New Romantics

Chapter 1

Chapter 1: A punch in the gut

February 13th, 2020

...

Cold. Amelia felt cold.

The brunette girl reached out her hand for something, anything to hold. Nothing but the cold and depressingly white sheets could soothe her. Her eyes flutter awake, she hadn't gotten any sleep tonight. The clock on her bedside read 3:13 in the morning and all she wanted to do was feel the warmth of her husband.

No matter how much she truly despised him, she wanted him. She wanted warmth. Even if it came from the hand that had nearly smacked her to death a few hours prior.

She accepted that she wasn't going to get any sleep tonight, so she slowly sat up, looking around her plainly decorated bedroom. Joseph had insisted on her keeping things as plain as possible in the apartment. "The more modern, the better", he'd say. She personally wanted at least a sprinkle of vintage paintings and artwork, but she couldn't get more than a word out before he talked over her.

As long as he was happy.

She found herself thinking that a lot. She thought those words every day at least three times in the past seven years. Seven years of marriage. Seven years of getting smacked if she brought up how she bought the penthouse. Seven years of being yelled at for small things. Seven years of hating the smell of beer and a combination of cigarettes. She hated men with alcohol.

She was happy, sometimes. Happy when she could see her friends, Selena and Gigi. She was happy when she went to work. Though, work was a bit depressing at times when she'd stare at herself in the mirror before doing a shoot. She hated her body, every little inch of it. From her D-cup breasts she thought were too small, To her flat stomach that still looked pudgy to her, and all the way down to her legs, which she thought were also pudgy.

She was 5'4 and weighed a staggering 102 pounds to be exact. She wasn't the tallest model by any means, which was why she always tried to stick to photoshoots instead of runways. She hated her hair, how common it was to be brunette. She especially hated her eyes, brown. Brown was such a mediocre color to her.

Amelia slid onto the edge of the bed before standing, stretching her limbs in starfish synchronization. She walked over to her master bathroom and washed her face before putting her hair into a bun.

She looked at herself in the mirror and was numb to what she saw. She practiced smiling, anything to make her look more alive. She shrugged when she thought it looked convincing enough and walked out of the bathroom.

The bed was still empty, which was obvious. But every time she looked at it and thought about where her husband had gone for the night, she was reminded she just wouldn't know until she saw him.

Amelia found herself not caring much anymore if Joseph was coming home or not. Around seven last night, she had made him a special pre Valentine's Day dinner. She spent hours making all his favorite foods from scratch. Joseph comes home from work, wearing his suit and briefcase in hand.

He takes one glance at the messy kitchen before walking up to Amelia, slapping her across the face, and yelling at her to clean up the mess. He didn't even give a whit about her dress she wore to impress him or the food she lay on the table just mere minutes ago.