VICTORIA MORETTI
"There's a man pointing a gun at us." I say.
"What?" He whispers, not believing on a word I said. "There's a man pointing a gun at us." I repeated, shifting my head towards the man's direction.
Tom took a slight look at the man, trying not to be obvious, I could see his eyes flare up. He slowly turned his head back to me. I gave him a look, signaling on what should we do. He nodded to a direction, I looked at where he moved his head. It was a door that let you the outside.
I looked back at him, giving him a nod of approval. We started letting go on each other, though as we were about to completely release our bodies, I suddenly gripped onto his hand, I'm not sure why. Tom looked at me, his facial expression was shocked, I was quite surprised by my actions as well.
But sooner or later he accepted me holding his hand, I felt him squeeze my palm against his. I smiled to myself, feeling his warm comfort even if there's a gun being pointed at us. That's the magical thing about Tom, with one small touch he can bring someone's mood up.
We opened the doors, leading to the outside. I felt my hairs standing up on my body, slowly regretting not being a coat, however, beauty is pain as they say.
Honestly I have no idea where we're going, I'm just following Tom's lead. The heels were starting to hurt my feet, and having the constant worry of tripping over the dress.
As we left the premises of the Ball I kept on tensing my body due to the strong wind flourishing through the air. Tom seemed to notice my coldness when he let go of my hand. Feeling his only warmth being taken away from me.
I looked up at him wondering why he let go of my hand. He gave me a smile, right before taking off his coat and giving it to me, I gladly took it. Putting it over my shoulders.
Tom then took my hand in his hand once again, he gave them a slight squeeze. I felt heat slithering on my cheeks, I had to look at up him, Tom looking straight ahead, I admired his side profile. His sharp jaw, the lamp posts illuminating off of his beautiful face.
Tom looked at me. "What are you smiling about?" He says, I hadn't even realized I had a smile on my face. I shrugged, looking away into the distance.
"Come on you can tell me." Tom says, turning and lifting my chin up to him. Looking into his beautiful brown eyes. I didn't respond, I kept on looking into his eyes. I gave in and gave him a kiss, it was a light one, it wasn't aggressive, it was soft.
I released my lips off of his, breathing out of my mouth, seeing the cold frost air coming out of my mouth and hitting his precious face.
Tom had a stunned expression written all over his face, he then grabbed my face and pulled my lips towards him, I was frozen by the sudden grasp on my face. Though I easily melted into the kiss.
Both of my hands were on his neck, pushing him closer to me, while Tom had one of his hands on my waist, then the other one was on my lower back.
His metal lip ring was cold against my lip, it was extraordinary, Tom slightly let go, my bottom lip was swollen, while my top lip moist from the warmth of Tom's body, plus the cold air flowing in between us.
I opened my eyes, seeing Tom's eyes looking directly at me, our foreheads touching, and our noses grazing upon each others. "Have I told you look stunning in that dress Victoria? Hm." Tom says, quietly enough so he doesn't hurt my ears. I giggle, "Yes, yes you have Tom." I say, at the same voice level he did.
Tom let out a small laugh, before releasing our foreheads and went to hug me. I wrapped my arms around his waist, he folded his arms on my lower back.
As Tom was about to put his head on top of mine I quickly had to stop him. "Tom!" I exclaim. "What?" He questions, whilst looking at me worried. "The hair, you were about to squish the bun!" I say, attitude lingering my voice, however it was unintentional.
"Damn fine." Tom says, looking down upon me. "Sorry.." He mutters, going again for the hug. Now putting his head on the crook on my neck. I returned the hug, going to my original position I was before. Taking in the comfort that Tom is giving me currently. "Thank you Tom, thank you I appreciate you, I really do." I say, smiling against his skin.
"Anything for you Victoria." He hums. I felt a wave of blush wash over me.
After some time of being in each others embrace we both let go, "We'll continue what he did later some other time." Tom says. I was confused, what did he mean by that. I took a look at him, seeing a smirk on his face, he was playing with his lip ring.
He looked at me, with that same smirk, yet it kept growing my the second, he kept on flicking the black metal lip piercing. Tom looking in my eye, his demeanor completely changed in the last couple minutes.
It wasn't soft anymore, it turned into a more flirtatious one.
"Want to go back to the Ball?" Tom asks me. I thought about it for a second, thinking if the man is still there, plus we didn't have anywhere else to go. "Sure, let's go." I say. Tom nods.
During the whole walk back I still had Tom's coat, is he not cold? "Tom." I say, catching his attention. "Yes Victoria?" He says. "Are you not cold." I say, suddenly being worried of his well-being.
Tom laughed whilst shaking his head, he then looked down upon me, a genuine smile coming across his face. "I'm fine Victoria, don't worry about me. I gave you my coat for a reason." He remarked.
"I just wanted to make sure you were okay." I say under my breath. Tom chuckles, "You're cute Victoria." He says quietly, almost like it was intended to be said in his head, but rather than that it just slipped out.
We made it to the premises of the Ball, tons of people were still inside, either dancing, drinking, talking to each other, or enjoying their time here.
On the outside, there weren't a ton of people about nine people, that's fine by me. I spotted a huge swinging bench, I turned to Tom to catch his attention. However, he was staring at something in the distance, it intrigued me.
I quickly spotted a girl. My mind raced to of all the negative things. Why was Tom looking at her? What made Tom look at her? My mind kept on coming up to questions, questions that only he could answer, but naturally the mind has a kind of its own and it starts thinking of negative things.
It's just how the human brain works.
Though as my mind was figuring out why Tom was looking in that direction I then spotted another shadow. I started observing the shadow, slowly realizing it was the same two figures I saw in the club.
Eleanor and Mystery Man.
Could it be a coincidence? Could it not?
I decided to let it go and tell Tom to go to tue bench before anyone else does. "Tom." I say, tapping on his shoulder, he turns to me. "Yes Victoria." He says. "Let's go on the swinging bench over there." I say, pointing to it.
"Yeah sure.." Tom says, though he seems unsure about his answer. However, I let it go. We made it to the bench. There was this one problem. I didn't know how to get on, and that might sound stupid, but the dress makes it more difficult.
Tom sat down on the bench, beginning to man-spread. He turned his focus to me, flicking his piercing side to side. "Can you help me." I say, embarrassed at myself for not being about to get on a simple bench.
"But I'm so comfortable." Tom whines, "Plus it's such a good view from down here." He smirks. "Tom." I say, in a more demanding tone. "Fine, fine." He says, raising his hands in a form of giving up.
He got up, grunting in the process. "So how should I bring you to the bench?" Tom asks, looking dumbfounded. All of a sudden Tom's face lit up, like he had an idea.
He went and picked my up from my under arms, I let out a yelp, obviously not expecting the movement. I gripped onto Tom's forearms with as much force I could possibly hold. He carried me from the front of the bench to being on the bench, it was a couple of seconds. Though it felt like dreadful hours.
After Tom put me down he let out a tired groan, I looked at him, my jaw opened. I was offended. "I'm not that heavy!" I exclaim. "And I never said you were." He says calmly, whilst sitting down next to me, man-spreading, and putting one of his arms on the back of the bench.
I scooted myself closer to him, grabbing his coat and plopping it on top of both of us. The coat wasn't completely covering us both, but the material of the coat was heavy enough to give us some kind of warmth.
I put my head on his chest hearing his heartbeat, the arm that was previously on the back rest of the bench was now wrapped around my shoulder, he squeezed my shoulder slightly. I hummed, at the sudden movement.
"Victoria." Tom says. I look up to him from his chest, "Yes Tom?" I say, curious at what he's going to say next. "How many times have I told you you look beautiful in that dress." He says, looking down at me. I felt my cheek flush up, "Mm I think you've said that a total of three times today." I respond.
"I just can't stop myself from telling you that." He says, smiling at me, I smiled back him, going back to listening to his heartbeat.
"Can I ask you something?" Tom asks. "Anything." I reply. "Why did you wear this dress?" He says. My breathe hitched for a split second. "I had this feeling in my body that it was a perfect time to wear the dress." I say.
"Who gave you the dress?" Tom asks, I bit on my lip, forcing the tears not to come out.
"My mother." I say, getting out of my position, and now facing him. "It was for her wedding." I say quietly, bringing my head down. "Are you okay Victoria?" He asks me. Lifting my chin up to him. I shook my head, looking at him, feeling my tears covering my whole eyesight.
"You want to talk about it?" He says. I wondered if I should tell him or not, at this point I think it's time, I think it's time for him to know my past. "Yes." I say, Tom nods informing me I can continue.
"You want all of it? Or do you want the shorter version of the story?" I ask. "Give me all of it." Tom says, I smile.
"Okay shit where should I start." I whisper to myself. I looked at him, finding my starting point to my story, I took a deep breath before starting. "One day, my mother married my father," I say, cringing at myself for saying the word 'father', "She was so happy, he was happy as well but all of that went downhill when my mother had children, me and my sister." I say.
Tom looked surprised, "I didn't know you had a sister." "Yeah I do." I say, breaking the news to him. "As I was saying, my mother had me and my sister, at first it was great as from what I could remember, but once I turned six, everything became a living hell."
"My father would start drinking a lot, basically drowning himself in alcohol." I say, "It was becoming so bad to the point he would start threatening my mother, he started hitting her." I say, before taking in a deep breath.
"And one day, one day I won't forget, it was the day my father began hitting me and my sister, and from that day on I would be experiencing hell." I say, fidgeting with my fingers.
Right as I was going to say something, Tom beat me to it. "You don't have to continue Victoria." He says, going to grab both of my hands. "No- I want to." I say, squeezing his fingers.
"Most of my days were the same, I went to school, came back, I immediately went straight to my room and locking the door. And then if my father got angry whilst drunk, he would take out all his anger on us. However, my sister got the least amount of beatings." I say.
"Who got the most beatings- or you don't have to answer that." Tom quickly says. "It's okay Tom, but I got the most beatings out of my sister and mother." I say. "Why?" He asks, I scoff a laugh. "Probably because I tried to protect my sister and mother a lot, I would put myself in front of them so I would get hurt rather than them." I say, feeling my breath quiver by the second.
"I would also disobey my father sometimes, you know talk back." I say, looking to him. "However, even if I would talk back to him, I would never bring up his alcoholism, I just know it would intensify the beatings and the friction of the pain against our skin." I say, starting to sniffle.
"There's also one day I won't ever forget, never in my life would I erase this memory from my head." I say, tears spilling out of my eyes.
"You don't have to tell me. If it hurts then don't spare to tell me Victoria." Tom says, apologetically, bringing his fingers to the corner of my eyes, wiping away my tears. I gulped before I gently grabbed his wrists, bringing it down. "I'm going to tell you Tom." I say, trying to bring a smile on my face.
"One night, a peaceful night actually, I was in the living room, my sister was upstairs, my father was sleeping in his room. Not a peep coming from the house. My mother was coming back from work, per usual, however this time she had to stay in late, fast forward as I was watching TV. I heard this loud roar from a car engine, I quickly turned around because I was curious." I say, tears falling out of my eyes.
"Then all of a sudden there was a loud crash." I say looking deeply into his eyes, tears overflowing my vision.
FLASHBACK
I was patiently waiting for my mother to come back from work, I was watching TV, that was when I heard a loud crash. I turned around out curiosity, I saw two cars, one of them was flipped over, the other was starting to create smoke.
It was a bad idea, but I wanted to see what happened up close.
I heard footsteps, I was scared it was his, but it wasn't, it was my sisters, Elena.
"Shh." I say, bringing a finger to my lips. I slowly and quickly unlock the front door, my sister was begging and begging me for her to come with me, I kept on saying no and no repeatedly, I didn't want anything happening to her. Plus she was only eight years old.
I closed the door behind me, I then sprinted to the situation, a crowd of people already there, once I made it there I started hearing whispers, I started hearing gasps, hearing quiet sobs.
I tried pushing myself through the people so I can see it for myself. However, I wish I didn't, I wish my curiosity didn't get the best of me.
This one thing made me traumatized for my whole life.
I saw a woman, covered in blood, flesh torn off of her arm, the woman was bleeding out of her temple, her neck was snapped, her mouth was slightly opened, blood gushing out of her mouth. The seatbelt was stabbing her in the ribs.
I started breathing heavily, inspecting every bit of her face. I started sobbing, sobbing hard. Water coming out of my nose, I choked on my tears.
"NO!"
I let out a scream.
Realizing the woman was my own mother, my mother.
The woman who brought me to this earth, the woman who has been nothing but caring to this world.
I was only eleven.
I was only eleven, witnessing my mothers death.
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