Not wanting to scream, I bit my lip and look for a way out of my second story bedroom. My eyes keep flickering to the locked doorknob, and my heart is in my throat. I look to my window, and grab my wallet and phone off the floor in a rush, walking quickly and silently to my window, trying to open it as fast as I can.
“Anna, come out here now.” Larry’s voice yells at me, and startles me.
I work quicker, prying the window open, and looking down at the ground. The longer I look at it, the higher up I am. I realize that I will have to jump. I climb out the window, and start shimmying down as far as I can before my door bursts open and Larry is standing there glass eyed, and very angry.
He sees me going out the window, and starts to stumble towards me, his hands in fists. In that moment, I had two options. One, let him catch me and pull me up, then do god knows what to me. Or two, let go of the window seal, and take my chances dropping. I chose number two.
The impact of the ground traveled through my body like lightning. As soon as I regained my stature, Larry's enraged face was stuck out the window, growling at me to get back in the house, cursing that he'll find me, that it doesn't matter where I run, there is no safe haven.
When I finally get over the pain of falling two stories, I start towards nowhere, taking out my phone, and searching for Sebastian’s number.
It rings three times before he picks it up.
“Whatcha need Anna.”
“Larry, he, uh.” And I can’t even make out the rest of the sentence before I burst out crying.
“Where are you, I’ll come get you.”
“On Arrow Avenue.” I say, looking at the street sign.
“Hang on, I’m getting in the car right now.”
“Okay.” I say before hanging up.
And as soon as I hang up with Sebastian, I get another call from Luke.
I can’t do this.
I decline his call, and then put the phone back in my pocket, where it buzzes and rings non-stop until Sebastian picks me up, and even then the rings echo through the car. I finally take out my phone and silence it, not even bothering to check the messages.
“Who is that?” He asks me, looking at me while we’re stopped at a red light. He never asked about Larry, he knows that if I want to talk about it, I’ll tell him.
“Nobody.” I answer back automatically, like a machine. And honestly, that’s what I feel like, a machine.
“Sure.” He says, but leaves the conversation at that.
I pull out my phone and see a bunch of missed calls and texts from Luke and an unknown number.
I look at Luke’s messages first.
Luke: Anna? I’m soooooooo sorryyyy :(((((
Luke: I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have called you out in front of Ashton like that
Luke: Anna please talk to me
Luke: I want to make sure you’re okay
Luke: Anna?
Luke: I’m sorry. I get it if you don’t want to talk to me again.
I don’t answer him, instead, I look at the other messages that I got.
Unknown: Hey Anna, this is Ashton, I got your number out of Luke’s phone, I hope you don’t mind, I just wanted to say sorry about Luke earlier, I know that he didn’t mean to embarrass you. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to message me.
Anna: are you fucking kidding me?
Ashton: about what?
Anna: did you really steal my number out of Luke’s phone?
Ashton: yeah actually, I did when he was pacing his room talking out loud about how he what he was going to do to apologize.
Anna: errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I’m totally dead…
Ashton: lol sorrryyyy :PPPP
I stop texting Ashton after that, knowing that Luke wouldn’t like it. Instead, I try to think of what to say to Luke while Sebastian and I drive back to his house where I’ll probably stay the night, like I usually do when I either get locked out of the house or on occasional night like these. But it’s never been as bad as this before. He’s never threatened me with the gun before.
We pull up to Sebastian’s driveway and I get out, looking to the moon, and for some goddamn reason, I think about how maybe Luke’s looking at the same moon. We all see the same moon, but maybe he’s looking at the moon and thinking of me as well.
I wish my life was different. Maybe then, I would be able to talk to Luke without feeling embarrassed about everything.
I wish I could feel sexy and confident, but I feel like the Beast in the Disney movie.
But the more I think about Beauty and the Beast, Belle loved the beast no matter what. The looks didn't matter, it was all about who he really was. I wonder if Luke likes who I really am.