Dark and Dirty Like You've Never Seen

I sat in the passenger seat of the car, clinging to Frank and letting my tears flow freely. I know I look like a wreck right now. My makeup was smeared and I was practically snotting all over myself with my sobbing. Frank gripped me back, and I could tell he was shaking. I leaned back and took a closer look at him. Both of his eyes were blacked and his lip was swollen and bloody. It looks like they knocked his lip ring out. He had a cut across the side of his face. One of them must have been wearing a class ring. I hugged him to me again and I heard him wince in pain. I let him go and watched as he leaned back in the driver’s seat and lifted his shirt up to reveal the bruises all over his torso. He let out a long sigh and slumped in his seat.

“Angela… I’m so sorry.”

“Sorry? Why are you s-sorry?” I asked as I wiped the back of my hands across my eyes.

“I told you I could handle it. I thought I would be able to take care of this and I just got the shit kicked out of me. I don’t want you to think that I can’t protect you. I can. I knew I didn’t stand a chance against the two of them, but if it meant that they would leave you only, I was willing to do that. I just wished it didn’t hurt so bad…” he said, groaning in pain and holding his stomach. He looked over at me and managed a weak smile. “I’m just glad you didn’t have to see it.”

I bit my lip and nodded, the tears starting to flow again. I told him I heard the yelling and saw the two guys running from the fight on my way back from lunch. I told him I was trying to get to him but I didn’t want to risk getting in trouble again. He believed me. I couldn’t tell him about Aaron. I didn’t even want to think about it. The second I found myself thinking about his hands on me, pinning me down, his hot breath coating my face … I couldn’t stop myself from crying. Frank mistook it for being upset I couldn’t be there to stop the fight. I couldn’t risk having Frank going after Aaron again if he knew what really happened. Especially now with how weak he is. I gripped his hand and mine and brought it to my face, kissing his knuckles.

“I’m sorry Frank. I’m so sorry …”

“Angel … please don’t. At least it’s over now.”

“What are you going to tell your dad?”

“Might as well tell him the truth. That I got in a fight. This isn’t the first time, so he won’t be too surprised.”

“That doesn’t mean he won’t be upset.”

“I know …” He sighed and closed his eyes. I wish I knew what he was thinking right now. He slowly leaned forward and started the car. He reached around to put on his seat belt and winced in pain once more.

“Frank, let me drive.”

He looked at me and sighed in defeat. I wasn’t trying to make him feel helpless but we both knew he was in too much pain to do much of anything right now. He carefully climbed out of the car and switched me spots. I was able to compose myself enough to get back to Frank’s house. We sat in the drive way for a moment before finally making our way into the house. We quietly made our way back to his room but before we could make it to the hall way, we heard Frank’s dad calling for him from behind.

“Frank, what in God’s name happened to you?”

We turned around and saw his dad standing in the kitchen. He must have been in the basement. I looked at Frank and he squeezed my hand.

“I’ll see you in a minute.” I let go of his hand and made my way back to his room. I could hear Frank and his dad’s muffled voices as they discussed what happened at school today. I detoured into the bathroom for a moment, locking the door behind me. I flipped on the light and stared at my red rimmed eyes in the mirror. My nose was also slightly red from rubbing it. I grabbed some tissues off the roll and wiped the smeared makeup under my eyes as I took a seat on the edge of the tub. I winced, my legs still sore from earlier. I buried my head in my hands and let out a long, shaky sigh. I don’t know if not telling Frank was a good thing, but right now I couldn’t handle reliving that experience again. Before I had a chance to think on it anymore, there was a knock at the door.

“Angela? Are you ok?” I heard Frank’s voice call from the other side. I stood up and threw the tissues in the trash can before pulling the door slowly open. Frank stood on the other side with his hands tucked in his pockets, his head cocked to the side. Despite the damage Aaron’s friends had done to him, he looked like a little boy. I couldn’t help but smile at him. He returned it with his cute side smirk and jerked his head in the direction of his room. I followed him to his bedroom as he closed the door behind us. I slipped off my uniform, left just in my tank top and underwear and crawled into Frank’s bed. He slowly shed his clothes and climbed in next to me. We lay there staring at each other, no words being spoken. There was really nothing to say. I curled up closer to him, letting him rest his head on my chest. I noticed his breath becoming shallow as he drifted off to sleep. Unfortunately, it didn’t come so quickly for me. I lay there thinking off all the things we had endured, not just with Aaron but from the very beginning. I thought about how I had let him in on one of the more embarrassing details of my life and he actually stood up for me to my dad. We had dealt with Aaron and Lacy and me being suspended. With everything we had gone through already since we met, I knew that leaving Frank wasn’t an option for me anymore. It made me shiver at the thought. I was scared that I felt this way about Frank and how fast it had happened, but I was also scared because it felt so right. I eventually drifted into a restless sleep, holding on to Frank.

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<i>I straddled Frank, finally winning the fight for dominance. He grinned at me as he brought a hand up to my face and pushed my hair behind my ear. I leaned into his hand and smiled even wider at him. I leaned down to give him a kiss when I felt his arms wrap around my waist and flip me over on the bed so now he was straddling me. I giggled as he buried his head into the crook of my neck and began biting and kissing it. I tried to push him off but he had a strong hold on me.

“Frank, come on!” I groaned as I tried once more to push him off. He tightened his grip on me and I felt his hand move roughly up my leg. My laughter began to falter as I tried again to push him off. “Frank seriously, you’re hurting me.” I felt his hands clawing at my sweat pants, trying to yank them down. He grunted in my ear as I felt his erection pressing into my leg. He was starting to worry me and I wasn’t in the mood for anything of the sort now. “Frank, stop it!”

“Mmmm … you smell so good. I can smell it… the fear. It’s intoxicating.” He leaned up just enough for me to see his eyes. They weren’t the golden hazel hue I was used to. His eyes were piercing blue with a ring of black around the edge. My heart began to race as I put all my weight into my arms and tried to throw him off of me. He just laughed as I felt his hands slide into my sweat pants.

“Frank. Please, Frank! Stop, please!” I cried out in pain as he forced his fingers into me. I felt a tear slide down my face as I let out a blood curdling scream. He sat up and stared down at me with a devilish grin and I began to hyperventilate. “Aaron…” I whimpered.</i>

I shot straight up in bed, my skin coated in a layer of sweat. My heart was pounding in my ears. I looked over to Frank’s side of the bed. He wasn’t there. I blinked a few times as I scanned the room. I grabbed my phone off the bed side table and switched it on. It was four in the morning. I rubbed my eyes as the air began to cool my skin. I just started to calm down and come out of the horrible dream I was in when the door to Frank’s room pushed open. Frank walked sleepily back into the room and crawled into the bed next to me.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, mumbling.

“Nothing. Just a weird dream.”

“Mmmm … ok.” He snuggled into his pillow and was back to sleep in no time. I don’t know if he was even awake to start. I settled down next to him and stared blindly into the dark at the ceiling, unable to sleep now. It had been weeks since the incident, yet I still had dreams about it. Those were the worst though; the ones that made it seem like it was Frank attacking me. I felt edgy around him after those dreams, even when I made a conscious effort not to. At first he was worried about the way I acted toward him, but he decided on that I was just a moody female.

Unable to fall asleep, I watched as time moved slowly forward and the sun began to creep in through the curtain. I sat and watched as Frank’s chest rose and fell peacefully in a slow rhythm. His mouth was slightly open and he was quietly snoring. A weak smile crept up on my face. The bruises were gone and he had pierced his lip again from where it had been torn out in the fight. There was no damage left to prove that the fight had ever happened. Outwardly, there was no sign that anything had ever happened to me from the start, and yet I was the one who was still jumpy in the halls and having nightmares. There had been no more real threats from Aaron or his friends. I would catch a glimpse of him in the halls now and then but never stuck around long enough for him to catch my eye. I hadn’t heard from Lacy either. I saw her more often than Aaron, but she never once looked my way. I don’t know if she was part of what happened that day, but even if she wasn’t, I wanted nothing to do with her anymore.

I jumped as the alarm clock went off. I saw Frank stretch and heard him groan as he pulled the covers up over his head.

“Why did you set the alarm? It’s Saturday…” he grumbled. It was 7:30.

“My doctor’s appointment is at nine. Remember? I’m getting my cast off today.” I watched as he slowly pulled the covers off of his head and turned to look at me.

“Yeah!” He said in a weak voice. I chuckled as I threw the covers off myself and walked over to my bag of clothes. I was still at Frank’s house after all this time. Slowly but surely, Frank’s dad was piecing things together and understood why I didn’t want to go home. I got a call from my mom after a while and she begged me to come home. I told her I wasn’t ready for that yet. She attempted to get a hold of me a few more times, but I ignored her calls until she finally stopped. It felt strange, dropping my mom and dad like that, but at the same time I had never felt better. I glanced over at Frank and smiled as I watched him root around the bed a little longer before finally getting up. The frigid memories of my parents faded as stared on at the black haired, hazel eyed boy that stumbled, literally, into my life and helped me pull myself back together.