She's So Sweet

Tulips?

Daisy

The following two weeks after staying over at Paige's were long. Dad had come home the following day and was completely drunk. The trip he had gone away for did not go over well. The job he was hoping to be hired for declined him.

The minute I had heard the door open and slam shut from my room, I knew it wasn't good. I had tried my best to stay quiet upstairs in my room, but it was no use. The drunk man had made his way up the stairs and beat me till I was unable to even cry. I had just laid there. Waiting for it all to be over.

The smell of his breath, full of the sour smell of alcohol and cigarettes. He had placed the butt of his burning cigarette onto my exposed leg, burning small dots into my thigh. He's never done that before.

I wanted to leave. To get up and get out of this house. The house I can't even call home anymore.

But I couldn't move. My body was in too much pain to move. I was frozen in my position, lying curled up on the floor clutching my stomach.

I had fallen asleep there, on the cold, hard surface of my bedroom floor.

And then I got up the next morning. Acting as if my body wasn't in excruciating pain. As if I didn't feel like I would fall over at any minute.

Work was terrible. It hurt to breathe, to walk, to do anything. But what was worse was having to put on a smile infront of Paige when she would walk into the bakery or when we had a class together.

For the past two weeks she had been coming into the bakery almost every other day. Of course it was nice, I enjoyed her company. But trying to play it off that I was okay was difficult. And I could see that my lying wasn't as good as I had hoped.

I wouldn't let her touch me. Anywhere she would touch there would be a bruise. I couldn't run the risk of her accidentally hurting me. I could tell that her feelings were becoming to be hurt.

So I had caved. I let her hug me. Her arms were tight around my waist, she pressed against the many bruises littered all over my body. But I held in the sounds of discomfort that so badly wanted to escape.

After a few weeks the bruises had started to fade, but the emotional pain was still present.

How could my own father be doing this to me? I was still his daughter.

I had also begun to wonder if Paige had forgotten about the date she said she would take me on. At first I thought she was waiting for the right time, but then the over thinking took over my head. I had began to think she just didn't want to go out with me anymore.

So the hope and excitement had started to die down.

That was until today. When I was cleaning the counter and few tables spread out in the bakery, I heard the bell jingle, sounding that someone had walked in.

I started greeting the person before I had looked up to actually see who was there. But when I look up my sentence becomes stuck in my throat.

There, standing in the entrance of the bakery, is Paige. Holding a large bouquet of pink tulips and a teddy bear in her hands.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"Daisy, will you do me the honour of letting me take you out on a date this Saturday?" She says, walking until she was a foot away from me.