He slapped me across the face, hard.
"Blake! That hurt!" I shouted, tears in my eyes.
"Say you're sorry"
"I'm sorry!"
"You're sorry what?!" He pulled his fist back, threatening to give me a second black eye.
"Daddy!! I'm sorry daddy!" He made me call him 'Daddy' whenever I did something wrong that he made me apologize for.
"You better be. You're going to be good while I'm away, right?" I nodded, "Good, I'll see you when I get back." and his car sped away.
I couldn't believe that I was free, well, not totally, but for now. Blake's family was going to live in Seattle with his sick aunt and that meant that he wouldn't be returning until next fall, and that was the best news I could have asked for.
I ran to Joey's house, my hat covering the bruise and black eye. Joey's mother answered the door, "Hello sweetheart," she said with a smile, "Joey's in his room."
"Thank you Mrs. Richter." I gave her a warm smile and went up to Joey's room.
He was too busy singing along to Blink-182's "Miss You" to notice me. I jumped on his bed and sang with him, since that was my favorite song of all time. He turned off the music and pulled me down and we started to play-wrestle. I pinned him down and my hat fell off, exposing my bruises.
"He did this, didn't he?" Joey asked, his face contorting from the happy laughter-filled expression it was almost 100% of the time to one filled with anger toward Blake, and a passionate concern for my safety, all I could do was nod, and he pulled me close to him, and I buried my face into his chest and sobbed.
This had become the only place I was safe anymore, in the arms of this sweet, baby-faced 16 year old. But strangely, I never wanted to move every time he held me close like this.
I spent a good 15 minutes venting, and Joey hung on to every word that came out of my mouth, for he was genuinely concerned. But when I was done, he did what he always did, and pinned me down and started tickling my sides.
"Joey!!" I shouted in delight, laughing, "You're such a weirdo!" he stopped tickling me, flashing me that huge, adorable crooked-jawed smile that made me feel butterflies in my stomach each and every time he smiled.
"Let me make some popcorn and get some ice for your eye. You pick out a movie, okay?" He said, pecking me on the cheek, which caused me to blush like crazy.
"Okie dokie!!" I said, and when he came back, I was standing there with the goofiest grin on my face, holding up our favorite movie, 'Mean Girls'.
"Awesome! That movie is so fetch!" He said, smiling proudly.
"Shut up, Joey!! 'fetch' is never going to happen!!" I said with fake anger in my voice.
After we were both done laughing at our own stupidity, I put the movie in, sat in Joey's lap, snuggled into him, and we sat there, scarfing down obscene amounts of popcorn while having a nice, relaxing movie day.
