Skin

Seven days before

Anna-Maria glanced over at Victoria’s long sleeve, “Dude, it’s too hot for that.” She said pointing at Victoria’s shirt. Victoria smiled and shrugged her shoulders. She took another sip from her beer bottle.

“What can I say I’m freezing?” She smiled and laughed, Anna-Maria laughed quietly and frowned at her friend. The last month Victoria had been acting so strange, it wasn’t like her to cover up or to be so, down. Anna-Maria shook it off.

“Why don’t we go down to the mall and get some shopping done?” Anna-Maria asked and got up to go grab her car keys.

“I can’t, Martin wanted to spend some alone time with me.” Victoria sighed, “He gets upset when I cancel our plans.”

“Oh C’mon! I’m sure he’ll forgive you this one time.” Anna-Maria smiled and tugged on Victoria’s sleeve. Victoria pushed Anna away. Anna looked at Victoria in shock. “I barely get to see you anymore.”

Victoria shrugged her shoulders and walked into the bathroom. She closed the door and turned on the sink. She rolled up her sleeves and splashed water onto her face, when she looked in the mirror she noticed for the first time how tired she looked. Her lips were cracked and she had bags under her eyes. She lifted her arms up and looked at all the bruises covering them.

“Vick, I’m sorry. Okay?” The door knob turned and Anna walked in. Victoria froze in her tracks and Anna-Maria starred. “He did this?”

Victoria said nothing, ran out the bathroom, grabbed her purse and left. She didn’t drive to Anna’s house so, she called Martin from her cell phone and asked him to pick her up at the store. He showed up twenty minutes late. Victoria opened the car door and got in. The car sped off, at a unusually fast pace.

“You fucking cunt.” Martin said, his hands gripping on the steering wheel tightly. “You know you’re thirty-fucking-minutes late.” He glanced to the side.

“I know.” Victoria mumbled. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? You’re sorry?” Martin scoffed and pulled over on the side of the street. “You don’t know what sorry is.”

He unbuckled his seat belt and got out of the car. He walked over to Victoria’s side and yanked the door open. She pulled her out and threw her onto the ground. “We made plans, and you ruined them.” He sent his foot into her side and she let out a soft cry. This went on repeatedly for ten minutes. Finally, he grabbed her by the hair and threw her into the backseat. He climbed in after her and unzipped her jeans.

Sixteen days after

Anna-Maria laid in her bed, she glanced at her clock 10:00 am. She rolled over on her side and starred at the guy laying next to her, Jake, Jack, something along those names. She kicked her foot against his butt. He sat up quickly and smiled at her.

“Hey.” He mumbled and tried kissing her on the cheek. She put her hand against his chest and pushed him away. She gathered up his clothes and handed them to him.

“Leave.” She muttered and crawled back into bed.

“Seriously? Just like that?” He asked. When Anna-Maria didn’t reply he jumped out of bed, threw on his clothes, and walked out the door. “Bitch.”