Girls

7. Lovesick

****Jane's POV****

"Liv...." I sighed, but she ignored me. She was punching the shit out of the punching bag in front of her, and she had been since she'd gotten home about 30 minutes prior. She was clearly upset about something but, like usual, she hadn't directly told me what she was upset about.

"Margaret, what's wrong?" I asked. She stopped once she heard me call her by her middle name, then she took a couple of deep breaths before turning towards me.

"He hurt her." Olivia stated, making me scrunch my face up in confusion.

"Who hurt who?" I questioned.

"Mariah's father....he hurt her last night." Olivia answered.

"Wh-what? What happened?" I worriedly asked.

"Her folks invited a man from church over for dinner.....they want Mariah to marry him. Jane, the man is 38 years old...." Olivia sadly said, making me frown. As much of a traditional, nosy, pushy Italian mother Ma is, I could never imagine her trying to push me into marrying a man that was twice—almost three times—my own age.

"Geez...."

"She's told them she's not interested, but she says that they ignore her and continue to push her."

"Is that why her pop hurt her?" I asked, and she shook her head.

"Her mom noticed that she was wearing my school baseball hoodie, a-and her dad apparently went apeshit on her because he took the hoodie to mean she was seeing a boy! She said he started yelling about how she's ruining her chances of marrying a-and that she needed to stop seeing 'him'—even though 'him' is me, and Mariah and I aren't even dating—and start focusing on learning to submit to a church man." Olivia explained.

"Gross, what in the 17th century hell is that shit supposed to mean? Work on submitting to a man?! Disgusting." I scoffed.

"It is disgusting, and apparently Mariah told him off after he scolded her for 'talking back to men as if she were their equal'. She said that she cussed at him, then he slapped the shit outta her and made her go up to his bedroom." Olivia frowned, followed by biting her lip.

"What happened then?"

"After the dinner guest left, he beat the shit outta her with a belt. I mean, it's one thing to whoop your kid, but he went overboard! That's why she wasn't at school today.....her cheek is bruised from when he slapped her, a-and he whipped her so badly with the belt that she has welt marks all over her legs and back." Olivia said.

"I text her during study block when she never showed up to the orchestra room closet, and she explained that she wasn't at school because of what happened last night with her dad. I begged her to let me see her, so she FaceTimed me and....she showed me the welts and the bruise. I was so pissed for the rest of the day, a-and I knew I had to blow some steam off after school let out....so I decided to walk to calm down. That's why I wouldn't ride the school bus home with you and Frankie today. I decided to walk back here from the school." she continued explaining, and I nervously bit the inside of my cheek.

"Do you think he hurts her on a regular basis?" I nearly whispered and she shook her head.

"I don't think so. I mean, she doesn't wear makeup because she isn't allowed to....and I've never seen markings on her skin until today. I-I think he was unusually angry with her last night, and that this doesn't usually happen." she answered.

"It still doesn't make what he did right, though." I sighed.

"I know, I know....it's fucked up! Ughh, I just wanna kill him for hurting Mariah!" Olivia angrily shouted, followed by punching the bag again.