Beat Of My Heart

Verse Ten

I grabbed my shattered phone and I could only barely see the screen. Suddenly, it started ringing.

I pressed a few buttons even though I couldn't see and somehow the phone was on speaker yet again. I quickly pressed the buttons on the side to turn it down and then the person began yelling.

"If you think you can get away with this you have another thing coming! I know who you are, you can't do this to her! I will destroy-"

"Sebastian!" I yelled at him to get him to stop yelling much.

"H-Holly thank God!  Where is that ass wipe that took your phone?" he asked me, his voice holding a desperate and viciously angry tone that I had never heard on him. 

"He's gone.  I'm sorry you had to hear that..." I said to him. 

"Wait, is that the guy who's nuts you kicked when I ran into you at the school?" he asked me, disbelief and anger coursing through his very sexy deep voice. 

Did I just equate his voice and sexiness in the same sentence?  What was wrong with me?

I shook off the thought and responded to him, realizing that I was taking a while to respond him because of how lost in thought I had been about my nonexistent feelings for him...

"Yeah.  He's my ex boyfriend.  Hey listen I'm gonna get a new phone here soon so I won't have your number..." I trailed off, wondering how much of the altercation he'd heard over the phone. 

"Why?  What happened, did he break your phone?  What did he do to you, Holly?" he asked, his voice filled with anger and a coldness I'd never heard from him before. 

Was he angry at me?  It wasn't my fault that my ex boyfriend had turned into an abusive monster. 

I flinched at his tone towards me, and I found myself wanting to shrink back into the phone and disappear, if only that were possible. 

"N-nothing happened, we just had a fight.  He's just really possessive and mean, I guess he got mad because I was talking to you on the phone..." 

I heard what sounded like an inhuman growl on the other end of the phone and I tensed, wondering why he would have made a sound like that. 

"I'm sure he did.  Listen, I want you to tell me if he ever does anything like this ever again.  I have the resources to bury him in a mountain of lawsuits and legal charges that he won't be able to bother you ever again."

His words meant something to me, almost like he cared about me, or maybe it was just the fact that he didn't appreciate his fellow members of the male population going around like brutes and preying on those weaker and smaller than them.  

That really made me want to take self defense lessons...

"I'd rather you not.  Know any Krav Maga or Ju Jitsu instead?" I joked, trying desperately to lighten the mood and for him to forget everything that he'd heard on the phone between Dylan and I. 

"Why Holly, I can just imagine it now.  You and me, rolling around, sweaty on a mat, my body on top of yours while our limbs are all tangled up together.  You'd like that wouldn't you Holly?"

My stomach tingled with something I'd never felt before, anticipation burning on my flesh as I was sure my face grew hot with his insinuations.  My breathing became ragged and I almost felt dizzy.  One minute I was fearing for my life at the hands of Dylan but a few choice words from Sebastian and I was panting like a dog in desperate need of water. 

I heard laughter on the other end of the phone and I realized I hadn't answered his question yet, making my disoriented state completely obvious.

"Hmm, yes!  Wait, what?" I asked, acutely aware that I had absentmindedly agreed to the dirty things he had just said to me in mistake, and I was positive that he'd use it against me every single day. 

I heard his dark chuckle on the phone and I bristled, the hairs on my arms standing at attention and I had to clear my throat a few times to make sure that what I said next didn't come out as breathy and desperate. 

"What did I just say yes to?" I asked him dazedly, hoping and praying to whatever god above there was that he'd asked a different question between his dirty, callous remarks and when I had answered with a big fat yes!  How mortifying would that be to actually admit that I wanted to do those types of things with him?  I would rather die than admit that to him...

"I'll have Jason pick you up from school today and bring you to my personal home gym.  I'll be waiting, Holly Vickers."

And then he hung up. 

What on earth had I gotten myself into?!

***

I rushed into the bathroom as the last class let out, although I hadn't gone back to classes after what had happened between Dylan and I.  Apparently, only thirty minutes had passed since the big brawling showdown and I didn't have a chance to go back to the classes because of the giant black eye currently painting my face like a giant blueberry stain, pain radiating through my body as I realized how much damage he'd actually done. 

I could tell Sebastian that I tripped on a banana peel and landed face first into the edge of a table, or I could just say that I was in a live action cartoon movie!  That would be more believable than the banana peel idea. 

I quickly splashed my face with the water from the sink and looked at my reflection once more. I grimaced at the spiderweb like veins that were visible, the mottled purple and dark blue bruise already beginning to form on the underneath of my eye where his fist had made contact with it. 

I reached in my backpack and pulled out my concealer that I was so glad I had brought with me to school, even though most of the time it just sat at the bottom of my bag. 

I swiped the magic makeup under my eye and while it took away some of the disgusting color painting my eye, it didn't stop the swelling. 

I made a quick trip to the nurse and told her a lame story about tripping that I would have to practice to make it sound believable if Sebastian was ever going to believe it and I sat in her nurse's office until the end of school with the ice pressed firmly against my wound, hoping that forty five minutes would be enough to ease the potent swelling. 

When the bell rang, I thanked her and went back into the bathroom to touch up the makeup that had slid off of my face from being up close and personal with the ice and while my eye looked a tiny bit swollen, the skin looked relatively normal and it just looked like I had a bit too many allergies. 

My destroyed cell phone jingled in my pocket and I recognized the number as Jason, Sebastian's driver and best friend, telling me in a text that he was waiting outside for me. 

"Holly, wait up!" I heard Josie holler at me as I tried to make a mad dash for the exit. 

"Hey, what's up?" I asked her, knowing that I couldn't make it out of there without speaking to her and letting her know I was alight. 

I felt bad that I'd been avoiding her, but I couldn't help that I was mortified after the incident with Dylan in the cafeteria and just wanted to be left alone for a while.  Surely she of all people could understand, especially considering the bullying she'd endured in middle school.

She pulled a stray piece of golden blonde hair behind her ear and gave me a long, accusatory look. 

"Where have you been?  I know its been crazy lately, but you haven't even eaten with us at lunch since that day..." she trailed off and I could tell that she was concerned but I didn't have time to reassure her at the moment. 

"How do you expect me to go back in there after what they did to me?  I'm sorry I've been distant, I just needed a little time to myself.  Let's eat lunch tomorrow out in the courtyard okay?" I asked her and with my suggestion her smile perked up a bit. 

"Totally.  Okay, see you tomorrow girl!"

I mirrored her goodbye and tore down the steps of the school to get to the awaiting black SUV who's windows were rolled down allowing me to see the face of Jason, my driver. 

"Here goes nothing."