Sarah Bell

Fourced Love

I got up from the table right as they entered the room. I tried to leave but my dad grabbed my arm. I looked at his arm. The muscle he had built up over the years.

“Will you excuse us for a second?” He waited for no reply and pulled me into my room. I was too tired to protest, and I wanted to know what he had to say to me. It was probably going to be about Nathan. He let my arm go and I sat on the couch. I waited it took him a while; I think he was actually thinking about his words before he said them for once.

“Now you see I made a deal with Nathan, and well you don’t need to know details. But anyways his half of it was, I sort-of might have told him that, you liked him, and you would date him.”

I opened my mouth to scream all the reasons why I didn’t want to date his creepy friends, but I shut my mouth and let my dad finish. I stuck with my glare, what can I say I had a few years to master it.

“Willingly. Meaning you have to at least act like you love him, and you can’t make it seem like it’s forced.” He inhaled, “Will you do tis for me please?”

Who was this man and what had he done with my father? “So you mean like sit next to each other and stuff? There are no love notes and no more football?” I raised my eyebrows at him.

“Well…” my dad paced, “I may have told him he could sleep here, with you tonight.” And then he quickly added, “But I reminded him of your age, and there shouldn’t be any trouble otherwise the deal is off.” He gave me a smile. It was shaky and in need of some work.

“What’s in it for me?”

“You get a boyfriend,” Seeing that I wasn’t buying it, “And I’ll send you and your sister to school?” He said loosing confidence as he tapered off.

I pretended to think about and then shook my head no. I know my dad was trying so very hard and I felt bad pushing him like this but I really didn’t want to date Nathan, he was old and creepy. Then I knew I had pushed him too far. He came charging at me pushing me back into the couch. He pinned me down, and wrapped his hand around my throat. I struggled against him, but he had the size, strength, and weight advantage here.

“You will do what I ask of you not because you want to but because I am your father and what I say goes! Your mother would have never allowed for you to behave this way. So will you behave like a good girl?”

I tried to nod, I had no other choice being that every last bit of my lungs were filled up with air that I could neither exhale or inhale. I swung at his arms barely hitting them trying to signal to him to get off. He let go and I nodded.

“If your good enough I’ll still let you two go to school.”

He pulled me up off the bed, “Back to the kitchen and it wouldn’t kill you to try and smile.” I smiled at him there but it wasn’t a nice one.

I stood in the middle of the room and watched him leave. I sighed and slowly joined the others who had moved to the porch again. I quickly found Nathan and sat down next to him. He gave me a smile and wrapped his arm around me. I thought about how all his friends had been here all day, and we were running low on beer so they must go home sometime soon. Except for Nathan. I wondered if we were ever going to go over to any of their houses, see what kind of a rat’s nest they lived in.

I was right; they talked on the porch for about an hour and then they all departed. Sarah was inside probably sleeping when they all left, lucky her.

Nathan followed us back into the house. By the time they did leave I was cold, hated Nathan even more, and was sick of cigarette smoke. I think I liked it better when dad wasn’t around.

That made me wonder why did he want to be so social all of a sudden, something had changed.

Dad turned the TV on and crashed onto the couch his feet up on the coffee table. Nathan grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the arm chair.

“You know I’m really tired can I go get my Pjs and make sure Sarah’s asleep before joining you?” I added a fake smile for effect.

“Sure babe, hurry back.”

“Take her to her own room.” My dad called.

I turned and rolled my eyes. When I entered our room she was sitting on the bed reading.

“Hey girly.” I said.

“Hi.”

“Dad’s letting Nathan sleep over tonight so you’re going to have to sleep in your own room.” There was no use in sugar coating it. She was worse off closer to dad then I was.

She shook her head. “NO.”

“You don’t want dad to come in here please just do this one thing for me.” I grabbed my Pjs. “Just this one night. Please?”

“Only if you do a monster check.”

“I promise.”

I changed before leaving the room. I held her hand in one hand and her teddy bear in the other and we walked down the hall to her room.

I found the sheets in the closet and then made the bed. Her room was bare, the dresser and book shelf were moved into my room and there was nothing on the walls.

“Where are the monster suppose to hide in here?” I joked slidding her under the covers.

She looked at me with her puppy dog face. I checked the closet it was empty except for the couple spiders I crushed with a tissue.

“None in here.” I opened the doors for her to see then shut them again.

I cleared the bed and behind the door too. I knew where the monster hide and it wasn’t in this room it was in the one next to it.

“You have your bear, and I’m right down the hall just call if you need me. Okay?” I bent over and kissed her on the forehead.

“Will you stay with me?”

“ummmmm,” I glanced back at the door. “Yes.” My sister was much better company than Nathan.

I laid down on top of the sheets and brought her into my arms. Her bed was only a twin whereas mine was a queen so it was much more crowed. I brushed her hair and sang her our song and she was asleep in no time.

I slowly got up and kissed her one more time before leaving the room.

“What took you so long?” My dad barked.

“She wanted me to stay with her until she fell asleep.”

Dad looked mad and sat forward about to stand up and charge at me.

“You look so cute in your Pjs and its sweet how you take care of your sister like that.”

Nathans comment made my dad at ease and he fell back onto the couch again. He then patted his leg, there wasn’t enough room for two of us in the arm chair. I walked over there anyway and tried to sit down in front of him. He grabbed me on the way down and I sat on his lap.

“I can tell you’re tired you can sleep out here if you want.”

I looked at him puzzled.

“Come on babe, your dad is here so I can’t do anything and I will carry you to bed later.” He gave a smile.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my head in his chest. I would much rather have done this than suffer another one of dads beatings. Sleep quickly overcame me and I slipped into a more perfect world.