Everything was back to the same old, same old. My parents were constantly asking how school was and I would lie and say it was fine. School was a daily struggle of avoiding him and trying not to run into Rowan. Rowan was everywhere. He never once tried to approach me after dropping the bombshell of him reading my journal.
I was setting on my bed working on my homework as Dakota played with some toys on the floor beside me. Occasionally I would lean over the side of the bed and make sure he was doing fine. Mom was downstairs working on getting a family night together, a punishment for Raven sneaking out while grounded. I personally would have killed her for sneaking out. She was in the same vicinity as him. That was too close for comfort. What if I wasn't there and something happened, I would have blamed myself.
Raven still wasn't talking to me. She acted like we didn't even live in the same house. On the bus she didn't bother to wake me up. She left me there asleep in the seat. My nightmares had increased, causing me to fall asleep on the bus more frequently. I was exhausted.
I wanted to skip the whole family night and just go to bed early. I didn't care if my mom thought we needed bonding time, I couldn't stand the way Raven looked at me like I was some monster. I was just trying to protect her. Why did that make the bad guy?
"Lennon, come down here we’re ready to start the movie!" Mom yelled at me from the bottom of the stairs. I groaned and got up off of the bed. You would think she would have let me stay in my room to do homework and get some sleep, but no, watching a movie was more important.
I picked Dakota up off of the floor and carried him down the stairs. He was all excited for the movie, he loved the moving pictures on the screen. That's what he like to call them. Down stairs in the front room, it had been turned into a home movie theater. The family laptop was hooked up the projector and was shining onto the wall. If it had been warmer, we would have had family movie night outside. Last year Dad had a white sheet hanging off of the clothes line that we used as a screen.
Mom took Dakota from me and I sat down on the long sofa. I figured my mom would sit where she always did, with Dad, and Dakota between them on the other couch. Raven would sit beside me in her normal spot. Raven entered the room with a glare in her eyes. She was still angry. I didn't see why. Even if her phone hadn’t gotten taken away, she wasn't allowed to be on it during family time, so it wasn't like she was missing anything. No, her phone wasn't the reason for the glare in her eyes, it was me.
She walked right past me and sat in dad's chair over in the corner, as far away from me as she could. I tried to ignore the sting I felt in my chest. Just another thing I had to pretend was not effecting me.
"What movie are we watching, mom?" I asked as she took as her seat.
She smiled. These were the first words I'd said to her all day. "Cars." She replied.
I smiled and thanked her silently. Mom knew how much loved the movie Cars. When I was a kid I would watch the movie every night before I went to bed. Back then I believed the movie would guarantee me a good night's sleep, free of all nightmares.
"Ew, do we have to watch a little kid movie every night?" Raven huffed and crossed her arms across her chest.
Mom gave her the "really?" look and said, "Raven you know that the movies need to be appropriate for Dakota when he watches it with us. Plus we haven't watched this movie in years."
I looked over at Raven again and she didn't look thrilled. She hated Cars and I think that mom picked the movie as a punishment for her, more so than a reward for me. Regardless, her choice in movie made the whole family night a little more appealing. I still wanted to go to bed early but I decided sleep could wait until after the movie.
About half way into the movie I felt my phone go off in my pajama pocket. I pulled the phone out slightly to check my notifications, but I decided against breaking the rules. Dakota was loving the movie but passed out after Lighting McQueen was retrieved from Radatorsprings.
Once the movie was over, mom wanted to take a quick bath before bed. I asked if I could get Dakota in bed while Dad made sure all the dishes from dinner were washed.
Dakota didn't make a sound as I put him in his crib for bed. The way he slept made me think about how it wouldn't be too long before he would be sleeping in a toddler bed instead of a crib.
I said a quiet goodnight to him before closing his door and going to my room.
Ravens door was wide open when I walked by and I saw her standing in front of the mirror crying. She was so quiet that I barely heard her sobs. I backtracked and stuck my head inside her room. I watched as she tried to put her hair up in a messy bun and fail. Crying harder after she failed I decided to talk to her.
“Raven, you okay?” I asked walking in her room.
She jumped and tried to whip away the tears quickly. “Go away!” She yelled.
“What's wrong?” I tried again.
“What's wrong is I'm stuck with some freak for a sister. Most girls my age go to the mall with their sisters or get advice from them. But I'm stuck with a hermit. You barely leave the house let alone ever go to the mall.” She snapped. “Why are you even still here?”
“I honestly don't know.” I said and left her room.
I waited to see what set my phone off until I was in bed with the lights off. The notification was a text message from an unknown number. I wasn't familiar with the area code but opened it up anyway, thinking the person probably had the wrong number.
Hey remember me ;) I've been meaning to tell you how cute that strawberry birthmark is.
My stomach dropped and I felt like I was going to pass out. I did have a strawberry birthmark but in a place only my family knew of, on my butt. Whoever sent this message had to have seen me naked. They had to have known who they were messaging. This wasn't some oops wrong number message.
It had to have been him. Panic filled my veins as I reread the message over and over in my mind. How did he get my number? Why did he message me? I jumped out of bed and ran over to my window, looking up and down the street for him. I half expected him to be standing in my driveway looking at my window with that devilish grin on his face.
He knew my number.
He could contact me at any given time.
Until now, I thought all the torture and mind games would only reside outside of my home. Home was the one place where I didn't have to look over my shoulder to make sure he wasn't there waiting for the perfect moment.
I was terrified. I reached for my phone. Somehow I managed to drop in the process of getting up and going to the window. I typed in Rowan in my contact search list. I needed someone to talk to. A no results message popped up. That's right I deleted Rowan's number from my phone. I blocked the number that the message came from and sat my phone on my dresser. I wanted it to be far away, so I could feel safe.
I closed my curtains making sure my window was locked. The room was dark and it added an extra ounce of fear to my blood.
Was he going to attack me again? Or was this just more of his sick mind games?
My eyes glanced over at my journal sticking out of my bag. I hadn't bothered to look at it since I took it from Rowan. I wished I could go back to the way it was before Rowan read the journal.
I got up and pulled the journal out of my bag. I took a pen out of my bedside table and flipped to the first blank page. My emotions were so bottled up that I felt like I was going to explode.
The first thing I did was write down the date.
Then I snapped back to reality.
How could I ever write in this journal again after Rowan read it? Was I that stupid to make the same mistake twice?
I threw the notebook across the room. It landed on the floor with a thud.
Hopefully Cars could work it's magic and help me rid my sleep of any nightmares. With Rowan no longer in my life I was truly alone. The worst part was I couldn't even write down my feelings. It was like nothing had changed and I was just as terrified as I was the day after I was raped. Why do I bother to keep trying?
Hi everyone thank you so much for the 5k reads. We appreciate every vote and comment.
Do you think she will ever forgive Rowan? Would you forgive him? What do you think about this chapter?
Hopefully we can get wattpad to change this book to regular ratings instead of mature soon so this book can start ranking with all the support you guys have given us over the past couple months.