Forever and Always, In my heart

Chapter 9:

Ch. 9

We finally just went up to my room, that way Mike wouldn’t cause me to go off on him and Tim would be out of the way. “You can’t tell anyone.” I eyed David carefully. “Just pretend you didn’t see anything.”

He rolled over onto his stomach on my bed and looked down at me where I was lying on my floor, but with my feet up on my bed. “Peyton, why are you protecting him? He shouldn’t do that to you.”

“I just….he was drunk. He didn’t know what he was doing. I pushed him way too far. It was my fault.” I said and sat my notebook on the ground beside me. I sat up on my knees, facing my bed and leaned my arm on it and my chin on my arm, looking at David.

He ran his fingers through my hair, almost like he wasn’t even thinking about it. “How often does this happen?”

“It doesn’t matter. I push him way too far. Just drop it, okay?” I grabbed his hand and stopped him from touching my hair. “It’s none of your business.”

His look hardened, “Dammit Peyton, why are you being so difficult about this? One minute you are protecting him, the next minute you start to open up about it. Why won’t you just answer my question?”

I closed my eyes and sighed, trying to keep my temper under control. I opened my eyes back up and looking at him. “I know and I’m sorry. I just… I can’t, okay? Not right now. I appreciate you trying to be my knight in shining armor, but I’ve got this. I’m not afraid of him. He’s never hurt me worse than a few bruises. It’s my fault anyway; I just get mouthy with him.”

“That’s the thing; it’s not your fault! This kind of thing is never anyone’s fault. No one asks to be abused.” He said. “Why won’t you open up to me?”

I rolled my eyes, “I don’t know. I...I guess I’m scared you’ll tell someone and I don’t want to make my mom unhappy.”

“That’s the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard.” He said. “And you’re right. If he lays another hand on you, I will tell someone.”

“NO!” I yelled and looked at him wide eyed. “Don’t. Please. That will just make things worse. It won’t help.”

“But Peyton…”

“No.” I interrupted him firmly. “End of story. This is why I didn’t want to invite you over here. I was afraid you’d see something like that.”

Thankfully I was saved by my mom, who actually came home early today. “Dinners ready!” Except I hadn’t even noticed it got that late already.

I stood up, “Come on, let’s go get some dinner.” I got up and walked to my door, making sure my sleeves were still pulled down. I didn’t need mom seeing them. I already put concealer on my face earlier.

For once we all ate at the dining room table. If I had to guess, it was because David was over and it was another one of those ‘showy’ things. Tim wanted it to seem like we really were a happy family and got along even though there was no convincing David. Tim sat at the head of the table, to his left was David and to his right was Mike. Mom was at the opposite head of the table, and I was next to David.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could tell he was tense. He didn’t like sitting so close to Tim but he insisted on sitting there, keeping me away from him. Mom was talking David’s ear off, letting me be to my thoughts. Why was I covering for Tim? I didn’t understand it. I also didn’t know why I wouldn’t open up to David. All he was doing was trying to be nice. Trying to make sure I was okay but I just kept shutting him out. That’s all I did was shut people out except Ally and Jules; well, unless it came to not telling them about Tim.