. I didn't need to look back at him to tell that the barrel of the gun was still pointed at the back of my head.
"Before you kill me can I get Maccas?", I asked, trying to buy myself more time. And also, I was hungry as fuck, excuse my French.
There was a pause and then I heard him groan before grumbling a 'yes'.
"Try anything funny and I'll shoot", he warned darkly.
I nodded my head before driving to McDonalds and driving through the drive through. Once I had ordered my meal I placed it beside me before parking in the McDonalds parking lot to devour my unhealthy last meal. I reached for the brown paper bag...
Wait, WHAT!?
I turned around in the drivers seat to see that my captor, Graysen Valentine, had stolen my food. With one hand pointing a gun at my and the other aggressively shoving my Big Mac meal into his gob, the whole situation would have seemed comical, if it wasn't for the loaded gun pointed at my head.
As I studied his face, I had realised that the person who'd fixed his nose had done a good job, his nose was as straight as it could be, well all from what I could see underneath his bandages.
He raised his eyebrows in question as to say 'what are you looking at'.
"You're eating my food", I stated, not so pleased that my food had been stolen from me.
"Your point is?", he shot back.
I huffed and turned back around.
After my captor was finished eating MY Big Mac burger he spoke up.
"I have a proposition to make", he started off.
I turned around to look at him as he was talking.
"I'll let you live if you can prove your worth to me"
"And how will I be of use to you oh great one", I asked back, sarcasm dripping from my tone.
"You'll just have to find out won't you, Amber Riley", he answered, the shiny barrel of the gun still pointed towards me. "I'll help you out a bit. You can start by driving me home".
I groaned inwardly as I passed him my phone to put in his address and use the GPS function my phone provided. He gave it back before I put back down next to me and followed the prompts the voice gave me. After 20 minutes of driving I had finally reached his house.
My mouth hung open as I witnessed the monstrous house before me. It was like a mansion, heck it was bigger than a mansion. I heard a snicker from behind me.
"What, is that how you're going to prove your worth? Your mouth?", he said, smirking like a wolf.
I whipped around in record speed, disgust and anger leaking from my mouth, "yeah right, not in a lifetime Valentine", I spat.
He chuckled before getting out of my car. "Thanks for the ride Amber Riley", he said, winking. "I look forward to your, services", he mused before turning around and walking towards his front door. "Oh and by the way, it wasn't even loaded".
That asshole....What have I gotten myself into?
