Covered In Ink

Chapter 14|Chicks dig a guy in a uniform

"You're the first person I've ever told, so sorry if I'm lacking in the storytelling skills department."

"Stop apologising, you're such an apology whore."

"Sor-" I clamped a hand over my mouth. "You're right, I am an apology whore."

"Sunshine, I'm always right."

"Of course you are," I rolled my eyes, not that he could see me, but I did roll my eyes. "Anyway, this all started a long time before I was born, six years to be exact. My mom was young, naive and lets just be honest here, she was stupid too. She was drunk, sixteen, and at a college party. She had sex with an older guy, and woke up the next morning not remembering a thing, she got pregnant, and nine months later had a baby boy. Caleb." I paused to take a breath.

"For a long time she was a single mom, and a good one too, Caleb adored her and vice versa. When he was six she met another guy, he was older than her but not by much. He was sweet too, good with Caleb, the type you'd take home to meet your parents. She never expected that things would turn out the way they did. Caleb was asleep one night and they were watching a movie. They ended up making out and he wanted to take it further. She didn't want too, so he threatened her. He threatened to kill Caleb if she didn't have sex with him, so of course she caved. My mother was raped several times that night." Ryan squeezed my hand.

"That was the night I was conceived. You see, most babies are the result of love or at least lust, but not me. I'm the result of terror and fear and pain. Sometimes I think we'd all be better off if she just had an abortion all those years ago."

"Don't say that."

"It's true."

"I wouldn't be better off if she'd had an abortion," Ryan whispered, pulling me closer.

"She was going to have an abortion, but he wouldn't let her. Skip forward a few months to a couple of weeks before I was born and this is where it starts to get interesting. The police came charging into the house and arrested him. Dominic Carabello was wanted in nine states for rape and murder, he was sentenced to thirty two consecutive life sentences. Basically meaning that he gets to rot in a prison cell for the rest of his life. Of course my mom didn't know that he was a scumbag but she found that out pretty quick. While all this was happening she was very heavily pregnant with me, and all the stress sent her into an early labour. After I was born she went crazy. She took one glance at me and refused to hold me. Because I looked just like him, I still look just like him."

"You don't look like him," Ryan said softly, "you look like you."

I sighed. "I wish you were right."

"At the hospital mom really started losing it. She got so paranoid one day that she attacked me, well she tried to. Caleb happened to be in the hospital room that day, and he stood over me, took a beating from our mom to protect me. He was protecting me even way back then. Eventually mom was labelled as 'unfit' to parent us, and since none of our relatives wanted us we were placed in foster homes. A lot of the time they split us up because nobody wanted a newborn and a six year old, but Caleb would always run away and find me. It went on like this for three years, in and out of different homes. I didn't have a mother or a father for the first three years of my life, but I always had a brother. I was so young that I don't remember much of what happened in those homes, but sometimes I get snippets and they aren't good. Caleb remembers, but he doesn't like talking about it. After three years mom was seen by the court as fit to parent us again, so we went home with her. One thing I do remember is living in this new house with this complete stranger. I didn't know who she was, all I knew was her glare that was always aimed at me. Caleb tried his best to shelter me from her harsh gaze. That's why she started to distance herself from him."