Nina

Chapter One

Chapter One

Nina sat with one leg crossed over the other, carefully reading a teen magazine for the third time. Rolling her eyes at the glossy pictures of perfect women in bathing suits two sizes too small; she closed the magazine and entered the office she had dreaded for the past year. Seeing the same ‘doctor’ she’d seen every Tuesday at 4:30pm to sit and say nothing when all she wanted to do was say something.

She allowed herself a seat in the corner of the room where the only ‘visitor’s chair’ sat just begging to be rested upon. Nina fixed her floral printed dress by pulling it over her bruised knees, and fixing the old school collar so her neck wasn’t visible. Her doctor stared at her pale blue eyes and tapped his pen on his pad of paper before smiling a sick smile and taking a seat on the corner of his desk.

"So Nina, how was the past week for you?" No answer. "Anything bother you this week?" Nina looked to her feet, oblivious to the fact that this man was a professional when it came to human behavior. She shook her head in shame and continued to pull her dress down to cover herself. "Nina, I’ve told you a dozen times, I’m only here to help you. I’m here to help you through your problems." Yet again the doctor was ignored. He sighed and faked a small smile before moving himself to the table in front of Nina.

"He hit me again." This was progress, seeing as the only words Nina had said in her therapy sessions were, "I’m being forced here," and "I’m normal and have no issues so don’t expect any sob stories."

"I’m sorry to hear that Nina, now who is ‘he’" Nina ran her fingers through her hair and started to shake her head slowly; usually by this time Nina would be having a freak out, which included excessive hair pulling and screaming for thirty seconds at a time, but the last few sessions had actually gotten her to calm down about things. "Nina, I can’t help if I don’t know."

"You’ll tell the police." Nina grabbed at her dress again, reached up to pull her hair, but stopped herself and forced her hand back to the arm of the chair; curling her fingers around the edge, Nina tightened her grip as she was reassured no one would tell police, and no one would get in trouble. "Jo-J-J-Jordon!" She stuttered through her single regretted word then quickly covered her face and viciously tapped her forehead with the tips of her fingers.

"Why did he do that Nina? What happened?" Nina had now successfully pulled her semi-long brown hair out of its bun and into a mess around her face. Nervously, she bit her lower lip, which had already been beaten and battered from its history of being bitten, then proceeded to tell her story.

"I-I told him. I told him I-I was leaving." She stopped to look out the window as if she was being watched. "Said I was going to live with my mum," slowly, Nina started to rock in her chair. The rocking calmed her down and she started to speak faster in her poorly hidden American accent, "when I was packing my things he pushed me against the wall." She then curled her finger to her mouth and bit on her knuckle, "he screamed at me and told me to put my things back in their place. I did as he said and after, when I thought I’d gotten out of a beating, he hit me on the back of the head and just started hitting me." Nina re-adjusted in her seat so she was now sitting cross-legged on the chair with her hands in her lap. "He pinned my legs down with his knees and punched me continuously." Without a word Nina’s doctor inched closer and placed and large, warm, hand on hers and let a single tear fall. "He-he started to choke me." That’s when Nina reached up and gently stroked her own neck with her long pale fingers. "He only stopped because George, the store owner, knocked on the door."