A Poetic Retelling of an Unfortunate Romance

Scarlet warm blood gushed forth from Ella’s nose, covering her lips before traveling down her exposed neck until ending its journey when it made contact with Ella’s grey fitted v-neck, within seconds the area surrounding the neck were soaked with her blood.

Now her family was going to know that something bad happened.

Ella had entertained the idea that she would be able to put enough make up on her nose to cover the fact that it was going to be a bit bruised but the bloodied shirt was a little harder to cover up.

It could be washed, but in order to wash it she would have to buy laundry detergent to put in the machine at a Laundromat because there was no way in hell that she was going to ask a friend if her shirt could be washed at their face, they’d flip out like her family would and it would lead to the guys interrogating her until they found out who had hurt her and telling that James was the culprit was something that she refused to do.

No one would ever know that James had hit her.

The reason behind her not telling anyone wasn’t solely based on the fact that she doesn’t want him to get his ass beat. The main reason behind it is that Ella’s pride won’t let her admit to others that James wasn’t a good guy.

Ella would sooner die than hear her brother say, I told you so.

“Ella . . .” whispered James in a soft pleading tone.

“That is the last time you EVER touch me,” she turned to leave the room, grabbing her bag from the hook on the wall beside the door.

Panic struck James when those words reached his ears, he knew he’d fucked up by smacking her, but James didn’t want to lose his Ella, she was his bit of heaven, the only thing made sense in the world and he needed her more than anything.

“Gabriella, don’t leave!” James chased after her.

There was no response on Ella’s part, she simply dashed down the hallway, needing to get out of the house as quickly as humanly possible because she was afraid of forgiving him if she gave him a chance to apologize.

Giovanni awoke from his afternoon nap when he heard the loud footsteps coming from upstairs, he stood up from his place on the couch, ready to go see what all the ruckus was about but when he saw the bloodied Ella running down the stairs with James close behind her, he knew that his son had struck her.

Wanting to help Ella, Giovanni found himself slamming his son into the nearby wall, pinning him to it as the teenage girl that he had grown to love as his own flesh and blood ran out to safety.

Ella ran faster than she ever had in her life, gritting her teeth in pain when her muscles began protesting against the strenuous activity, but there would no stopping until she had arrived at the high school where she would hide behind the bleachers; it was where she went whenever she needed to think.

Much to Ella’s delight, the high school was deserted when she arrived.

She had feared that it would be crawling with football players since there’s mandatory practice every Saturday morning so they can view the tapes from the previous nights game and do some light conditioning, but it turned out that practice had ended a bit early that day and that none of them had decided to linger around afterwards.

Now that she knew no one was around she felt comfortable, she’d be alone with her thoughts and she’d have time to come up with a good lie to tell her parents though she feared that it wouldn’t matter how good the lie would be since she’s a horrible liar, hopefully she wouldn’t give herself away.

It was hours before Ella felt tranquil enough to leave her spot behind the bleachers, slowly; she stood up from the dirt, brushing it off the back of her legs with both hands as she breathed in deeply.

No brilliant had been come up with during her stay.

Nothing had struck her and even if it had the strange twitch that her right brow does whenever she lies would have given her away. All she could do was hope that her parents wouldn’t be there when she got home, perhaps if they just saw the bruised nose they would think that she’d been injured while playing football or something of that sort and not ask her.

Just as Ella emerged from underneath the bleachers, a deep masculine voice called her name. She looked up, curious to see who had called her and when she saw Alejandro – her friend since preschool – she cursed under her breath.

“Gabe!” he refers to her as Gabe, always has.

“Hey,” answered Ella, avoiding looking him in the face. “What’s going on?”

“Just taking a run . . .” his eyes widened when they landed upon the dry blood. “What the fuck happened?”

“Nothing,” her right brow began twitching violently, alerting Alejandro that it was a lie.

“Fuck that shit!” Alejandra stepped closer to her, examining the damage. “Who the fuck did this to you and you better tell me the fucking truth cuz I’ll know if your ass is lying.”

“Alex stop being so fucking overdramatic and just go run,” Ella tried to step away but he blocked her way.

“Fuck that. I’m not overdramatic this is how a persons supposed to react when they find a homie all bloodied up. Now tell me what happened.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” stated Ella.

“Does it look like I give a fuck if you want to talk about it?” Alejandro scoffed. “Your ass needs to talk about it so talk.” – Ella glared at him – “Gabriella, you’re like a sister to me, tell me, por favor (please).”

Seeing him look so concerned made something inside her snap and she started sobbing hysterically, muttering about how she didn’t know what to do anymore. He held her while she sobbed; rubbing her back gently to reassure her that everything would be alright.

Never before had he seen her cry or sad, his worry increased.

“What happened?” he whispered.

“H-he got angry . . . I didn’t mean to get him so angry but I did and . . .” uttered Ella softly.

“Who hit you?” asked Alejandro.

“James . . .” the name was said so softly that Alejandro strained his ears to hear it.

“Fuck that puto (asshole)! I’m gonna fuck that little bitch up. Who the hell does he think he is hitting you, fuck that.”

“Alex, no!” shouted Ella.

“Why not?” asked Alejandro. “That little bitch needs to know that real men don’t hit women and I’m gonna teach him that fucking lesson, just watch.”

“No, you’re not!” Ella stepped away from him. “You’re not going to do a damn thing to him, alright?!”

“You can’t expect me to just let that fucker walk around after he did this to you!” Alejandro’s nostrils flared. “In fact I’m going to call up the other homies and we’ll all go.”

“Like hell you are! You’re not going to tell anyone about this and you’re sure as fuck not going to beat him up!”

“How can you not want us to beat him up after what he did?” Alejandro cocked his brow. “You better not be thinking of going back to him! I refuse to have you turn into one of those women that are alright with getting beat.”

“I’m not going to go back to him,” hissed Ella. “But I don’t want to start more drama. I broke up with him; we’re through so I don’t want to ever have to even think about him again.”

“But he fucking hit you!” argued Alejandro.

“I know he did, but I’m over him. I’m over the drama so please, please just don’t do anything and don’t say anything. I don’t want anyone to pity me.”

“Fine,” Alejandra took her in his arms, “But what are you going to tell people? You’re a horrible fucking liar.”

“Don’t know,” answered Ella honestly. “My plan is to remain quiet.”

“That won’t work,” he lost himself in thought. “I have an idea. What if I go with you and say that you were mugged and that I ran into you afterwards? I’ll tell your parents, spread the lie around and people won’t question it. They’ll just take it as fact.”

“Okay.”

“Give me your cell phone,” he held out his hand.

“Why?” Ella was a bit confused.

“We’re going to say that he took your cell phone so I’m gonna smash it,” he explained.

Twenty minutes later the pair arrived at Ella’s house.

They walked into the house side by side, searching for where everyone was and when laughter was heard coming from the backyard they walked towards it. Alejandro walked into the yard before Ella, greeting everyone warmly and then it was Ella’s turn.

The moment her family saw her they went into a state of shock, not speaking for several minutes until something clicked and they leapt forth from their seats, rushing to take the youngest Acosta into their arms.

Immediately they began asking what had happened.

Ella began muttering incoherently like Alejandro had told her to.

Since they couldn’t understand her, they asked him what had happened and he told them the lie that he had rehearsed during the walk to the house; they bought it.

That night Ella slept with her parents, something that she did whenever she needed to feel safe. Margaret held her close throughout the night, singing softly in her thick Irish accent to soothe her daughter’s soul.

October soon ended, giving way to November which in turn gave way to December.

During those two months, Ella worked incredibly hard to avoid James at all cost. It pained her to do so. Her heart ached for him, body yearned for his touch but Ella was determined to have nothing to do with him; she refused to go back.

James did everything he could think of to try and get her to forgive him.

Every morning he traveled to Baldwin Park to try to talk to his Snow White on her walk to school but she always manage to run off before he had a chance to even say hello to her. Being without her was driving him mad, he needed her back but he was at a loss of how to win her over.

Ella never informed her parents about her having broken up with James, she wasn’t sure why she hadn’t done so but a part of her refused to make that statement so to explain his absence she told them that James was giving her space so she could do her college applications and focus on getting good marks.

Surprisingly, they believed her.

Ella immersed herself in school work, busting her ass to get straight A’s that would keep her grade point average up. She also worked hard to live the senior year that she had always imagined herself living, but during late November things began to unravel.

On November 18th she awoke with an unbearable pain in her lower back that left her bed ridden for an entire week. She blamed it on her having upped the ante on her power clean lifts at the weight room.

Everyone believed Ella, telling her that she had to be more careful with how much weight she lifted but that wasn’t the real problem and it wasn’t until the early morning vomiting began that Ella realized what was going on.

December 2nd was the day that she finally worked up the courage to go to a local drugstore to pick up the test that would either confirm her fears or alleviate the worry from her soul; she prayed that it would be the latter.

As soon as Ella got home from the drugstore she tore the package open, taking out the plastic stick that held her fate in its hands. Ella sat down on the porcelain god, spreading her legs slightly as she stuck her right hand inside so that it would be moistened with the liquid.

Once it was wet she set it atop the box on the counter, leaving it to develop for four agonizingly long minutes that she spent pacing around the bathroom, stopping every so often to check the time on her cell phone and when five minutes had gone she took in a deep breath, readying herself to read the results.

A mangled sob escaped her lips the moment that her eyes read the demonic word.

Pregnant.