the last great american dynasty

illicit affairs

  Make sure nobody sees you leave.

  Cover up your face, keep your eyes down.

  Those were the words that Leah ferociously mumbled to herself back in August as she rushed down the cracked cobblestones, desperate to get home despite the raw and satisfying pain between her legs. She knew she was safer on this road. It might have taken longer to get home, but she knew she wouldn't be caught.

  Well, that wasn't entirely true.

  About a week ago, for some miraculous reason, her friends, Delilah and Elizabeth, had decided to take the same road to return from the city, and thinking about their unexpected encounter made her ears increasingly hotter.

  "What are you doing, Leah?" Liz had asked.

  "And why is your face all red?" Lilah quipped in.

  Leah's face grew even redder at that moment. "I -" she stuttered. "I - I was out for... a run. Yeah." She breathed in and out deeply once. "I was out for a run."

  With their arms crossed over their chests, and small shopping bags on the joints of their arms, Liz raised an eyebrow at her, while Lilah looked confused.

  Lilah was the first to say something. "Out for a run?"

  "In a long-sleeved dress."

  "In the middle of August," they both said at the same time.

  Leah was growing annoyed at them by the minute. The three of them weren't the best of friends, but they were the only two people in school who were willing to make conversation with her. Even though they weren't "friends", they did make her feel less lonely.

  "W-well... I was - just in case I woke up late, you know? And I needed to run to school?" Leah excused. "You'll never know what will happen." It wasn't the best lie ever, but it was something to distract them. Growing up in a small town was both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, everybody knew everybody. That being said, feuds here could get treacherous and could go on for decades - centuries even. Also, any type of news, rumors, and gossip spread like wildfire, and nasty names had been called behind other people's backs.

  "Okay," Liz responded with her eyes narrowed, still suspicious.

  They both bid their farewells, tension evident between the three girls. The friction and pain between her legs grew increasingly, causing her to stubble lightly, adding the fact that they were walking on broken cobblestones. She told herself in the back of her mind that she could always take a break, maybe stop by somewhere for a smoothie before continuing her journey home, but another voice fought back, saying that the quicker she got home, the little people would suspect anything.

  Thankfully, she arrived home fairly quickly and was able to avoid her mother who was cooking in the kitchen at the time. She swiftly, with her highest heels, climbed up the stairs and managed to reach her room and shut the door without making too much sound. Landing on the bed with her back, she kicked off her heels, hands on her stomach, attempting to catch her breath.

  That was when her breathing hitched. She didn't know how that happened but it felt like she was finally allowed to cry after years of being forbidden to do so, which made her breathing even more shallow, even though no tears were shed. She could still feel his hands all over her. Her hips, her breasts, the sides of her face - everywhere, as if he had branded her. That made her spring off of the mattress and rush to the bathroom where she unintentionally violently flicked the faucet of the bathtub to the hot water setting, stripped, and went into the porcelain pod while it was barely full, hissing at the coldness of the tub when her naked back came into contact with it. The freezing sensation was what tipped her over the edge and the tears that she had collected throughout rushing home to being in the tub had spilled over.