Lock-In

Fifteen

Someone had turned the air conditioning on or something because it became really cold. Alec looked like he was freezing while I was fine. It usually was really cold in my room.

"I'm going to die of hypothermia," he complained wrapping his arms around himself.

"Oh quit being a big baby," I deadpanned. It was 1:13 in the morning now and Alec was digging through Dylan's gym locker for something while I was leaning on the wall next to him.

"I don't get how you're not freezing," he murmurs pulling a folded piece of fabric out of Dylan's locker.

"What's that?" I asked, watching as he sat on a bench. 

"A blanket," he replies wrapping the thin blanket around himself in attempt to warm up, "It's still too cold,"

"I'm not even going to question why Dylan has a blanket in his locker," I mutter and walk over to Alec.

"You're warm," Alec comments when I sit next to him.

"Yeah, it's called my body heat," I state dully. 

"I know. I'm not entirely stupid," he says in a voice toddlers use when they're made.

A yawn escapes my lips after a minute or two. What? It's one in the morning, really late compared to my seven o'clock bedtime. No, my parents didn't make my bedtime, I did it myself when I started high school.

"You're tired?" Alec looks at me with wide eyes.

"Yeah, it's really late. Or should I say early?" I reply rubbing my eyes.

"I could stay up all night and not be tired..." he brags. He flexes his muscles and kisses them.

"Compared to me. That one person who goes to sleep earlier than a grandma," I mutter with yawn. Next to me, Alec yawns.

"Great, you're spreading your...tiredness," he groans with a pout.

"Sorry?" I shrug. I move to another bench nearby and curl up on it. I watch as Alec lays back on the bench I just left and goes to sleep soundly on it. Before I know, I follow him into the deeps of slumber.

FLASHBACK

"You're a worthless bitch who thinks she owns the world," he spits backing me up in the corner.

"You think just because you refuse to open those pretty little legs, that people will just leave you alone,

"Well guess what? You're not being left alone this time," 

I've never seen this side of him. He walks to the kitchen, leaving me tied up in the living room. Never had I wanted Mom or Dad home. I still had hope that Justin would come. He's probably at the football game wondering, "Where's Juju and Zac?"

I would wondering the same thing if I were him. We were supposed to be there an hour ago. 

"Here we go," Zac mutters under his breath, coming back to me. In his hand, a kitchen knife. 

"No, Zac, please," I beg but it's useless. This wasn't the first time he's done this. Try to sleep with me, but he would fail since I wouldn't even kiss him. I don't even like him like that anymore, I couldn't betray my sister like that. 

I have a number of marks and cuts on me from Zac. He would punch, kick, and cut me where it hurts. I've started cowering away from the boys at my school thinking they would do the same thing. 

"Shut up slut," he growls and slashes my arm with the knife. I whimper trying to get away from his, but can't since, well, I'm tied to a chair. 

"Zac...please..." I beg again as he slides the knife down my arm, cutting deep.

"Want me to stop?" he tilts his head with an amused smile.

"Please," I whimper. He pulls the knife away and walks to the kitchen before coming back with a canister of salt.

"You should've just let me pleasure you," He grins and dumps the salt on the open wound. I hiss in pain as a tear falls from my face.

"Why?" I whisper. Loud footprints are heard from the other side of the front door. 

"Oh shut up," he snaps as he cuts me free from the chair and pushes it up to the table.

"Juniper? Zac?" Justin's voice called as he walked into the house. 

"Justin, help. She's bleeding," Zac calls back. He does this every time he gets close to being caught. Pretends I hurt myself.

"Oh god," Justin's eyes widen when he approaches us, "Zac, head to the football game, we'll meet you there," 

"Sure man," Zac says leaving the house, giving me a wink. It's his way of saying, "Don't you dare tell him,"

Justin helps me to the bathroom where he starts to clean the wound. He's getting good at this.

"What'd he do this time?" he asks in anger. It makes my flinch.

"W-what d-do you mean?" I stutter. I haven't told anyone but Savannah about Zac.

"I know Zac's beating you. You've never hurt yourself so much before. Plus, who puts salt in their wounds?" He questions. I thought he was going to stop after that but he surprises me, "I've seen how you started acting around the male gender. Your afraid of them. Every single time we leave you alone with Zac, you get hurt. Why is he doing this?"

"H-he w-wants sex," I whisper just low enough for Justin to hear. That makes him even madder as he goes back to bandaging my cut.

"That sadistic, son of a-"

"JUNIPER!" a voice rings into my ear before Justin could finish. My eyes open to Alec's face looking me with...worry?

"Huh?" I breath out.

"You were crying," he comments wiping a tear off my face.

"I had a bad dream," 

"A nightmare is what they call it," he corrects. He's standing next to me, hovering over my face, with the blanket wrapped around him. 

Me, being daring for once, decide to pull his arm. I bring him next to me on the bench and he lays down willingly. Carefully, I take the blanket and put it on top of both of us, then wrap my arms around him, so we were spooning. I was the big spoon and he was the little spoon.

"Funny, I'm actually comfy like this," he notes. He takes one of my hands and intertwines our fingers together.

"I've never actually cuddled with someone," I mutter while staring at our hands.

"Really?" he asks in shock.

"Yeah," I reply closing my eyes.

"Go back to sleep Juniper," Alec says softly and I do. This time, I don't had a memory about Zac or my past. But a dream of beautiful things.

+{}+

Yeah, I know it's lame, but I feel like it's necessary. I got an email from @Maliaaa_Graceee asking about something, and I hope you could fit the puzzle pieces. There's clues about Zac in places and stuff like that, I can't tell you.

Guess what Team Fate Writers made? A website. Granted, it's not good, but it's not horrible either. And I would like to be the first person to announce it. Link will be in my description. Find my page along with the other authors involved in the team.

NioJam