Free me

Chapter 1

B E L L A

When I woke up I couldn't move. I could already feel the pain. My ribs were bruised without even having to look at them. I was able to look around and realized I was laying on the cold ground in my kitchen. The last thing I remember before blacking out was that my father was beating me because I didn't get him enough whiskey for him the night before. Being the only kid is extremely hard because it was just me and my father. My mother died less than a year after I was born. I try to block out most of my childhood because my father was never around and when he was he beat the shit out of me. I finally got off the floor and decided to go to my room and take a shower before going to school. I stripped down to just my underwear and bra and saw the new bruising forming where I had been hit the night before. I stared at myself in the mirror and tears started streaming down my face without me noticing. That's something that just happens and I don't know how or why but I never notice myself crying because god knows I wasn't allowed to cry in  front of my father because if I did he'd just give me another beating. Some nights I can hardly remember anymore.

After getting out of the long needed shower I got up and got ready to go to school. I enrolled into college to keep my time at home at minimal. I picked to major in business. My father ran a business and that's all I knew of it. I picked a dark brown sweater with a pair a black leggings and headed out. When i pulled up to the college i was 20 minutes early for my class and decided i was gonna go sit out in the library and read a book. Lately i've been reading the "did i mention" series. There were only a few people in the library but no one was sitting next to each other. I saw out of the corner of my eye a guy with dark brown hair walking by and sat down just across from me. I looked up and made eye contact with him and then focused back into my book. I could hear him pulling out papers and a book with the title being "Business 101." I looked up knowing that maybe we could be in the same class. He began looking through the papers and it looked like he was trying to find a certain chapter. "If you're in period 2, page 206." I whispered to the strange dark haired boy. "Thank you" he whispered back. Nothing much happened after that when I looked up to check the time it was time to go. As I started to pack up my things, so did the strange boy. I reached out my hand for him to shake "I'm Bella but you can call me Bell" I introduced myself. "Nathan or Nate" he replied as he took my hand. For some reason I couldn't get my hand out of his. His hands were soft and his touch was gentle.

I started walking to the class and noticed that Nate was walking not that far from me. I sat in my normal spot and pulled out my ipad and started to take notes as my professor was giving instructions. My class was three hours long with 30 minute breaks between each hour. During the first break I decided I needed to get up and walk around to stretch. Walking down the quiet halls was peaceful until I ran into a group of "troublemakers". Sometimes I wonder how they even got into this school. They are out getting into trouble more than actually being in class. I walked past them hoping that they wouldn't notice me and leave me alone. I made it halfway down the hall before getting a jerked back on my arm. "Well hello baby girl" one of the boys said. They all pushed me to the wall. Just the name baby girl made me want to gag. I hated the nickname baby girl. Being pushed to the wall caused the bruising from the night before hurt but i didn't show it. I closed my eyes not knowing what was gonna happen and then the pressure of their hands were gone. When I opened my eyes there stood Nate between me and the boys. "If i see you ever lay a hand on her or even look in her direction again i will kill you. Got it flee bags?" Nate yelled. They all shook their heads looking like they all just pissed themselves. "Now leave" he said with a cold tone. I looked into his eyes. "Thank you" I whispered. I gently put his hand on my face. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you?" he asked, concerned. I shook my head no. "From now on I'll walk you to every class and even during breaks. Let me see your phone" Nate demanded. I handed him my phone and watched him put his number in my contacts. Afterwards we walked back to class. He moved his things down from where he was sitting so he was sitting right next to me. After each break me and Nate would go walk around stretching our legs.

"You know I don't know much about you Nathan" I asked him as we were walking. "Well what would you like to know about me Bella?" he replied. "Well where are you from? What's your family like things like that." I asked him. "Well I was born a couple 100 miles away from here. My parents got married and we moved here for my fathers work. I have four brothers. Two younger and two older brothers. I have a big family who are all very close and caring."He explained some more about his family as I got lost in thought. "How about you?" Nate asked, pulling me out of thought. "It's just me and my father. My mom got sick when I was little so I didn't really know her. My father doesn't bring me around my family." After saying that I didn't say much, I just headed back to class. We were down to our final hour and pure boredom had finally hit me. As I wrote more and more notes it was finally time to go home. I looked at the clock and it was only two in the afternoon. I really didn't want to go home. Maybe I could stay here for a bit. Just the thought of going home made my stomach drop.

When I got home there were more cars in the driveway than just my father's. This meant that my father had some of his business friends over. "Fuck" is what i thought of internally. I walked into the house and there my father stood. "There's my beautiful daughter. Come come" he announced, waving his hands towards him and the group members. I was confused because just last night he was beating me and now he is being nice to me. I served them drink after drink. One of the group members who looked like he could be in his mid 40's was being too friendly. "Can I take her?" the man asked, looking at my father. My father nodded his head and the man grabbed my arm rushing me into one of the rooms in the house. Before I could realize what the hell was going on, the man threw me against the wall and started to place sloppy drunk kisses on my neck. I knew that if I fought this he would tell my father and that would equal another beating. So I let him do whatever. This hadn't been the first time someone has used my body.

The man got on top of me after demanding that I strip. I laid back as he forced himself inside of me. I didn't make any eye contact with the man as he continued to rape me. After he finished he got up and left me in the room by myself. Right there and then I knew that I needed to get myself out of here. As soon as I got to my room I locked the door and then ran to the bathroom to throw up. After throwing up whatever I had eaten earlier that day I grabbed the knife I hid under my bathroom cupboard, and started to slice my thighs and legs just so I could keep my mind busy and not thinking about what just happened to me. I crawled into the shower and just sat in the bottom while the water hit me. I knew I wasn't going to school for a couple days and needed to recover from this. I planned to just lock my bedroom and lay in my bed for a couple days.