The Sound of You **on hold**

Chapter 10

Adelaide

I woke up to the sheets being ripped off my body and his voice booming through the room, yelling and swearing. Stella jumped off the bed whining, and cowered in a corner.

"Are you into him?!" He yelled.

"What?" I cried, disoriented, shielding my eyes from the lights he turned on. I honestly had no clue what he was on about.

"Mark! You want to fuck him! I know it!" Then he punched the wall next to the bedroom door. I guessed Mark was who he had over. But why was he asking me if I wanted to fuck him?

"No! What are you talking about?" I ran to him, trying to take his hands in mine. I tried to get him to look me in the eyes. But when he looked at me, his pupils were dilated and red. He was drunk and furious. There was only one likely outcome to a night like this. They didn't happen frequently, but they were memorable enough that I feared them all the time. "I only want you, baby. You're the one I love."

He lowers his voice, "I saw you looking at him. I can see it in your eyes."

My mind raced trying to figure out what to say to him that would bring him out of his drunken stupor. Tears stung my eyes, but I swallowed them back, using my adrenaline to try and troubleshoot and bring him back to me. This wasn't him. All he had to do was stop drinking and he would realize how great we could be and how much we loved each other.

"Baby," I started carefully, calmly, placing my hands on either side of his face, guiding him to look in my eyes, hoping I could magically sober him up. "I've been in bed. Alone. I don't know Mark. I didn't even know he was here. I love you, baby."

He looked up at me and I saw a soft look in his eyes that I almost thought it would work. Then he pushed me away from him, ripped a cheap mirror off the wall, and brought it up above our heads. Stella started barking loudly, and lunged at Nathan from the corner she was in. She latched onto his pant leg and growled ferociously as she tried to pull him away from me. He kicked her in the face to get her to back off. He had me cornered and I couldn't move. I flinched as he brought the mirror down on my head, breaking into pieces. My neck took the brunt of the blow.

"You're a fucking slut!" He yelled and slammed the door shut leaving me alone. My eyes were scrunched shut, tears leaking out, to keep any shards of mirror out of them. I felt a warm sensation on the back of my neck, creeping downward. I dusted off my face just in case, and reached behind my head, feeling the blood pooling at the base of my hairline. I pulled a piece of the mirror out of my neck and ran to my dresser. I searched for a black shirt to press on my neck, too afraid to leave the "safety" of my bedroom to clean myself up in the bathroom. I tied my shirt around my neck and picked up the pieces of the mirror individually out of the carpet, because the vacuum was in the hall closet.

I had a headache, but the blow to my head wasn't hard enough to concuss me. I curled up in a ball in my bed and cried myself to sleep.

I woke up in the morning to Nathan passed out on the couch. I tiptoed to the bathroom to empty my bladder that I had neglected all night out of fear. I examined my neck, and decided that while it could probably have used a couple of stitches, I was sure it would heal up at that point on its own. I didn't care that it would scar since it would be covered by my hair.

I soaked a cloth and wiped my neck to clean the blood, and felt him appear behind me. I stiffened as he slowly reached up and took the cloth from me and continued to clean my neck.

"I'm so sorry Adelaide." He choked.

I sniffled, willing the tears not to come, wishing I could be strong, and tell him it wasn't okay. That he couldn't do this to me anymore. But he sniffled, and the tears fell from his eyes, and he hung his head in shame. I turned around to see him crumble in front of me. The remorse he felt was emanating from him. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, and he hugged me back.