FIRE | H.S.

Chapter 19

   Leilani and I watched movies and shows she loves while we ate the snacks and the charcuterie board until we couldn't fit any more food into our stomachs. I applied a sheet mask on her face and massaged the serum with a rose quartz roller. I also gave her a manicure and pedicure and she loved every second. I couldn't paint her nails the colors she wanted because her school does not allow it but I found a pale pink shade that matched her nail bed and could go unnoticed.

   She changed into her pj's and I changed into mine, then we laid pillows and blankets on the floor in the living room and laid there while we watched even more movies until Leilani fell asleep. It was around two-thirty in the morning when she fell asleep and I covered her with a blanket and placed her teddy bears next to her. I got up and cleaned up the living room and kitchen, and washed the dishes we used. I clean the counters, the island, the coffee table and after turning off the lights, I go lay on the blankets next to Leilani and fall asleep.

   I'm sitting on my bed doing my homework, hoping fucking Clyde won't come into my room today. He and my mom fought yesterday and I could do nothing to drown the sound of my mother's screaming and Clyde's hand coming into contact with her skin. And of course, the occasional object smashing against the wall.

   After he was done with my mom, he came in here, pulled me out of bed, and slapped my face so hard I fell onto the floor. He then kicked me in the stomach until I was wheezing, pulled me up by my hair, and threw me against my bedside table.

   This morning my whole torso was full of purple bruises and I could barely move, but I still had to go to school. If I skipped school my mom would have slapped me some more and well... I'd rather save her the trouble. As I'm sitting on my bed, I can barely bend over my books and notebooks without feeling sharp pain shoot through my torso.

   My pencil falls and I lean over the bed to pick it up. "Fuck," I groan when the pain shoots through me.

   I hear Clyde's heavy boots walking down the hallway and I pray to whoever is listening that he doesn't come into my room. But of course, God doesn't exist and fucking Clyde opens my door. He steps inside and closes the door. I notice one he has one of his hands behind his back.

   Clyde walks towards my bed, pushes my notebooks aside, and sits. My whole body tenses. I can't breathe. I can't even feel the pain in my torso anymore. My hands shake and I want to kick him in the face and run as fast and as far as I can.

   "I bought your mom a rose bouquet," he says, bringing his arm forward. He's holding two roses. One white and one red. I look at the flowers, avoiding his eyes that are glued to my face. "Just to say sorry, y'know? She loved it." His shoulders shake as he chuckles and my stomach turns. "I had to bring you some flowers too, but it couldn't be a whole bouquet 'cause those shits are expensive. Plus, we don't want your mommy to know what is going on between us, do we?" he nudges my arm with his elbow and I flinch. "You gon' have to hide them from her."

   He places the red rose next to him and holds up the white one. "I saw this rose and thought of you, kid." I feel like my lungs are about to collapse. Please leave. "You used to be pure like this rose. Untainted, untouched. So virginal." He slowly closes his fist around the rose, crushing its petals. Killing it. "That all changed that one night when I turned you into a woman." He opens his hand and the rose falls to the floor, broken and withering by the second.

   He now holds up the red rose, then he touches its petals to my shoulder, sliding it down my arm all the way to my fingertips. My throat closes and I feel like my whole body shuts down. "You're not pure anymore." His voice gets deeper. "You are now tainted, like a red rose. You deserve this red rose. You'll deserve all the red roses if you keep being as good to me as you were that one night and the ones that followed. You'll deserve all the pretty red roses in the world if you keep being good and sweet to me, kid." He leaves the red rose sitting on my lap, then gets up and leaves my bedroom.