Hopelessly Devoted

Chapter 23

Chapter 23
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        The echo of my feet hitting the cold, hard floor sounded like cracks of thunder exploding in a silent valley.

My shaking breath sounded like it could be heard for a thousand miles.

As I made my way down the hallway, one thing controlled me- anxiety.

It clogged up every muscle in my body, and flooded every thought in my brain.

I felt like I was drowning. Like I was being held a couple of inches from the surface of an ink black ocean, and I couldn't fight my way to the top of the infinite void.

I focused on where I was going. One foot in front of the other. Closer and closer to safety.

As I turned the corner, I felt hands slam down on my shoulders. I let out a scream, but it had been muffled by a familiar, rough hand.

I tried with all of my might to fight him off of me as I also tried not to loose control of my body completely and pass out.

All of a sudden, I felt myself break free. I didn't know how, but I had fought my way out of the void, and I could breath again.

As relieving as having control of my body and thoughts again felt, I was still nervous as hell.

But hey, it wasn't like he could do anything that I hadn't experienced before in my life. My fear turned to fury as I tried with all of my night to fight harder.

I saw him walking toward the janitor's closet. I continued to fight for my life.

When we got inside, he locked the door and grabbed a roll of duct tape from off of the shelf.

In one, swift motion he had managed to let go of my mouth and duct tape it. It happened so fast that I couldn't have prevented it.

He let go of me and I bolted to the door. I twisted the knob as hard as I could but it wouldn't budge. I was stuck in the room with him.

And he had the key.

My eyes widened as he spun me around and shoved me into the side wall. A sharp pain spliced throughout my back as I hit the brick. He smirked at me slightly and moved in a bit closer, making me cringe and try to back up farther against the wall.

"I warned you... twice actually." He said and pinned my arms behind me. I tried to fight him off. Pointless.

All of a sudden he pulled back and drove his fist into my stomach with so much force that I thought he was going to break through the wall behind me.

He had punched me in the same spot that he had when he tried to rape me- which made it hurt 10x worse considering my bruise still wasn't gone.

A few tears trickled down my face as I tried to plead to him with my eyes. Fighting back obviously wasn't working, so I had to resort to begging.

Despite my efforts to stop him, he kept going. Hard.

He had punched the same spot three times in total by the time he finally stopped, although it felt like it had been 20. The pain shooting up from my abdomen was unbearable.

I was sobbing at this point. He picked me up by my hair.

I groaned in pain as he held me against the wall and put his mouth about 2 inches from my ear.

"I don't want to hurt you," he said and looked me in the eyes. "So please, just stay away from them."

I glared up at him with so much fury that it felt like heat vision was burning through my eyes and scorching him.

"Don't even think about screaming." He threatened.

He ripped the duct tape off of my mouth and I tried not to scream in pain. He stuck the keys out for me to take. When I went to take them, he pulled them away.

"Show anyone and I will find them."

I hesitated, erbut nodded. He handed me the keys and I ran the hell out of that closet.

I sprinted to the bathroom, knowing that I wouldn't feel any safer in there.

When I got in there, I immediately went to work. I wiped off my face with makeup wipes and reapplied mascara.

I tried to control my crying as I fixed up my hair. This "new" life was starting to become my old one. Maybe not as extreme, but it still resembled it.

As soon as I calmed myself down a tiny bit, I started to make my way to my class, not feeling as scared as before. He had gotten it over with. And it wasn't that bad... right? It was over. And it was worth it! I could heal, but if I lost my friendships, they wouldn't. And I couldn't have that.

When I walked in class, everyone looked up at me. I smiled awkwardly at the teacher. She smiled back and continued teaching the class.

When I sat down at my desk, I was in so much pain that I almost let out a loud groan. I held it in though. Luckily, since I sat in the back of the class, no body saw my pained expression.

The remainder of the class went by in about 20 minutes, which felt like 200. Although I was safe in the classroom, the exploding feeling that was booming from my abdomen reminded me that I wasn't.

I knew that he would scout me out again sometime after lunch today, considering that I was still going to sit with my friends.

When lunch eventually came around, my heart was pumping out of my chest. If I was sitting and not moving, my abdomen didn't hurt as bad as before, but whenever I even slightly moved a muscle it felt like he punched me again.

Walking to lunch, I stayed quiet and half-listened to Scarlett's talking the whole way.

When we made it to the lunch room, my heart stopped beating. I saw George in the corner of the cafeteria, staring at me.

I caught my breath and tried not to draw too much attention to myself. I turned my eyes back to the floor as we continued to walk to the table. When I got there I looked back over... he was gone.

"Crystal? Crystal?? HOLY CRAP Crystal how are you so fudging deaf?!" My ears tuned in, leaving Scarlett's confused voice ringing through my mind. I quickly turned back to her.

"Crap? Fudging?? Are you serious?" I tried to change the topic of conversation.

"Hey, my bad I don't swear in every sentence," she responded, directing at me. Around the table, everyone's facial expressions showed that they agreed with what she was implying.

"I don't fucking-" I cut myself off. Jeez. I guess I did swear kinda a lot...  laughing came from the table, and I shot them all glares.

"Anyway... Get together at my place. Tonight." Kevin exclaimed and smiled larger than life. I tried to smile as real as possible as I dug into my lunch.

"I'll invite Savanah, but I'm not sure she'll be feeling up to it.." Scarlett said, and we all nodded our heads in understanding.

Lunch went by way quicker than I would have liked. Ashton was acting weird. Leave it to Ashton to act freaking bizarre...

The rest of school went by without another encounter with George. I drove straight home, making sure to get as far away from hell as possible.

When I shut the door behind me in my house, I finally felt safe. I let out a long sigh and decided to get my homework done before I went to Kevin's.

I hope that the night would just be innocent fun. I needed some of that right then.

I also needed a certain someone.

But I wouldn't admit to myself who it was.

Even thought I already kind of knew who.

UGH I'm such a goddamn cliché...