A Poetic Retelling of an Unfortunate Romance

Violent has never been a word that Ella has used to describe her father, but when Leo told him of what had gone down Samuel went into a violent rage; screaming obscenities in both Spanish and English at his daughter while his eyes welled with tears.

“¡Como chingados pudiste abrir las patas si ni tienes novio! (How the hell could you spread your legs if you don’t even have a boyfriend!)” Samuel barked; disappointment and disgust shining in his eyes.

Ella lowered her gaze while whispering, “I have a boyfriend. I’ve had one for some time now.”

“AND YOU DIDN”T TELL US?!” yelled Margaret, standing up from her place at the couch.

“I wanted to tell you guys but I was scared because Leo doesn’t like him,” explained Ella.

“Your brother not liking him should’ve been a red flag for you Ella! Leo gets along with everyone so if he hates someone then they must not be good people,” argued Margaret, the veins on the side of her neck standing out against her pale white flesh.

“James isn’t a bad person the only reason that Leo doesn’t like him is because he’s jealous!” cried Ella.

Leo’s eyes flicked in anger at her words, “Jealous?!” You think I’m jealous of that piece of shit!”

“Don’t try and act like you’re not jealous! I know for a fact that you feel threatened by him because you’ve always been the man in my life but guess what?! I’m not going to be a little kid forever. I’m not going to be chasing after you my whole life trying to learn how to be just like you! There’s going to come a point time when I have to grow up and you don’t want me to! You just want me to be a little girl my whole life because you think that’s the only way that you’ll keep being my hero but its not.” Her voice cracked, while she struggled to reign in her emotions. “You’re always going to be my hero, even after this.”

Normally such a heartfelt statement would have served to soften the person it was being directed towards, but that didn’t happen with Leo. He simply stood there, devoid of any emotion other than anger and looked towards his mother, begging her with his eyes to act.

“Samuel,” whispered Margaret, her word carrying a hidden meaning that only he understood.

His eyes widened at his wife’s tone, he’d only heard it once before and that had been when he was obligated to punish Leo for having taken his classic Charger on a joy ride without permission and wrecking it in a crash.

“Ve y trae el cinto de Guanajuato. (Fetch the belt from Guanajuato.)” Samuel ordered.

“Papa,” pleaded Ella, knowing very well what he wanted the belt for.

Samuel pointed up the stairs while screaming, “Go!”

Grudgingly, Ella made her way up the stairs to the bedroom her parent’s shared. She opened the door of their walk in closet and began wandering towards the very back where Samuel housed his extensive belt collection.

Her eyes scanned them, stopping only when she found the correct belt which was made of leather and had a huge silver buckle with the word “Guanajuato” spelled across it. It was hit favorite belt. It was also the one that could inflict the most damage.

“Fuck,” muttered Ella under her breath while she imagined the pain that it would cause her.

She stood in front of the belt for several minutes; contemplating what she would do next. Deep down inside she wanted to flee from her home, to run off to James’ but she knew that she couldn’t do that. Ella wasn’t going to run from the punishment her father was about to bestow upon her.

It wasn’t how she was brought up.

In the Acosta home the children were raised to take whatever punishment given to them. Normally punishments consist of having allowances taken away, not being able to watch television or not being able to go out, but sometimes if the situation was a little more serious they were given a light spanking or a slap. The belt was only taken out on very serious occasions.

“You got yourself into this now you have to take it,” Ella whispered to herself.

The belt was grabbed from the rack and she slowly made her way back to the living room. No tears fell from her eyes as she handed the belt to her father who then told her to lower her pants and turn around.

Ella fumbled with the button on her pants. She sighed softly before letting them drop to the ground, leaving her only in her black boy cut underwear. Her hands grasped the arm of the couch for support while she bent over, readying herself for the pain.

Without warning, Samuel brought the buckle crashing down against her derrière, causing her to wince in pain. Ella felt the buckle puncturing her flesh more and more with each blow. She bit down hard on her lower lip in an attempt to stifle her sobs.

Pain emanated from her derrière, spreading throughout her body but the pain that hurt the most, that left her breathless, was the one coming from her heart. Never in her life had Ella been struck by either of her parents.

Even when she ‘deserved’ to be smacked she was never hit because Samuel couldn’t stomach the idea of hitting his little girl, his baby, but apparently this time Ella had angered the gentle man so much that he felt forced to teach her a lesson and that, her father’s disappointment, is what stung the most.

“Quítateme de enfrente. (Get out of my sight.)” Samuel told her without looking her in the face, when he finished punishing her.

Ella grabbed her pants from their place by her ankles and pulled them up, hissing in pain when the denim covered her raw derrière that had bled quite a bit during the heated belting that her father had just finished giving her.

She limped up the stairs, grasping the rail for support as she made her way towards her room. Once inside her room she took off her pants along with her panties and walked over to the full length mirror. She cringed when she saw the damage done; her entire derrière was red, many parts of it where swollen and a few had gashes with blood seeping from them.

Her hands gently grazed the tender flesh, trying not to disturb it to much. This was the worse injury she’d ever had and that’s counting the times that she blew her knee out during football her freshman year, this was going to prove to be a bitch to handle during practice but she had to do it.

Loud singing brought Ella out of her daze. She walked towards the window and saw Leo dancing around the backyard in celebration. Her eyes hardened at the sight, there she was trying to figure out how she was going to get through practice and he was outside dancing like he’d won.

He may have won the battle, but the war was still raging.

Ella quickly through on some black sweats so that she could climb out her window and wail on him. He had ruined her evening, he had been the reason why her father couldn’t look her in the face anymore and now he was going to pay for everything he’d done.

“CUNT FACED FUCK!” yelled Ella when she landed on the ground.

His head whipped around quickly. He raised his brow at her while saying, “Shouldn’t your ass be inside tending to your injuries?”

“No, I'm supposed to be out here fucking you up,” snapped Ella.

Leo shook his head. “Get inside before I lose my patience with you.”

He turned his back on her, walking towards his boom box that was pumping out the tunes. Ella was tempted to return to her room so that she could rest before confronting him but the desire to cause damage was so great that she couldn’t just peacefully walk away.

“What the fucks your problem?!” he hissed when Ella shoved him against the guava tree they had in the backyard.

Ella stood in front of him with a hard expression on her face, the same look she has whenever she’s out on the wrestling mat. He narrowed his eyes at her knowing exactly what she was challenging him to. Without saying a word he took off his shoes along with his jewelry and returned to where she stood.

Whenever there’s a dispute between the two they take it to the backyard so that they can have themselves a wrestling match. It’s not really what an older brother and younger sister should be doing, but since Leo was in Greco roman wrestling in high school and Ella is on the team it seems to be the only fair thing they have.

Her body moved back and forth as she shifted the weight from her left foot to the right foot. Her brother was good at taking shots, Ella was good at sprawling which meant that their match would be fought standing, both trying to get a toss in so that they could take the other down.

Leo grabbed the back of her neck roughly, pulling her closer as he tried to work a bear hug toss, but Ella managed to wrap her hand around his neck which foiled his plan, making them both apply as much pressure as they could to the back of the neck to make the other lose.

She studied him, waiting for him to loosen the hold on her shoulder and when he did, she took the opportunity to completely swing her arm around his neck, locking his head in a hold while she quickly turned, pressed her body against his and swinging him over her hip in a clean hip-toss.

His body flew in the air, slamming hard against the ground. Ella increased the pressure on his neck, making his face begin to change colors but just before his entire air supply was cut he rolled so that he was on his stomach.

Ella followed his moved closely and ended up on top, her legs between his as she fought for control, digging her arm deep into his ribs to make him bring his head up so that she could cross face him with her thumb.

Several minutes later Leo finally brought his face up and Ella jumped at the opportunity to cross face him, her thumb trailed against his cheekbone, making him grit his teeth in pain as she repeated the action.

Normally wrestlers do that to make their opponent give up an arm, but Ella wasn’t interested in the arm, she wanted to break his fucking nose.

Leo began building up on the bottom, popping up on his arms so that he was no longer on his belly but on his knees. Ella quickly slipped her legs within his thighs so that she could ride him, her arms never stopped working the cross face but when he started standing up she had to stop the cross face and grab onto his neck for dear life.

Her hold on his neck intensified, causing him to open his mouth to gasp for breath. Not wanting to lose to Ella he decided to fall backwards. Ella screamed in pain when her derrière collided violently against the moist grass.

Her brother made a move to try and pin her but Ella rolled on her belly, bringing her arms closely in so that he wouldn’t be able to roll her on her back but she knew that things weren’t looking that good at anymore because her brother is very talented when he’s on top; he’s the Hispanic Cael Sanders.

Ella’s lips pursed into a tight line when he dug his knuckles into her ribs while simultaneously pressing his lower body onto hers, the excruciating pain forced Ella to lift her face to scream and he took that opportunity to cross face her.

He lay there for awhile, just bringing both fists into contact with her face. When he felt blood escape her nose he yet again dug his knuckles into her ribs and this time he managed to grab her arm. He did what’s called a chicken wing, it’s when an arm is grabbed and it’s brought towards the back causing the person on the ground to give up.

Leo waited for Ella to give up, but the words never left her mouth. Instead she lay there with her buried in the grass to muffle the pained groans that escaped her lips. No longer wanting to harm Ella, he let her go.

The next morning Ella struggled to get out of bed. Every part of her body hurt and she wanted nothing more than to lay in bed all day but she’d already missed one day of practice and there was no way in hell that she was going to miss another.

She grabbed her workout clothes from the floor and slipped them on, cursing lightly when the mesh shorts were pulled up against her derrière. Once ready she grabbed her gym bag and walked down the stairs, not bothering to tell her mom goodbye because she knew that Margaret didn’t want to see her face.

She had almost reached her friends house when a familiar calling her name made her stop.

“What did they do to you?!” asked James, his eyes narrowing in anger when he saw the black eye and bruising along her face.

Ella shot him a sad smile. “Don’t worry about it.”

“How do you expect me to not worry? Your brother shows up at my place like a fucking psycho and then you look like this. Fuck that. I'm going to fucking kill his ass,” muttered James.

“If you lay a hand on my brother I‘ll fucking kill you,” threatened Ella.

James scoffed. “He beat the shit out of you!”

“That doesn’t matter! He’s my fucking brother.” Ella cried, tears spilling from her eyes.

James expression softened when he saw her crying. He took her in his arms, letting her bury her face in his chest while he rubbed her back tenderly whispering sweet nothings into her ear to try to make her feel better.

“Where’s this going to leave us?” James asked softly, afraid of what her response would be.

“We should break up,” whispered Ella, “That’d be the smart thing to do but I don’t want to. I want to be with you James, even if they don’t want me to but you have to promise me something.”

“What is it?” he asked.

Ella stared up at him, “Just promise that all this pain will be worth it.”

“I swear it Gabriella. I swear it.”

His words put her soul at ease. Ella wasn’t going to give him up, he was a drug that she was addicted to and she refused to go through withdrawal even if continued use would lead to her demise.