We Were Dreamers

Landon

Chapter 3

"It was by the light in your eyes that I finally found myself."

I relished my time in school. It was time away from home for me. I loved the feeling of being away from that place where screams echoed in the silence and Mamma's haunted eyes always made me sad. The walls of that house knew secrets that people would die to keep. Secrets people never talked about. Secrets that I wish I did not know. And while I was away, I liked to pretend that life did not exist.

I sat alone at lunch time. Worked hard in all my classes. And, as was my routine, went to the park at four when school was out. Every day that I went to the park, the bench ( I liked thinking of it as MY bench ) was empty, but not today. Today there was someone sitting at it. A guy! And he was drawing. I was fuming inwardly. How dare he!

I absolutely did not think about what I was doing. I stomped up to him, snatched his pencil out of his hand and threw it on the ground.

He looked up, startled. Oh my. oh my. He had such blue eyes. Blue like the sky. And that pretty mouth! And those perfectly sculpted cheekbones. And fluffy brown hair. He waa beautiful. The only thing marring his beauty was a scar running across his left cheek from the corner of his eye and disappearing underneath his hairline. I was dumbstruck for a moment because, well, I hardly ever had any encounters with a guy, let alone a guy this yummy looking, but I regained my cool.

"This is my bench!" As soon as I said it, I realized how babyish that had sounded.

He gave a light chuckle, just shook his head and picked up his pencil to go back to his drawing while I just stood there with my hands on my hips, gawking like a fool.

"Um. Hello? Did you like hear me? " I waved my hand in front of his face.

"I don't see your name written on this bench..." he said, gesturing at it. And with a self satisfied smirk on his gorgeous face, went back to his drawing.

"Why you..you..aaargh!" I spluttered. I swung my backpack over my shoulders and went to my other spot, a huge old boulder next to the pond. I was kind of hoping to sketch the skyscrapers that were only visible from MY bench but that was unfortunately not possible since SOME people were bench stealers.

When I look back at that moment, I realized I was acting pretty babyish after all. But in all my eighteen years of life, I had never had to share anything. Neither my things nor my pain because I had always been alone. And that was how it was supposed to be.

I was a little calmer by the time I sat on the boulder and all my anger just drained out when I began to draw. I drew the trees and the dogs. I drew the couple cuddling in the shade of the trees on the grass. I drew the sunlight glinting off the metallic trash cans. I just drew everything I saw.

I was almost done but then suddenly this shadow fell across my drawing.

It was him! That place stealer jerk of a guy! He bent down behind me.

"You draw real well," he said appreciatively.

I made a weird sort of sound. Kind of between a snort and a laugh and began gathering my things. I realized I probably looked and sounded very unladylike but I was still too mad to care.

"Urm, excuse me. But I need to pack."

He put up both his hands as if offering peace and stood up. I hurriedly packed and stood too. He was almost a whole head taller than me. I refused to even look at him as I walked away but I could feel his eyes boring into my back as I left.

I would show him. That good for nothing little selfish kid. I bet he was probably rich and spoilt and never cared for other people's feelings. I mean, I bet I could tell from the way he talked to me. Then it hit me. This was probably the closest I have ever come to being a normal teenager.

It may sound weird but I have never ever had such and encounter with anyone, let alone a boy. People tended to be intimidated by me and I by them. A weird combination. They probably just thought I was mentally disturbed or something and they decided to keep away. I can't blame them. I, personally would not like to be friends with someone like me.

I walked home feeling as if I had achieved something big. My cellphone beeped once. I began walking faster. That was my curfew alert. Unlike normal eighteen-year-olds who had curfews of eleven and twelve at night, mine was just six in the evening and I was in for terrible punishments if I got late.

I jogged the rest of the way home and thankfully made it in at two minutes to six.

He was waiting for me as I knew he would be. Today was my day. That thought was at the back of my mind all day as it had been on countless other days but I always chose not to dwell on it because it was what I always had to face at the end of the day. It was my life. It was inevitable.

He sat at the head of our huge dining table, his right ankle crossed over his left, his fingers drumming the hardwood tabletop. His eyes were ruthless. He raised his eyebrows when I entered.

"Let me go change."

I ran upstairs to my room. I only had fifteen minutes to change. Any longer and he would come to check on me. I unbuttoned my blouse with trembling fingers and pushed it off my shoulders. I pushed down my pants and stood there in my white cotton underwear looking at myself in the full length mirror.

My body was full of scars. There were scars running across my thighs. Scars along my belly. Scars on my back. I ran my fingers over them, feeling how the skin was different in those areas. Some of them were white, some were pink and the most recent ones were a fiery angry red.The scars always healed with time and the physical ache went away but I had been broken by the brutality we went through every day of our lives. Physical scars I could bear, but who would ever heal my broken heart?

Though I desperately wanted to cry, I held back the tears. I never wanted to give him the satisfaction of seeing me cry. I changed into my white flannel nightgown. He always expected us to be in white while he did his business. He likes to be able to see the blood. I said a silent prayer and made my way down the stairs.