Don't You Dare Tell Anyone Mr. Stevens

Welcome To The Great State Of Arizona

The air has completely left my lungs. My eyes fling wide open and I gasp for air. I sit up in my bed and look around hands around my throat. Finally I shut my eyes and lean against the headboard. It was just a dream. A dream of me drowning only to be brought out of the water by Marcus with strangling hands wrapped around my throat. I look towards the window and the light is white the way it is when its grey outside. It was going to rain I already knew. There's a knock on my door and I look over.

"Tess dear Ben and I are going for breakfast" I hear my mother say.

"Ya! They have pancakes!" I hear Ben say and then my mother's laughter soon to follow. Then the sound of feet hitting the hallway floor. I slip out of bed and get dressed. I grab my phone and I look at it. 12 missed calls. Ethan, Patty, Riley, St. Ignatius Private High School, and Immaculate Heart Elementary. I sigh and slip my phone into my pocket. If I were to call anyone now would be the perfect time to do so but I just can't.

I walk and find Mom helping Ben play with the pancake batter dispenser. She's laughing and he's smiling. I had never seen her act that way before so at peace with the world. She used to be like that before I remember. She wasn't always a horrible mother. Before the alcohol and Marcus and the drugs she was half decent. But I'll never forget the first time Marcus laid his hands on my mother. She looked so stricken with fear she couldn't even move. I'll never forget that day and I don't think I ever will.

Mom looks over and her smile is radiant with her bangs over her face.

"Good morning dear" she says and the corners of my mouth softly rise.

Ben giggling looks over. "I'm making pancakes" he says. I smile and rustle my fingers through his hair. "You're making a mess" I say.

"Oh let him live" mom says and I look at her. Her lips part and she takes in air. She looks down at Ben's head for a moment silent then puts him down. "Go find a table for us alright?' she says. Ben nods and he's on his way.

Mom looks at me concerned almost and I just look at her back.

"You want anything?' she finally asks and I shake my head.

"I'm not hungry" I say ready to take off. She turns and her eyes follow me.

"I don't expect you to understand" she says and i smile.

"You're right I don't" I snap. I look to the wall next to me and pull out a brochure. I loom at her.

"We're in Arizona?" I ask. She nods softly.

The room was warm and smelled like breakfast. The carpets were Parisian clean and groomed to perfection. The walls were light brown crème and warm colors while the chandelier hung and shone like a thousand bright stars. I smelled the tart of green apples and the sugar of sweet red ones. You heard the soft murmuring roar of quiet high society people eating their breakfast in fur slippers and silk chiffon robs and French lace. The news was on channel 9. At home we have NY1.

"I'm so glad I spent ex amount of days out of school to end up on the other side of the country looking for a dead beat loser we'll never see him again" I say. Hopefully. She shakes her head. "I wish you understood" she says.

"I understand clearly" I say and shove the brochure back into its spot on the wall. "You won't leave him not even for the sake of your own family" I say.

"You coward" I spit.

I hated Arizona nothing like New York I missed home. Everything always looked so deserted even in the city. Mom was wearing her white Dolce and Cabana dress with the matching white fur coat that you didn't put your arms in that you just had on your shoulders. She had the matching shoes bag with the metal chain and she was fixing her white leather gloves with the skin colored fur trimming.

"Now be on your best behavior we're in an extremely expensive restaurant" she says and the waiter opens the door for her and she smiles. I however do not. Ben was wearing and Armani suit and I was wearing Vintage Chanel. My hair was woven in an up do with curls pouring down all the sides. Ben's hair was a glossy color sliced back and combed off to the side. My arms secures around his shoulder and he looks at me. I smile even though I don't want to and I shouldn't have to but I feel like I must. Looking down at my dress I always seem to forget that we come from money. My mother's family owned their own company. It was a jewel company. I knew from one of my grandfather's many lectures over Skype about family history. My great, great, great, great, Grandfather and Grandmother started a their small little company in New York city and has grown into an international empire. Ever since my family has been born and raised with money. I don't know where exactly our family is from but I know that they have been in America as far back as the time of slavery.

I look down at my wrist and saw the family's precious jewel. It was made of rare diamonds found in the mines down in southern France when the company first started. My great, great, great, great grandfather had it had for his wife and it has been handed down to the eldest daughter in the family ever since. My mother is now an only child. I had two aunts and four uncles I never met. They all died. My mom was the eldest though. The second daughter candy drowned in the lake near the family estate in Georgia when she was 16, the third my uncle Carmichael died in a car accident when he was 27. My uncles Gideon and Silvestor died in a plane crash when Gideon was 35 and Silvestor was 32. Then my Aunt Jeanine and uncle Ryan were murdered in the country house upstate near the family winery. None of them ever had children. I had never met my grandparents before in real life. They lived in France. That's only because someone needs to keep track of that side of the world. I wish I'd met them. Maybe they'd take me away. They're extremely busy and I respect that because then again my grandparents were running the other side of the world. That is the company's part on the other side of the world. I remember the few times though we talked over Skype he always seemed so sad he and my grandmother couldn't be home in New York with us. Secretly I was too.

When we arrived at the table there was already someone sitting there. Mom smiled at him like she knew him. He had salt and pepper hair despite not being any older than his early or mid 40's. He had sharp features and a tense jaw. He was in a suit and seemed to be too stiff for my taste. Mom sits us down like soldiers and she talks to the man.

"Charles this is my daughter Tessanna Hope Chance. And my son Benjamin Andrew Chance" she says. I have a bile taste in my mouth. I hate my whole name it's so tacky. Especially when she says it all together. Tessanna Hope Chance. Maybe one day I'll get it legally changed to just Tess. Tess Chance. Plain and simple. But I wasn't plain and simple. I was an heiress to a jewel empire. You know I really never took the time to fully evaluate my entire true title. I like it. Mom used to take me on lots of sophisticated high society outings. All the time even now. They have just become very scarce in the past few months. Ever since Marcus returned before he left again. I knew a whole bunch of people. I used to be friends with someone that was going to one day inherit an oil fortune. People very in my mothers shining world. I was always glad to be apart of it. At least there I felt better. At least there I could concentrate on the walls drowned in diamonds not walls drowned in blood from cuts and beatings. I can't wait until I'm 18. I don't even care if I inherit my part of the fortune I just want out. I want to get out and leave and be free. Even now looking at Ben sitting like a little angel taking from a painting I still feel out of place. Like things couldn't possibly get worse and yet that's all things can get. Worse.

The man smiles with no teeth and nods. "Pleasure" he says. I smile and nod. When dinner's over Ben and I wait in the car again for an hour. It was warm out and the sky was black. They didn't talk about anything interesting during dinner. At least not that I heard. I wasn't paying attention. I was too busy trying to text under the table. It wasn't working though. I had no signal.

When we get back to the hotel I slide into my pajamas and under the covers. This is it I can finally call someone. But who> I had no idea whom to call first. I wish the universe would send some kind of sign. I couldn't choose couldn't decide; I wish I didn't have too. But it's now or never. If I don't call now who knows when's the next time I'll have the privacy to do so. I type in Ethan's number even though I was secretly praying another incoming call would come in. And it did.