𝐀 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐬 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦

10

Mariah Miller

"You want some coffee or hot chocolate?" Zach's tall figure stood in front of me, his hand on my cheek as we made eye contact.

"H-Hot chocolate is fine" He nodded and walked off.

I stayed home from school today after what happened yesterday. I've been ignoring Destiny and I try my best to distract myself from the thoughts of Jessie grabbing me and using that strong tone that made me flinch every time I thought about it.

"Here, you need a napkin too?" I shook my head no and watched him sit next to me on his bed.

"You seem off baby, are you okay?"

"Y-Yes I'm fine"

Was he able to see something was wrong with me? I didn't think it was that obvious.

All of a sudden he sat up and moved my hair to the side. I gave him a confused look and a look of worry flashed across his face.

"Mariah I need you to be honest with me"

He never used my real name.

"A-About what? I told you I'm fine"

He sighed and moved my hair from my other shoulder too.

"There are bruises on your shoulder's, where did they come from?"

My eyes widened in shock. Bruises. I didn't know he left bruises. "What do you mean?"

He grabbed my hand and helped me off the bed walking me over to his full-body mirror. The purple and blue bruises were prominent on my shoulders.

Tears welled in my eyes and I wanted to cry but I couldn't cry in front of him, I would feel stupid.

"I'm only trying to help. Please talk to me" He sat back in his bed and patted next to him for me to sit.

And I did just that.

"I-I y-you're gonna be mad at me"

"Please, I could never be mad at you. Especially if someone's hurting you. What type of person would I be?"

"He yelled at me a-and grabbed me-"

"He? A man?" His voice hardened but I didn't understand why he was getting mad at me.

"Don't get mad at me!" I couldn't help but cry anymore and just let the tears fall. I felt so embarrassed, so stupid to cry in front of someone, especially him.

"I'm not mad at you"

Warm fingers pressed on the bottom of my chin forcing me to look at him. I could tell he was upset.

"Mariah, who did this to you?" I sighed knowing he wouldn't give up until I told him, it's not like he knew who the person was anyways though.

"D-Destiny's boyfriend..." I could only look down in nervousness and embarrassment. This was so embarrassing.

"Louder baby, I can't hear you"

"Destiny's boyfriend"

"Now who is Destiny?"

"She's my friend"

All of a sudden the bed sunk next to me indicating he had sat down, and his warm fingers were against my face moving it towards him again. Eye contact.

"Why did he do that? That isn't nice you know. I don't like that another man is putting his hands on you, nobody in this world should be putting their hands on you at all. No matter what the excuse is"

"Because he's m-mean! I always tell Destiny that but she doesn't think so. He said I-I always have an attitude toward him because I don't like him"

His thumb caressed my cheeks wiping away my tears, my humiliating tears.

"You know something baby?" his hand went to the other side of my face wiping the tears there too.

"W-What?" I sniffled, grabbing my pocket-sized tissue packet out of my mini backpack.

"I want to hurt that guy, really, really badly" his voice was so calm as if he didn't even mind saying that.

Before I could react, he grabbed my hand that was resting on my lap, interlocking my cold fingers with his warm ones.

"That guy shouldn't see another day after leaving those scary bruises on you" what was he getting at?

"Don't hurt him Zach" he let out a sigh and gently ran his thumb across the bruises on my right shoulder, but not enough pressure to hurt me.

"You're right I shouldn't do that. If I went to jail I wouldn't be able to see you again, hmm?" I smiled.

"But, if he hurts you again I want to know. You shouldn't keep these things to yourself"

He pulled his pack of cigarettes out, and I couldn't help but read the bold print. 'Parliaments'. I thought maybe one day I could buy him a pack as a gift.

Who are you kidding Mariah? You're only 16.