Playing With Power

Worried Sick

In the morning I headed over to my mom's house, hoping to avoid the interrogation about where I was, who I'd been with, blah blah blah.... I was 27, and she still thought I was 16... Thank God she was on the phone.

I gathered up Rolly's bag and toys and got his jacket on him, helping him zip it. Mom was motioning for me to wait, but I pointed to my wrist, shrugged, and picked up my kid. She let out a sigh and waved to me as we left.

"Did you have fun with Gramma?" I asked as I strapped my three year old in his car seat. He was so tall already. His sperm donor was over 6' tall so I figured he'd be ginormous and tower over me by 10.

He nodded, playing with Yoshi. "Yeah! We we went to the...to the... the..." I raised my eyebrow at him, waiting for him to find words. He was smart as a whip for three, but sometimes his brain worked at ten times the speed of his mouth and he couldn't find the words. ".....gross tree 'tore!"

"Oooo!" I said, kissing his blonde head and making sure his straps were secure before closing his door and getting in driver seat of my Civic. "Did you get anything good?"

"Pwunes..."

I cracked up. "Gramma took you all the way to Giant for prunes? Nothing else?" It was hilarious, since my mother didn't eat prunes. But he liked stories so I always let him tell away.

"Uh huh! The little ones! That have chocolate!"

I furrowed my eyebrows at him in the mirror, trying to figure out just what the hell he was talking about until it hit me and I laughed again. "Raisins, Rolly. Gramma got raisins."

"Oh. Dey look like pwunes."

I shook my head and let it go. My kid was crazy.

I pulled into our parking spot and shut the car off, heaving a soft sigh before getting out. I went around to the passenger side to get Rolland out. As soon as his little feet hit the ground he was running for the door

"Rolland!" I yelled, grabbing his bag. "Damnit...." I muttered to myself and ran after him.

He was bouncing by the door by the time I got there and I unlocked it. He bolted inside, running around, creating a horrible mess, but I didn't mind. He was a hyper little thing and if I let him get it out, he'd sleep for me later. So I let him run.

"Val!" I called dumping my stuff on the counter. I hung my keys on the hook and started to get Rolland unpacked. "Val?"

Normally she was bouncing out to greet us, but no sign of her this morning. I figured she'd just had a long night and was sleeping it off. She hadn't had sex with anyone since Matt, so if she got laid, she needed it.

I cleaned and got laundry together while Rolland watched the retro Ninja Turtles on my DVDs. I still hadn't heard from her so I walked up the small set of steps in our rented town house and knocked gently.

"Vallie?" I asked quietly. Nothing. I quietly opened the door and peeked in. Her bed was empty.

Instantly my heart sank. I hurried to my purse and grabbed my phone, trying to find TJ's number as I paced the kitchen.

I was getting ready to hit send on the message, asking if he had heard from Noam when I heard the key in the lock. Instantly I exhaled in relief.

The door opened and Val came in, quickly closing it behind her. 

"Val!" I hurried over and hugged her. She winced a little and hugged back. I noticed and pulled back. "Val?"

"Not here," she said, looking at Rolland. She fluffed his blond curls and he just grinned up at her from watching Turtles-the old ones that I tracked down on DVD, not that new CG shit that Nikelodeon shows.

She nodded for me to follow her back to her bedroom. I closed the door and she started to just strip. When she bent to pick up her pajamas from the floor, I gasped.

The back of her legs and her ass were deep purple in color, like she'd been beaten with a lead pipe.

It made me sick. How any man could hit a woman and still think he was a man was beyond me. Hell, how any woman could hit a man and think it was okay was beyond me-and yet.... I watched WWE...

"He beat you??"

She was quiet for a while. "I let him."

I blinked. Was she for real? "I'm sorry, you let him?" The fuck...

She bit her lip some. "There was a contract and I can't really talk about it... but it wasn't in a mean way!"

Again. The fuck. Maybe it was so hard to wrap my head around because I'd been beaten on a regular basis by my slime-ball ex. I just could not imagine a woman enjoying being hit like that, or really anyway. It took me a decent amount of time to get out of that relationship. And by get out of I mean, Brett came while I was recovering from giving birth and he took one look at our tiny pink son, wrapped up and perfect, sneered, told me "Fuck you, stupid whore, you ruin everything," and left. I think he may have tried to kill me then if I'd been home. Thank God for hospitals. He did try two years later and left a nice scar on me and an epilepsy medical bracelet on both me and Rolland. Fucking prick. Sadly for him I'm resilient.

I digress.

I just stared at Val as she changed. "It's alright, really," she promised with a smile. "I kinda liked it."

I groaned. "This is some kinky BDSM shit...." I muttered. "Are you absolutely sure this was consensual?"

She nodded. "Yeah. He told me he has a safe word, but I didn't use it." She almost sounded proud of herself.

I just hugged her. "If you say so."

She did.