ROMEO (book 1)

24. ROMEO

Delilah gets hot at night time, so hot that she strips her clothes. She hasn't noticed me in the corner of the room, i'm not trying to hide myself either. She threw her pants on to the floor and laid back ontop of the blanket.

I wait a couple of minutes until I know she's asleep again and stand up.

I want to see all of her scars, every single one of them.

Dad could draw mom blind, he knows every crack, crevice and blemish in moms skin. I want to know Delilah's.

I sit on the edge of the bed, the moonlight shone directly into the room to illuminate it naturally, allowing the light to let me see her scars.

Across her butt, lower back and thighs were the most covered. Blister scars, to dents, to normal scars to the scars from belts and the buckles.

Across her spine she had bruises, but that's probably because she doesn't eat a lot and is always hunched over. I used to get them too. From thirteen to fifteen I was unnaturally skinny, my dads genes gave me that.

Her upper back and shoulders had cigarette burns, that continued down arms. She has no self-harm scars. Dad has a lot, I know what they look like, they're a different angle to other scars. She has none.

She has burns on her neck, I couldn't figure out what burns they were from though. I've never seen some like this before.

She turns onto her side, hand pressing against her cheek and I see the fresh ones from yesterday across her face.

She has none on her boobs, I know that. Down her stomach she has discolouration on her lower stomach.

"Romeo." I hear moms voice.

"I'm not waking her." I look up, "Go back to sleep."

"Go sleep in the guest room."

"She has too many scars."

"There isn't a thing as too many scars, Ro. You need to leave her be." She grabs my hand, walking me out of the bedroom. "Come on, get some rest."

"I can't."

"Why?" She walks to the kitchen.

"I'm angry."

"At what?"

"At Delilah, and what happened."

"Why are you angry at Delilah?"

"Because she doesn't want to sleep with me."

She sighs, walking back to me. "We're going to have to go through this process again." She sits down, "You can't fixate on her like you did me."

"I know."

"So, will you let Robert do the therapy for that?"

No.

"Maybe."

"Romeo."

"No." I say truthfully, "It's like... momma it's stronger than what it was with you. I am obsessed with Delilah. I think about her all the time, when i'm not thinking about her i'm thinking about things to do with her. I can't function properly without at least seeing her once a day."

"Romeo you know if you carry this on, you're going to end up hurting yourself too. Your obsession with Delilah can make her distant. Not everybody likes being fussed over. If she pushes you away-"

"I won't let her."

"I won't let you hurt her. She will get freedom if she wants it Romeo. You need to remember she isn't Italian and she wasn't born into the mafia life. You can't keep her bound to a house."