Hate You - LN

34

The impact of my feet pounding into the brick sidewalk ricochets up my shins and knees as I sprint away from my apartment building. Despite growing up in Monaco I've lost all sense of direction and I'm running without thinking because all my body seems to care about is getting as far away from him as possible.

My crossbody bag that contains my phone bounces on my back as I run and my breath feels ragged in my throat and lungs. I can only see out of one eye from the little trail of blood flowing from my cheek. The eye that got the blood in it is watering but I don't know if it's tears or a reaction of some kind. My entire face feels wet.

Coughing hurts, but after I couch I can take the smallest of breaths. The small breath gets smaller each time though, because I can't stop choking. I'm drowning.

My side is on fire, whether from running or from the blows it took I don't know but I keep going. Monaco has lots of lights, but not around here in the residential area. The streets are dimly lit if at all and something crashes down a dark alleyway and I push my legs to pump faster underneath me. There's a big boom overhead and the sky cracks open with rain and light. It begins to pour and although my tears now mix with the raindrops, I let out a sob.

It feels like water running off my head, lukewarm like a shower. It pours down me, through my hair making it stick to my neck.

The rain is warm, washing the heat of the day down up from the atmosphere and into the streets. It flows down the city drains like water draining In a bathtub.

I'm lying in the shower or something I must be. Maybe I had a bath and didn't plug the drain well so it drained almost completely while I was asleep. It's warm like it's draining faster than I can keep the tap flowing. Soon I'll run out of hot water.

The darkness and the summer downpour drown me. My hair sticks to my neck, my jeans and tank top are suctioned to my skin. One of my shoes is untied, the lace twisted up and splayed out under each footfall. My breath comes fast in my chest and it begins to hurt more and more with each passing second. I can barely hear myself crying, but I know I am. I'm sobbing because I escaped him. The pained cry in my throat is there because he's hurt me again.

My feet begin to give out as familiar bushes and shrubs lining tall apartment buildings come into view.

"What do you want me to tell Lando?" Charles asks me. Arthur is snoring in the other hospital chair. Lorenzo left a half hour ago to meet with a lawyer about pressing charges against my father.

My throat feels like sandpaper. "Nothing, please. Please don't tell him anything. I don't want him going after Lando too."

Charles frowns. "Your father won't hurt Lando Dev, but not telling Lando what happened to you will destroy him. He loves you."

Tears fall from my eyes and Charles wipes them from where he sits on the edge of my hospital bed. "I love him, and I can't hurt him, Char. I- I just can't."

My legs start to give out on me in the elevator and I grab onto the walls to steady myself. Breathing hurts and I'm trembling. The rain was warm outside, but the air conditioning in the building bites into my skin spreading goosebumps over my entire body and up my spine.

Lorenzo is standing at the door talking to Lando. I can hear them talking and all I want to do is get up off this damn couch and run to him. But I can't. I can barely manage to get to the bathroom with help. I only got home from the hospital yesterday, my stitches are still fresh and the side of my head and the line around where the doctors had to stitch is still shaved without a hair grown back out yet.

"Lorenzo please, I just need to talk to Dev, I just need to know why she left."

I can see Lorenzo shake his head, a look of pity in his eyes for Lando. "I'm sorry Lando, but Devin isn't in a good place to talk right now."