Piece of Work

A week had passed since the last time Ben hit me. I was starting to learn to act the way he wanted me to, and how to avoid it. Then again, it was possible that Ben was stopping to keep from arousing any more suspicion than he already had.

"Liv!" I called out as I was walking out of school. Ben was applying for a job at the local supermarket today, so I wasn't going to be hanging out with him. It had been so long since I'd had an afternoon without him or been free that it was almost strange.

Olivia ignored me and kept walking. I tried again, but got the same result.

Finally, I gave up and dashed next to her at the front of the crowd. "Hey, Olivia."

"Can I help you?" she snuffed.

"Yeah. I just wanted to talk, since we haven't in so long."

"Wouldn't your boyfriend hate it if he knew you were talking to me?" Her glare was very judgmental as she seemed to eye the yellowing bruise on my jaw and the scabbing scratch on the top of my cheek.

"No," I admitted, laughing lightly. "I'm sorry for pushing you away...it's just..."

"It's just what?" She had stopped, causing me to stop, and the crowd had to disperse to make its way around us.

I bit my lip nervously, not wanting to say anything further.

"That's what I thought," Olivia interjected, shaking her head slightly at me like she couldn't believe how pathetic I had become.

I stared after her, wanting more than anything to call out, to get her to talk to me some more, but I didn't. I knew that if she wanted to get my secret out of me, she would, no doubt about it.

Someone shoved into my back, sending me stumbling forward. "Will you not stand in the middle of the sidewalk? There are people trying to walk here."

"Why don't you just watch where you're going?!" I snapped back. "It's not hard."

The guy started to look angry, so I shrank back a bit. "You know what? I'm sorry. My bad."

He smiled in slight satisfaction before he continued the journey to his car. I had a flash of a memory of the blank look on Ben's face before he hit me and shuddered slightly before crossing the street to the junior lot, where my car was located.

When I got home, I disappeared immediately into my room and started catching up on all the work that I was behind on. The work loud was pretty outrageous, really.

A significant amount of time later, there was a soft knock on the door. "Faye? Um, if you're hungry, I made some dinner: steak, potatoes, and green beans. If you want any, just come out to the kitchen."

I didn't answer, instead finishing the chapter I was on in the book I needed to read for English. We had a test on it the next day, and before that night, I hadn't read a single page. That was doomed for disaster. Really, I'd picked the worst time to start slacking, considering there was only a week left of school, so all we basically had left were finals.

A couple minutes later, when I reached chapter ten, I put the book down and started for the kitchen. Since I rarely ate anything my mother made, instead making something myself or picking on pretzels or something, I could feel my mother's eyes watching my every move.

I took a piece of steak, a dollop of tomatoes, and a spoonful of green beans before sitting down at the table and started to eat.

Wordlessly, Mom turned off Cops on the TV and sat down next to me. We ate in silence, but since we ate together, it was a step, though small, toward how we used to act, how we used to be.

***

"I missed you yesterday," Ben whispered in my ear as he wrapped his arm around me from behind. "But, on the upside, I do think I got that job."

"That's great!" I cheered, turning around and kissing him shortly. I had conflicting feelings about the job. On one hand, I was happy because I was going to see him less, which gave him less chances to hit me, but on the other, I was sad for the same reason, that I'd see him less. It was pretty strange.

"I know. Then you can go grocery shopping every day to visit me." He leaned in and kissed me more deeply.

"I swear," a teacher expressed as she made her way down the hall, "if I see you two showing public displays of affection again, I will give you both detention."

"Noted," Ben smiled at her. "But I have to get to class anyway. I'll see you at lunch, okay, Faye?"

"Yeah, see you then." I turned around and started in the other direction toward my first class.

Later, at lunch, Ben proposed an idea as he sat down at the table with his light green lunch tray. "I think that we should go to that end of the year party that Issac O'Connor is throwing on the last day of school."

"Ooo," I cooed, "that sounds like a good idea. I haven't been to a party in a long time."

"Which is good," he preached. "It's not healthy for you to go to parties every night."

"I know, I know," I smiled. "Which is why I don't go as much anymore. For you."

"That's my girl." He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me close as he started to eat his lunch and I took a sip of my water.

The end of the school year couldn't seem to come quickly, or slowly, enough. I wasn't exactly sure which I wanted.