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“Can I draw you?” The words fell from my lips before I could stop them. I didn’t want to stop them. I just wanted to be around her, see her.
Daisy glanced up at me, her eyes warm, but then some of that fell a little. She started to cover herself up like she was naked. She dug fingers into her jacket sleeves. “Probably not a good idea.”
“Why not?” I asked, needing to know. “It’s just a drawing.”
“Is it?” she asked, surprising me. She played with her hair. “I mean, I appreciate you wanting to do that. Well, flattered…”
“So what’s the problem?” I got in her space, maybe even a little too close. I wanted to smell that sugar, be around her more. My body leaned into hers, and I noticed this time she didn’t pull back.
“I’m married,” suddenly fell from her lips. She dampened them. “And you’re like what? Seventeen now?”
“It’s just a drawing.” I eliminated more distance and, bold, pinched her jacket between two of my fingers. “What’s the harm in that?”
Maybe I was stupid for getting this close to her, but it was just a drawing.
“Just a drawing,” she said, but didn’t pull away this time. “That’s all it can be.”
Twenty-One
The present
December
The jab hit my side the same time the car screeched to a stop and a second when I squealed. I screamed, bucking, and I was punched this time, so hard my face hit glass.
The impact shot hard heat right into my jaw, my head ringing, as I was told to shut the fuck up. I recognized the voice again, despite the bag over my head, hazing in and out, and fell to hard ground when the door opened and I slid out of the car. My hands bound, I couldn’t help it. They’d been tied behind me at Royal’s house.
“Let me go!” I screamed, a curdled shriek and so loud in my head. A strike slammed into my gut, and I bowed over, the moan falling from my lips. The bag ripped off my head, and my eyes fluttered from the sunlight, a face harsh and angry before me. Like the voice, I recognized it.
I just wished I hadn’t.
Princ
ipal Hastings, my principal from school sneered at me, his eyes wild and crazy as they roved over me. He was a shell of a man before me, his normally perfect hair disheveled and his dress shirt untucked with a button or two undone. I think I’d done that, fighting with all I could at the house. I didn’t have my pepper spray, not even thinking about it. I’d been merely going outside for breakfast.
How the hell could I have anticipated this?
I raised my head, my face and stomach searing from blows. Strands of hair fell from my ponytail, and Principal Hastings got a fist full. He jerked my head up, pulling at the root, and I called out.
He let go. “Such a waste.”
That’s all he said, such a fucking waste, as he grabbed my bound arms and literally dragged me across gravel. That’s what was beneath me, gravel, as he wrestled me away from a black sedan. He had to wrestle me, all the energy I had forced into bucking and kicking. I wouldn’t make whatever he was trying to fucking do easier for him, but since he had my arms, my fight didn’t provide for much. He easily worked me over the ground, then up and over metal. Train tracks…
What the fuck?
I screamed again, shooting my legs out with sharp kicks. I wrestled at the zip ties around my wrists, so tight and digging into my flesh. Principal Hastings had kept his hand over my mouth when he tied them, keeping me silent while he got me secure enough to push me through the trees and beautiful flowers of Royal’s backyard. He whispered through the bag while he’d done it, daring me to scream…
I was screaming now, the tears streaming down my face. “What do you want? Why are you doing this?”
He ignored me, muttering something, so many things.
“Always looking, always looking,” he said. “Both of you always looking at me.”
I had no idea what the fuck he was talking about, and when I tried to bite him, he literally grabbed my mouth. This accompanied a quick punch to my face, knocking me out enough where my head sagged and I groaned.
I choked, hacking, as he tied my ankles to the train tracks. He got my wrists next, muttering to me the whole time.
“The fire should have worked,” he said, over and over. “The fire… Why didn’t the fire work?”
