Let me love you

Chapter 28

Ian's P.O.V

"You dare disobey me again!"  My father yells at me and slaps me across the face. 

My knees hit the wooden floor as my hands slammed down hard to stop me from falling on my face.

"It seems that words aren't enough with you anymore, " he says, gripping my hair and dragging me to my bedroom.

The harsh way he pulls on my hair leaves a throbbing sensation on the back of my skull.

"Let's see if more physical punishments can do the trick for you, " he says in my ear before shoving me face-first on my bed.

I try to stand back up and push him away from me but to no avail. He holds my face down with one hand as I can hear him unbuckle his belt. I can't stop the tears from falling down my face.

He removes himself from me, but I don't have enough time to stand up as the rough leathery belt makes contact with my back, leaving a burning sensation behind.

"Did that hurt? Let's see if this one hurts more."

He grips my shirt and pulls it up to expose more of my back, wanting the belt to make direct contact with my skin. I move around, trying to grip my bedsheets to help me cover myself as if that would help a lot.

"You stay and take it since you want to be an adult!" He yells as he continues to bring down the belt with so much force, I can hear it tearing my skin apart. 

My back feels as if someone dropped hot water on it. The burning pain quickly expands through my whole back, leaving me immobile and screaming. 

"Please! Please, ah!" I scream through my sobs as my father laughs, whipping me one more time.

"You better hope that teaches you a lesson because next time I'll do worse, " he says, holding the belt that drips with my blood, standing by the door.

"Maybe I'll pay a visit to the girl next door as well, yeah? Teach her a lesson as well!" He says smiling as my blood runs cold at his words.

"No, no! Leave her alone!" I yell, rushing as best as I could to my door trying to reach him.

"She didn't do anything, please no!" I continue screaming, tacking at the handle as my father locks me in my room.

"No!"

I shot up in bed, trying to catch my breath and calm down my rapid heartbeat. I frantically look around my room, trying to see if there's any danger around as cold sweat runs down my forehead and back of my neck.

Once my eyes land on my phone I pick it up, flinching at the bright screen coming to life. Squinting my eyes, I see that it's still only 4 am.

It was just another nightmare like all the others.

I fall back on my bed, resting my head on the pillow. I let out a shaky breath as I try to calm myself down.

"Fuck, " I breathe out before standing up and going to the bathroom.

I throw cold water on my face before patting it dry with a face towel. I hoped that I wouldn't be able to remember this nightmare when I woke up but, I'm quite an unlucky person so that never happens.

I let my hand run through my hair, pushing it back, debating if it's even worth trying to go back to sleep. 

I always have trouble falling asleep once I wake up, especially after intense nightmares.

This nightmare wasn't anything new, but it was definitely more intense than my previous one. It's also the first time Chloe was mentioned in them. Now that I'm thinking about Chloe, she did offer me to go to her room and wake her up whenever I had a nightmare and I think I'll take her up on it.

I put on a t-shirt and as quietly as possible jump on Chloe's balcony. I remember how she let me know on a different day that she'll let her doors unlocked from now on for me, so I slide her door open. I just stand here for a few seconds, blinking trying to adjust my vision to the pitch-black darkness that engulfs her room. I take small steps towards her bed and slowly lay down on it.

Chloe was sleeping on her side facing away from her balcony door.

Now, how should I wake her up? I look at her sleeping figure as her chest falls up and down steadily knowing that I was probably going to ruin that.

I place my hand on her shoulder and shake her slowly.

"Chloe, " I whisper.

After I shake her shoulder a little more, Chloe groans and turns her head a little towards me. I should probably have been more prepared for her upcoming actions. She yelps and moves back, resulting in half of her body falling off the bed as her leg got tangled up in her bedsheets.

"Fucking Christ!" She whispers shouts at me, flanking her pillow at my face, hard.

"What the fuck are you doing? You almost gave me a fucking heart attack, " she continues to say in her previous tone whilst getting back on the bed, untangling herself.

"Sorry, but in my defence, you told me to come whenever I had a nightmare, " I say, placing her pillow behind her back.

"You could've made a little more noise to warn me, my God!" She says with her hand on her chest.

"I didn't want to risk waking up your parents, " I whisper, laying back on her bed.

"And you thought that creeping up on my sleeping form and then shaking it would be less of a possibility of waking up my parents? I was this close to letting out a scream and that would've definitely woken them up!" She playfully slaps my chest before falling back on her bed.

To be honest is kind of funny seeing her like this. I try my best not to chuckle but end up failing. The death glare that she gave me though made even my smile drop.

"Sorry, I'll make more noise next time, I promise!" I whisper.

"You better, now, you said you had a nightmare, want to talk about it?" She switches on her side lamp before laying on her side again but this time she's facing me.

"It wasn't anything new really just my father and I fighting, " I don't want to tell her how bad the fighting was because I don't want her to worry.

It was just a stupid nightmare anyway.

"Are you sure that's all?" She looks at me wearily.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Can we just talk about anything else, please? I just want to get my mind off it, " I say, moving so I'm laying on my side.

"Okay, do you want to teach me how to cook later on today? My parents would be at work during lunch and then we can maybe watch a movie. I want to relax as well cause I'm waiting for the marks to come out for an assignment and it's killing me!" She pouts.

"Yeah, we can do that it'll be fun, " I say, closing my eyes.

"Yeah, unless I burn the kitchen down, then it won't be fun anymore, " she says, making me chuckle.

And just like that, we stay awake until 7 am talking before she doses off to sleep and I hop back to my room trying to do the same with success. 

A/N

Let's see if Chloe burns the kitchen in tomorrow's chapter.

I hope you enjoy this chapter, the next ones are coming during the weekend!

Feel free to comment & vote ❤️

I hope you have a nice weekend! Xx

All the love - M ❤️