Carlisia took a deep breath as she slid into the passenger seat of Ruben’s car, a Corolla. Ruben was already seated in the driver’s seat and Elijah in the back texting away on his cell phone.
She had spent the last three days in bed, doing nothing but thinking of stuff that didn’t make sense. Dinners had been awkward with mostly her and her mom alone at home while the guys did whatever.
She blamed the awkwardness to the conversation she and her mom had prior to her going out for a walk without telling her mother, for which she got a pretty good scolding which lasted an hour about how ‘dangerous’ it was and the ‘world isn’t a safe place’. But then she was the one who was at home while Ruben and Elijah did God knows what throughout the night.
Carlisia had finally let go about that entire stupid dream or whatever it was because it was making her go crazy. If she was going to find out anything it would be with her sanity.
“You seem awfully quite Carly. Actually you seem a bit off. Everything okay?” Ruben asks concentrating on the road, bringing Carlisia from her trance.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” She replies not looking at him in the eye.
She was never much of a good liar.
“You and Maria seem a bit distant. I was wondering if you want to talk about it.” He asks and Carlisia shakes her head, still looking out of her window.
“It’s nothing.” She replies.
Even though she wanted to talk about it but it was fair enough. They kept her shut off and now they wanted in. It doesn’t work like that. At least not with her.
“You know you can tell us anything right?” Elijah butts in and Carlisia looks down at her lap.
“You don’t tell me anything. These sort of things don’t work single sided.” She replies finally.
“I don’t understand what you are trying to say.” He says sounding confused.
She noticed the car had come to a halt and they were in the parking lot of the school. Nonetheless she raised her head up high facing both of them.
“You guys are gone every night including Ben. No one tells me where you go. I went out for a walk on Monday evening without telling mom and she freaked out when I got home, lecturing me about how dangerous it is, while you guys are gone for so long. I know you guys have secrets and I’m okay with that but for the last couple of days I feel like a liability on all of you. This was the very reason I didn’t want to come here. But I am forced to suck it up because my dad is eight feet in the ground rotting away and Sydney is miles from here and I can’t do anything until I’m a legal adult. So, you want to keep your secrets and I want to get my life back.” Carlisia replies softly, her eyes already going red from holding the tears.
She didn’t let them fall but the she still felt pain inside her heart. She took a deep breath when neither of them said anything and smiled.
“God, were already late. Come on. Let’s get to class.” She says examining the parking lot that was full with cars but not a single student in sight.
The weather was still cloudy and not a single ray of sunshine was to be seen. She was happy that she had decided to dress up a bit warmer than usual.
“Carly-” Elijah begins to say but she shakes her head.
“Come on. Were already late. I’m sorry for talking to you guys like that. It was very rude of me.” She replies and gets out of the Corolla the wind hitting her face.
She felt eyes n her but ignored it as Ruben and Elijah got out making their way to the school entrance, with Carlisia following.
Suddenly she heard the zing of her cell phone vibrating and she stopped dead in her tracks taking it out.
“You coming?” Ruben asks her and she nods.
“Yeah in a moment.” She replies as the boys enter the school leaving her out there.
Carlisia smiles with triumph as she finally finds her cell phone and looks at the text from Zane. She quickly opens it and reads the text.
‘Hey Carly bear. Wanna tell you something very important. I’ll call you after school. :*’
Carlisia looked at it and was about to text a reply when suddenly a hand grabbed her shoulder. Out of instinct she was about to scream but a hand was securely clamped over her mouth, muffling any noise she was to produce. The ground underneath her feet vanished as she was dragged backwards to God knows where, the heel of her feet making contact to the gravel as she struggled.
“Mmh!” She screamed but the voice was silenced as the clouds loudly roared and she was dragged into an alley by the school.
No later she was whirled around the person slamming her into the wall, pinning her with his body while she feebly struggled.
Tears began to cloud her vision as the person grabbed her hands pinning them above her head while his other hand remained on her mouth.
Carlisia finally looks at the person to see their face in a black hoodie, hiding their features besides their eyes which shined a bright yellow, causing Carlisia to stop breathing.
“Aren’t you pretty.” The person whispers in a daze and Carlisia sobs screaming into the person’s hand.
“Shhh.” The person says nuzzling his face into her neck as he begins to leave butterfly kisses. Carlisia sobbed even more at the violation and screamed when the person tightened their grip.
“Hey. Its okay. I’m not going to hurt you. Now I will take my hand off of your mouth and if you scream I will knock you out cold. Clear?” The voice whispers and Carlisia nods as the man slowly removes his gloved hand from her mouth.
“Good girl.” He whispers pecking the girl at the corner of her mouth as she sealed her lips trying to keep in the sob.
“P-please let me go.” Carlisia whispers as more tears fall down her face, thinking of the possibilities this situation can lead.
“I’ve wanted you for days and now I have you. I’m never going to let you go.” The guy whispers and Carlisia sobs looking down, her chest heaving up and down with every sob.
“What do you want from me?” She said sobbing hoping that her assaulter would let her go. She struggled to get him off of her but her petite frame was no match for him.
“I'm claiming what’s mine little mate. You are mine.” He replied as he pushed her harder into the wall nuzzling his face into her neck kissing it, while the poor human girl cried.
“P-Please” She said and the guy brought his mouth to her jaw kissing it.
Carlisia could feel him harden against her, making her more disgusted. Suddenly the guy growls and attacks her lips viciously kissing her while she screamed.
His hand made its way inside her shirt rubbing circles on her stomach causing her to sob louder. The guy forced his tongue into her mouth exploring it while Carlisia began to feel light headed her asthma kicking in.
The hand inside her shirt began to go down nipping at her jeans causing her to scream one more time with all she had before finally the guy was off of her.
She took deep breaths as she slid down the wall sobbing while someone knelt down to her.
“Hey. I go you. I got you. You’re okay. Everything will be fine. Just calm down. Okay? Can you do that? Calm down.” She recognized the soft voice to be Elijah’s as he tried to calm her down but it didn’t work.
She held on to him sobbing into his shirt trying to breathe.
She could hear arguing at the other end and recognized one of the voice to be Ruben’s but nonetheless she managed to calm down.
“That’s a good girl.” Elijah cooed just as Carlisia’s breathing became even.
“Come on lets get you out of here.” Elijah says helping her up giving a fleeting look at the argument Ruben was having with the Alpha and neither of them looked happy about it.
“B-but what about s-school?” She asks and Elijah laughs.
“We’ll skip and no one has to know about it.” He says causing her to smile as he helps her into the passenger seat of the car.
No later Ruben joins them in the driver’s seat slamming his hands on the steering wheel before taking deep breaths and turning to Carlisia.
“You okay?” He asks and she nods. Her eyes still red and blotchy from the crying and her throat soar.
“Come on let’s get going. You want to get ice cream?” Ruben asks her and Carlisia quickly nods even though she wasn’t in the mood for it but she had to move on from this.
Ruben smiles at her reply and starts the car when the back door opens and someone gets in.
“Elijah messaged me you guys were skipping school. I’m in.” David says and Ruben face palms himself glaring at Elijah from the rearview mirror, who sheepishly looked back.
“You just cant miss the opportunity can you?” Ruben asks David who replies with a ‘Nope’ popping the p.
“Well it nice to see you too Carly- what happened to you?” David asked as he looked at Carlisia’s blotchy eyes and Elijah pinches him.
“This and that.” Carlisia shrugs. She didn’t want to talk about it.
David still looks at her worried when Elijah announces,
“To the ice cream shop!” And with that the four of them made their way to the ice cream shop, then to the arcade, then to get pizza.
Currently the three of them were sitting on the couch with Maria and Ben towering over them, extremely angry.
A little birdie had told them that they had skipped school and from the likes of it their parents were’nt that happy.
“What were the three of you thinking!? I expected this behavior from Elijah but Carlisia and Ruben you too?” Her mother said to them and the three of them looked down at the ground.
Not regretting a thing because of the fun they had had.
“Hey-” Elijah begins to say but Ben gives him a warning glare.
“Not one word lad.” He warns
“And Ruben you are the oldest here you could have at least tried to talk them out of it.” Her mom says and Ruben looks up.
“It was Elijah’s idea.” He says childishly and Ben face palms himself.
“I don’t care whose idea it was. The point is you three are grounded for a week.” Her mom says and Ben butts in.
“Oh Maria stop giving the poor girl a hard time. The two of them talked her into it.” Ben says and gives Carlisia a double thumbs up as her mother quickly turns to him glaring at him.
“I don’t care. The point is they all skipped. Now go to your rooms and finish your homework and if anyone of you step even a single toe out of line I would-Uhh!” She says and storms away angry and Ben shrugs.
“At least I tried.” He says and Ruben glares at him.
“Yeah you did.” He says sarcastically and Ben leaves them there.
“Come on. Let’s play mine craft in my room.” Elijah says and I look at him.
“What about homework?” Carlisia asks and Ruben chuckles.
“Its nothing. Maria wont remember it in a few seconds. Come on lets play minecraft!” Ruben says as they follow an excited Elijah into his room .
The first thing Carlisia notices about Elijah’s room was the numerous posters that covered his walls along with many pictures of him and his friends.
Most of the posters were of games, which explained that he was a gamer.
The second thing she noticed was the color royal blue.
Everything besides the posters was royal blue. The walls, the bed spread, the bean bags. Everything.
“Bet you like blue.” Carlisia says as she makes her way to the bean bags infront of the large flat screen TV.
“I wonder how you guessed.” Elijah says sarcastically and Carlisia fake smiles at him before chucking a nearby pillow at his head while Ruben grabbed a controller.
“Come on! Stop it you two. I already had an enough lecture today about how I wasn’t responsible enough.” Ruben says rolling his eyes.
Suddenly Carlisia’s phone begins to ring and she looks at the ID to be Zane.
She had completely forgotten about the important thing he wanted to tell her but who can blame her after what happened this morning.
“Hey Zane.” She says and doesn’t hear a reply for a few minutes.
“Zane? You alright?” Carlisia asks getting worried and notices that Elijah and Ruben were looking at her with curiosity but she ignored them. Its not like the talk was private or anything.
“Yeah. I’m fine.” Zane finally replies and she could sense the nervous edge in his voice.
“You’re lying to me.” She replies concentrating at the sound of his breathing on the other side.
“Carly. I want to tell you something important but promise me you won’t get angry.” Zane says and Carlisia furrows her eyebrows.
“Did you get a girl pregnant?” She asks but he laughs at the other end.
“No! God Carly you always find a way to make me laugh. But that’s not it.” He says but the nervousness in his voice didn’t vanish.
“Then what is it? God, Zane you’re scaring me.” She says getting up from the bean bag and begins pacing the room, the game long forgotten as Ruben and Elijah stared at her with interest.
“Carlisia you remember how I used to come over to your house, when we were young and your dad told us stories about his trips and missions?” Zane asks
“Yeah. What does this has to do with anything?” She asks her heart beat increases. She was getting a bad feeling about this.
“He fascinated me so much Lis. I wanted to follow in his footsteps. Be a hero. Just like him. I gave a test last year for the army. I didn’t told you because I didn’t Want you to be scared but I failed it.” He says and Carlisia’s heart stops.
“W-why are you telling me this now?” She whispers already knowing where the conversation was going. She felt tears filling her eyes and her hand shaking.
“I got a call yesterday. They said I got accepted. I’m leaving Carlisia-” Zane says.
“No. No! You cant do this-” She whispers as tears falling down her eyes.
“Carly please try to understand. It’s been my dream-” He says and Carlisia cuts him off.
“It been your dream? Your dream to die! To die in gruesome ways with bullets piercing every inch of your skin!” Carlisia said as she sobbed.
“It would be an honor to die for my country!” Zane counters back equally loudly.
“Did you think of your family? Your baby brother? Me? Did you think of us even one bit before making this decision?! Everyone in the army dies! Everyone gets killed. You saw how I lived my life when dad used to be gone! Do you want that for your family? Do you want that for your brother who’s only twelve! You want to torture them like that. You want me to go through that pain again? Huh? Do you want them to sit in front of the TV every single hour of the day watching all those soldiers die begging God, that’s not you like I used too with dad. Do you want your family to breakdown and die slowly as bullets fired killing everyone one by one! Do you want them to hug there cell phone’s praying that you might call, now or a second later because you don’t want to waste a moment without hearing your voice. Would all of that be an honor to you too?!-”
“SHUT UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP! I’d die happily knowing I saved lives! That I contributed in keeping my country free. I called, so you can grasp the fact that I am leaving not so you can be Bitch about it! You either respect my choices or you don’t. It was your dad that was in that battlefield and your whining because he wasn’t there to keep you company. Can you get any low than that? I thought you were better than those slutty disgusting girls at school but you know what get to terms with this and stop being a bloody fucking tramp about it!”
Zane screams at her cutting her desperate soft whispers off mid way. She felt broken. Every word he said pierced her heart.
Is this what he thought of their years of friendship? Is this it?
Carlisia takes a shaky breath.
“It’s nice to know that’s what you think of me. That was your opinion of our years of friendship. I guess congratulations then. I hope you stay happy. I’m sorry for being a ‘bloody fucking tramp’ for being depressed after dad died. I’m sorry for starving myself, for self harming but I am most sorry for wishing that like other teenagers I had the privilege of having a dad who would have a normal job, come home and ask me about my day, ground me for going to stupid parties and at the end of the day being safe in his room, knowing that e would be right there when I wake up. But to you wishing that means ‘being bloody fucking tramp’ and ‘ a desperate bitch’. And I’m sorry for trying to drown myself last year because of it. So yeah. I wont ever warn you that your friends and family might go through this pain. Your brother might go through what I did because then he would be a ‘bloody fucking tramp’ and ‘ a desperate bitch’ right? It was nice knowing you Zane.”
“Carlisia I’m sorr-” He begins to say but Carlisia cut the call as silent sobs racked through her body. She couldn’t take it anymore. How could he?
She felt used and degraded. She had never said such words in her life nor had she imagined her best friend calling her that. But she guessed they weren’t friends after all.
I mean, you don’t say words like that to your friends, friends that turn into siblings over the years.
That’s when she noticed that the boys were looking at her with sympathy and Ben was standing at the doorway. Her mom nowhere at sight.
