Unedited
Thank you guys for the love on the last chapter, even though I wasn't feeling it. I usually try to respond to everyone, but I was up for three days straight, just writing. I definitely needed to pause and get some sleep, plus my job is unfortunately back open. I did read them all and I thank you all for the continued support!
Also, I was rereading this story and realized that I did write the Blackbourne Team is pretty aware about Sang's home situation. That was written before I took that long break while I was sick, so I didn't remember until now. I'm going to be eventually rewrite so that Sang isn't as open about it. So up until this point, they are only assuming she's being abused, besides North and their conversation.
I hope you guys enjoy!
Sang's P.O.V.
A little bit later, Dr. Green shows up with Mr. Blackbourne, leaving me to wonder why the boys are so close to two of our teachers. They all started school the same day as me, I'm not sure how they would have the time to get close.
Mr. Blackbourne looks as stoic as ever, simply crossing his arm, "Mr. Lee, report."
His words confuse me even more, they talk as if they've known each other for a long time. I'm not sure how I didn't put the pieces together before.
"We were hanging out when all of a sudden Sang's voice got all weird and she started coughing. We got her to admit that her Mom made her drink lemon juice and vinegar."
Dr. Green looks shocked at Kota's words, while Mr. Blackbourne is impossible to read.
"Miss Sorenson, is it safe to assume that your Mother is the reason for the stitches on your back?," Mr. Blackbourne asks.
I hesitate, but nod.
"Words, Miss Sorenson."
"Yes. But it's only because she's sick, she only acts out sometimes because of her medicine." I try to use the same excuse that I've used with everyone, even though I know that it won't satisfy anyone.
His lips go down, almost in a frown, "We'll discuss this more after Dr. Green checks you out."
Dr. Green walks over to me and kneels in front of the chair I'm sitting in, "How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine," I lean in to whisper, "Everybody is overreacting."
He grins as I look into his dazzling green eyes. He whispers back, "They tend to do that. They meet a pretty girl and they don't know how to act. His comment makes me blush slightly. "However this time I don't think they are. Are you sure you don't have any pain right now?," this time he speaks loud enough for everyone to hear him.
I nod, "My throat was just scratchy, but I'm fine now Dr. Green. Promise."
He searches my face for any detection that I'm lying. "Call me Sean." His words take me by surprise.
"Are you sure about that?" I ask.
"Of course. Only pretty girls like you get the privilege," he says in a teasing tone.
"Alright, Sean." It feels awkward, just because he is a teacher. But if the boys trust him, so do I.
"Dr. Green, now is certainly not the appropriate time for flirting. Especially one who is a student."
"Calm down, Owen. I'm not proposing to her over here," Dr. Green scoffs. He leans in and whispers, "Don't worry, he always has a stick up his ass. Although, I'm sure you've already picked up on that."
I giggle, which makes Dr. Green shake his head, "Oh, no. None of that or I'll have to administer the giggle cure."
I try to stop as Mr. Blackbourne crosses his arms, "Dr. Green, there is no such thing. Could you just do your job?"
Dr. Green gives me a sly wink, "I am doing my job, Owen. And there is such a thing. I would know, I am a Doctor after all." His face turns serious, "Alright, open up for me."
Luke lets out a quick laugh and I watch as Nathan chops him in the back of the head. I open my mouth wide as Dr. Green shakes an amused look off his face.
While Dr. Green begins searching my throat, Mr. Blackbourne speaks, "Don't make me ask you to leave, Mr. Taylor Sr."
Sean inspects my throat for another minute with a frown on his face. He stands up and shares a look with Mr. Blackbourne. His happy expression from earlier is gone, "That's certainly not something you see everyday. It's definitely been burned. Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do unless it starts hurting out of the blue or something along those lines."
"I figured," I tell him. There wouldn't be anything he could do even if it was recent.
"Why didn't you mention anything?," Silas asks, looking very upset.
"It didn't seem important. It happened before I met any of you."
"Of course that's important, Sang. Whether you think it is or not, I can promise you that something like that is very important," Victor tells me.
I don't say anything, unsure of what to say to that.
"What else does she do?," Mr. Blackbourne asks.
"Nothing too bad. Kneeling in rice, sometimes she just has me sit on the stool for a couple hours...," I trail off.
"And your back? What did she do to cause you to get stitches?," he asks.
"She used a belt," I tell him quietly.
"Well, then we need to get you out of that house," Mr. Blackbourne looks around the room, "I'm sure we can come up with some sort of arrangement."
The others nod and begin trying to come up with ideas.
I frown and shake my head, "I'm not going anywhere."
The boys don't hear me, so I repeat myself, much louder this time.
They quiet down and look at me as if I've suddenly grown a second head.
"I appreciate the concern, but I'm not going anywhere. I have to stay, for now at least. I have no clue where my Dad is and I can't leave Marie or my Mom. Plus," I look at an angry looking North, "My Mom isn't actually my Mom. She let it slip that she isn't my Mother the other day, and I have a feeling that there is something in that house that can give me answers."
"I'm sorry Miss Sorensen but there is now we can allow you to go back to that house. If you want to find information regarding your real Mother, we are more than happy to help," he turns to Kota, "We could take her to the-," he's cut off by Kota.
He shakes his head, "Absolutely not."
I frown. Take me where?
"Once again, I appreciate the concern," I interject, "But I'm eighteen. I can make my own decisions. I'm not leaving."
"Clearly you can't, Sang!," North booms.
I take a deep breath to compose myself, "She's sick, North. Marie isn't going to take care of her! She can barely take care of herself! And Dad is never home. I can't leave her."
"Bullshit! You can't admit to yourself that what she is doing is abuse! Dammit, Baby, it's getting fucking annoying! Why won't you just let anybody help you? If the roles were reversed, and she was doing this to your sister, would you still try and defend her?"
His words hurt me slightly, but they also make me a bit mad.
"It isn't your place! It's nobody's business, but mine, North! And if you find me, or what I do annoying, then you don't have to hang around me anymore," I look around at the rest of the boys, "None of you do. I appreciate everything, I do. But I told you from the beginning, if you don't want me around, then tell me. I have no clue what I'm doing and you all obviously know that! I'm not going to apologize for that, because you guys were the ones who wanted to get involved in my life and have an opinion on everything." I don't acknowledge the Marie comment, because deep down, I know he isn't wrong.
I see Gabriel sharing a wide-eyed look with Luke out of the corner of my eye.
"I should get home," I mumble before anyone can respond to my rant.
"Sang, you know I didn't mean it that way, don't fucking put words in my mouth."
"Alright, that's enough," Kota tries to calm us both down.
"No, fuck that! I'm trying to talk to her," North says before turning back to me, "Don't walk off like this."
"Mr. Taylor...," Mr. Blackbourne warns.
I turn around, ready to leave. In this moment, I'm too blinded by my pride to care about what he has to say now.
Silas blocks my path as I try to walk out. "Aggele...," he says lowly.
Something in his eyes makes me want to stay, but I can't. I'm on the verge of tears at this point.
"I'll see you all tomorrow," I tell him, hoping that he gets that I don't want to see or talk to anybody tonight.
I walk around him and out the door, before making my way across the street. When I get to my room, I throw myself on my bed and try to compose myself.
I don't completely mean what I said. I just feel so overwhelmed, and deep down a part of me knows North isn't exactly wrong.
My life changed drastically after moving here. Suddenly I had all these guys getting involved in my life and actually caring about me.
How does somebody go from being an absolute nobody to this? Everybody all of a sudden has an opinion on almost every aspect of my life now and it's not something I've ever had to deal with before.
How I dress. How I do my hair. How I feel. My relationship with my family. Anything and everything about me.
I lashed out at North for no reason and I'm not even sure why. That's not the type of person I want to be. Tomorrow, if he'll even want to talk to me, I'll apologize. But I'm not changing my mind on leaving this house, that's the one thing I don't regret.
They probably don't want anything to do with me now after the way I just behaved. And I don't blame them. I'm definitely not worth sticking around for.
I put my phone in the attic space before I begin to do homework. When I'm done, I breathe a sigh of relief and go downstairs to get a glass of water. I tidy up for a little bit before heading back up, ready to curl up in bed.
When I come back, I freeze when I realize my stepmother is in my room, digging through my book bag.
She turns around to me, with the notes that I've been passed in her hands. I can feel the blood drain from my face when I realize that I'm going to be in so much trouble for whatever is in those notes.
"What the fuck is this?," she growls.
"People pass me notes in class," I tell her, "I haven't even read any of them, I just put them in my bag so I could throw them away."
"Do you think I'm stupid?"
I shake my head, "No, of course not. But I'm telling the truth, I have no idea what those say."
"Stop fucking lying! I didn't raise you this way!," she screams before looking at my outfit, "You dress like that to tease the boys at school. You are practically begging for all this attention from boys because you are a useless whore! Looks like you got what you wanted, considering the disgusting shit they've written about you."
She's sick. She can't help it.
I take a few deep breaths as I remind myself that she doesn't really mean it. Doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt.
I don't understand why what I'm wearing means people write "disgusting" things about me. It says a lot more about the people writing them than it does me.
Before I can say that, she stalks toward me and grabs my arm before dragging me to the bathroom, "Maybe I can finally teach you not to behave like such a slut."
She shoves me into the bathroom, making me stumble. "Stay right here. Do not move until I get back," she warns me.
I do as she says, slightly confused as to what my punishment will be this time.
She is gone so long, that I begin to think she forgot about me. That is, until I hear clunking sounds from the hallway. It sounds like a stool being dragged across the floor.
She eventually pushes the stool through the doorway, looking like a crazed animal.
She puts the stool in the bathtub, "Sit."
I do as she says while she carries on with her tangent. "You will not be leaving for a while. I can't believe you are making me do this."
As she continues to mumble under her breath, I realize she has a couple of thick chords with her. She suddenly grips my arm and twists it until I almost topple from the already unstable stool.
When I correct myself, she wrenches both my arms behind my back. She weaves the cord between one of the spokes on the stool and then around my wrists.
As she moves to my legs, I pull against the cord, testing how tight she had tied it. There's no give in the cord, I won't be able to get out of here by myself.
She does the same thing to both of my ankles as I try to stop myself from crying. Crying will only make this worse.
Not only will I not be able to get up, but I have no way of stabilizing myself if I start falling over.
When she's done, she backs away and just stares at me. Then she bends over the tub and turned on the water before switching the shower on.
I gasp as I'm sprayed with freezing cold water. I try my best not to flinch, scared that any sudden movement would make the stool turn over.
She turns the knob until it's all the way on hot, "You will not move. You can only blame yourself for this."
She shoves the stool, once again surprising me at her strength. She then aims the shower head, so the water is going over my face, shoulders, and down my front. In this position, no matter which way I move, I won't be able to escape the water.
The water heats quickly and that's when I begin to cry. I bend my head over to my chest so I don't have to feel the burning hot water on my face.
"Please, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'll do better, I promise. Just... please don't leave me here."
I'm sobbing at this point. There's no answer and I can't see if she's still in here.
"I'm sorry!," I shout out, "Please, let me out of here!"
I call for somebody, anybody. But it's just us. Dad and Marie aren't here. Marie is my best bet, but who knows when she'll be back.
The water feels like it's burning whatever part of my skin it can reach. If I make it out of this, I'll do anything in my power to keep away from her anger. I'll stop sneaking out. I'll stop accepting notes from people. I'll make sure she never finds out about the two groups of boys I've been spending my time with. I'll even spend less time with them if it keeps me from this.
A hand grips my hair suddenly, forcing me to tilt my head back. A glass cup smacks at my mouth, forcing me to open it for the lemon juice and vinegar.
I throw up the small amount she forces down my throat onto my lap. Stomach acid mingles with the acidic mixture on my already raw skin, making it burn more.
She tries to make me drink more, but I keep spitting it back up. I think she gets tired of it, because she sets it down on the counter.
She grips my hair, "If I hear another word from you while I'm gone, I'll flip this stool and leave you here. Just shut the fuck up and do as your told for once."
I hear the door close as she leaves me.
My throat burns slightly, but it's not as bad as the last time she made me drink it.
I continue to cry as I try to position my body away from the scalding water. I don't fail to notice the irony considering my fight with North. Maybe this is my karma.
Reality sinks in quickly.
Nobody is coming to save me and I have no way of getting out.
———
Poor Sang!
Sang doesn't have her phone this time, so who do you think will help her this time? Will someone from the Blackbourne team go against her wishes and check up on her? Or will the Toma Team get worried since she isn't answering her phone?
And do you think Sang will end up telling the other team about it?
Until next time.