Love Me Not | ✓

3| time heals some wounds

"I love you, Thals," He says before kissing me again, harder and hungrier. Our tongues fight against each other as our hands grab at ever available inch of skin, desperately trying to remove any space between us.

"I love you, Grant," I mumble against his lips. "I'm going to love you forever."

I erupt in a fit of giggles as Grant flips us to where he is hovering over me on my bed, a lustful gleam in his eyes as he watches my chest heave. His lips move to my neck and beyond as my hands pull his shirt higher and higher–

BANG. The door slams open to reveal my dad. Grant jumped to other corner of the room faster than a cheetah could've. My dad barges in with a crazed look in his eye, his hair in greasy strands shrouding his face.

Fuck, I forgot to lock the door.

"Get your hands off my daughter." He moves over to Grant and grabs him by his shirt collar. "Do NOT touch her, you pathetic creep. You can't take her from me!" he shouts, spit flying from his lips.

"Dad, get off. Leave him alone!" I attempt to pull him away, but his hold is too strong for my small frame to waver. Grant is frozen in fear. He's no stranger to dad's drunken frenzies, but he's never been the victim of his physical violence before. Normally we just lock the door and try to stay quiet through while dad rides out his high. But I forgot the stupid lock. These incidents have been happening more and more the closer we get to Mom's birthday. "Hadley! Laura!"

Grant still doesn't say a word as dad continues shouting obscenities at him. His hands are still on Grant's collar but he doesn't try anything. Not yet.

Hadley and Laura burst through the open door and team up in trying to get dad out of the room, their tiny hands gripping at his arms, trying to soothe him back down. They drag him forcefully as he continues the shouting and the threats, now aimed at both of us, quickly betraying me and turning to slut-shaming and other crude comments.

Grant stands there frozen in place before taking a deep breath, collecting himself. I quickly shut the door and lock it as soon as they're all out of reach. Shaking, I press my back up against my door and slide down it. Seeing the tears welling up in my eyes, Grant rushes to my side to comfort me. Why is he the one comforting me right now, after he almost got choked out?

"It's okay, Thals. You know how he is. It's not your fault." He brushes my hair to the side as he wipes away my tears and presses a kiss to my forehead. "I promise you, I'm okay."

"No it's not," I croak out. "This isn't normal and this isn't safe." This is my life, but that doesn't mean Grant deserves to suffer alongside me. Hell, I don't deserve to.

"Thalia, there's nothing you can do. We're stuck with this. I'm never going to let you go through this alone."

I look up into his eyes somberly. "We can leave."