The Ballerina & The Devil

Twenty Three. Average Cupcakes

"Okay, tell me what happened one more time," Kenzie demanded, bouncing on my bed like the ball of energy she was.

"Kenzie," I exhaled sharply, setting my straightener down harder than necessary. "I've gone over this about a hundred times for the past three days. I'm not repeating the story anymore."

After I had filled Majesty and Kenzie in on what had happened between Aidan and I days before, Kenzie had not stopped interrogating me about the entire situation. Apparently, she needed every single last detail to be completely satisfied.

"Okay, then don't repeat the story anymore," she giggled and laid back on the bed. "Just tell me how you kissed him."

"I didn't kiss him," I watched my face in the mirror slowly turn red. "I mean I did, but it wasn't a kiss kiss. It was a peck on his injury."

"Yeah, but you were centimeters from his lips," Kenzie said with a tone that indicated she was grinning.

"I'm centimeters from your lips when I kiss you on the cheek," I grumbled, applying mascara to my eyelashes. "Does that mean anything?"

"That's not even close to the same thing," she shook her head. "You aren't in love with me."

"I'm not in love with hi- this is why I don't tell you anything!"

"Aidan's really lucky that cat didn't scratch any further up," Kenzie said, pointedly ignoring my statement. "He could've gone blind or something."

"Or something," I repeat, letting out a heavy breath.

I, being a woman of my word, kept the promise I made to Aidan and had not breathed a word to anyone about the abuse he had been undergoing in his house for years. I simply told my friends that a stray cat attacked him while we were out and about.

Did I feel guilty I was keeping such a detrimental secret? Yes. Was I constantly on the edge of my seat waiting to see if Aidan bore any bruises of physical assault by his dad? Yes.

I found myself worrying on, what was beginning to be, a daily basis. Guilt overtook me as I reminded myself continually that every minute I kept silent was another minute Aidan was exposed to vicious abuse.

Nighttime had become the worst hours of the day. Well, worse than what they usually were. Not only did I have my own demons running amuck in my head, especially since I had found myself slipping as far as my eating disorder went, but I now had Aidan's problems consuming my mind.

Thoughts of him being overpowered and pounded by the hand of someone he couldn't fight back evaded me in my dreams which very quickly melted away to flat out nightmares. So far, I had woken up in a cold sweat three nights in a row.

The worries I was drowning in, however, did not stop me from keeping my word. As bad as it was for me going around with such a secret on my shoulders, I knew the feeling of looking into Aidan's eyes if I chose to betray him would be so much worse.

It also helped that I felt rather important and, dare I say it, somewhat special that he had willing told me about his secret struggles. He clearly trusted me enough to allow me to carry some of his burden, which I knew was a pretty big deal.

Whether he admitted it out loud or not, I knew Aidan didn't trust a lot of people. In fact, I really didn't think he trusted anyone point blank, which would explain why he made it a point not to talk to anybody at school. I couldn't say I blamed him though, it really wasn't hard to see why. If I were in his position my guard would be up twenty four hours of the day.