{ ⚠️ Trigger Warning: Violence & Mention of AB ⚠️ }
Michael paced outside the girl's bathroom as he impatiently waited for Riley to come out. It had been at least ten minutes since she ran in there and he checked his watch occasionally to keep track of the dismissal bell. He looked around briefly before finally heaving a heavy sigh and walked into the restroom.
"Riley?" He called out, stooping down to look for a pair of feet.
She slowly lifted her head from her arms with a confused look and caught a glimpse of him through the crack of the stall door. "Michael?"
He stood back up and walked over to the biggest stall. He sighed again when he noticed it was locked. "Ry, can you please talk to me? You're worrying me."
"I'm fine." She lied, quickly wiping her wet face with her sleeves. "I just had to pee really bad."
Michael suddenly chuckled, although he didn't really find the situation funny. "Ry, you're a lot of things, but you're not a very good liar."
She rolled her eyes.
"Why were you asking me all those questions back there? At first I thought it was because you were worried about us taking that step, but now I'm sure it's about something else."
"Like I said before, I was just curious." She said as she pulled herself up from the floor and dusted off her jeans.
"So why'd you run out of my office like you were about to cry?"
She didn't answer and he raised his brow. Before he could speak, she had unlocked the stall and stepped out. Her eyes were no longer red but he could still see the tear streaks on her cheeks.
He deeply sighed, then took her hands to pull her close to him. "I'm really worried about you. You've been crying a lot and asking certain questions out of the blue, and I don't know what's causing you to act like this. If I did anything to—"
"You didn't do anything, Michael." She interrupted softly. "It's just... I have a lot going on and I guess all this stress is making me spazz out."
"What about the questions and you running out of my office?" He asked.
"I've been hearing some virgin-horror stories around school lately which is why I was asking you. I ran out because I guess I got a little overwhelmed with it all." She shrugged.
He led her over to the sinks and grabbed some paper towels from the dispenser to wet it. As he gently wiped at her dried tears, he said, "You can't believe everything you hear, Ry. Some people's first time is worse than others, but they're not all bad."
Snippets of that horrendous night were beginning to creep back in and she looked up into his eyes as another lone tear fell. He gently wiped it away as his other hand caressed her side.
"What's making you cry so much, babe? It can't still be your period, right?" He quietly asked.
She didn't answer as she pushed his hand away, then wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her face into his chest. He frowned as he gently held her and rubbed her back.
"Tell me what's wrong." He whispered into her hair.
She simply shook her head. Disappointed but not wanting to push her, he reluctantly dropped the subject.
"Come on, let's head back to the office before the bell rings."
🥀
| A Week Later. . .
As the days slowly passed by while being trapped in that apartment with Javen's threats and unstable mood swings, Riley had quickly fallen behind in her classes. Due dates were hitting her left and right, and she had nothing to show for it. The sleepless nights were also catching up to her and she often missed school because she was too exhausted to get up.
Michael was getting more suspicious by the day and he wasn't scared to ask questions. But he noticed the more he pried, the more she withdrew and became irascible, so he finally decided to give her a little space.
It was near the end of the day and Riley was helping organize some of his files in the filing cabinet. An alert from her phone got her attention and she opened the notification from her menstrual app.
Staring at her phone, Riley's heart began to ram wildly against her rib cage. The loud thumping rang her ears as her eyes widened and her fingers slightly shook, losing its grip on her phone.
The sudden thud of the device hitting the floor alerted Michael from his work and he glanced over his shoulder in time to see Riley slightly lose her balance and try to steady herself against the wall. He quickly got up and moved toward her, gently placing his hand on her lower back.
Riley groaned and held her hand to her forehead. She blinked a few times to get rid of the blur that had clouded her vision momentarily.
"Are you alright?" He asked as he gently took her free hand and guided her over to the couch.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine." She stuttered as she unsteadily sat down.
"I'm not so sure about that. Do you need the nurse or anything?"
She shook her head. "No, I'm good."
Despite her lies, her mental health was suffering. It didn't help that she's never been known to be late on her period and she's used that app for the last few years. Its predictions were pretty spot on, so for it to say that she was at least a week late, it scared her.
"Michael, could I be excused for the rest of the day?"
He nodded. "Yeah, of course. Do you need me to take you home?"
"No, but thank you." She glanced at his concerned face. She reached over and gently rubbed his cheek. "I'm okay, I promise."
He took her hand and kissed her wrist. "Text me when you make it home safely? I get worried when you don't."
She wearily smiled and nodded. "I will."
After slowly standing, she grabbed her phone and bag, then left the office. She checked the time on her phone and she had about less than an hour to spare before Javen showed up. She stuffed the written pass Michael wrote her into her pocket and left out the front doors of the school, and began trekking to the nearest corner store.
It felt like ages before she eventually reached the store and her mind was a complete jumbled mess. She was trying to convince herself that it was just a pregnancy scare, but another part of her knew it was a possibility.
The bell above the door dinged as she walked in and the store clerk dryly greeted her. She barely uttered a reply as she made a beeline toward the aisle where she guessed where the pregnancy tests were. She couldn't care less about the brand as her eyes roamed over the shelves. To be absolutely sure that she was or wasn't pregnant, she grabbed a box of three.
She approached the counter and quietly placed the packaged tests down, then searched her pocket for her card.
It was painfully silent between the two as the guy grabbed the box and the beeper replaced the silence only for a moment before his fingers tapped away at the screen of the register.
"It'll be $13.98." His voice was gruff and sounded borderline tired.
She quickly swiped her card and moments later, she was back outside with the wind tousling her tight curls. She stuffed the plastic bag into her book bag, then began making her way back. She returned with just mere minutes to spare and slumped against the cold iron of the bench across the street from the school, where she could see the doors flinging open as students hurried out towards their freedom.
Soon, Javen slowly pulled his car up at the curb. After slyly scoping her surroundings to make sure no one she knew saw her, she got into Javen's car and quietly sat there. She could feel his eyes burning into the side of her face.
"Well, hello to you too." He said, and she quietly exhaled. "How was your day at school?"
She shrugged, not caring to have any type of conversation with him. "It was straight."
More silence.
"So, are we just going to sit here or what?" She asked, feeling a bit agitated. She still didn't feel well and just wanted to lay down.
Javen slightly narrowed his eyes. "I don't like this little attitude you have."
"I don't have an attitude."
"I beg to differ." He sat up straighter in his seat and gripped the steering wheel tighter. "You have something you want to get off your chest?"
She swallowed her words before shaking her head. She knew he was just looking for a reason to pick a fight; it was something that he loved to do and it didn't take her long to catch this tactic of his. It was like she was his punching bag whether verbally or physically when something didn't go well for him.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. Can we please go now?"
He scoffed, then put the gear into drive. "You didn't ask how my day was."
Several impolite words crossed her mind before she dryly asked, "How was your day, Javen?" His name on her tongue made her more nauseous than she already was.
"My day sucked, as usual, you know. My professors won't get off my ass—"
She tiredly rubbed her eyes and tuned him out as he droned on and on about his day, and how much people annoyed him to no end. Staring out the window, she thought about her missed period and the possibility of being pregnant. She wiped her clammy palms across her jeans as she released a shaky breath of air. If the tests were positive, she wouldn't know what to do or how to feel. It was something she never thought she would have to prepare for, like to be taken against her will and forced to do things she grew queasy thinking about.
"Are you even listening to me?" Javen snapped, interrupting her thoughts.
They were stopped at a traffic light, not far from the apartments she dreaded so much.
"Yeah, of course."
"What was the last thing I said?" He looked at her annoyed.
She inwardly cursed for not paying attention, no matter how boring, aggravating, or self-centered he was. "Um... something about your professors embarrassing you in class or... something?" The look he gave her sent a chill through her body and she quickly averted her gaze. She opted to tell the truth this time. "I honestly wasn't listening, sorry..."
His facial expression went from very annoyed to infuriated. "Fucking typical."
She had to ease the situation before he became angrier than he already was, especially since the speed of the car started to match his rage once the light turned green. "I'm just not in a good head space right now. I've had a really long day and—"
"And I haven't? All I ask is for a little kindness and for you to cater to my needs, and you can't even do that."
'Because you don't deserve it.' She bitterly thought before she winced from her shoulder roughly bumping against the door of the car when he made an unnecessary sharp turn into the parking lot.
"Javen, I don't feel like arguing with you." She regretted that sentence when the seatbelt dug into her chest as the car roughly jerked to a stop in the parking space, then she felt his hand fly across her face. The loud smack rang loudly in her ears.
As told before, he was looking for any and every reason to use her as his personal punching bag.
"You're so disrespectful! No one said anything about arguing, I just wanted to have a normal conversation and vent to you about my day, but you don't even care!"
Riley could barely hold back her sobs as she sat there in the passenger seat while he continued to go on his tirade for a good few minutes. It felt like his shouting was never going to end until he told her to get out, then stormed angrily to the apartment. She quietly lagged behind.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket and she took it out to see a text from Michael asking if she made it home safely. With her jumbled mindset, the best her shaky fingers could respond with was a thumbs up emoji. That normally wasn't how she responded to his texts and she had a feeling that it may raise his suspicions, but that was the last thing on her mind right now as all she wanted to do was prove the lingering fear of her possible pregnancy wrong.
Once inside, she dropped her unzipped bag by the door and quickly grabbed the box without him seeing before making a beeline to the bathroom. She locked the door and turned on the exhaust fan to mask her quiet sobs. Her cheek throbbed slightly and she tenderly massaged it.
She slowly took a deep breath to calm herself down, then slowly exhaled. It worked a little and about a minute later, her tears were gone. She took the box and dumped the tests into her hand. One by one, she took them in one sitting, then impatiently waited for the results.
She paced in the small bathroom, wrapping her arms around her stomach and occasionally squeezing in an attempt to ease her rattled nerves.
Those five minutes felt like the longest time of her life thus far. She checked her phone for the time and took another deep breath. Her back was to the sink as she mentally tried to prepare herself to turn around and look at the results.
"It's okay... you're not pregnant, just a little stressed." She spoke softly to herself to ease her worst fears. Her eyes closed tightly and her voice broke a little as she whispered, "Dear God, please don't let me be pregnant."
Her hands shook as she checked the time again, then quickly wiped away a fallen tear before forcing herself to turn around. She still wouldn't glance at the tests but instead at the broken woman staring back at her through the mirror.
Painfully slow, her watering eyes trailed down to the tests and she carefully picked them up into her hands. Bile was felt at the back of her throat and her heart sunk to the deepest pit of her stomach.
All three read pregnant.
She dropped her phone and the tests into the sink before stumbling back against the wall. She didn't know whether to be shocked or cry.
To make matters worse, she was possibly in the bathroom a little too long for Javen's liking. He banged on the door, nearly scaring Riley to death.
"What are you doing in there?" He asked before grabbing the door handle and twisting it. "And you know how I feel about locked doors. Open this door, Riley!"
"I-I'll be out in a few." She managed to say without giving into the emotional distress. Her throat felt tighter than usual from the building sob that was threatening to unleash.
A brutal bang against the door made her heart plummet further and she stared at it in bewilderment. "Open the fucking door!"
She cursed under her breath as she hid the tests in her back pocket and wiped away the falling tears. She took the box and tore it apart into the tiniest pieces she could, then dumped them into the toilet. She unlocked the door after flushing and stepped back as he swung it open. He walked in and silently looked around a few tense seconds.
"What were you doing?"
Her tone was unintentionally crisp, and her angered words slipped past before she could think about what to say. "Take a fucking guess. I was peeing."
One simple movement of his hand made her flinch and quickly check her tone. As much as he angered her, it wasn't worth getting slapped around. To her relief, he didn't touch her, but she could tell from his stance it wouldn't take much more hostility to make him snap.
"I was only peeing." She said in a more gentle tone, unable to hold his icy gaze.
He eyed her suspiciously when he heard the crack in her voice. "What's wrong with you?"
Her irritation got the best of her again. "You slapped me, remember?"
He stepped closer to her until her back bumped against the wall. "That attitude of yours is going to get you another."
She repeatedly clenched her fists to calm her rising emotions. Too much was going on right now and she didn't know the best way to react. She was too upset to pretend to be happy-go-lucky and she was too angry to put up with Javen's behavior. Going off on him would lead to something she didn't want to endure.
"Can I please just be alone?" She managed to ask him quietly. "I just need some space."
Javen's face contorted into utter annoyance and he rudely mocked her back as she kept her blurred gaze fixated on the tackiest wallpaper she ever saw in her life.
"I'm tired of you fucking crying all the time!" He raised his voice, triggering another wave of tears from her eyes. "All you ever do is whine, complain, beg; shut the fuck up sometimes!"
She didn't know how she did it, but somehow she mentally detached herself from his berating outburst and thought back to Michael's kind words and hearty hugs. The way he would hold her and tell her how much she meant to him made it seem like everything would be okay.
"There you go again! Zoning out and shit!" He yelled right in her ear and on impulse, she punched him square in the jaw.
Her knuckles throbbed as she shook out her hand, but then froze when she realized what she did. Her eyes landed on his darkened expression and a simple thought flashed like hazard lights in her mind.
'Protect the baby.'
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean–" She tried to quickly apologize but was cut short when she blacked out momentarily from the sudden impact of his fist. The shower curtains and rod came crashing down with her as body fell into the tub.
"Fucking bitch." He muttered, rubbing his aching jaw. He was about to walk away until he noticed something sticking out from her back pocket as she laid limp on her side, part of her legs dangling over the side of the tub. "The fuck is this?"
He snatched the tests from her jeans and stared blankly at the results before gritting his teeth. "So you're pregnant, huh?" His cold eyes snapped onto her unconscious face and he ran the shower on the coldest setting possible. "Wake the fuck up!"
It took some long seconds, but the freezing droplets dragged her from her deep subconscious and back to her dreaded reality. She still wasn't recovering as fast as he wanted, so he roughly grabbed hold of her shoulders through the fallen curtain and shook her.
"I said get up!"
The cold water striking her skin, the massive pain throbbing through her cheek and jaw, and an oncoming headache from his rough handling instantly brought on another sob.
He rolled his eyes and muttered another obscenity before pushing the tests in front of her face. "You're pregnant, Riley?"
She didn't answer, but kept crying. It took everything within him not to strangle her.
"ARE YOU PREGNANT!?" He screamed at her and she cowered behind her shaking arms shielded in front of her face.
"Yes!" She replied with a trembling shout.
He pinched his lips in a straight line as he finally pulled back and clenched the tests in his hands. With one last terrifying look, he turned and left the bathroom.
For a moment too long, she struggled to sit up and turn off the shower. Only the sounds of her hard breathing was heard over the fan still running as she held her jaw, then trailed her hand to the aching at the back of her head.
She looked at the tips of her fingers to make sure she wasn't bleeding from the harsh fall, then slowly removed herself from the tub. The shower rod clattered loudly as she let it fall back into the tub once she got it off her. She stumbled a bit from her unsteady steps and gripped the counter for support. Her vision was disoriented as she weakly grabbed the door frame and struggled to keep from falling out onto the floor.
"You alright, baby?" She heard that familiar angelic voice speak to her. Her confused gaze flickered up to meet his warm, loving brown eyes.
"M-Michael?" She quietly stuttered, reaching out to touch the figment of her imagination. It didn't feel fake as she could feel his warm skin beneath her shivering fingers.
"You don't look so well. C'mon, let's get you to bed." He said softly as he moved forward to wrap his arms gently around her. She instantly let go of the door frame and went to collapse against him, but instead hit the floor.
She withheld her cry as she slowly pushed herself up to crawl to the bedroom. A large hand against her back made her jump until she saw his sweet face again.
"Just a few more feet, baby. You're almost there." He encouraged her.
She dragged her heavy body little by little to the bedroom, and scowled at the sight of the bed. She refused to lay where she was continually assaulted.
"C'mon." He whispered. It felt like the ghostly touch of his warm hands embracing her sides helped garner the rest of the strength she needed to reach her duffel bag. She suddenly collapsed and shivered against the floor as her head laid against the bag.
The image of Michael sat beside her with a soft smile and she noticed a blanket draped over her. She couldn't recall how she managed to grab one and just chalked it up to the man sitting beside her. She almost cried again from the faint touch of his hand gently sweeping over her wet, tangled hair.
"You're gonna be okay, Ry. Just hang in there." He said before he disappeared within a blink and she passed out again.
🥀
| The Next Day, Friday Afternoon. . .
Thick smoke swirled between the living room and the kitchen of Javen's apartment as the speakers of his stereo loudly blasted and shook the walls. He truly didn't care if he disturbed his neighbors or not.
"Where's that fine piece of meat you've been hogging to yourself?" His friend, Nick, asked him after blowing out another puff of smoke.
Javen smirked, then chuckled as he skillfully rolled a blunt on the table. "She's at school. Normally, she'd be sleeping in my bed or making me a sandwich."
"Damn, you got her trained already?" Nick laughed.
"Hell no." Javen licked the paper and sealed the blunt. "She doesn't do anything I say until I smack her around a little. If I threaten to fuck her, she really listens to me."
Nick's obnoxious laughter grew louder. "You know Craig is going to be pissed when he finds out you're fucking his girl's best friend."
"Oh, please. He's slept with so many chicks, I've lost count. I don't know why he's so into Janelle. She's cute, but if she's not giving it up by the second date, what's the point?"
Nick slumped back against the couch as he continued to inhale and grow high. "Obviously, he likes her. Just like you like that cute Riley girl. Tell me more about her."
"She's feisty as hell and always fighting back. She keeps things interesting." Javen chuckled as he grabbed a lighter before exhaling in frustration. "By the way, those condoms you gave me ain't shit."
"What do you mean? They broke?" Nick raised a thick eyebrow.
"Yeah, it broke the first couple of times I've banged her. Now she's pregnant." Javen angrily shook his head and quickly inhaled the weed to calm his annoyance. It took a minute, but eventually his anger had cooled some.
"Why didn't you get her Plan B?"
Javen laid back on the couch and sighed. "I did the first two times and had to force her to take it because she's so damn stubborn; she acted like I was poisoning her or something. But that shit is expensive. I was hoping she wouldn't get pregnant, but I guess I'm just meant to have a fucked up life."
"So, what now? She keeping the baby or what?"
"I don't give a damn what she wants. I'm making her an appointment at a clinic sometime this week." Javen brought the blunt back to his lips and inhaled. He spoke a minute or so later. "I fucking hate kids and I sure as hell don't want any. Whiny ass bastards."
Nick got up and went into the kitchen to grab a cold beer. "You're going with her to the clinic?"
"No, she's a big girl. She can handle going by herself."
"Mean as hell." Nick laughed to himself as he walked back over to the couch. "You get the girl pregnant and tell her to get an abortion by herself."
"She'll be okay." Javen nonchalantly shrugged. "If I don't get my cut from Raymon soon, I might have to ask my brother for the cash. But then his annoying ass is going to be asking all these questions and getting in my business... forget it, I'm not asking him for shit."
"I can lend it to you if you need me to." Nick said as he plopped back onto the couch and the sharp hiss of the can opening striked the unpleasant air. "Just let me know."
"Sure thing."
Outside, Riley was taking her time crossing the parking lot when she noticed the familiar white Chevrolet Camaro parked next to Javen's Mustang. She paused for a second as she studied it; she didn't remember seeing it around recently or any of the neighbors driving one, but it didn't feel like a mere coincidence that the particular car Javen drove the night of their last date happened to be parked there.
She slowly moved on while pulling out her phone to text Michael that she arrived at her destination safely, then deleted both the text and his reply. It was her way of making him less suspicious than he already was.
Riley could hear the music blasting as she walked up the steps and inwardly sighed as she neared the apartment.
"Hey, excuse me," a guy called out to her from the other end of the floor and she turned towards him. "Could you tell your boyfriend to turn the music down? It's keeping me up and I work third-shift."
A flash of anger washed over her temporarily at the term 'boyfriend', but she forced a small smile and nodded.
"Yeah, sorry."
She took out her key and walked into the apartment, shutting the door a little more forcefully than normal. Javen sat up at the sound of her entering the apartment and turned just as she walked into the living room.
"The guy a few doors down wants you to turn the music down." She said plainly to him.
"What guy? He wasn't hitting on you, was he?" Javen asked, balling his fist. Almost anything evoked a rage of jealousy within him.
"No, he just said turn the music down. He's trying to sleep." She said without an ounce of attitude that threatened to coat her words.
Javen grabbed the remote and reluctantly turned the music down some. Before Riley could walk down the hall, Nick flirtatiously smiled at her with a wink.
"Sup, Riley." He didn't hide his attraction to her and she wasn't flattered in the least.
She narrowed her eyes without a response, then went down the hall to the bedroom. Nick chuckled and Javen turned to yell at her.
"He was speaking to you!"
She responded with a door slam.
"See what I mean?" Javen shook his head.
Nick finished the last of his blunt and nodded. "Yeah, I definitely see what you mean. Mind if I go see what her problem is?"
"Nah, just don't try anything." Javen waved him off and Nick headed down the hall with a smirk.
He didn't bother knocking and just opened the door while Riley was going through her duffel bag. She looked over her shoulder and glared at the dark-haired man leaning against the door frame. She rolled her eyes and turned back to her bag, silently praying he would go away.
"So, I've noticed you came in here with a bit of an attitude. What's the problem?" He asked as he folded his arms across his broad chest.
She ignored him.
"Is it because of that big, nasty bruise on your face?" He taunted and she looked back at him in disgust. It made him laugh. "Yeah, he told me about yesterday and how he had to put you in your place. Your little makeup trick might work at school, but I'm familiar with how that shit works. It can't exactly hide the swelling either."
She deeply exhaled as she averted her gaze and thought back to Michael's concerned face when he noticed her swollen jaw. The lies she told didn't put him at ease.
"So you're a piece of shit just like him." She mumbled to herself.
He cocked a brow, an amused half-grin on his face. "I'm sorry, I'm a what?"
She didn't speak anymore as she went back to her bag.
Nick chortled, then walked slowly towards her. "See, here's the thing me and Javen have in common with each other. He doesn't tolerate disrespect and neither do I."
He knelt next to her before roughly grabbing her by her throat and forced her to lay back on the floor. She weakly grunted.
"You do realize the more you fight against my friend and piss him off, the more he's going to hurt you, right? Or is that why you act like a bitch? 'Cause you like the way he fucks you?" He straddled her and leaned in close to her face. "If he had given me permission, I would do it myself."
He finally released her throat and she exhaled as she rubbed the skin, her eyes slightly watering. "The next time we speak to you, you better fucking answer. Got it?"
"Y-yeah." She nodded.
"Good, you learn fast." Nick smiled, then he stood up. "I'll see your fine self later. Congrats on the pregnancy."
Riley bit her tongue to hold back her rising anger as he left the room and shut the door. She rolled onto her side and brought her hands to her face as she sobbed as quietly as she could.
Time slowly ticked by as Riley kept herself occupied in his bedroom while Javen still chatted with Nick. The overbearing smell of the weed had already seeped through the space under the door and she tried her best not to inhale much of it.
She couldn't concentrate well on her homework and eventually gave up trying to complete it. Michael had sent her a few texts as well as Michelle and Jay, and she didn't bother to respond to any of them before tossing her phone aside onto the duffel bag.
A slew of smoke slapped her in the face once she opened the bedroom door and she coughed as the smell invaded her nose and scratched her throat, making her eyes water as she walked down the dark hallway. She ignored the two men exchanging words over the blaring music that Javen had turned back up and went into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water.
His cold gaze burned into the back of her head and she could feel him watching every move she made. The only thing she was allowed out of the fridge was water and nothing else. A couple of grapes she snagged from the school cafeteria and had wrapped in a few napkins was her dinner as of an hour ago.
"Riley, come here." He demanded in a more hoarse voice than usual.
Reluctantly, she slowly walked into the living room holding the bottle close to her stomach. He motioned with his hand to sit next to him and she did, but she left a good arm distance between them.
"What are you scared for?" Nick taunted with a laugh, "He's not going to hurt you. Right Jav?"
The friends exchanged sly grins.
"Nah." He agreed. He was sitting right next to her within one scoot.
She didn't make eye-contact with either one of them as she twisted the cap of the bottle back and forth between the pads of her finger. Her throat was still parched and was craving a drop of the cold liquid.
Javen reached up with one hand and roughly cupped her face, turning her face onto his. He smirked from her whimper. "Open your mouth."
Her eyebrows lowered and the corners of her lips turned down as she stared at him. She didn't verbally say no but the look on her face said it for her. Javen's lips twitched before turning into a sinister smile and he chuckled with empty humor.
Nick made a "tsk" sound with his tongue as he shook his head. Her eyes flickered over to his for a split second before she felt Javen's fingers around her throat and she was shoved back into the cushion of the sofa with force. The music suddenly grew louder and her screams of agony were overpowered as Javen had taken the end of the blunt and pushed it against her skin on her thigh.
"Disobey me again." He coldly whispered into her ear, "I fucking dare you."
His fingers squeezed and the surrounding smoke was sucked into her mouth as she tried to inhale. Her cough was strangled through sobs before he finally let her go and removed the blunt away from her injured skin. Her shaky hand hovered the burn but didn't touch it.
Nick shook his head and tossed the stereo remote aside, then got up to grab another beer from the kitchen. The burning sensation felt like a thousand hot knives driving into her skin in that particular spot. She started to move off the sofa to go to the bathroom for the first aid kit before Javen held out his arm and pushed her back.
"I didn't say you could get up." He sneered, then gripped her face again to force her to look at him. "Now open your mouth."
"Damn Jav, you weren't even this mean to Crystal or Natasha." Nick commented while walking back into the living room. He sipped his beer, watching Riley's quivering lips part ways.
Javen scoffed as he tapped the blunt with his finger and the ash fell freely onto the table. "They didn't piss me off as much."
He deeply inhaled the blunt and held in the smoke, then gripped Riley's hair to pull her face close to his. She couldn't make a sound before tears blurred her vision and her throat burned from the hot smoke being forced down her throat.
She put her hands against his hard chest and shoved him away as she hunched over with dry coughs. Javen stood and passed the blunt over to Nick before saying, "I'll be back."
He wrapped his arm around her stomach and pulled her up to drag her down the hall, and she fought back just like he expected. Her hoarse screams were drowned out by the blaring music, and her kicks and flailing arms didn't faze him as she tried to grab onto anything she could to keep from being taken back to that dreadful bedroom.
Nick laid down on the couch and fixed his gaze on the ceiling with the blunt between his lips as Riley's screams were abruptly cut off by the slam of the door.