How Cliche to Have My Heart Stolen

As I came to, I started gaining my senses slowly. First, I felt pressure on both sides of my body; the muscles in my arms ached. Then I could hear people talking at first it was like white noise. Next I could smell a musky scent of over used men's cologne. All I could taste was my own saliva. I let out a small moan of pain as my eyes creeped open. Everything blurred at first; I blinked and they became clearer. When I regained full vision the first thing I looked at was the rear view mirror. I looked and saw the driver looking right at me.

"She's awake," he said.

I wiggled my torso and shoulders as much as I could, trying to free my arms, I made the vehicle shake a bit.

"Restrain her!"

When he said that, everything came back to me. How just because someone wanted to buy cigarettes and another person wanted pot, I'd become tied up and am being taken to God knows where. If I were a pot smoker, this would more than likely kill my addiction.

Skeezebo was sitting beside me, pressing me into the window. Looking around, I realized we were in a mini van. Their was only one door, and that was on the other side of Skeezebo. It wouldn't be easy to escape. I turned my head to look for Rachel. She was directly behind me, sitting next to Lalean.

I quickly calmed down, having remembered my situations. "Attagirl" Skeezebo draped his skanky arm around my shoulder. "It'd be a real shame to have to kill you, honey."

Pet names always annoyed. Honey. Cutie pie. Sweet cheeks. Babe. All of them. It felt degrading, even more so when Skeezebo said it. I hid my cringe.

I wanted to be honest. I wanted to know, "So what are you going to do with us?"

"Thanks to persuasion by Luke, Carl, and me," Lalean said, "you'll stay alive." She leaned forward, though I was facing forward, I could hear her voice getting closer to my ear. Then I felt her nails on my neck as she lightly grasped it. "You're strange. I want to understand you before I kill you."

"I'm two-faced," I said frankly. "I'm one person around my friends, when I'm outside away from my family. I'm also a parent's dream and a teacher's favorite student." If I died, I wanted to at least admit the truth: I'm fake.

She laughed. It was annoying. What was she laughing at? Regaining her composure, she said, "Everyone is fake, it's just how good are you at covering it up?"

"Decent, I guess. No one knows about it except my closest friends who have seen both sides," I admitted.

"I like you," I heard a smile in her voice. "Matt, can we keep her? I promise I'll feed her and walk her and take care of her!"

I looked in the rear view mirror and saw her lower lip sticking out in a begging face. I couldn't help but wonder how much of it was a joke.

"And then we can make her into a dam," she added.

"Dam?" I asked.

"The female version of a 'stud' in dog terms."

I swallowed hard. My stomach felt heavy.

She continued to mock me, "A surrogate mother, if you will. So much for you being smart."

"No. Kill me now if that's what you have in store for me," I said.

"Calm the fuck down," she hissed. "I was kidding." Her hand fell hard on my cheek, crashing my head into the window. I let it rest there.

"God, try to have any fun and they freak out," she huffed. "How much farther, Carl? It's been so long!"

I just realized, it's been hours. Having been passed out, I didn't notice how long we were driving.

"It's just up this hill," Skeezebo said. "No one has been there in years, from what I've heard."

"We're going to have to move there for a while untll the heat wears off," Matt, Luke's dad, said. "From what Carl said, it's big enough for us. The girls can share a room with Carl. Me and Lalean will have a room. And Luke can have his own."

"You're rooming with me, cupcake." Skeezebo squeezed my shoulder.

"Why Carl?" I had to ask.

"Lucas would let you go. I can't risk that." Logic. Damn. "Carl will make sure you behave."

Skeezebo wrapped his fingers around my inner elbow, jerking me along and out of the van. I lost my footing before I even had both feet on the ground falling into the dirt. Huffing an annoyed sigh, he lifted me back to my feet by my underarm. "Walk," he said coldly.

Is he mad? I wondered. Was he really offended by what I said? I hadn't even called him Skeezebo to his face yet. Still, I walked, just like I was told, towards the house. Looking at it, I was wondering if it was even safe. Matt and Luke got sleeping bags out of the back of the van and followed us to the house. Carl opened the door to a completely dark house. The only light came from the windows. I walked in first, followed by Rachel and Lalean.

Matt began barking orders. "Down that hall and to the left is Carl, Honey, and Babe's room."
I assumed I was Babe since it started with a B and Rachel could be Honey as she was much sweeter than me.

Handing Carl two sleeping bags, he said, "Lucas will have the room on the right. Lalean and I will sleep in the main room and watch over the house." He laid out a sleeping bag on the floor. "Good night, everyone."

When I realized they weren't getting anymore, I questioned him. "Wait. Just two sleeping bags for me, Ske--Carl, and Rachel?"

Annoyed, said, "It's normally just Lalean, Carl, Lucas, and me. We didn't really have time to buy two more bags. They're big, okay? Just figure something out."

"It's okay," Skeezebo tried to comfort me by patting me on the head. "You and Honey can have your own bags. I'll just sleep on the floor."

"Th-Thank you..." I was really caught off guard.

"Let's all go to bed. Good night, Matt. Lalean. Luke," he said and lead me and Rachel into the room.

It had no windows. Now I know why they gave it to us. They knew we were going to try to escape. Flashing on a keychain sized flashlight, he said, "Hurry, this battery doesn't last long. Get comfortable."

He was actually being an alright human being. It really caught me off guard. I decided to go with it until I could put together a real plan. I lay in the sleeping bag, zipped inside. I watched him through a barely cracked eye. He laid himself out right in front of the door. They really were making sure we had no chance to escape.