ᴀᴘʜʀᴏᴅɪᴛᴇ // $ᴜɪᴄɪᴅᴇʙᴏʏ$

Chapter Six

APHRODITE

I survived the first week in the house of Aristos Petrou. Every day was practically the same. I woke up, prepared breakfast, and then vanished into my room. Anytime I heard Aristos leave the house or go in his room, I did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, and prepared things for lunch and dinner. That was the easier part of the day.

I was doing his laundry for the first time when I noticed that one of his shirts was covered in blood. My hands started to shake like crazy. Now what? I thought. Is it his blood? Is he lying dead on the floor? Oh fuck, what if he's dead and his cousin kills me because he thinks that I murdered him? Stop! Stop, you're making things worse.

I found some courage and decided to knock on his bedroom door.

When he answered I asked him about the shirt. He yelled at me for twenty minutes straight. He yelled, barked like an angry dog, he smashed things against the wall and when I thought that he was done and I had gone back to my room, he walked in and roughly grabbed my neck. He held me so close that when he screamed angrily, he spat all over my face. Then he let me go, and I fell on my knees and cried. I cried and cleaned the mess he made all over the place.

"Look at that. Fuck!" He said and looked around. "Now I have to redecorate."

"I'm sorry." I sobbed quietly and wiped tears from my face.

"You should be. I said don't mess with my business. So, when you find blood on my shirt, just do the fucking laundry without asking about it." He turned, ready to go back in his room.

"I- I was just worried." I said in between sobs.

"Worried?" He stopped.

"If you were okay." I lifted the last piece of a broken vase.

He turned and watched me with surprise. "Hm." A deep grunt came from his throat and then he left.

So, laundry without asking- noted. And if he was dead, bleeding, choking on his own blood, so be it. The world doesn't need a man like him, primitive, fucking rude, angry asshole. You die? Fine by me.

◇◇◇

It was Friday evening when somebody knocked on the door. I watched Aristos' bedroom door for a while and when he didn't react, I decided to open it myself.

"Hello." A red-headed woman gave me a smile.

"Hi." I smiled back. "How can I help you?"

"Oh, I'm just here to pick up Ari. My name is Corrina."

"Nice to meet you, Corrina. I'm Aphrodite. Do you wanna come in?"

"Sure." She winked and entered. "Wow, you did some changes around here!" She looked around at the new décor that replaced what Aristos had destroyed.

Yes, the place is now a palace of fulsomeness, I thought but I didn't dare to say out loud. Aristos could come out of his room at any moment.

"Well, yeah. Aristos decided that it was time to make this place prettier, I guess."

"Bullshit. She made me break some things, so I needed to buy new stuff." Aristos appeared, a cigarette in his mouth, and his hair long, curly and untamed as usual.

I dropped my eyes and sighed.

"Don't be so hard on her, Ari. I bet she is doing her best." Corrina winked, and I slightly smiled.

"Well, considering the fact that she makes me angry all the time, she could try harder. Isn't that right, baby girl?" Aristos stepped beside me and spoke to me without looking at me.