Rose bed of lies

.27

Emma

His hands pinned me down.  My back against the wall for the second time today. Except for in this moment I was left wishing it were Zack holding me in once again. Is that Mad?

I stared into his dark cold eyes

"J..Jackson, what are you doing here?" stop stuttering. You sound weak. Just Smile and laugh, and he'll be kind

" what? I can't come to see my beautiful fiancé"
I stopped myself from cringing his words, I'm 17 I don't want to think about marriage. Especially not someone who's turning 23 soon

" you know we're not supposed to be seen in public yet"

"Yeah yeah, not until your 18th birthday"
He traced his finger around my chin and smiled,

"Speaking of your birthday, the annual rose masquerade ball. Will be extra special do you want to know why?"

The rose masquerade, my birthday party was always a huge ball. The entire town is invited too, I hate it, I barely know anyone. And I have to smile until my cheeks hurt from all the cameras being shoved in my face all night.

All I want for my birthday is for my mom to come back. Instead of what feels like Celebrating the day she died. I'd be much happier just to sit by her grave and cry.

"Why?"

"we'll be announcing our engagement"

No

"What No way! Why w...would we do that?"
Please be a sick joke

Before I could protest anymore, his hand came in contact with my skin, my head shot to the side.

I quickly moved my free hand to my cheek, to Comfort the now red fingerprints that slashed across my face.

I felt like crying, but how could I? I had been Through so much worse. A slightly painful slap could never bring tears to my eyes. So why now?

"Shh it's okay I'm sorry babydoll, I didn't mean to, it just really hurt my feelings that you seem so unhappy with our engagement"

He cupped one of his hands on my cheek and the others played with my hair. His words seemed so genuine, soft. I wanted to believe him.

I smiled at him.

" there we go you look so beautiful when you smile"

I craved the praise he would give me. it was rare but it made me feel special.

Jackson moved his hands down my waist and Frowned

"Jackson, what's wrong?"
I was saddened by this expression.

"Have you gained weight? My smile dropped, had I? For God's sake, this is all Zack's fault!

"I..no not that I..."
My voice faded away, the shame and guilt from breakfast this morning found me, just like that all of the praise he had given me vanished

Jackson began to open his mouth to say something. But was cut off by another voice

" it's everything Ok over here?"

Rachel, What was she doing here? Schools been out for 20 minutes.

" everything's great, though I was just about to leave, I'll see you soon beautiful"

Jackson's hands dropped from me as he turned on the heels and left, just as quickly as he came.

I let out of breath I didn't know I was holding in and Rachel walked over to me.

"Emma, are you okay? Who was that?"
I never thought I'd actually hear Rachel's voice laced with concern for me. I gently grabbed her hand.

"I'm wonderful! That was just my boyfriend" I beamed.

"Ohh alright, Man I was about to throw hands"
She said jokingly.

I let out a small laugh.

" anyways, is there a reason you're still here?"
I asked

" yes, actually, I wanted to talk to you"
She seemed serious so I nodded for her to continue.

"I know you said you to fix the cade problem, but how did you do it overnight?"

" don't you worry about that, All that matters now is that you're safe"

Rachel pulled me into a hug. Why is everybody so much taller than me. I'm practically on her boobs, she had really nice boobs.

"did you need a ride?" She asked

"That would be great"  I doubt Zack waited for me and if he did I need to keep my distance.

"Awesome!" She grabbed my hand and dragged me outside after walking through the large parking lot, we made it to an older car, it was A faded Burgundy. After getting settled in her car, she pulled out.

"Thank you so much for giving me a ride"

"No problem, I know you usually ride with Zack, but he was in a really bitchy mood earlier, I don't why"

I have a few ideas.

" isn't he always in a bad mood," I said sarcastically

" you're not wrong, but he can be a sweetheart, sometimes only sometimes." She laughed,

"How do you two know each other? If you don't mind me asking"

"You mean besides going to the same school?"
Rachel said jokingly

"Well, to be honest, my home life isn't exactly wonderful. When I had first come here, I wasn't used to the academic level, so I was failing and broke down into tears, but Zack happen to be around, he just kinda held me which I found weird because he was a stranger. but He made me feel safe, we became friends, he gave me the rundown of everyone in the school" she glanced over at me before continuing "then um later on we kind of became fuck buddies,  it's not like we'd actually date or anything we just help fill the void in Each other"

If I told Zack the truth would he care about me too?

" you guys care a lot about one another"
I said softly

" you could say that, but that's everyone in our group is, we're all fucked up so we stay together"

All of them are messed up? How.

"Yeah but at least you're conveniently super attractive" I joked

" you're not wrong I'm hot as fuck" she laughed

My phone pinged, I glanced down to see two new messages.

One from Zack and one from my father, obviously I opened Zacks first

"Where the fuck are you?!" holy snickerdoodle,
Was he looking for me?

No just ignore that for now, fathers A little more Important.

hey guys I hope you like this chapter