One Is Enough

I was walking home the whole time thinking that Eryc Deven actually noticed me. He looked at my eyes. Does that mean he saw me speaking and then suddenly wanting to slap myself for saying whatever I said? How embarrassing that must be. He probably thinks I'm weirder than weird. I usually count all the lines on the sidewalk but today my mind was filled with just thoughts of Eryc. He was just so cute and those hypnotizing eyes too.

*****

I finally reach my porch and climb the little white steps and unlock the door. Dad wasn't here, that was a relief. I wondered where he was but at the same time I didn't care. I quickly prepared myself some sandwiches to eat later in case he locked me in my room again. As I'm walking up the stairs the thought quickly rushed into my head. Why would Clarissa speak out of nowhere as soon as Eryc sat next to me. She never did that. She always appeared most likely during the night. I was a little confused but I disregarded my sudden thoughts. I was listening to music and doing my homework when I hear a slam and a few footsteps coming up the staircase. I quickly paused the music and hid my headphones.

"I got a call that you spoke back to Mrs. Hunter." he said with gritted teeth.

"It wasn't me dad I-"

He knocked me out of my words. I fell to the floor and he grabbed me by my arm.

"You don't get enough do you?! You humiliated me!" he said giving me another slap.

My lips tremble and my eyes look at him with fear. I tasted my blood free falling from my bottom lip. I wanted to cry so bad.

"If you won't fucking understand then maybe you need more punishment!" he continued.

He shook me around and pushed me so hard I went tumbling to the dresser. He quickly got out of the room, slamming the door, sending one of the frames on the wall falling to the ground and breaking into pieces. It was a picture of all of us when I was 3 years old. We looked so happy. What the hell ever happened? Why was he such a monster? I crawled there on the floor feeling the pain of the knob from my dresser in my back. After a few minutes of crying on the floor, I walked towards the bathroom and washed my broken lip. My cheeks weren't red anymore except the thick fingers marked on them. My arm was bruised. I took off my tank top and stayed in my black bra. My back, it was so undesirable. Filled with marks, and bruises. On my hip was the mark of the door knob from the dresser from when he pushed me and sent me tumbling towards it.

"If you would stand tall and tell him something, you wouldn't be going through this" Clarissa said.

"Get out." I said looking down at the sink.

"Get out? What do you mean get out?" she said.

"I said get the fuck out of my body! Leave! Leave me alone! Why do you have to exist? Why!?" I said yelling.

Clarissa just disappeared. I knew because my eyes slowly shifted to green. This curse. I don't know why I was living with all of this. I must of done something horrible in my past life to deserve this. I never went out, never drank, never smoked yet everyday I barely made it alive. I'm tired of this. I'm tired of being pushed around. I didn't even have an appetite. I ignored the sandwiches on the table and crawled under my covers. I wanted to be alone, and just die in my sleep.

*****

The next morning I woke up with my eyes swollen from crying all night. I could barely open them. I pulled on my blue skinny's and a peach sweater over my head. I picked up my hair in high ponytail and I was out the door. Walking down the stairs, I could barely move. My body was aching all over the place. Seems like dad was still sleeping. School had been such a drag today, and then 3rd period came around. Mrs. Hunter didn't even look at me but every time it was my turn to read from the book she would skip me and call on the person behind me.

"Today I am assigning a project. I will choose your partners so don't think about going off with your friends." she said seriously.

I hated projects, I always begged her if I could do it alone and she had no other choice but to agree because luckily the class was uneven but now that Eryc was here, I was going to be paired up with someone. Mrs. Hunter stood there pairing everyone up when the last ones were Eryc and I. Yup, Eryc and I have been paired up for this project. Wait, rewind! Eryc and I? Paired up? This wasn't happening to me. No!

"Mrs. Hunter" I said raising my hand.

"No buts Catherin Sill" she said not even looking at me.

Eryc was just sitting there texting away on his phone. His jaw line was perfect and his hair was just right today. I slowly turned to him and as everyone got to their groups, the popular girls kept hissing and were probably going to start talking crap now.

"Uh hey I'm Cath-"

"I know" Eryc said nodding his head and putting his hand up as in to shut me up.

"Oh okay, sorry" I replied.

"For?" he asked.

"I-"

"Weren't your eyes lavender yesterday?" he said cutting me off and looking into my eyes.

I slowly moved a little back and looked at him.

"No, well-" I began but got interrupted.

"Yes they were lavender. You got a problem?" Clarissa appeared.

There she was again. Interrupting everything and making me look like a smart mouth. Eryc looked at me weird and the next thing I know he was chuckling and then went serious.

"Your eyes...they're turning..lavender." he continued as he turned his head to me again.

"What?" I quickly covered my eyes.

He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Um..they change color..in seasons." I said nervously.

A few seconds later I felt my eyes going back to it's original color. I uncovered my eyes and there he was, still staring at me as if I was one crazy person.

"How are we gonna do this?" he asked shaking his head at what just happened.

"Huh? Do what?" I said returning to normal.

"The project?" he said looking at me with a duh face.

"Oh.." I said looking at the paper Mrs. Hunter gave us.

We had to do a project on a hispanic country. This was probably going to take more than two weeks and my house was off limits.

"The library?" I suggested.

He shrugged his shoulders and stood up when the bell rung.

"Meet you there after school then." he said as he went out the door.

I nodded and gathered my stuff. I thought about how I was going to get home late and not have my dad notice. I was afraid to call him on the cellphone but I did anyways.

"Dad?" I said.

"Why the hell are you calling me?" he said starting to get angry again.

"I have a project to do for Mrs. Hunter so I have to stay in school till night time." I said.

"Whatever, I don't care. Don't interrupt me again or you'll get it when I get home." he said.

As he hung up on me, I heard a woman laughing in the background. He was probably out seducing some stripper at a club or something. He always came home on Fridays smelling like girl perfume.

*****

After school I walked into the library but I saw no sign of Eryc. I thought maybe he was taking his time, so I walked off to the "fantasy books" section. I turned around to put the book back on the shelf when he was right behind me. I gasped, surprised to see him there.

"Paranoid much?" he asked slipping his book bag off of his shoulders.

"Uh..no" I replied.

He headed straight for the computer and sat down. After half an hour of doing research he stood up and touched my hand by mistake when he noticed the bruise.

"What's this?" he said grabbing my hand and pushing the sleeve up.

"None of your business!" Clarissa said appearing out of nowhere.

I suddenly felt a spark. An electrical sensation that went through my whole arm where Eryc was touching. What the hell was that?