Lingering Touch - A Story of Young Love (12 page)

I didn't have time to find out, as my father whirled to face me and yanked me up by my hair. Tears immediately sprung into my eyes and the pain when he pulled many strands out at a time. It was like my whole head was on fire, it hurt so much. I clenched my eyes shut and bit my tongue to stop me from crying out. He pulled me straight up and glared at me, or I assumed he did, but my eyes were still closed.

"Look at me, you wench!" I stifled a sob and looked at him. His eyes were bloodshot and his pupils were dilated. He looked
pissed
. "You little slut! How dare you do it on
my
couch?! And with this little wuss? The least you could do is have good taste! Look at him, running off like a little coward."

Austin looked at me with wide eyes, and then at my father. I couldn't imagine what he must have been thinking. A big purple bruise was already forming on his forehead. Dad growled again and Austin yelped, scurrying away and out the open door. The sound of his car peeling out of the driveway and down the street was loud and clear. And I was alone with my father.

I blinked back more tears and glared at my dad. He grinned back. "What are you doing here?" I asked as calmly as I could.

"
What are you doing here?"
He mocked in a high pitched voice. "You're pathetic, you know that? Get out of my house." He scoffed and pushed me back onto the couch and walked away.

"It's my house, too." I said, standing on shaky legs.

He turned on his heel and sneered at me. "What did you just say?"

"I said, this is my house, too. And I'm almost an adult. So you can stop treating me like a child and trying to tell me what to do. It's not like I ever listen to you anyway."

"You little bitch!" My father stalked up to me and slapped me so hard I spun and fell to the ground, landing on my knee hard. He kicked my stomach and I fell to my side, clutching it. "Don't you dare talk to your father like that! Who do you think pays for your school? And all that shit you buy all the time? Don't think for one second that I am stupid. I am smarter than you will ever be. Get the
hell
out of my house!"

He yanked me up by my hair and slapped me again, shoving me away from him in disgust. Then he stomped up to his room and slammed the door.

I curled up on the floor, holding my stomach with one hand and my face with the other. Tears finally escaped and rolled down my cheeks, landing on the soft carpet and in my hair. My face stung, and my eye felt a little swollen. My stomach ached. My father just hit me
again
and I had no idea what to do now. Austin left. I couldn't stay here. Amber and Lyss didn't even know about my dad, they just knew the he was never home. So really the only place I could go, was Trevor's.

I grabbed my phone and pants and ran/limped out to my car. Was it so late already? All the lights were off and there was nobody in sight. The top of my car was down and the cold air rushed at my face as I speeded down the empty neighborhood. The cold air was nice, even as it whipped my hair all around and took my breath away, and not in a good way. Thanks to my speeding, I was at Trevor's house in a short 5 minutes, about half the time it normally takes.

I stopped the car across the dark street. Casey's car was there. How could I go in there? I didn't want to interrupt their date or whatever was going on in there. Why was I even here? Why would Trevor care if my father hit me? Yeah, maybe he would feel bad for me, but I wasn't looking for a pity party. I don't know how long I sat in my car outside his house. Just… sitting there.

Eventually Casey and Trevor walked outside, holding hands. He walked her to her car and they stopped by the door. He grabbed her hands in his and kissed each of her fingers, making her giggle. He looked up at her as he finished, and they just stood there for an eternity, staring at each other, whispering words to each other too quietly for me to make out. Then slowly, he bent down and kissed her softly. It was a little kiss that didn't last long, but it was full of promise.

My heart cringed. A boy had never kissed me like that. I didn't think Casey even realized how lucky she was. Trevor obviously really liked her. She got in her car, and he waved until she had driven down the street and out of sight. Then he sighed and stuffed his hands in his pockets. He looked around and suddenly seemed to notice me sitting in my car, watching him. A small part of me realized that I must have seemed creepy in this dark car outside his house, watching him kiss his girlfriend. But I ignored that part of me. I pretty much ignored all rational thought as I stared at Trevor staring at me.

All I could really think about was the stinging in my cheek. Trevor was making faces and gesticulating at me. I think he might have been asking what in the world I was doing there. But I made no move to answer him, so he finally just jogged over.

"Ari, what are you doing here? How long have you been here?" He asked. He almost sounded angry. I didn't respond. Just stared at him. Was I supposed to answer him? What did he ask again? My brain was not working at all. Wow, his hair looked really nice in the moonlight. It almost seemed blue on the top through the light, because it was so dark. I wanted to touch it.

"Ari, hey uh, Ariana. Are you ok?" Trev asked, waving his hand in front of my face. There was something wrong with me, I think. I mostly just felt a numbness coming all over me. Was I ok?
Well my father just slapped me and called me a few things I'd rather not repeat, and I almost just did it for the first time with my boyfriend, but then he ran away. And now… well you're my only friend, Trevor
. I didn't say this, because I wasn't sure how to work my mouth.

Trevor cursed under his breath and pulled the car door open. I stared at him. He sighed again and pulled me out and carried my bridal-style into his house, somehow managing to open the door without dropping me. It was a lot warmer in here than outside in my car. He set me down on the couch and sat across from me. He seemed to notice for the first time that I was wearing nothing but skimpy yoga pants and a bra. Or maybe he saw a bruise somewhere. On my stomach, possibly? Or maybe my face. Either way, he was definitely gawking.

"Stop staring at me like that," I croaked, my voice hoarse from crying. Oh yeah, maybe he was just looking at the mess that must be my face right now.

"Ari," he gasped, "What happened to you?"

Chapter 10 – Makeovers

"Ari," he gasped, "What happened to you?"

I just stared at him. My mouth still wasn't working. I closed my eyes for a moment and found myself walking over to Trevor and sitting next to him in the cushy one-person chair he was in. He must have been confused at my strange behavior, but I didn't really care. I just wanted to sit by him and have him hold me and tell me everything will be alright.

Of course, he's a boy. Therefore he is an idiot, and didn't do either of those things.

I leaned my head on his shoulder and stared straight ahead at nothing. My eyes started to feel wet, and I realized I was crying. At first they were little sniffles and a few tears leaking out, but soon I was full on bawling and clutching Trevor closer to me. He wrapped his arms around me securely and petted my hair awkwardly while I cried. At least he was trying, right? I snuggled closer to him and tried to stifle my sobbing.

Eventually I was able to calm down enough to hear him asking me what happened, what was wrong, who did this to me, etc. At first I wouldn't answer, refusing to say a word. Then he started asking yes or no questions, and I was able to nod or shake my head.

"Are you ok?"

I shook my head.

"Are you
going
to be ok?"

I hesitated. Would I? Of course I would. I nodded.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

I shook my head.

"Can you tell me who did this to you?"

I hesitated again. Maybe I could tell him, he must have seen the fear on my face that one day when my father came home. But that would require talking, and I still wasn't sure how to work my mouth, or if I even wanted to. So I shook my head.

"Am I allowed to guess?"

I nodded.

"Was it that loser Austin? You're boyfriend or whatever?" He suddenly sounded really angry, holding me out to face him, though we were still very close. His eyes were burning, why would he be mad?

I shook my head and he cooled down, pulling me back to him and holding me in his warm embrace once again.

"Was it—was it your dad?" He asked softly, as if he was afraid of the answer.

I nodded barely perceptively. His arms tightened around me and his fists were clenched. Even as he held me, my heart slowed and my breathing returned to normal. I closed my eyes and let my body relax as a yawn escaped my lips.

When I woke up I was laying on Trevor's bed with a huge blanket on top of me. I heard him snoring quietly on the floor below me. When I tried to sit up, my stomach cramped in pain and I fell back with a gasp. All of what happened last night came rushing back to me. Austin. My father. Trevor. I touched my face and felt a cut on the side of my lip. I prodded my cheek softly, definitely bruised. My eyes started watering, but I mentally slapped myself.
No crying.

My cheeks got hot at the thought of all that happened last night and even redder when I realized fully that I was
in Trevor's bed
. Had I really cried all over him? Had I really acted so creepily? No, maybe this was all a dream and I was going to wake up soon. I pinched my arm.

"Wake up, wake up," I whispered to myself, closing my eyes.

"Hey, I've been up for a while now," Trevor whispered back.

"Oh, uh, sorry," I giggled nervously, still desperately wishing this was a dream. Trevor's face poked up from the foot of the bed. His hair was wild and his eyes were still droopy and a little bloodshot. He smiled at me and kneeled so that he could rest his elbows on the bed.

"No need. How long have you been up?"

I shrugged, "Not too long, I guess."

"You're face looks bad," he said, searching my eyes.

"I know." I said sarcastically, probably to hide how bad that really offended me.

"No, no! I didn't mean it like that. I just… What happened Ariana?
How
did this happen?" He looked remorseful, and how could he know that I tell myself that same thing every day? So I decided to disregard the part about my face looking bad, because in all honesty, it probably did.

"Well, Austin came over to watch a movie with me and then…" I rambled on until I had gotten the whole story out, excluding the part about just how far Austin and I were about to go. Trevor never interrupted, only nodded and made little noises of agreement or disgust. I was pretty proud of myself by the time I had finished, because I hadn't spilled even one tear.

As I finished I looked down at my hands, not wanting to make eye contact. I felt Trevor climb up on the bed beside me and slowly scoot closer until he was right next to me. Just as he was leaning close to hug me, a tiny lump at the bottom of the bed underneath the covers wriggled next to my feet. Warm fur touched my toes and I yelped and jumped back, wincing. Trevor started laughing at me and reached under the bed for the furry lump that attacked me.

He pulled out a tiny silver Alaskan Husky with icy blue eyes and pointy ears. Copper! The adorable little puppy that I got for Trevor a while ago was now cuddling up with him and yipping excitedly. Trevor's eyes were sparking and his smile was infectious. I grinned as well and petted the puppy's soft fur. She stopped snuggling into Trevor for a moment to turn and gaze at me, her bright eyes inquisitive. Copper inspected me for a minute, and seemed to like what she saw.

Trevor laughed as she started licking my face and hopped on top of me. I played with her for a little while, laughing and bouncing her around the bed. But my stomach started aching, and the bruise on my face was hurting from smiling so much, so I stopped and laid down, staring at the ceiling as Trevor and Copper continued to play. Eventually Trevor noticed my absence and set Copper on the floor so he could lie next to me.

"You ok?" he asked, turning on his side to face me.

"I'm ok." I said without looking at him. In my peripheral vision, I saw him frown and look down.

"Ari, listen-"

"Look, I don't want to talk about it. Ok? Can we just, like, forget this whole thing even happened?"

He sighed and nodded his head. Neither of us said anything for a moment.

"But, thank you, Trevor. For everything." I whispered, finally turning to face him. Pain shot up my side but I ignored it so I could look at him while I said this. He smiled softly and touched my cheek, so gently I almost didn't feel it. I closed my eyes and laid back on my back, smiling to myself. To get my mind off of things, we took Copper for a walk. Trevor didn't have a leash, but he was a surprisingly fast runner, and Copper didn't run off too often anyways. The adorable puppy happily ran in circles around us and explored everything. She discovered grass, and sidewalk, and ladybugs, and she loved them all. The only downfall was her bladder was the size of a peanut. She stopped to pee at every mailbox she found, not to mention all over the grass.

At the park, Trevor found a ball and threw it gently, teaching Copper how to play fetch. She ate it up. Not literally, of course, she just loved the game. Eventually she started getting tired, or rather, we did, so we decided to take her home. On the way we stopped at a little ice-cream vendor on the street. The girl working there was maybe 14 or 15, young enough that her green eyes were big and innocent and she smiled way too often to be human. But when we stepped up to place our order, her eyes widened as she stared at me blatantly. Trevor cleared his throat and she snapped her attention to him. He asked for two vanilla ice-creams and paid. All the while the girl kept trying to sneak glances at me, as if scared of me or something. Perhaps she was just curious.

I looked away, down, at Copper, anywhere else from her prying eyes. I looked horrible. I knew it. And she knew it. And the worst part was, I had forgotten for just a minute what had happened, and I had thought, for just one minute, that hey, maybe I actually looked ok. Or maybe I just plain didn't care about what I looked like at the moment, because I was with Trevor, and I was having fun, and it didn't seem to matter.