Sweet

Chapter Twelve: Gelato

Chapter Twelve: Gelato

    "Father no!" I screamed as he came closer to me. The brown, leather belt he had in his hand was raised high and aimed at me.

    "Oh my dear Pastel, you know you deserve this." He said, smiling coldly, inching towards me. I felt tears stream down my face as I realized I couldn't escape this.

    "F-father, I'm so sorry!" I apologized, my voice breaking and coming out in sobs. My father made a 'tsk' sound with his mouth and the belt came at me. I felt it connect with my cheek and the pain stung so much that I began to fade unconscious, seeing black around me. Father..why did you do this to me?

    I woke up in cold sweat. My eyes wide and mouth open. I ran my fingers through my blonde hair, that was dull this morning, as I tried to figure out exactly what that nightmare was. Why did it seem so real? Why did it seem like I went through that before?

    I shook my head, ridding myself of these thoughts. It was a depressing, scary dream that should never be thought of again. I plastered a smile on my face and started getting ready for school.

    As I was finally ready, I ran downstairs where I saw my mother making an early batch of gelato. She saw my face and instantly noticed something was wrong.

    "What's with that fake smile?" My mother asked me and I frowned. Then I shook my head and put on a real, small smile.   

    "It's nothing mom." I assured her. She didn't seem to believe me but let the subject go. She finished making the gelato a few minutes later and we headed out the backdoor. Gummy Bear was all freshly cleaned and I smiled at her beauty. We got in the car and drove off to school.

                        *******

    I arrived at school and was immediately embraced from behind. I turned my head and saw that it was Elijah. I smiled as I felt him kiss the back of my head.

    "Good morning, Pastel." He greeted me. I smiled and turned around, hugging him tightly to which he reciprocated. I heard a cough and turned to see who it was. It was Alice.

    "Well, you two are sure a lovey-dovey couple." She said awkwardly, fake chuckling a bit. I raised my eyebrow and I felt Elijah tense up. I looked up and saw that he was giving Alice a cold,hard glare.

    "Hey, what's wrong with you two?" I asked them, curious as what is going on between them. Elijah shrugged it off and Alice looked away from us. They both muttered "Nothing." and that upset me a bit.

    "Well, something is obviously going on between you two and I'm kind of hurt that you two refuse to share it with me." I exclaimed, backing away from Elijah in the process. Elijah frowned deeply and I saw that Alice was also looking sad.

    "It's because Alice and I-" Elijah began but was cut off by the school bell ringing. I glared at those two silently as they both sighed simultaneously. Saved by the bell, I guess.

                        *******

    Class was the usual, except we got a ton of homework in the first two classes. I cried at the thought of the homework taking over an hour to complete. High school sure is rough at times.

    I packed up my stuff and walked out the door, preparing to head to lunch. Alice looked surprised as I just walked past her, completely ignoring her. If she wasn't going to tell me what's up with her and Elijah, I'm not in the mood to talk to her.

    I can't say the same thing about Elijah though. I saw him outside, sitting near the tree that is currently losing it's leaves due to the season change, and a smile automatically appeared on my face. I approached him and he looked up from his phone, smiling once he saw it was me. He got up and hugged me tightly, I rested my face in the crook of his neck.

    "I'm sorry about what happened this morning." He apologized softly, still holding me in a tight embrace. I shook my head and kissed his neck softly.

    "I would say it's okay normally but I'm just so confused why you two would be acting like this." I replied and he immediately let me go. He sighed and looked deep into my eyes. He frowned and then he finally answered my question.

    "Me and Alice were fighting." After that sentence left his mouth, images went flashing through my mind.

    "Darling, you and your mother are such whores." The man who was sitting across from me announced. I saw my mother wince from his words and I frowned. I looked at the man directly and recognized the man as my father.

    "Father..that's not a nice word." I told him, frowning at his poor choice of words.

    "You, little seven year old girl, should know not to talk back to her own father." He snapped, his voice made me jump and I whimpered. He noticed this and burst out laughing.

    "Mary, collect the dishes and go wash them into the kitchen." My father ordered and my mother's eyes went wide. She looked like she was going to argue but did as she was told. She collected our plates and I saw tears falling from her eyes. My father then got up and made his way towards me. I felt my pants get wet and I realized I was terrified.

    He roughly grabbed my hair and pulled me up. I screamed at the pain and his fist connected with my nose. I screamed once again, crying at the horrible pain. He dropped me and I fell to the floor. Then, his foot connected with my stomach and I curled into a ball. The kicks kept coming and I felt one of my ribs break. Why did I deserve this so called love from my father?

    I came back to the present, Elijah watching me with wide eyes as tears were streaming down my face. My vision went blurry and everything went black, hearing Elijah's screams in the background.