When I opened my eyes they hurt a lot because of a bright white light that was right above me so I closed them again. I heard a steady beeping, and curious as to what it is opened my eyes again slowly, giving them time to adjust to the change of light. When my eyes where fully open I sat up and looked around what seemed to be a hospital room.
My brain clicked everything together and I remembered everything, until the point when I passed out. How I was not dead I don’t know but I was seriously confused.
The door opened and In came in yesterday’s cute guy. Startled I blurted out the first thing that came into my mind. “What are you doing here?” I asked Dallas. “Well, since you decided you didn’t want to grace the world with your presence I saved you and brought you here to check you out.” Then he thought about what he said, “Not that way” He said, his face coloring in a cute soft pink. We bought chuckled softly at that.
I looked down and saw I was not in my clothes but a pink shirt and khaki mid-thigh shorts. “Who dressed me?” I asked Dallas. “Oh that was a nurse, I had my brother bring some cloths off a store” He said, calming my nerves.
“Why?” Dallas asked. “Why what?” “Why decide to take your life away?” He repeated. “I-It's complicated” I told him, hanging my head in shame. “Will you tell me?” He asked, waiting on his chair for my answer. “Maybe later” I said back and he nodded, seemingly satisfied with that answer.
Then the door opened again and a doctor came in, he was very tall with dark, long hair and clear eyes. Those eyes reminded me of a certain someone besides me. In fact, most of him reminded me of him, his face, posture, body, etc... He had a 5 O'clock shadow to his chin and a strong jaw. “How are you feeling, love?” The doctor said, without taking his eyes from the paper in front of him. “I’m fine” I responded and he took a quick glance to me and turned his eyes back to the paper.
“Well, seems like the only thing you may have now is a trauma, you will be able to leave the hospital in about half an hour” He said and moved his head towards Dallas. “Well, lil’ bro I’ll leave you here with her but take care she might still be a little dazed, see you at home” He turned back to me, tipped his nonexistent hat towards me and left.
“He’s your brother?” I asked Dallas. “Yes. He’s about 25, graduated early” He said rolling his eyes. “Well, how about we go to check out?” He asked me standing up and holding his hand mid-air towards me. I hesitantly grabbed it and helped myself up in standing position which gave me a look into the mirror.
I was horrified, my hair was all over the place my mascara was almost dripping down my face. I looked like the joker, from batman. “Oh, God, how much time have I been asleep?” I asked Dallas. “About half the day I would guess?” He told me, shrugging his shoulders.
We walked through the hospital with a lot of angry and sad looking people. When we got to the front desk Dallas talked to the woman who was openly flirting with him, and the funny thing is that he didn’t even notice.
You would think that because Dallas was so good looking he would have an ego so big he wouldn’t be able to cross the door, but he seemed nice enough. We walked out of the big building. “Would you like to have a coffee and you can tell me your reason?” He asked. I thought it over and agreed, not like I had anything else to do anyway.
We walked in silence while Dallas had his hand in the small of my back, steadying me whenever I wobbled or something. We entered a Starbucks and I sat while Dallas went to buy the coffee. When he returned we were both suddenly super interested in our coffee cups, trying to avoid each other’s gaze.
“So, why exactly did you do that?” He asked first, breaking our little game. I looked up and gazed at him behind my lashes. I breathed in a deep breathe and then blurted out the sad story of my life, leaving out the part where I was raped, I don’t know why, but I didn’t want people to know about that. I almost laughed out loud at the situation I was in, blurting most of my story to a complete stranger, which I probably trusted more than my own parents. When I was done his mouth and eyes were lightly opened and then he started shaking his head like a dog.
“What are you doing?” I laughed. He looked at me as if realizing for the first time that I was there. And then he lifted his hands and shook his hair around a little. “Wow, I’m so sorry all of that has happened to you” He said. I just shrugged in response. “It’s not like it’s your fault anyway” I said sadly.
Then reality hit me in the face. Dallas here was the reason why I’m actually here, and not dead where I wanted to be. I stood up abruptly in the middle of something Dallas was saying and left the small coffee shop.
I walked down the street in the general direction of the metro station again, vaguely aware of the fact that Dallas was calling my name frantically in the background, I just kept walking, until a hand wrapped around my wrist and pulled me back roughly.
“Ow, you asshole I think you pulled my arm out of it’s socket” I hissed at him while cradling my shoulder. “I’m sorry I just don’t want you to go back there. Ever” He said while gazing into my eyes. “Dude, it’s not like you know me at all, for all I know you are a guy who’s going to rape me anyways” His eyes flashed with a dangerous fire telling me I just pissed him off. Badly.
“Well I’m sorry I’m trying to keep you alive, since you are too much of a coward to actually stay in this world and fight” He hissed right back at my face, daring me to say something back. We glared at each other for a while in the middle of the street until he looked away, probably from the heat of my glare that was probably very intimidating.
“C’mon, I’ll take you home” He said pulling at my arm, successfully moving my body forward since I was in too much of a daze at what just happened to fight back. Before I knew it I was inside a fancy car, I couldn’t for the life of me, name, and Dallas was asking for my address.
I gave him the address and sat back, knowing that the more I waited to get home, the worse the beating would be. The car ride was very silent, but I didn’t mind, silence was good to analyze better your surroundings.
After about 15 minutes later we got to my house and I sighed knowing what was coming next. I quietly thanked him and got out of the car with my head hanging down. I took my time going from the car to my house, delaying what I knew was my fate.
I knocked on the door and patiently waited until one of my parents opened the door. My dad opened the door and when my eyes took in his bloodshot eyes I knew he was drunk. Very, drunk. Shit.
“I- Um hi, Dad, I’m just going to come up to my room and clean, an- yeah, bye” I stuttered nervously, knowing that if I pissed him off he would hurt me. I walked slowly to the staircase, never taking my gaze from his face, as if I was dealing with a wild animal.
He seemed to realize what I was about to do and moved my way. “Now where do you think you are going?” He said furiously, grabbing unto my wrist roughly and slamming me into him. Then he pushed me off him and back handed me, making me stumble and fall into a table.
I cradled my burning cheek while keeping my gaze on the floor. “Look at me when I talk to you” He said, roughly taking my chin and pushing my face up. “Where were you yesterday? You missed your monthly lesson” He sneered in my face. It’s not actually a lesson that is just how he calls my beatings so people wouldn’t suspect anything.
“Oh come on, answer me!” He screamed in my ear, shaking me. Not that it was needed I was already shaking with fear. “Fine, don’t say anything” He growled and threw me in the direction of the stairs.
I fell on my wrist making unbearable pain course through my arm. I knew what that was without even looking at it. I’ve experienced it lots of times. I have a broken wrist and probably a swollen cheek with some nasty bruises all over my arms.
“You go upstairs and prepare for bed, you have your first day tomorrow” He said as if he was any type of parental figure. I scoff mentally, laughing to myself. As if. “Yes daddy” I saw with quivering lips.
“Don’t ‘yes daddy’ me, go and do it” He said back. Knocking his fist against my jaw and landing some good kicks against my abdomen. I silently went up the stairs with tears streaming down my now bruised cheeks.
When I got to my room I quietly packed everything and took out my cardigan that was long enough to cover bruises in my arms. While putting books in my bag I put effort on my hand in accident, reminding me that I needed to treat it and went to the bathroom to have some ice cold water in it.
When the water hit my hand I hissed in pain. I let it feel numb for a while before taking it out of the water, knowing I probably should head to bed for now, since I had to wake up early tomorrow.
I laid there until early morning watching my ceiling, counting it’s cracks from humidity that it had since I was very little. Most of the things in my room stayed the same as they were since all of those years back. I have some stuffed animals in the rack and planets and stars stickers that glow in the dar sticked to the ceiling.
For some reason those stickers calmed me at night. As if it reminded me that I’m not alone for some reason or another. Looking at them I fell asleep, falling into the deeps claws of darkness and I welcomed them.
Opening my eyes as my alarm clock went out I groaned realizing what day it was and what it meant. Beautiful, first day of school, yay me ( note the sarcasm ). I was NOT looking forward to this, but it wasn’t as if I could actually avoid it and get away with it.
Careful to not put any pressure into my left wrist, I threw the sheets away from me and stood up, creating a mental barrier around my feelings, knowing the first day was the day where they bullied me the worst. I exchanged my pjs into a V-necked aqua shirt and dark blue skinny jeans, strapping my white leather sandals on and putting some mascara and transparent lip gloss.
Letting my flowing hair to go cascading down my back in their natural waves, I grabbed my bag and cardigan and put both on,making sure the cardigan didn’t expose my now swollen wrist. I went out through the door and set on walking to school, after grabbing the damned glasses I wore. They had thick edges, and were big, as they covered the upper part of my face. Lots of cars from the popular girls and jocks passed by me, making sure to go out of their way to roll their dark tainted windows down to laugh at me.
I kept walking as if I hadn’t heard them, but I did, and it hurt more than I would care to admit. Letting my hair hang down around my face, in a poor attempt to cover my shame I completed the 15 minute journey to school.
Standing in the entrance I admired the illusion it gave that behind those gates we would be protected under their security. Bah, such bull. This is where my nightmares begin, while finishing home. I hurriedly entered when I heard the first bell go off, warning people that if they weren’t prepared in 5 minutes they would be late.
I passed some couples that were reunited (In every way possible, mind you), while nastily making out in the middle of the hallway, shamelessly exploring each others body with their hands. I looked straight ahead, with my face tilted upwards, as if I was confident in myself.
The thing is I don’t know who am I trying to fool, them or me. Anyways, I kept like that until I got to the office, smiling tightly at the elderly woman behind the desk, asking for my schedule and locker number. I thanked her and left when she gave me both.
On my way to my locker I passed some jocks that had the usual cheerleaders clinging on to their arms for dear life, smirking at me, as if I cared. I kept walking and got to my locker. I opened it and started dumping my stuff inside, keeping the books I needed out so I didn’t have an incident.
Slamming the door closed and holding my books tightly to my chest with my good arm and turned around only to drop my books because one of the worst jerks I’ve ever seen in my life was about 5 inches from my face.
When I dropped my books they landed on my feet, making me grimace, which made the Jock smirk. I tried pushing him off with one arm, which obviously didn’t work since he was like 50 pounds heavier than me, and all of that was pure muscle. He curiously shifted his gaze to my bad wrist, and laughed.
“What’s this?” He said roughly grabbing my swollen wrist, forcing me to yelp at the pain that rippled through my whole body. He grabbed my other wrist and put both of them over my head, lifting my hair back in the process. “Oh, I knew you were a a whore inside” while looking at what was probably a bruise from yesterday and confusing it with something else.
He started kissing my neck roughly and instead of shivering in pleasure it was in disgust, and he took it the wrong way and smirked again. Memories from what happened the other day over took my mind and in panic I did the first thing my body thought of and lifted my knee, connecting where the sun didn’t shine.
He let me go instantly, doubling over in pain. he growled at me and screamed. “You bitch! You’ll pay for that” And went for me, slamming my wrist against the lockers behind me. I cried out and looked around to see that everybody was inside classrooms already.
Shit this is bad. The bell rang, signaling the end of homeroom and everybody went out of the classrooms. “Goodbye, Isa, I’ll see you later” He said, surprising me with the fact that he knew my name.
I sank into the floor, cradling my pounding wrist and sobbing. I bent my head down, making my hair create a curtain where I was shielded from the world. The bell rang again making people scurry to their corresponding classrooms. I stayed there and heard some feet running down the hall to my left not 2 minutes later.
“Isa? Oh, God what happened to your wrist?” The angelical voice that could only belong to Dallas called. Thanks cardigan, you have really served your purpose, I think sarcastically. “Jesus Isa look at me” He said, softly, putting his finger in my chin, the same way my dad did yesterday, except softer.
Either way, my body reacted quickly and cringed away from his hand. He retracted it, confused. “Who did this to you?” He asked so softly I doubted I was supposed to hear it. Then everything suddenly clicked in his mind and he growled. “This was your dad wasn’t it?” He asked angrily. I nodded slightly.
He understood and sat down besides me. “It was my dad, because I didn’t get home yesterday to do my chores” I told him quietly. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know that was going to happen to you if I kept you, how bad is it?” He asked, not patient enough for my answer and took my limp arm and pushed back softly the sleeve of my cardigan, gasping slightly at the sight of all my bruises.
He looked down at the careful position I was in so I didn’t hurt the bruises in my stomach. Somehow he noticed and his hand climbed up my shirt in a non-sexual way, making my bruises come to sight. “What else do you have?” Dallas asked, gulping. “My wrist is broken, knowing from experience, but it’s probably worse now because of Jackson” I shrugged, mentioning the jock from earlier.
“That bastard, I’m going to kill him” He said angrily and started to stomp away from me. Knowing that I couldn’t stop him and the fact that once Jackson got that it was because of me he would do something worse to me. I dropped my head and started sobbing into my good arm.
Suddenly I felt an arm around me and I looked up at Dallas that was sitting next to me, staring sadly. He made a motion for me to come with his head and I climbed into his lap, and continued sobbing into his shoulder, putting my head in between his neck and shoulder.
We sat there for a while, just enjoying each others company. I had long since ran dry of tears and just sat there keeping in his woody scent. One that seemed to have a calming effect on me. I lowered my head a little and was able to hear his heart beating. It calmed me further and was in the brink of falling asleep right there when the bell rang.
“Talk about a mood killer” He murmured and we both chuckled a little at that. We both stood up and I began walking the opposite way he was, in the direction of my next class until I felt a hand snake around my waist pulling me against someone’s chest.
I relaxed when I smelt his woody scent. “How about we skip this class, hey?” He asked me while grabbing my hand and pulling me in the general direction of the gates in the front part of the school.
“I don’t see why not” I said back amusedly, smirking slightly at the way his eyes lit up a little at my response. “Then let’s go”
After about 15 minutes in the car I started to get nervous. “Dallas, where are we going?” I asked him. “To the hospital, we need to get your hand looked at” He responded, not taking his eyes from the road. I sighed and did nothing to stop him, apparently nothing will stop him anyway.
We got there in about 5 more minutes and checked in the lobby, then they made us sit and wait. “Hey lil’ bro how’s it going?” Dallas’s brother called. “Hey, listen I need you to check Isa’s wrist, if it’s not too much to ask?” He said, standing up and hugging his brother.
“You sure seem to come here a lot Isa” His brother said, taking his attention to me. “Yeah well I wouldn’t have to if it weren’t for mister Dallas here” I narrowed my eyes at Dallas and his body froze, as if not believing what he was hearing.
“Oh so now it’s my fault you’re alive, huh? Well fine, deal with it yourself, just don’t get killed in the process. Bye bro I’ll see you later” He said to a dumbfounded doctor in front of me.
“What was that all about” He asked. I just dismissed him with my good hand waving it around. “Well, let’s get you checked, love, shall we?” He clapped. “Oh and my name’s Rob, since it looks like we’ll see each other a lot” He said turning around and walking backwards.
He twirled around and kept walking into the back part of the hospital, probably were the X-Ray’s were. We kept walking until we got there, entering one of the rooms and my eyes instantly zeroed on a metal bed slap bang in the middle of the room. I noticed the walls were a soft blue color, with a creamy-colored ceiling and a rug floor
Rob guided me to the furthest end of the bed where there was a metal rectangle hanging about a foot from where the bed was. “Please put your arm right here in this spot and stay calm, okay? This won’t hurt a bit” He said placing my hand directly beneath the rectangle.
He went behind a machine and pressed a button, making a flash go through the room and then he was back on my side. “You can take your hand off now” He said after a while, looking amused.
“Wait for me here” He said gesturing to chairs that were to his right. He left and I gingerly sat down and waited for him. He came back with a long, yellow folder.
“Come, let’s go look at this” He said and motioned for me to stand up. I was left once again to follow him helplessly around the hospital. He took me to another room where he held the x-ray up against a light and examined it for a minute.
“It’s not broken but it’s sprained. How did this happen?” He asked me. I hesitated for a second before answering. “I fell down the stairs” I shrugged. He gave me a look but let it go. “Well, we have to go bandage that. Keep it on for tonight and then you’re good to go.” Rob said and lead me to yet another room.
After about half an hour we were done. Rob called Dallas to come pick me up since I didn’t know my parents’ number (Not that I needed it) and he waited with me until Dallas arrived.
“Thank you again for everything” I told Rob and surprised him with a hug. He hesitantly returned it and let me go after a while. I ran towards the car, with newfound energy and opened the door, hoping in.
“Hi” I chirped. He looked at me confused but started the engine. “Why so happy?” He asked, skeptical. “I really don’t know, why? Is it a bad thing?” I beamed at him. “No, just weird” He said back with a shake of his head.
“Can I ask you a question?” I tilted my head, making my curly hair splash against my shoulder. “Shoot”
“Why did you get so angry when a called you a rapist? It was just a joke” I asked him sobering up. He tensed a little, though his hands were clenched on the wheel.
“Because my mom was raped... And killed”
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Dedicated to @IonaBaird123 for the amazing cover! Thanks so much again!