“Where the hell were you last night?” Brian asked, the next day. “I can’t believe you weren’t home.”
“My mother and I went out to eat. I’m sorry; I didn’t have much of a choice. She basically threw me into the shower and announced we were leaving.”
“Then why didn’t you call me?”
“Because I didn’t. You’re becoming possessive. You know I hate that.”
“Well you’re going to have to live with it, Kris. This is how I am now.”
“Why did you change? Before Sunday you were perfect, but not now. What happened?”
“Before Sunday I didn’t have to worry about any competition. I know about you seeing Taylor.”
“I’m not seeing anybody!”
“I know you are.”
“No, I am not!”
“You admitted to talking to him on the phone. Why can’t you admit to seeing him? I know he was at your place yesterday.”
“Who told you that?”
“I have connections.”
“Seriously.”
“Mr. Siracusa.”
“What are you doing talking to Mr. Siracusa. He’s not even you’re teacher! You never interact with him! Are you prying into my person life through him?”
“I asked him about you because I know he took you home. As we got to talking, he mentioned that those two had been over there.”
“Brian, you are invading my personal space! You don’t have to know where I am and what I am doing all the time!”
“Yes I do. Your personal life, everything about you belongs to me.”
“You do not own me. I am not property; I am not your possession. I am my own person and if I want to do something or go somewhere without you then I will! I’ll do what I damn well please and you can’t do anything about it.”
He smacked her into the wall; lucky for him that no one else was around. She felt the bruise on her spine swell, and she could actually feel her shoulder blades break. Brian heard the two snaps, but didn’t seem to care. She held in her screams but couldn’t hold in her tears.
“Don’t cry. Crying never helped anything.”
“Brian, you’re killing me.”
“I keep going until you can’t respond anymore.”
“Please, Brian. I don’t know what you want from me.”
“You. All I want is you,” he said. “I want you to myself. I don’t want to have to share you with anyone anymore.”
“You’re not sharing me with anyone.” He punched her in the stomach. She bent over, gasping for air. As she was bent, she revealed a large spot of her blood on the wall.
“Don’t talk back to me.” He walked away. She began coughing, trying to get some air in her lungs. The world was swirling around her, as she stayed bent over, gasping. As much as she tried, she wasn’t getting any air. She felt faint, quickly, and the colors of everything around her were diminishing. Her coughs echoed around her, as were her wheezes. She feared for her life…if this was really it. As the faded colors turned to black, her cough finally let air in her lungs. She gasped, the air in her lungs feeling better and better. The colors returned and she stood up, her tears falling hard.
“Oh my God,” she whispered. The pain in her entire body was very prominent now, and if felt like every muscle was pinching her. She dried her tears and started to walk. Her legs didn’t want to budge, but she forced them to take her to homeroom.
She dragged her bookbag behind her, probably creating a hole along the bottom. She opened the door to homeroom and forced herself inside.
“I put your prescription in your locker,” Mr. Siracusa said.
“Thanks,” Kris responded, still a bit breathless.
“It happened again, didn’t it? That’s the third time in four days, Kris.”
“Nothing happened today.”
“Why are you out of breath, not to mention dripping blood all over my carpet?” She looked down at herself. There was no blood. “It must be on your back.” She didn’t try to look, because she noticed the small puddle of blood by her feet. That was the first time he’d made her bleed like that.
“It’s nothing.”
“Turn around.” She did. “Look at your back, Kris. Just look in a mirror or something. Your back is completely covered in blood.” She had a mirror in her locker, so she opened it, moved everything out of the way and glanced at her back. Her green shirt was now covered with red.
“Shit.”
“Go have the nurse check it out.”
“We have a nurse?”
“By the office.” She gave him a look and left the room just as the bell rang. People were scrambling around to get to homeroom and didn’t seem to notice Kris. The only person that did was Mike.
“Why are you going away from homeroom?”
“To see the nurse.”
“We have a nurse?” Kris nodded. “She must be new or something. Anyway, why are you going?” Kris turned around and showed her back to him. “Oh my God!”
“I know.”
“Does it hurt?”
“Yeah.”
“Can I touch it?”
“No! Why would you want to touch it?”
“I don’t know. Cause.”
“Let me go, or I’ll be bleeding everywhere.”
“Okay.” Mike went back to homeroom and Kris went to the nurse. She left a trail of blood on the way there, and ended up grossing out the entire office as she walked by.
She walked into the nurse’s office, and looked around at the new place. “Can I help you?”
“Yeah, I got a problem on my back,” Kris answered.
“Well turn around, let me see what’s wrong.” Kris turned around with a slight grin on her face. “Oh my God, I’ve never seen so much blood.”
“Yeah, so can you help me?”
“Take off your shirt, let me see your back.” Kris rolled her eyes and took off her shirt. “I think you broke your shoulder blades.”
“Well I could have told you that! What gave you that bright idea?”
“The fact that they’re popping out of your skin.” Kris moved over to the mirror and checked out her back. The skin was broken on both shoulders, and both of the blades were sticking out. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen shoulder blades broken.”
“Well, I’m good at breaking things that aren’t usually broken.” Kris put her shirt back on.
“You’ll have to go to the doctor right away.”
“I can’t go to the doctor! I went to him yesterday and the day before for broken bones. He has to be sick of me by now.”
“You have to get those set and get your skin stitched back together.”
“Ugh, fine.”
“I’ll take you.”
“I can go by myself. I’ll be fine. I’ve driven in worse conditions. But thanks.” She left the nurse’s office and went back to the main office. “I have to go to the doctor.”
“Yeah, we’ve noticed.”
“I don’t know if I’ll be back today. I’ll try.” She signed her named and walked out of the office. She forgot about her stuff and went to the car.
She started up the car and drove the familiar route to the hospital. She pulled into her usual spot, which really should be reserved just for her, and got out.
“What’s the problem today?” the receptionist asked.
“Broken shoulder blades. And can I get a mop tied to me or something? I’m leaving a trail of blood wherever I go.”
“We’ll clean up after you. Your doctor is off today, so you can see the other one.”
“At least I’m giving him a break,” Kris said. “I overworked him; that’s why he’s off today.”
“You can go back now.”
“Thanks.” Once she got through the doors to the emergency room, she heard the receptionist call for the maintenance man. Kris looked at the trail of blood behind her and laughed. She saw the maintenance man come out of his room.
“Just follow me around before you clean that up, cause I’m the one making the mess.”
“Could you stop?”
“No, not until I get to that lovely little room over there.” The maintenance man followed her, cleaning up her blood after her. She laid on the examination table and smiled at him. “That should be it for now.”
“Thanks,” he grumbled and left. Kris waited for the doctor to get here. When she came, Kris found out she was very open.
“Hello.”
“Hi. Broken shoulder blades.”
“You know already?”
“I felt them break and I went to the school nurse before I came here. They’re popping out.” The doctor pulled Kris’s shirt off, and looked at her back.
“Yeah, that’s pretty gross. I heard you left a trail.” She grabbed a few wipes and cleaned up the blood. Kris sighed and looked at the sanitized floor. Parts of it was stained with her blood, which made her upset. She’d thought she was going to die when Brian had knocked the wind out of her and left her there. She couldn’t breathe for a few minutes, to the point where she nearly passed out. Taylor’s words were circulating in her head. Brian could have killed her just that morning, and she’d never have the chance to do anything she’d wanted to do. He’d never kill me, though. He wouldn’t do that; he loves me too much.
“Do you know who did this? Are there still bullies around your age?”
“No, I don’t know who did it.”
“The charts say this is your third day in a row being here.”
“Yes, it is. I’m accident prone and a lot of people hate me at school.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“There’s gotta be something wrong, otherwise you wouldn’t be here right now.”
“I don’t know. I’m the same there as I am everywhere else. I don’t know why people hate me so much; they just do.” Kris looked down at the ground again.
“Are you allergic to anesthetic? I’ll need to give you stitches after I set these.”
“No, I’m not, but it’s really not a necessity for me to have it. I don’t care, I’m so doped up on medication right now that I can’t feel a thing you’re doing anyway.” It was true, on the way there she’d taken medication and really hadn’t felt any pain whatsoever since she walked into the hospital.
“So you can’t feel this?” The doctor pushed on Kris’s shoulder blade with her gloved hands, putting it back into place.
“I can feel you touching it, but it doesn’t hurt or anything.”
“Not at all?”
“Nope.”
“What does that stupid doctor have you on?” She looked at the chart, trying not to touch it with her bloody gloved. She found out what was prescribed. “Oh, that’s why. Nevermind.”
The doctor finished setting her shoulders and went to get what she needed to stitch her back up. Kris waited patiently, thinking about what Taylor had said to her. But Brian would never, ever try to kill her. He’d just hurt her a lot; he’d never kill her.
But then again he did leave her there when she wasn’t breathing.
She didn’t know what to think anymore. She knew Brian had the capability of killing her, he’d proved that today. One of these days he might have the will, but he’d never kill her.
Would he?
Kris sat in her seat and watched as Mr. Siracusa rambled about something or another. Even though Psychology was her favorite class, she couldn’t pay attention that day. Maybe she’d hit her head and didn’t know it, or maybe it was just the whole day affecting her.
“Kris? You with us?” Mr. Siracusa asked. She looked up.
“No, not really.”
“Are you alright? Maybe you really should go home.”
“No, I’ll be fine.”
“Okay.” He went on with the class. Kris looked around. Even with so many people in the school, only six of them wanted to take Psychology. It was rather amusing to her.
She could feel the stares of everyone in the room on her as she leaned against her hand and closed her eyes. She was sure Mr. Siracusa didn’t mind (after all, Kris was his favorite), but it bugged the hell out of the rest of the students.
After she began to drift off, she heard one of the other students complaining. “Mr. Siracusa, why are you letting her do this? We know she’s your favorite, and you’re dating her mother, but that doesn’t mean you should treat her better than us.”
“I don’t. She’s going through a lot right now.”
“Why’d you insist on taking her home yesterday? You were gone half the day, you skipped this class so she could be better. I’m sure if I got beat up by my boyfriend you wouldn’t give me any special attention.”
Kris’s eyes flew open. “What makes you think my boyfriend is beating me?” The girl turned to Kris.
“It’s obvious. Why else would he be so apathetic towards you? The only reason he doesn’t give you pity like the rest of us is because he’s the one doing it. We’re not stupid. Kris. I have all my classes with you. I don’t take Psychology for nothing. I do grasp all the details. Plus there are rumors flying everywhere.”
“Don’t rely everything on rumors. They’re nowhere near the truth.”
“Even the one about you dating Taylor Hanson?”
“That was true, but that one wasn’t a rumor. I stated that when someone asked me.”
“How about the one where the two of you had sex in the bathroom stall at Milani?”
“I don’t even know where you pulled that one, but it’s entirely not true.”
“Brian says it was true but you made it up to him.”
“Don’t believe a word Brian says, alright? He’s full of shit.” Mr. Siracusa gave her a look. “What? All of a sudden I’m not allowed to swear anymore? What is wrong with you people?”
“So he doesn’t beat you?”
“No! I’ll state right here that he does not beat me or hurt me in any way possible.”
“Then where did all those bruises come from?”
“That is none of your business. Now while I’m still awake, is there any other rumor we have to clarify?” The bell rang. “I guess not.” She stood and looked around. How was she supposed to carry her books? Before she could think about it, Brian walked in and grabbed her bag.
“You ready?”
“Yeah. How’d you know I was back?”
“I saw you walking by. Where to now? I’m heading to Spanish.”
“French.”
“Alright.”
He took her hand and they walked out of the building. “I broke both my shoulder blades and had to get stitches. They were popping out of my skin.”
“I really don’t care what happened to you, Kris.”
“I forgot you considered me an object and not a person. I forgot I’m just the toy you can play with.”
“You know you are.” He kissed her, but she didn’t feel the love that had once been there. Now it was just him kissing her because he wanted it. “You do what I want when I want it, and that’s it. We’re going out tonight.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll be at your place around six.”
“Where we going?”
“My house. No one else is going to be home tonight.” Kris stopped.
“Brian, you’re not going to expect anything, right?”
“You’re going to do what I tell you to do and that’s final. You don’t have any say in it.”
“Brian, it’s my body. I should be able to do what I want to do.”
“Not with me, Kris.”
“Well what if I say I don’t want to go?”
“I’ll drag you there if I have to. You’re going.”
“You can’t make me do anything I don’t want to do.”
“I could kill you. That’s another solution.”
“Brian, you wouldn’t.”
“I would,” he said, “and I will, eventually.”
“You’re a psycho!”
“Maybe, but if you’re not there I will have to hunt you down and seriously hurt you.” He threw her book down. “You can carry your own shit to class.” He walked into the building, but she ran off.