Gentle, Please (GirlxGirl)(MDLG)

Chapter 4: Rules, Rules, Rules

*Rosie's*

I scrolled up and down the boy's student profile. I knew he was Bella's ex, and I've wanted to be rid of him for longer than I'd like to say aloud. I just never had a name to put to a face.

He's abusive, I think I knew that just from the way he treated her in the café. I didn't want to believe it of course, who wants to believe their server is getting run into the ground by her boyfriend and his family. But sadly I figured that much when I'd seen the way he interacts with others versus Bella. It's like night and day the way he is to strangers, especially if they are a male and around his age.

I remember the first time I went to the Café, it was also the first time I saw Bella. She'd just walked in after three and I was finishing a paper for one of my very last classes. I saw the collar first, and I knew fairly instantly that she was in the lifestyle, but also that she was owned.

The moment was short lived though, I heard through various conversations that she was in high school, well supposed to be. After that I pieced together that her birthday was coming up, she was turning 19. I didn't think anything of it, I mean I was only 21 at the time, not that much older than her; but I haven't been in highschool since I was sixteen. I was always so much farther ahead in life than everyone around me, my brother too. I think I fell in love with her by watching her interact with people. It was so pure, so genuine and kind. It warmed me after I'd been so cold for years. She makes my heart do things that I didn't think were possible. When I saw her laugh and giggle with the obvious regulars, it made me smile. At that time I hadn't smiled in a very long time, and I just, I don't know, needed that. I guess, I latched on to that feeling. In my head, only she could make that happen.

Then I saw him, Taemin Choi. The way he grabbed her, spoke to her, looked at her. At first glance it looks like a reprimanding, like correction, and who am I to tell them how to run their dynamic, but it became evident day after day that it wasn't just correction. It was abuse.

I've seen him drag her out of the shop more than a few times and it took everything within me not to follow, not to get involved, because I know myself. I know that I'll do more than is necessary, I guess I'm like my father in that regard. You just don't treat your sub like that, you don't treat your girlfriend like that, you don't treat anyone you love like that, like garbage, like they don't matter.

That's why I always left her big tips, to at least make her day a bit brighter, especially with that bastard yelling at her from the back throughout her shift. I'm pretty sure she stays until closing, I've even gone on the weekends just to see if she was there and she was, it was kind of sad. She still had that big smile on her face, even when everyone had gone she walked away smiling.

I picked up my phone and dialed Frank.

"Yes?" He answered quickly and like always.

I leaned back in my chair and started to bite at my thumb nail, "Thank you for your help today Frank, you were amazing, but I have to ask that you let me know as soon as you drop Bella off from now on."

He hummed in acknowledgement before he asked, "Of course, Rosa, is everything alright?"

He never misses a beat, "yes, everything is fine as of right now. I believe she's being bullied by an ex, well I guess you can call it harassment."

I sank deeper into my seat and started to go through his file, it seemed quite long with detention records for assaults on other students, the most minor being from his freshman year when he pushed another student up against the wall. The student isn't named, but it was caught on security cameras accidentally while they were running the cameras back to find a thief.