The Only Exception

Cold, the ground was cold, and so was everything around me. I was cold. Why was I so cold? I was freezing, shivering on the cold ground. I let my hands feel around the tile, it was smooth and comfortable. Why was this ground so comfortable? And why was something dripping down my back? Was I crying so much that tears were coming out of everywhere? No, that's not possible.

I tried to move, I tried to get up. But I slipped back down after feeling the liquid glide across my hands. It was cold, too - the liquid was freezing, just like the rest of me. But I needed to figure out what was so cold and wet, and when I turned my hand over, what could I do but gasp in shock at what was in my face?

Blood. There was blood everywhere, dripping from my hand. So I moved my body over, as far away from the puddle as I could and pulled myself up onto my feet. I was extremely dizzy - too dizzy. Which wasn't normal for me, I was never in this much imbalance.

I turned around to face the puddle of blood. Was my back bleeding? I felt my hand around my back and took a small whisk before pulling my hand back to find more blood. It was bleeding, and the only thing I could worry about was this mess that was all over the kitchen floor. Oliver would be up soon - wait, it was already seven o'clock, he was gone.

Did he just ignore his daughter lying on the ground in a puddle of blood? Well, of course he would. And I guarantee that when he stepped over my almost lifeless, unconscious body, he probably kicked me once or twice and laughed, just before reaching for the door and leaving me there. I couldn't doubt that that's what he did. He was sick.

But it's not like I can do anything about it. He's my father, and even if it comes out to be a shock even to me, I love him.

I needed to clean this up before there's a stain on the white tile. I went over to the cabinets under the sink and pulled out a scrubber and some stain away spray. I sprayed a few times, and within a couple minutes I had gotten most of it off. But there was a light pink-ish rim from that puddle, and most of it came off, but just not enough.

So, throwing the scrubber into the sink, and putting away the spray, I made my way up stairs and into my bathroom.

How bad will this be, I thought. It couldn't be that bad, right? Wrong.

I let my clothes fall to the ground and looked deeply into the mirror, searching for any cuts that would be very noticeable. I found none, so I turned around and stared at the gruesome horror on my back. It was like what I learned in history class all those years that I cared about school. How the slaves would get whipped for not doing what they were supposed to do. But this time, these whips and slashes were for a whole different reason.

Oliver shouldn't blame me - or maybe he should, I'm still undecided on that myself. If he did, he'd just keep this torture up. But if he didn't, he'd still go out and drink, and odds are, he'd probably come home drink and absent mindedly give me what I 'asked for'. But in reality, I didn't ask for this. Not for my mother to kill herself, and definitely not for my own father to take out his anger and pain on me. His daughter.

~

Getting into the shower hurt like hell. The warm water getting into the cuts on my back, cleaning out the dried blood and the still oozing blood. It hurt, but not as bad as it hurt to get these slashes. But last night, the belt didn't do it's full damage, and I'm glad it didn't.

I had small cuts and slashes, and they weren't anything major like giant deep gashes zig-zagging through my skin. Nothing like that. Just minor cuts and hardly any deep gashes. With my fast-healing body, I'd be better in a week, stops.

If I wasn't dead by then. Shut up, mind, I don't have time for game. God, now I'm starting to sound like a physco. And no one wants that.

Once I was out of the shower and dried off, fully clothed as well, I brought myself down stairs to watch TV. It was already 10:12 am, and there was no point in going to school now. I'd get an absent and a shit load of business would begin to happen. But nothing was ever going to subside, and I knew that right from the very beginning.

The beatings wouldn't stop, the bleeding and bruises that would make me stay home from school, those wouldn't stop. Oliver would not stop for anything. He was too controlled by his anger and pain, like I said before.

I sighed as I flipped through the channels, nothing entertaining was coming up and that only made things more stressful for me. I could hardly lay myself on the couch, so I made myself sit up - which was hardly more comfortable.

Irritated, I pressed the 'off' button on the remote and just sat there staring at the blank television screen. I don't know how long I sat there, staring off and thinking aimlessly about everything. But the ringing doorbell interrupted everything. Letting out a groan of aggravation, I pulled myself off the couch and walked over to the front door.

Shit, I thought as I opened the door to find none other than, Jacob.

"What do you want?" I asked. Maybe that was a little bit too harsh?

Jacob gave me a confused look and said, "Uh - can we talk?"

"I guess, come on in..." I trailed while making room for this boy and his ginormous body. We both walked over to the couch, er - I ran over to sit on the blood stained cushion, causing Jacob to chuckle.

Once we were both seated, Jacob cleared his throat, "About yesterday, I um - I'm really -"

"Yeah yeah, it's fine." I shrugged it off. The look on Jacob's face got me to wonder what he was thinking of right now. The look seemed like he was thinking about why I was pushing the kiss away.

"Listen, Bray -"

"Braylin."

He rolled his eyes, "Braylin, am I seriously that bad of a kisser? I mean, seriously that hurts, ya know?" He feigned hurt. I gave him a 'what the fuck?' look and rolled my eyes.

"You're not a bad kisser..." I mumbled.

"Then what is it?"

I gave another shrug and sighed, "I was just freaked that you'd kissed me." That wasn't a total lie, I mean I was freaked but that was only because it was sort of out of nowhere, and he was my first kiss. And, I couldn't tell him about Oliver - I'd be screwed.

"Was that too fast, too sudden?" He asked, he scooted closer to me with his tense figure. I shook my head. "Then what -"

"You were my first kiss, there, happy?" I grumbled and then mentally smacked myself in the head for spitting that out.

Jacob's eye went wide and a wide smile came upon his face. "Was I really?" I gave him a short nod and grimaced. "Wow." He smiled in a daze.

"Um, are you alright?" I waved my hand in front of his face, but he kept staring at me. "Jacob, hello?"

Then he snapped out of it, "Oh, sorry." Cute, he blushed. Not.

"S'okay." I replied.

"So, uh - I was wondering, besides coming over to apologize, I was wondering if you'd like to -" Jacob's stuttering question was interrupted with a massive howl coming from what I believed was the forest. Jacob's head snapped to the window and he cursed under his breath.

"You okay? They're just wolves." I said, remembering the time I ran into that beautiful and mesmerizing russet colored wolf, who was extremely large for his kind.

"I just remembered, that I have to get back and check on my dad. You know, wheel chair and all..." Jacob got up suddenly and began to shake with tremors, and when I put my hand on his shoulder, he stopped.

"You sure you're okay?" I asked.

He nodded as he walked over to the front door, "Yeah, fine. Um, see you later." And that was it. After that he had ran out to his car and sped off down the road. What was up with him?

Trying my hardest to ignore what just happened, I let myself fall on the couch and soon enough, I was out.