"If you truly wish to be with me, know this..." He whispers into the darkness while holding me, "I will control you, command you and tell you what to do." I remember how my eyes burst wide open and I tried to pull free. I completely freaked out. Who...
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The talk with mum didn't go as I had planned. She got furious and rushed out the door the next morning leaving me to deal with my sisters. Aron spent the day with us and left late afternoon when his dad came to pick him up. My mum had not come back by then. She did not own a mobile phone yet, so there was no way for me to contact her. I had not heard from Pia and I sure as hell were not going to be the one calling after her. Also I wanted to keep the phone line open, in case anyone tried to call. We did not have a phone that made a noise if there was another call on the line.
School was not starting for another week and I had to admit I was not keen on going back. Everything that had been good had turned to shit. I didn't want to deal with the consequences.
It was a little before my sisters bedtime when I heard the door and mum walking in. She just walked in, sat down next to me on the couch and said,
"He will not touch you. He will not speak to you. He will not even look at you."
"What did you do?" I ask and she just sits there, staring forward on a wall of all things.
"Mum, what the fuck did you do?" I raise my voice and she suckles her teeth before answering,
"Spoke with your father. He knows Matt's father and mother pretty well. I had to tell him everything I knew, alright? He might come to you and ask, just so you know."
"Mum! Why?"
"No more questions. He just will make sure Matt will no longer be an issue."
Up to this day I am not sure what happened. We started school and Matt showed for a week then stopped coming. No one had any idea and I sure as hell did not say what my mother had done. However how could I, when I did not really know anything?
The winter was cold and felt like it went on for years. It was so cold that the students did not have to go outside on recess unless they so wanted. No athletics classes outside, no skating, no skiing. Everything was done indoors. I worked. I went to school. I worked and went to school again. I had a routine down, except... Something, or well someone was missing.
Aron, he started to pull back from me; less obviously than Jonah did back in the day but suddenly he might've missed a call in the evening to say good night even though he promised or suddenly did not show up to his volleyball training. I didn't want to push him but one day at school he did not speak to me the whole day.
I was fed up with being ignored, if he didn't want to be with me; why stuck around right? It was coming towards the spring and all I wanted was to have a great summer with my boyfriend. I confronted him one afternoon after school, right before he was about to rush out.
"Aron?!" I shout his name and he freezes for a second before turning to me. His smile is sad.
"Hi hon."
"I need to speak with you."
"I'll call you tonight."
"Like the other night when you said you would but didn't?" Aron rubs his forehead and swears. He walks up to me and shakes his head,
"I..." I can see he struggles to say what he has in his mind at that point and I just throw my hands up in the air.
"Come to me when you find your words." And I rush through the doors. Not only was he going to be missing his bus but I was late for work. He had just finished some detention and I had waited for him, for nothing it seems. I didn't want to wait around any longer for him to find his tongue. He didn't try to stop me and in fact he did not call that evening.
We had a winter break from school in February, a full week off. Aron showed up to our doorstep that week, I can't remember which week day it was. He stood at the door and was leaning on the doorframe completely wasted. It was daytime and for sure not a weekend, that is what I remember.
He stumbles inside and sits down on the armchair we have next to our home phone. I lean against the wall and watch him. He hangs his head nearly between his knees and sounds like he is weeping. I was furious and shocked.
"What is wrong with you?" I ask and see mum looking from the doorway to the kitchen. She looks at him and then me,
"Shout if you need me." I nod at and turn back to Aron.
"I..." I cross my arms in front of me and he lifts his eyes to me. He is crying, absolutely soaking in tears.
"I won't be coming here for my senior year. My father got a job in the city and they are pulling me out of school here." I slowly slide down onto the floor and try to let the news sink in.
He was leaving?
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