“And the bike?” I whisper.
“It’s my bike. I own it.”
I had no idea he owned more than two bikes.
Words escape me on how to express my gratitude and how much what he did meant to me. My protector. My best friend.
It doesn’t matter what’s happened in our life, he always comes back for me.
“Thank you, so, so much Ben,” I whisper, looking down at my feet. “I…I don’t know what else to say besides that right now.”
His boots scrape the floor as he crawls toward me. I don’t move, allowing him to wrap his arms around me in a tight hug and give me a kiss on the top of my head. Heat and butterflies surge through my body, warming up the coldness from the night.
I let him hold me until a wave of tiredness overtakes me. He releases me from the hug as I move to lay on my side. A tug on my feet pulls my legs down softly.
He’s taking my shoes off for me. Wow.
He places my feet up on the bed and walks away.
“Don’t leave me,” I whisper with my eyelids closed, afraid of his answer.
“I’ll be right here, always,” he whispers back, stroking his fingers through my hair. My lips upturn into a sleepy smile, and I drift off to sleep.
Chapter Eleven.
A soft knock on the door wakes me up from my deep sleep. My heavy eyelids slowly lift, my vision distorted while I try to remember where I am. A blurry picture of my mom appears in my room before flashes of last night rush back to me.
Ben!
I fling the covers off and look around in panic. He’s going to get in so much trouble if he slept over, even if it was me who asked him to. But he’s not here. It’s just me and my mother in the room.
“It’s noon so I wanted to check on you and make sure you were okay. You never sleep in this la—" she stops mid-sentence. “Charlotte, your eyes are so swollen. Were you crying? What happened? Are you okay?”
The pity in her voice angers me, but I can’t explain why.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I was only crying because I was sad school’s over,” I say dismissively, running over to the window. His motorcycle’s gone. I didn’t even hear him leave.
An ache of loneliness cuts into me without him here. A lonely ache my mother’s presence won’t help.
“Charlotte, talk to me.” Concern softens her eyes, her mouth down turning into a frown.
“I’m fine.” I sigh in frustration. “I’m just going through a lot of emotions right now with school ending and all the changes going on. I even made some new girlfriends last night. They invited me to an all-girls sleepover next weekend.” I plaster a fake grin on to console her.
All I want is for her to leave the room so I can call Ben. I refuse to tell her what happened. Matter of fact, I don’t want to tellanyonewhat happened. I want to forget the whole thing.
I raise my arms to stretch and notice bruises where Jared had grabbed and held me. Fresh images of him trying to force my pants off and holding me by my wrists return to haunt me.
My stomach churns like I just got punched in the gut and the room starts to sway. I inconspicuously try to hide my arms under my comforter as to not draw her attention to the bruises, although she likely already sawthem. Leaning on my computer desk, she watches me, analyzing my every move.
I hate this. What will it take for her to go away. What almost happened to me last night makes me unable to be in her presence out of shame. It’s hard to explain but it’s like I’m not her special daughter anymore. The more I debate telling her what happened, the more I can’t find the words… Or courage.
“You know you can tell me anything, sweetheart. Right? I’m here for you.”
Claustrophobia suffocates me as she moves closer.
“Yes. I’m fine. Can you just leave so I can get showered and dressed please?” I ask sternly.
A flash of hurt crosses her face, but she smiles, nonetheless. Great, now I feel even shittier.
