No One But Me

Chapter 2 - New Beginnings

Your home was one of the smaller houses in Jackson. A two bedroom weatherboard cottage that, despite desperately needing a new coat of paint, was quaint and perfectly suited to you. It's cosiness was comfortable and the unpretentious simplicity of its appearance felt safe. You had the comforts of a couch in your living room along with a small bookshelf full of books, a bed in your room complete with a dresser and mirror, and hot running water. Although you didn't have many furnishings and your most cherish possessions were sparse, you were proud to call the cottage your home, your sanctuary.

The morning daylight streamed through the lace curtains of your bedroom window, its warm touch rousing you from your slumber. You managed to find sleep sometime after midnight, after replaying the scene of the break up in your mind over and over, crying into your pillow until you were too exhausted to stay awake. This morning your head was aching and your eyes felt swollen. The memory of the previous night came flooding back to you and you groaned. You threw the blanket over your head and buried your face into your pillow, wishing you didn't have to work today.

Three days a week you worked as a teacher at the school and the other two days you were scheduled to cleaning work in the mess hall. You realised you had to talk to Maria about the possibility of switching jobs; if you remained working in the mess hall then you were bound to run into Joel, something you now wanted to avoid. Thankfully, today was a teaching shift and one you had been looking forward to - your class today was with the younger children and you had planned to teach them about the difference between insects with exoskeletons and endoskeletons. Suddenly you remembered the library book you forgot to pick up last week, a children's science book with illustrations that you needed for today's lesson. Shit. Looking at your clock you saw that you had enough time to shower, have breakfast and quickly pop into the library before the start of your lesson.

Begrudgingly you hauled yourself out of bed and shuffled to the bathroom, stepping over the dress you wore last night that you had left discarded on the floor. You didn't want to see it. In the bathroom you turned on the shower then stood before the bathroom mirror and stripped off your sleep shorts and tank top. You sighed at the puffiness of your eyes and hoped the warm water of the shower would lessen the pink swelling. Your eyes wandered over your naked form and you spied the fading hickey Joel had given you on one of your hips last week. He often marked you with bites and hickies as a way of claiming ownership of your body, hidden underneath your clothes for only you and him to see, your own personal reminder it was Joel that you belonged to. You had never denied him this liberty, only protesting when the drag of his teeth or his sucks became too painful. A memory flashed in your mind then to a night when Joel had been especially rough with you and had bitten the flesh of your ass too hard, causing you to squeal in pain. The bruise had lasted more than a week. You remembered the way he had massaged and kissed the area with a kind of gentle reverence, the touch of his large hands and the plush of his lips both soothing and arousing you at the same time.

The realisation that he would never mark you like this again made your heart sink, however, any sadness you felt disappeared when you saw the bruise on your upper arm from where he held you last night, the purple marks outlining the way his fingers wrapped around you. The sight conjured a different memory now; the way Joel's lips had curled into a cruel snarl as his words cut through you, the savage grip of his hand, the sheer contempt that had shone in his eyes. It sent a shiver down your spine and made you quickly turn away from your reflection and step into the shower.

******

You shut the front door of your cottage and began the walk to the town library a few streets away. The shower had refreshed you and after getting dressed and groomed, you were pleased at your reflection in the mirror; you had managed to look quite good. The morning sunshine warmed your skin as you strolled and you took a deep breath of fresh air. Today would be a new beginning. A fresh start. No more arranging your schedule around Joel's demands, no more sneaking around the backstreets of Jackson, no more being at his beck and call whenever he wanted you.