Red

17

"What am I going to do with you?" Van exclaims. He raises his arms as he spoke. "Do you know how stupid that was? Do you even listen to anything I have been saying?" No wonder why he took us so far away; he was yelling. He paces back and forth, kicking the dirt with his bare feet.

"Van," I squeak. I sounded weak and scared, but I don't think he cares. He looks me in the eyes with his eyebrows knitted together in frustration as he waits for me to speak. My lips quiver as I open my mouth to speak. I manage to stutter out a quiet "sorry."

"Sorry," Van scoffs. He shakes his head and goes back to pacing around back and forth. "You can't just say sorry and act like it's okay, Tris. That's not how it works. I do these things to protect you. That's why you need to ask me for permission before you do something. You're too young to know how to live out here without some guidance."

I squeeze Van's sweatshirt with my hands, trying my best not to completely break down. "I...I kn-know," I say, sniffling. I wrap my arms around my knees and hide my face from Van. I could tell I was going to cry.

"No you don't," I hear Van say. "I you knew, you wouldn't have done these things without asking." His voice gets closer to me. "Let me see your leg," he demands. I peak my head out of my arms. He was sitting down next to me and looking at me. His jaw was clenched meaning he was still just as angry.

He picks up a rock from the ground and tosses it at one of the bigger rocks, kind of like the one we were sitting on. "I'm not asking you again, Tris," Van says in a low voice. "Give me your leg. I need to look at it."

My body shakes as I adjust myself on the rocks, lifting my leg up for Van to see. He grabs my leg and holds it down over his lap. I wince at his tight grip his calloused hands had on my ankle. He pushed my sweatpants up to my lower thigh and he leaves his hand there as he looks at my cut.

"Why would you go into the water with this?" He shakes his head while asking. His grip on my ankle and thigh gets tighter as he gets angrier.

"I-I'm sorry," I whimper. His grip loosens just a little bit. I think he realized he was hurting me a little.

"That's not an answer to my question," he says, sounding annoyed. "Quit it with the 'I'm sorry.'" It sounded like he was clenching his teeth.

"I thought... it looked better...today," I say, my voice trailing off at the end, knowing how stupid that sounded.

"Well, it doesn't matter if it looks better," Van shakes his head. "Just because it looks better doesn't mean it's healed, do you understand?"

I nod my head.

"Use your words, Tris," he says.

"I u-understand," I say. I feel my cheeks warm up. I'm 17, I should know better by now.

"This is exactly why you need me to take care of you. You're gonna hurt yourself," Van shakes his head. He takes a better look at my leg and laughs. "I seriously can't believe you'd go in the water with a leg lookin like this."

I don't say anything. I didn't know what to say that wouldn't make him lash out again. "How am I even supposed to punish you for this, Tris? What do I need to do to make you listen to me?" His voice has lowered to only slightly above his average speaking voice, but it was still harsher than I would have liked.

He waits for an answer, but I don't say anything. I don't want any punishment at all. The sound of birds chirping and the wind blowing the palm tree leaves becomes quite loud as Van finally stopped talking. I take a deep breath and exhale slowly, wishing I was anywhere but here.

"Do I need to put you in time out? Make you a curfew?" Van asks. "I kind of thought you'd be old enough to get by without those things, but if that's what you need, then that's what I'll do."

I shake my head. I didn't want either of those things. "I-I'll be better," I whisper. Van chuckles. I'm not sure if it was at how weak I sounded or because he didn't believe me. Or, maybe, it was both.

"I don't think that's true, now, is it?" He says. "You're a bad girl, aren't ya?" He puts my leg down and moves closer to me, allowing our thighs to touch.

I shake my head. "N-no," I say, not sounding confident at all.

"No? You're a good girl, then?" Van asks. He puts his hand on my upper thigh. I flinch away, not expecting the contact, and letting out a gasp. "If that's true, then you'll have no problem following my rules from now on."

I hesitantly look up at Van, but he wasn't looking at my face. He was focused on my his hand which was placed on my thigh. "You'll be in the plane whenever I tell you from now on. And you're not to leave the plane until I tell you. Not Sam, not Bondy. Just me. Tell me you understand, Tris," Van explains his new rules to me.

"I understand," my voice cracks as I speak. I felt completely defeated.

"Good," he hums, standing up and patting my back. "I need to fix up your leg again. Don't want to risk an infection, do we?" I shake my head. "That's what I thought," he says.

I stand up and walk with him back to the plane. There was an uneasy tension the whole way back, but I'm not sure Van noticed.

I made sure to walk as far away from him as I could without him getting suspicious or angry. I run my hand across some of the plants and pick up some of the fallen leaves and sticks only to drop them again. I glanced over at Van every once and a while, but looked away each time I saw he had his eyes on me and a faint smile on his lips. I was trying to get my mind to think of anything but the situation I was in, but that quickly came to an end when we got back to the plane.

I look up at Van when we arrive, waiting for him to tell me what to do. "We're going straight to the plane, Tris," he points to the plane. I nod my head and walk to the plane. I can hear him walking in the sand behind me.

"Go to the back and take a seat on the counter, like last time. I need to grab the medicine from my stuff," Van tells me. He kneels down and starts digging through his bag.

I nod my head, even though he couldn't see, and walk back. My anxiety seemed to increase more and more as I walked back. I sat down on the small counter, kicking my legs back and forth, as I waited for Van to come back.