Faye
"You're a worthless mistake," he growled, tightening his hold on my neck. My throat closed up and fat, salty tears rolled down my cheeks. I let out a strangled sob and silently begged for this to end. Just as my lungs were about to give up, he withdrew his hold and my small, weak ten year old body slumped to the floor. He brought his foot back and kicked my stomach with a force so hard I was slammed against the wall. He knew better than to cause any harm to my face in fear of anyone finding out about the horrors I endured.
A door opened and I could barely keep my eyes open to find out who it was.
"Stupid brat," a female voice sneered before I was kicked in the stomach once again. I welcomed the darkness as it consumed me, and their menacing cackling continued to taunt me as I blacked out.
I woke with a start, my chest rising and falling rapidly as I tried to steady my breathing. I blinked back the tears and swallowed the lump in my throat as I rolled over, checking the alarm clock. 3:08am. Lovely.
It was Friday which meant that I didn't have to work at the bakery today, although I did have a psychology class to attend at eleven. I huffed, getting out of bed and walking across the cold, hard floor. I knew I would never get any more sleep this morning and the truth was that I was scared of another dream, so I grabbed a cigarette along with my keys and made my way out of the apartment. Ella never came home last night and I wasn't expecting her until noon at the very earliest, so I locked the door and climbed the stairs to the roof.
I placed the cigarette in between my lips and sat on the very edge of the roof, observing the streets so far below. My legs hung off the ledge and I sat there, hour after hour with the unlit cigarette jammed between my teeth, listening to the drunk football fans singing their hearts out and the occasional police siren in the distance.
I could not lie to myself; it was bitterly cold and probably not too healthy to be sat on top of an eleven storey block of flats in some jogging bottoms and an old jumper. I couldn't really say I cared though.
I found myself wishing that I'd brought some music or a book up here, though I never actually went to retrieve one. I guess I wanted to stay alone for as long as possible; no civilisation, no harsh reality and no loud noises. Just lots of background noise and a peaceful scene. I looked up at the stars as my breath came out in white puffs, each gradually disappearing into the air.
It was 7:00am when I finally decided to leave the roof, and I was extremely surprised to see Ella sitting on the floor outside the door with her head in her hands. She looked up as I approached her.
"You know there's a no smoking policy in here, right?" she slurred. Great, she was still drunk.
"This cigarette is not lit." I answered, unlocking the door and helping her in. Ella always left both sets of keys at the apartment when she went out because she didn't trust herself with keys while she was drunk. Neither did I.
"So, why are you back so early?" I questioned once I had successfully placed Ella in her bed.
"Well I met this boy, oh my goodness Faye you wouldn't even believe how perfect this guy was. He had this hair and these eyes-"
"Did he have a nose and mouth too?" I chuckled, pulling Ella's shoes off and covering her with her duvet.
"YES!" Ella gasped, still very much intoxicated. "And he was being kind of mean and boring so I took him to the new nightclub but he didn't even stay for that long, he took a taxi home at one point and wouldn't let me go with him. He kind of killed my vibe so I just came back here." she finished her story with a large yawn.
"What was his name?" I asked, but she was already asleep.
I sauntered to the corner shop, not going anywhere in a hurry unlike the many people around me who were brushing quickly past me and speedwalking to their various destinations. I was sure most of them weren't even in a hurry; they probably just wanted to escape the cold October weather. I didn't mind the cold, though.
It was still only 8:00am. I realised earlier that Ella had finished my coco pops and after mentally cursing her for five minutes straight I had decided to get a few things from the corner shop just down the road.
"Hi, Billy." I waved to the owner as I walked into the small shop. He responded with a warm, friendly smile.
"Hiya, Faye."
I picked up a basket and walked straight to the back of the shop, finding the cheapest type of coco pops I could and loading them into my basket before going to find some crisps.
Without warning I rammed into someone's chest and my basket went flying as I fell onto the floor.
"I'm sorry! I'm really sorry, I wasn't looking!" the person bent down to pick up my coco pops while apologising profusely.
"It's fine," I chuckled, standing up and brushing myself off. I thanked the man as I took the cereal from his outstretched hand and looked at him properly for the first time. He had brown hair and eyes and a warm, contagious smile.
"I'm Liam." he told me, holding his hand out.
"Faye," I answered, shaking it.
Liam's eyes widened as he scanned my appearance and my eyebrows furrowed in confusion when he exclaimed, "You're Faye!" He turned around, looking over his shoulder at me. "See you later, Faye."
Well, that was weird.
I shrugged and shook it off, continuing on my way to find the crisps.
• • •
"Not so fast! I have to tell you about the assignment for this weekend!" The psychology professor stopped everyone as we stood up, ready to leave the class. "Sit down, please."
I was not happy that we had to stay, considering I'd just had to sit through an hour long lecture, nearly falling asleep every few minutes due to the lack of sleep I'd had this morning. The class reluctantly sat down, waiting for the assignment.
"A thousand words on the difference between physical and emotional abuse and the possible effect it may have on the victim." Mr Jones recited in a bored tone.
I was only vaguely aware of the other students leaving the hall, but I couldn't hear anything properly. It was like all sounds were changed into background noise and all of my senses seemed to shut down as my brain went into overdrive. Images of fists flying towards me and the sound of a little girl's scream flooded my mind, followed by the image of a teenage girl drinking her life away.
"Miss White, are you okay? Miss White!" I snapped back to reality to find Mr Jones standing in front of my table with a worried look on his face.
"What? Oh yeah, I'm fine," I spluttered, hastily grabbing my things and racing out of the room.
Tears blurred my vision as I sped through the halls and I wiped them away quickly. I burst through the door as soon as I reached it and sat down on a nearby bench, trying desperately to calm myself down. The other students walked around laughing and chatting, oblivious to the frightened girl just like everyone around me has always been.
