Strong Enough 2

Chapter 17

Tai's POV

I'm walking as fast as I can, trying to get Mya to my house. I'm still trying to process what just happened moments ago. I can't believe what her father did to her, and judging by the look on her and her mom's face, I'm guessing this is the first time he's truly physically harmed Mya. It pisses me off that he hurt her. I'm definitely not letting her go back. I can't.

I gave Mya my jacket to wrap around her arm. It was bleeding really badly, so I had to do something to stop it. I'm holding her as tight as I can. She's quiet but my heart breaks as soon as I hear her sniff. I look down at her. Her cheeks are covered in tears and there's a wet spot on the front of my shirt.

"I'm sorry," she sniffs, looking up at me with dark, glossy eyes. "Baby it's okay," I tell her. She holds me tighter and rests her head on my chest again. She continues to sob quietly, unaware of how bad my chest is aching seeing her like this.

We finally arrive at my house. My mom helps Mya clean her arm properly, so it won't get infected. I hold on to her as she winces from the pain. My mom wraps up her arm and heads off to work.

Mya goes to take a shower. Luckily, I have some of her clothes here, so she has something to change into. I always tell her to leave some clothes here just in case she spends the night.

She walks into my room with her favorite leggings on and one of my shirts. She sits crisscrossed on my bed, staring down at her hands in her lap. I walk over to her and lift her chin. My eyes meet her now red and glossy ones. A tear rolls down her cheek.

"It's gonna be okay," I assure her while pulling her onto my lap.

"No it's not," she starts. "It's never okay."

"How long has he been that way?" I ask. She sighs. "For as long as I can remember." She pauses and rests her back against me.

"I don't remember him being abusive like this when I was really young. I just remember him not really being around. He was always working. Then all of a sudden, my mom started to get bruises and scratches all the time. I asked her about them, but she always made up some kind of excuse for it, like she cut herself cooking or she fell. I believed her at first until I saw it happen...." She trails off. I wipe her cheek before she starts again.

"One day, I came home from school and I was looking for her. I wanted to show her the picture I drew that day in class. We had to draw our families and I wanted her to hang it up like she did all my other pictures, but when I got to her room, I heard yelling. I went to see what was wrong, and right when I walked in, I saw him slap her. He looked straight at me with fiery eyes and flared nostrils. I was scared and I ran up to my room. Tré saw him do it another time and told me about it. We didn't know what to do and every time my dad came home drunk, my mom sent us to our rooms."

"Does anyone outside your family know?" I ask.

"No. Only you," she tells me.

"Really?"

"Yeah. All my friends think I have a great family. It's mostly because my dad pretends to be a decent person when people come over. I've spent years pretending like I was happy when I was really going through hell. That is.....until I met you." I can feel my heart swell as the words leave her lips. "Even though things are still bad.....I have you here to make me smile....and it's actually a real smile."

I look straight into those dark brown eyes that I love so much. I pull her body to mine and lay back. She lays her head on my chest, listening to my heart beat.

I lay there thinking about how her childhood must've been. I think about a small innocent girl with big brown eyes and dark hair, sitting in the corner of her room with her hands covering her ears, crying her eyes out. I wish I could take those memories away or even make it so that none of it ever happened. I wish she could stay here with me, but I have a feeling that she'll want to go back for her mom.

After a while I hear her soft snoring. I lift her off of me and lay her next to me so I can look at her. I can tell that she's not sleeping peacefully. Her face is scrunched up and she's moving a lot. I touch her head and feel sweat on her face.

I decide to turn on the ceiling fan, lay next to her, and kiss her forehead. She seems to relax so I scoot closer to her. I feel her arm wrap around my torso as she pulls herself to me, burying her face into my chest again.

...

"No.....no..." I wake up to Mya repeating the word 'no' over and over, while shaking her head. Her movements are getting more and more violent. I sit up and try to shake her awake. She's burning up.

"Mya......Mya wake up." I'm panicking at this point. She won't wake up and I can tell that she's having trouble breathing. "Please wake up," I beg. She continues to toss and turn.

I keep shaking her and begging her to wake up until her eyes finally flutter open. She looks to me with wide eyes, confusion evident in her face.

"You okay?" I ask. She nods and stares blankly across the room.

I grab her hand and lead her out of the room and into the kitchen. I lift her onto the counter and get her a glass of water.

"Drink this," I say, handing her the glass. She drinks it slowly.

When she's done, I wrap my arms around her, resting my head on her shoulder. "What were you dreaming about?" I ask. She's silent for a while.

"I don't know," she says so softly that it comes out as a whisper. I rest my head on her again and wait for her breathing to return to normal.

She ends up falling asleep on the kitchen counter, so I carry her back to my room. She seems to be okay now, but I can't help but wonder what she was dreaming about.

I stand over the bed as she sleeps. She starts to reach on the other side of the bed. I assume that she's reaching for me so I lay down next to her. I kiss her and lay my head on her chest as I drift off.