Temptation

Chapter 20

"Am I not good enough to cuddle?"

I wake up to the sound of Nicola's voice over us. My arms are fully rapped around Kim. She's hugging my waist, her head buried into my neck while my chin rested on her head. Her thigh is resting in between my knees and I don't think I have ever felt this comfortable. I feel Kim's lips start to move against my neck before she starts to pull away, looking up to Nicola, her eyes squinting. I can tell by the look on Nicola's face that she doesn't like Kim's reaction.

"It's not as bad as it looks Kimberley." Kim slips out of the covers just as Nicola sits on the bed.

"What do you mean not as bad as it looks? You're all bruised up babe." Her voice is sympathetic and soft. I sit up and slide down next to Nicola. Her cheek is purple and below her left ear lay a fading wound. The same wound I saw on the bus not to long ago.

Her eyes are tired and I can tell she didn't get much sleep. I rest my hand on her back, rubbing my thumb against the bone of her spine. "Why didn't you come to us sooner?" Kim has calmness to her voice. A voice you can trust. She wasn’t asking just because she wanted to know, she was asking because she cared. 

Nic looks scared, but she continues to talk knowing that the truth had to come out.

"He threatened to come to you guys if I said anything." Her voice is soft, hesitant. Like if she was skeptical on whether she wants to tell her full story.

"You can't just keep something like this bottled up. He can't do anything anymore. He's not going to get to any of us Nic."

"How do you know Kim? I've lived in fear all these months. I've seen what he can do."

"We got away from him didn't we?" 

"But it's only a matter of time that he starts searching for us, he'll want his revenge. He won't let something like this go Cheryl. He's going to come after us both now. He has such a short temper and he's going to be furious when he sees all my stuff is gone." Tears start rolling down her cheeks and I can see it in her eyes, fear.

"He won't, we're leaving today and he's not going to find us. It's over Nicola; he's not going to hurt you anymore." I rub her back, reassuring her that we are here for her. But as soon as I lean in to grab her hand, she stands up from the bed and begins pacing the room.

"He going to kill us, he's never going to let this go, I've tried fighting back before and look where Its gotten me? I'm his little punching bag now. I’ve tried to defend my mum and he ends up unleashing all his anger out on me. I just want him to go away; I don't want to spend the rest of my life in fear Cheryl."

I can tell she's on the verdge of a breakdown and I quickly stand up, placing a hand on her shoulder and bringing her into a hug, rubbing her back and pushing her hair out of her face. "Nicola calm down babe." She buries her face in my shoulder and I can tell she is still shaken up.

"And my mom, she stopped caring. She doesn't even try to stop him. She’s usually too drunk to even care. She just leaves the room waiting for him to be done with me so that she can wash my blood of his clothes. She just wants his money and I hate her for that. How can she just look the other way when I'm bleeding half to death? " I feel tears escaping down my cheeks and I squeeze her tighter as her sobs get heavier. 

"Nicola, please come with us. We'll go far away from here, somewhere he could never find us. I'll call Sarah, Aiden, Jake and Tommy. We can all be together just like before remember? When we were kids." 

.....

She agreed with me after I made it clear to her that there wasn't any other choice. We all headed for Kim's car, deciding that it’s best if we ditched Nicolas car. I ended up giving the keys to some girl waiting at the bus stop with her baby. Her smile brought me joy and Kim gave her money for food seeing that she looked like she needed it.