Nameless

Chapter 11- Beautifully Mistreated

Martin takes me home.I check my cast and make sure it’s okay. I wrap it in plastic and take a hot shower. Even after that amazing kiss, tears still slip down my pale cheeks.

                I finish my shower, and awkwardly dress myself. I’m still not used to the cast. Martin waits for me in the kitchen. On the counter sits two steaming mugs of coffee and store-bought, bitter apple pie. He approaches me slowly. He rests one hand on my left elbow, and with the other he tucks a lock of damp hair behind my ear. His strong, sure hands are warm, as always.

                “You were crying in the shower, weren’t you?” He whispers. I shake my head in denial. “N-no, I just got shampoo in my eyes…” I’m a terrible liar; he gives me this look, this sad, caring look. His perfect chocolate eyes stare into my blue ones. He carefully wraps his arms around me and kisses me again. A small eruption of happiness blooms in my stomach. He pulls away.         

Martin looks at my arm for a moment. He looks me in the eyes and runs his thumb over my old scars. He studies them for a moment. “So many…I’m sorry, beautiful..You never deserved any of this.”

“I could’ve saved J-Jace. If only I hadn’t come to the door… Jace was there, he was there when I was kidnapped… It’s all my fault.”

                Ding dong. 

I look at Jace, who is reading a manga on the couch. Mum isn’t home, so I’m in charge. “Hang on,” I say,” I’ll peek out the window.”

I slip to the kitchen window, which overlooks the porch. A man holding a pizza box, wearing a Dominos uniform stands, somewhat nervously.

I quietly say,”Jason? Did you order pizza?” He denies.

“Hello? You’ve won a free cheese pizza from Dominos! Please come to the door to collect your prize!” The man calls.

I’m not supposed to open the door to strangers, but the thought of deliciously greasy pizza clouds my better judgment. I tell Jace to go get paper plates from the garage while I get the box. I shyly crack open the door and stick my face out. The man smiles like he won the lottery. “Hello, there! Is your mommy or daddy home?” He asks. “No, Momma ran to the store real quick, but she’ll be back soon.” I say. “Well, here is your prize!”

I cautiously open the door, and step outside onto the cold porch. He smiles and I take the box. “Congrats!” He calls. I turn to go in the house when I realize the box is light. I lift the lid and I feel a pair of hands, one around my slender waist and one hand on my mouth as I drop the empty box. I give a muffled scream and kick and hit, but I’m not released. As I’m being stuffed in the trunk of his car I see Jace on the porch, holding a small paper plate. “Jace! Call the poli-“I’m cut off by the trunk door slamming on my head. Spots appear in the near darkness as despair settles over me…

Martin is quiet. He doesn’t say a word as the soundless tears run down my face. He looks up at me. He captures my face with his soft, strong hand. His thumb strokes my cheek. “I don’t see how Jason could’ve left you a second time… Does he know you were kidnapped?”  I nod. He shakes his head. “I’m impressed by how blind he was.”

“Blinded by what?” I ask. “The fact that this boy loves you but his own fear of your past keeps him from the one thing he wants.”

I give Martin a long look. “I think he stopped loving me when he found out about the baby in her womb. He was so cold to me.

I’m leaving.

I lean forward and kiss him. He responds immediately. He pauses. “I’m falling for you. I’m in deep.” I smile. “In deep with a psychopath,” I say.

“No. With a beautiful, mistreated girl.”

~~~.~~~

Summertime, 2012.

~~~.~~~

“Martin! Stop it!” I laughed. He continued to tickle my sides as I struggled to get away. I rolled over on the warm sand. “Staaaahp!” I shrieked. “What do you say?” He asked, holding out the a.

“Please stop?” I giggled. He sighed in defeat. “Okay, I guess…” He said. I stuck my tongue out at him and he poked my side. I jumped and squealed.

Laughing, Martian settled back on the soft sand. I rested on my elbows, watching a small child playing in the shallows with her older brother. She was about four, and he was about nine. She looked up at him with adoring eyes. “I love ooo, James!” He picked her up and spun her around in a wild circle as she shrieked and giggled. He placed her on the ground and pretended to sway dizzily. “Whoopsie!” He called, flopping over in the water. She gasped and poked her floating brother. He popped up like a cork. She laughed hysterically.

“They look happy.” Martin observed. “They do,” I smiled.

Martin and I moved out of Merlyn’s house a few weeks ago. I wanted a new start, far away from everything, and going away to college was my way out. We live in a small, two bed-room apartment close to the Florida beaches.

“Come on,” He said,” You have homework.” I groaned. He kissed me. “C’mon, I’ll help you.” We make the short trek to the apartment complex. It’s small and made mostly of concrete, so we call it our little “concrete shoebox”. Really, I wouldn’t choose to live anywhere else.

We race to the top floor, where our creepy neighbor is going out to check his mail. He tips his brown, moth eaten hat towards us and we awkwardly wave back. I unlock the door and shriek as Martin picks me up bridal style and carries me in. I thrash and fight him and laugh my butt off. He dumps me on the couch while he finds my bag.

~~~.~~~

“You killed your brother! If you hadn’t opened the damn door, he’d be alive!” She gives me a sharp slap across the face. I stand there and take it with a straight face. It infuriates her.

She take another swig if her cheap wine and spits it at me. The foul, red liquid stains my blue tunic. “And look; now you’ve ruined the clothes I just bought you! Them ‘designer’ labels aren’t cheap, sweetie.”

Because Goodwill always carries designer clothes. The tunic is ragged at the ends and filled with holes.

She takes a drunken step towards me and I take one back. “Get in the car!” She screams. She pulls me by the hair outside. I don’t resist. There isn’t much she’d do to me in public, unless she’s plans on humiliating me again .

When we arrive at the graveyard, I become a bit worried. She wouldn’t desecrate his grave, would she?

She pulls me from the car and marches me to his stone. She forces me to my knees and shoves my face in the dirt.

“WHY DON’T YOU JOIN HIM?” She screams. I fall through the dirt, as if I’m a ghost. I land in Jace’s small coffin. His small frame looks nearly the same, except now he looks like a starved child. He opens his eyes and turns his head towards me.

“Arinda!”

  I startle awake. Martin is there, as always. “Shh, shh, it’s okay. Just a nightmare.” He whispers, brushing away a tear. I shake away the dream and allow myself to rest on his warm chest. “Another memory?” He asked. “Most of it was, but then it turned into an actual nightmare.”

He hugs me tightly until I can fall asleep again.