Save Your Heart for Someone Who Leaves You Breathless

As the school year got shorter and shorter, Renee became more and more scared. What was she going to do, over the summer, when Ryan was free all day long to do whatever he pleased; usually beating, with Renee, and her parents weren’t home all day long, to protect her?

No one was there to protect her, ever. No one wanted to.

But Renee knew that she was just having a pity party for herself, even if she did deserve one.

Renee knew someone who would always protect her, from death itself.

Anthony.

Renee’s day suddenly brightened, and she found herself counting down the days until summer, instead of awaiting them with a deathly manner, dreading summer. She found her self excited, and anxious, for Anthony to get back. She needed someone to protect her, and Anthony wanted to be that someone, he made that very clear.

Thinking irrationally, as sometimes humans do, Renee decided that once Anthony was back, she’d break it off with Ryan, just to have Anthony there with her to save her when he threw his first punch toward her already cringing face.

However, the cringe on Renee’s face faded, as she realized, school ended in two weeks, June 4, and that sounded better to her than life itself.

And she cried, with a smile on her face.

She seemed to skip the thought, however, that Anthony would eventually go back to school, and Ryan would still be here, with her, ready, waiting for the second Anthony left, to give her the beating of a lifetime.

Actually, Renee didn’t skip this thought. She just strategically moved around it.

Because when your heart is already hanging on one of it’s last strings, one tiny thought, this though, could snap that string, and let her heart be broken forever.

And right now Renee just could not take that.

Anthony had already started to pack all of his belongings, even though there were two weeks left in his school year, along with Renee’s.

He was throwing everything into boxes, when his phone rang. He didn’t recognize the number, so he didn’t answer. Soon, it stopped ringing, only to once again start ringing.

Anthony flipped his phone open when the number appeared again, realizing it must be an important call.

“Hello?”

“A-Anthony?” A small hesitant voice asked.

A smile spread over Anthony’s face.

“Renee!”

“Yeah,” she said, sighing a sigh of relief. Anthony could see the smile on her face.

“Uh,” Anthony groaned. “I have missed you so much.” He said, sitting down on his bed in his empty dorm room, his roommate not here.

“I miss you too.” She whispered into the phone.

“Renee, I—” Anthony began to say right at the moment when Renee said, “Anthony, I have to tell you something.”

“Go ahead.” He said to her.

“I-W-Are you coming back for summer?” she asked hopefully.

“Of course, sweetheart.” He said softly.

He heard a sigh of relief from the other line.

“W-Well I have been thinking, when you get back, I am going to break up with Ryan.”

“That’s great, Renee!” he said, a smile lighting up his face.

“But that’s only if, you know, you are still offering to protect me. Because he will become very violent.” She whispered the last part.

Anthony realized that Ryan must have been becoming very violent lately, or at least since Anthony’s visit, for Renee to sound this scared.

“What has he been doing to you, darling?” he whispered in a stern voice.

“The usual, but lately, he has taken a liking to punching me until I fall, and finishing the job by kicking me.”

Anthony was off of his bed in seconds, raging.

“That mother fucker!” he yelled. “How could he do that to you?! H-How could he hurt you like that?!”

He began to hear soft weeps at the other end of the line. His anger dissipated.

“Oh, darling,” he whispered. “I’m sorry, please don’t cry.”

“I-It’s just so hard, Anthony.” She sobbed into the phone. “He hurts me every god damn day!” she yelled crying into the phone. “He doesn’t even care anymore! He just beats me, and doesn’t even hear me sobbing!” There was silence as she cried even more and Anthony’s blood boiled with hatred for this guy that he had once called a friend. “I just don’t understand how someone can tell you they love you, and then punch you in the face.” She said, her voice strained. “But the worse part is that no body notices.” She said, letting her heart out, Anthony let her. “My parents are never home. So he beats me here. Anthony?” she said softly.

“Yes, Renee?”

“Aren’t you supposed to feel safe in your own home?” she whispered.

Anthony’s heart broke.

“I am going to save you, okay Renee? I won’t let him hurt you anymore.”

“I-I lost the basketball championship for us, Anthony!” And this seemed to upset her the most. “I let my team down! We were down by one! One fucking point! And I got a simply jumper. But I missed it.” she began to sob harder. “I was in the goddamn key, Anthony!”

“I’m sure there were defenders on you.” He said, trying to calm her, wondering why this seemed to upset her the most.

“No.” she said with an animalistic laugh. “No. I was open. So open, and I missed it.”

“Why did you miss it, Renee?” Anthony asked her, because it seemed to him that that was what she wanted him to ask.

“Ryan had hurt my wrist.”

“It’s not your fault then, darling.”

“I let my team down, Anthony. B-But most of all? God let me down.” She said, in a voice that screamed something terrible at Anthony, something he didn’t want to think.

Renee had given up.