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Chapter24
Life flashes at weird times
Oriana
I can’t breathe.
My hands are scraping at his neck, and I can’t breathe. Trying to scratch and pry his hands off me is doing nothing, and I can’t reach his eyes. I feel myself getting lighter and lighter, the air leaving my body fully.
How is this possible?
How can he…
“Fuck, Oriana.” The hands around my throat suddenly disappear.
I suck in a huge breath and manage to army crawl off my bed. How did I get into this position? I don’t even know. I was sleeping, until I wasn’t. I moved on him, and somehow, I got flipped onto my back, and the life was almost strangled out of me.
“Fuck.” His hands go to his head and pull at his hair.
I crawl on the floor until I reach the corner, just barely holding myself together.
“Fuck, are you okay?” He makes to approach me, but I hold out my hand to stop him. “Oriana…”
“Y-you should leave. P-please leave…” I manage to gasp in some fresh air, but the pain in my neck makes it feel that much more painful.
“It’s why I don’t sleep with other people. I had…” He pauses. “Fuck, I told you I don’t,” he says it again, and this time he does leave, leaving me on the floor trying to gather air and stop the tingling sensation throughout my body. I blink a few times trying to get my bearings and as I’m about to get up, he suddenly walks back in with a bag of ice.
He cautiously walks over to me and holds it out. “My stepfather used to come in when I was sleeping and beat me.” I’m so shocked by his admission that I sit there, stunned into a silent stupor. “When I got older, my first reaction was to reach out and grab what I could to protect myself. That is…until I took his life.”
Jake sucks in a breath, still holding out the ice. “Take the ice, it will help your neck.” I do as he says and place it on the front where it’s currently burning. He scratches the back of his neck, looking nothing like the man I’ve come to know. “I didn’t mean—”
“I get it.” I don’t get it completely, but I also do. He didn’t mean to hurt me, yet he did.
Badly.
So badly that I think I’m going to have trouble sleeping next to anyone, ever again.
“You need to see someone,” I tell him as I stand. “You can’t do that again. You have to see someone.”
“Yeah, that’s what Cap says.”
“He’s right.”
“It’s never been an issue for me before. I never let another person sleep next to me,” he tells me, and there’s vulnerability in his voice. Something he never shares with me. He’s always so…rude, crass, even vulgar sometimes. “I’ll see someone,” he finally says after a long pause, looking over his shoulder to the door. “No one is here…” He pauses unsure of his next move which is so unlike him. “They must have left. I should stay until someone can be here with you.”
“No, please go,” I beg. “They went to get breakfast.” I heard them leave this morning; it’s what woke me.
“Oriana.”
“Jake, it’s best you go,” I say more forcefully. He nods, and this time he does leave, though I can tell by his expression it’s the last thing he wants. I hear the front door close with a click before I get up and go straight for the shower. I sit down on the cold tiled floor and let the hot water pour over me.
Did that happen to him when he was very little?
And how could someone do that to a child?
I didn’t know any of this about him, but then again, I don’t really know much about him, as he keeps everything to himself.
A knock comes on the door, and my mother’s voice filters through, letting me know they have breakfast when I’m done. Managing to stand and wash, I get out and dry off with my white, fluffy bath sheet. Looking in the mirror at my neck, which is red, I can already see that it’s changing color. Will it bruise? I really hope not.
