Forget It

The princess and the..... tickle monsters?

"Can you not?" I said as Asher started to make fun of my problem. I was trying to ask about how to deal with my fast pace feelings for Brayden. It was almost nine pm. So Brayden was in the shower.

"Just go with it. I trust him. He won't hurt you. And he obviously really likes you. If it gets to be too much, tell him. He'll understand. And if not I'll fix that." Asher said as he hugged me. I thought about it.

"Since when are you so smart?" I asked.

"Since always." He winked. "I just didn't want you to know. So I could plot against you evilly and you'd never know."

"And what are you plotting?" I asked. He smiled.

"THIS!!!!" He shouted before mercilessly tickling me. I shouted and screamed like a child through my laughter. Suddenly I was being lifted and carried bridal style to the couch. I looked up at Brayden and smiled. He frowned.

"What makes you think I'm helping you?" He grinned. I tried to get up but he pulled me onto his lap and started to tickle me. I got up and ran to my room, trying to close the door but Asher caught it. He grabbed me and sat on me so I couldn't run while he tickled me.

"Why are you ganging up on me?" I shouted through my laughter.

"I could say it's cause you have a cute laugh but I actually just want to be mean," Brayden said.

"What are you the tickle monsters?" I asked as Asher stopped tickling me.

"Sure," Brayden said smiling. I glared at him. "The royal tickle monsters. We only tickle torture the princess."

"Oh don't I feel privileged," I said standing up. The door bell rang and I ran downstairs to answer it. We had been expecting Dawn.

I opened the door and my smile disappeared. He was staring at me. Todd. He grabbed me and closed the door. I tried to get out of his grip but he easily carried me in a hurry to a van outside. He tossed me into a cage in the back of his van. Really a freaking cage? He ran to the front seat and started the van. He drove away as I saw Brayden and Asher run outside. Brayden ran to Asher's car and I watched him jump in before I couldn't see anymore. I felt the van swerve and heard the eerie sound of metal against metal. I tried to open the lock on the cage but it required a code.

"What kind of pet cage has a code lock on it?!" I shouted.

"Shut up!" Todd threw something that bounced off the cage. "Can't you see I'm busy trying to run your boyfriend into another car?!"

"Well don't do that and you won't be so busy," I said still working at the lock.

"You choose now to be a smart *ss?" He asked as he swerved. I slid to the left. I noticed an unopened straw on the floor. I reached my fingers through the cage and grabbed it. It was a little dirty. Now if I only had some paper.

I noticed the clipboard in the front seat. I hopped forward moving the cage. Todd looked back.

"Hey! What are you doing back there?" He shouted. I sat looking at him as he went back to driving. I scooted farther forward. "What are you doing?!"

"I..." I didn't answer and he hit the cage making me jump.

"Answer me!" He shouted.

"I just wanna see... I'm sorry uncle Toad," I called him uncle Toad as a child when we played by the pond. It came about because he had caught a toad and I said he was the toad king. That was before I moved in and everything went downhill.

"Don't. Call. Me. That." He choked after a minute. Was he trying not to cry?

"But I wanna see." I said getting a new idea. The original plan was to shoot spit balls at him until we wrecked. Now I was going to make him remember our old relationship. My best friend and uncle Toad. That was before he drank and I developed.

Much better plan than wrecking us.

"No," he sighed. I pouted.

"Okay," I sighed. I crossed my arms and waited. He sighed and picked up the cage one handed with a grunt.

"Happy?" He asked buckling the cage in. I sat with my legs crossed and held onto the cage looking for Brayden. "He's fine. I ran him into a ditch."

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Well your aunt and I split up. And it's your fault." He said hitting the cage again. I backed into the corner of the cage. "So I'm taking in a younger, better model."

"I don't even look like aunt carol."

"Don't even say her name!" He yelled hitting the cage again. I felt a tear roll down my cheek, he never had mood swings like this and that scared me. "Besides, I'm gonna make you look like her. I bought some hair dye and her perfume and make up and dresses she would wear."

He started sobbing. He abruptly stopped and hit the cage.

"It's your fault she's gone!" He yelled at me. The van swerved and we pulled up to a two story farmhouse, it looked old but still pretty. Something told me I was gonna hate the place.