Save Me.

The next day wasn’t any easier, I was still in pain and the bruise on my throat had become deeper which now caused me to wear a scarf around my neck. I couldn’t go swimming or even enjoy my last few hours being there, Ryan was up my ass the whole time as was matt. It was like two wild dogs fighting over a piece of meat, when Ryan would leave, Matt would come over and bother me while I was fishing peacefully; alone. When Matt wasn’t around, Ryan would come and harass me.

His words would usually start with “you better keep that scarf on.” and end with “I’ll beat your ass harder next time.” I would simply ignore him in hope that he would go away, but it never fully worked. He would sit and watch me fish, watch my action and even see how I was bringing in the fish. Sometimes he would slip up and I would see the old Ryan, telling me that I was doing it wrong and to remember how he had showed me so many years ago. Then as quick as it came it was gone. I secretly wished the moments would last longer, but the Ryan I knew then was long gone.

No one questioned me about my scarf, because it wasn’t thick and looked to be on more for show then anything else. There would be times where I would want to rip it off and breathe right; it did make me feel hot and sticky. Yet I never touched it, I never made the move to show how Ryan abused me. I was to scared, one I didn’t want everyone to judge me for still being with him and two, well the second reason would be the fact of him getting beat up; really bad.

It was going on 9:00 at night and everyone had went to bed early, most of them had to drive except for the few of us that got a ride along with them. So I took the chance to stroll around the area, take a nice long walk around the lake. Seeing as how it was dark I took my flashlight and blade along with me, I always wondered why I never used this blade to defend myself. Pushing the thoughts aside, placing my slippers on me, I made my way outside.

The moon pretty much lit everything up, the air wasn’t too cold or to hot; it was a nice mild temperature. I placed the folded blade in my back pocket of my basketball shorts and started for the lake, I felt the rocks and dirty flipping up under my slippers which soon enough caused me to walk with no shoes what so ever. It wasn’t that bad, some rocks hurt but others didn’t and the dirt felt nice against my feet. I stopped at the edge of the grass looking down at the beach area of the lake, it surrounded the whole lake and that’s what I was going to follow.

My feet touched the cool sand, I felt it creep between my toes causing a shiver to go up my body; it felt weird in a way. I let myself dig my feet into the sand for a moment to get used to it and then I continued on my way, I walked and looked at everything; I had never noticed how different things really were at night. The trees looked slightly spooky; the flowers looked as if they were moon bathing instead of sun bathing. Birds were fast asleep with their loved ones; the fish were deep in the lake doing what ever fish did; mostly not worrying about getting snagged up by a fishing line. I looked out to the lake; it was so still with maybe a few ripples from bug touching the water and the fish sucking them up. There were no birds floating around, no people bobbing up and down, swimming or fishing.

Nighttime was such a peaceful time.

I rubbed my neck; it was still sore to the touch and made me cringe. He really had some nerve to do what he did; I guess he knew that I would hide it one way or another. Sighing I continued my walk and let my flash light graze the area in front of me, I let my mind wander to what the girls had said.

Matt loved me.

How could a man love someone when he barley knew anything about them, he was so caught up in his band and his own world. Shaking my head I pushed that thought to the side as well, there was no reason to think about him. Soon enough he would move on and I would still be with Ryan, maybe one day he will succeed in killing me or placing me in the hospital. I looked back the way that I had come; I had been walking for about ten minutes and couldn’t even see the dock anymore. I didn’t mind, I wasn’t going to get much sleep either way, when Ryan slept in the room; I would sleep on the floor. There was no reason in sleeping next to him anymore, he didn’t want me there and honestly I didn’t want to me there either.

When I turned around I almost screamed.

Matt was standing there with a smirk on his face and a flashlight in his hand, in his other hand was my blade. Narrowing my eyes I folded my arms.

“I could have killed you and got away with it.” His smirk didn’t falter one bit.

Instead of answering him, I shoved past him and grabbed my blade in the process. I heard him shuffle in the sand to follow me; once he caught up I felt the warmth of his light on my face. My heart started to race when his hand grabbed my arm and yanked me to stop, his hand grabbed my chin and moved my head around to take a good look at my neck. I watched his jaw clench as he took a step back, I didn’t think about my actions but I grabbed his hand and looked at him.

“I-he-” Sighing I looked at the ground. “He’s not worth it Matt, he’s been doing this since a few months after we got married.” My eyes connected with his and I saw the anger fade, something else replaced it.

In an instant his arms were wrapped around me, my arms were folded against me resting against his chest so I couldn’t hug him back. I don’t think I was meant to hug him back; I felt his chin rest on my head as I closed my eyes and fought the tears from escaping. It was so hard and the feeling of being in someone’s are that actually wanted me there caused me to break. My knees gave way but he never let me go, his arms stayed wrapped around me as we both knelt in the sand; my sobs sounded like they were echoing around the lake. It was the first time that I had actually cried, a true cry. I used to cry when he beat me; I would cry when I was in to much pain and it hurt to move. But this cry was different.

I felt a weight being lifted from my shoulders.

He cooed softly telling me that everything would be okay, that he was going to put a stop to Ryan’s madness. That if by my choice, I would never have to see his face again. But did I really want that? Was I okay to leave him, a man that I had been with for so long?

Once I was done crying, I pulled away and looked at him. He was everything that Ryan wasn’t, he was gentle and sweet. He cared about others besides himself. I felt his thump glide across my cheek whipping away the last tears that slide down, maybe they were right. Maybe he did secretly love me.

“When did he do this?” Matt asked softly.

I knew that he wanted to storm back to the cabin and beat him to a pulp; I could tell that he was using every ounce of will power to stay by my side and not cause a single problem.

“When everyone was at the bon fire.” I replied slowly getting up, I had him stay in his spot. I was going to show him the rest, lifting my shirt he aimed the light and saw the large bruise on my abdomen. I watched him take a deep breathe and let it out, then I should him the one right on my side from the dresser.

“Ava.” He quickly stood. “You can’t go back to the house with him; he’s going to kill you if he keeps this up.” His hand found its way to cup my cheek; I felt the tears starting again.

“Matt, what do you know about her?” I spoke, I watched his body tense.
He was silent for a few moments before giving in and sighing, he knew there was no reason to hide the secret any more.

“I don’t know much to be honest, just that he was seeing her on and off for a few months. I told him he needed to stop or to at least end it with you, because you didn’t deserve it.” I knew he was telling the truth, I had heard them talking.

Nodding I turned and started walking in the same direction as before, Matt was quickly by my side. I told him everything, when it started; how bad it got and that I knew some thinks about Miley; not much. But that there was something going on and he beat me up because of it, I knew that everything that I was telling him was making the situation worse by the second. Yet I didn’t care, I felt slightly numb. I wanted to get it all off my chest and I knew he was one person that would listen without judging me.

By the time we had gotten to the other side of the lake it was about 1:00 in the morning, time flew by while we talked and walked slow. I looked to the other side where the dock was, not being able to fully see it due to the dark. But I was able to see the lights; I was able to see two lights flickering across the lake and around the area. Quickly I shut off my light and grabbed Matt’s shutting it off as well.

“What?” Matt asked while looking down at me.

Pointing at the lights I felt him pull me down to the ground, I couldn’t help but to giggle as we lay flat watching them aimlessly look around.

“They must of woke up and saw that we were gone.” He spoke in a whisper.

I giggled and looked over to him, his eyes were content on watching them look for us, leaning over I rested my shoulder against his and smiled.

“Why are you whispering? It’s not like they can hear us.” I watched his face drop as he looked over to me; I let out a laugh and quickly covered my mouth. The smirk quickly found it’s way back on his face.

“Why are you covering your laugh, its not like they can hear us.” Shaking my head, I looked back to where the docks were. I could see them walking in the same direction we had walked in, one had soon turned and walked back towards the cabin and then it hit me; our foot prints were in the sand.

Mat must have saw the look on my face because he quickly got up and pulled us towards the grass area, his face stern and his hand softly wrapped around my forearm. He looked to where the person was and then looked to where we could go, his eyes soon landing on my own.

“We are going to split up; tomorrow you will be riding with Brian and going to my house. I don’t want him near you, and if that is him walking this way; you know exactly what is going to happen when he gets you alone. Go back to the cabin and go into Brian’s room.” His eyes went back to where the person was, seeing as they were walking in a fast pace they would be here faster then the hours it took us to get here and if it was Ryan, he would have been running.

I didn’t respond to Matt, instead I turned and walked in the opposite direction of the person. Matt went into the grassy area and vanished into the darkness. My mind mixed with different emotions of what I was actually going to do.

Go with Brian to Matt’s house or be a coward and go back to Ryan in order to keep the peace?