Page 8 of Hidden Truths

“Fuck!” he roars out, his voice coming out as a screech.

Grabbing his head, the man falls to the side and writhes around on the floor. Like I said, it’s not heavy enough to knock him out, but it did get him off me. Pushing the pain away, I get off the floor and stumble through the trashed living room. My mother doesn’t even bother looking at me as she remains locked in her own misery. She didn’t once try to help me or get the man off me. The woman who gave birth to me would have literally laid there and let him rape me so he left her alone. That’s what I get for trying to protect her.

Tears roll down my face as I try to get out of the house as quickly as possible. Pain fills me more and more every second I’m on my feet. It’s unbearable as I get through the door of the house and on the small porch. The cold wind burns the cuts on my body where my shirt flutters open in the breeze. There are people outside, and I couldn’t care less about them seeing me in a compromising position. None of them fucking helped me when they undoubtedly heard my pathetic screams. They choose to remain in their own little world and not give a shit about their neighbors or anyone else.

I’m barely able to stumble back over to Mrs. Andrews’ house as she stands in the open door. Tears roll down her wrinkled, weathered face as she takes in my beaten body. I did this to myself by going over there to help my mother. She doesn’t need to cry for me. No one does. Not that anyone but her gives a shit about what I live through daily.

“Oh child!” she cries out when I stumble and fall to the cement steps leading up to her porch.

My chin bashes off the cracked wood and I immediately feel the skin rip apart as blood coats my skin in another place. Mrs. Andrews rushes out the door to help me up the steps and inside her house before she shuts the door firmly behind her. My eyes are barely open as she leads me through the small, clean living room toward the bathroom.

“I’m gonna get you cleaned up, Arabella. Make sure you don’t need to go to the hospital,” she informs me, her voice wavering with emotion.

Mrs. Andrews sits me down on the toilet in her small bathroom. My eyes remain closed as she moves around the small room. I can’t focus on anything she’s doing as the pain I’ve been pushing to the back of my mind takes over. There’s no way I can focus on anything else with my body in as bad shape as it is. That asshole did more to me in a matter of seconds than my mother has ever done. He must be in some sort of rage to have as much power behind his hits as he did.

I remain sitting on the toilet as Mrs. Andrews cleans the blood from my body, checks out every single cut on me, and helps me remove my coat and shirt. There’s no way for me to stop the screams from erupting when I have to move enough to pull on my ribs. My breathing is coming out in harsh pants and I know it’s only a matter of time before I pass out from the unbearable pain. Pain I inflicted on myself in a way since I ran over here with no thought to my own safety.

“I’m gonna get you in a different shirt, Arabella. Then, you’re going to bed. I don’t wanna hear any arguments about it either. Neither one of you are gonna go to that house tonight. Not when he’s still there,” Mrs. Andrews states, her voice leaving no room for argument.

Mrs. Andrews takes care of me. She makes sure the shirt I put on with her help doesn’t press against any of the cuts she’s just bandaged up. Hell, she even wrapped my ribs so I’m not randomly moving all over the place with no form of protection for them. Once I’m dressed and as cleaned up as she can get me, Mrs. Andrews helps me off the toilet and leads me to the second bedroom she has in her home. There’s boxes lining the walls, a crib against one wall, and a small bed. It’s not the first time Vinnie and I have stayed over here because of my mother and I’m sure it won’t be the last.

“You rest, sweet child. I’m gonna get you something to eat in a little while and don’t you worry about Vinnie. You get some sleep now,” she says in a warm, caring voice as she covers me up with the blankets covering the small bed.

It doesn’t take long for me to fall into a restless sleep. The pain doesn’t let me sleep too deep because every single time I move the slightest fraction, it infiltrates my sleep and wakes me up. Something else I’m used to happening after a beating. For the first time since Vinnie was born, I don’t worry about him. I know Mrs. Andrews will take care of him so I don’t have to do anything other than rest. Guilt fills me because Vinnie is my responsibility and I should be taking care of him no matter how bad I’m feeling or whatever else is going on.

Questions

Arabella

THE WALK TO campus was brutal today. However, it’s my long day and I know I can’t take a day off just because of what happened yesterday afternoon at my house. My body is covered in bruises, cuts that are covered in small bandages or Band-Aids, I’ve got a wrap around my ribs, and I can hardly move. Each step I take threatens to rob my breath from my lungs and put me on the floor. Again, I can’t stop moving or getting to school. I’ve got classes to attend where I can’t afford to fall behind in, two students to tutor, and I’ve got to work at Slice of Heaven after school today. There’s no way I can take time off when it’s only gonna leave me in the house at Mrs. Andrews when I’m in bed. If she’s gonna take care of Vinnie for me, it will be because I’m at school or work and not because I’m laying in bed.

When I was awake, Mrs. Andrews tried to convince me to go to the hospital because she knows I won’t call the cops for any reason. There’s no point in calling when they do absolutely nothing. I mean, if you don’t live in the poor section of town, the cops are there to save the day. Here, they don’t come unless they have to with no other choice. It was something I’ve seen more than once as a person bled out on the street from one fight or another. The hospital was also not going to happen because there’s nothing they can do to help me. I mean, the most they’ll do is possibly call Child Protective Services, and that’s the last thing I want to happen. It means Vinnie will be taken while nothing happens to help me. I’m no longer a minor and they won’t care about me. Hell, I’d honestly be surprised if they remove Vinnie from the house, but it’s not something I’m willing to risk.

My walk to school today was nothing but filled with pain as I forced myself to move faster than I wanted to. I’m honestly surprised I made it to campus without collapsing on the side of the road at least once. Thankfully, that didn’t happen because I would have been out there with no one helping me. That’s just how things have been over the last few years. Mrs. Andrews is literally the only one who has helped me in any way since I lost my dad. Everyone else in town would literally leave me there to rot on the side of the road and be consumed by the wild animals roaming the forest.

The gate of the campus is in sight as my vision starts to fade. My body is covered in a fine layer of sweat and I’m trembling from the pain coursing through me. While I’ve been hurt this bad before, I haven’t had to push myself beyond what I’m capable of in order to get to school like this. As I try to force the pain away again, I look for Brock. There have been a few mornings Brock is there waiting for me. Today I don’t see him. Usually he has something from the dining hall he got me because it isn’t normally something I can grab when I spend most of my morning getting Vinnie ready and making sure he’s eaten before dropping him off next door. Not that I had to do that this morning. Just as I pass through the gate, my body slams into something solid and hard.

“Ah!” I scream out as my ribs scream in protest and my legs give out.

The sleeves of my shirt slide up as strong, callused hands grip my arms to keep me from falling flat on my ass. Those hands hold me harder than necessary as I finally manage to look up. My breath stalls in my lungs for a completely different reason. Dante Peterson is the solid wall I just ran into. I should have known as the scent of woods and something uniquely Dante washes over me. He holds me while looking from the top of my head down to my feet. He catalogs the bruises and cuts on my exposed skin as his eyes take in every inch of my body. Every single mark on my frail body is being seen by one of the people I don’t want to have anything to do with or to have know anything about me.

“What the fuck happened to you?” he barks out, his voice deep and rough as he still doesn’t let go of me. “Who the fuck beat the hell out of you, Sunshine?”

I haven’t heard one of the nicknames the guys called me in so long. My heart breaks with the knowledge that we’re no longer friends. In fact, I don’t even know why the hell Dante gives a shit about what happened to me.

“Nothing happened. I’m fine,” I tell him, trying to pull from his strong grip without agitating my ribs anymore.

“Don’t give me that line of shit, Arabella. Someone beat the fuck outta you and I wanna know who it was,” he growls out, bringing more attention to us than what I’d like.

“It’s none of your concern, Dante. I’m sure you have somewhere important to be. Or some girl to hang all over you waiting. Let. Me Go,” I say, forcing my voice to be stronger than it is as pain courses through me.

“Jealous, Sunshine?” he says, the smirk I used to love seeing filling his face.

“Hardly. I’m late and need to get to class. I’m nothing to you and haven’t been for a long time. So, run along and forget I even ran into you this morning,” I state, pulling away as Dante lets me go. “It wasn’t hard for you to forget all about me the day I lost the only person in the world who loved me. I’m sure you remember how to do it.”

“This isn’t over, Bella. I will find out who did this to you,” he states ominously from behind me as I try to walk normally.

I’m limping as Dante’s eyes remain locked on me. I can feel him watching me walk across campus toward my first class. Several other students rush from one place to another and I have to stop several times instead of getting knocked flat on my ass. After literally running into Dante, I can’t afford to hit someone else. My body won’t be able to handle the pain. Neither will my heart.

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