Mend Me? ➸ hemmings a.u

20. Luke

Saturday night. 11:27pm.

I couldn't take my mind off Ava's lips on mine. The quiet girl, Ava, the only one brave enough to be with me. The only one willing to play along with my lies to Rose despite the possible terrible consequences. The only one with a smile on her face after those terrible consequences became a reality. I love her.

With those bright eyes she isn't proud of and the way she plays with her hair when she's nervous. She's made me happy again. I'd forgotten what happiness had felt like, though all it needed was a beautiful girl like Ava to smile and blush to make my heart flutter and eyes beam.

I crawled out of bed and stared at Rose's house across the street through my window. Mindlessly, I grabbed for my phone. My eyes squinted at the bright screen as my thumbs started conjuring up words in a reply to her text.

'Lukey, you wanna come over? My parents are still away and I have a surprise...' She sent ten minutes ago. This burning desire starting to build up in my chest, and I replied almost instantly. 'Sure thing Rosie, on my way'.

It was around a year ago when these ropes were tied painfully around my wrists. I'd never thought I'd be in this position, but things spiralled downhill in a matter of months. My dad lost his job, and my life was a miserable mess, especially with the terrifying reality of being uncertain about the future for the first time in my life. That's when Rose came in...

Her dad took a chance in hiring mine, and their family helped mine back on my feet. This relationship had Rose and I seeing each other quite a lot, and it didn't take long for me to realise she wasn't the nicest person. When her previous puppet broke up with her, I was her next target. She had a weapon this time though, something that'd keep her shackles on me close and tight. That was my dad. I knew, and she told me numerous times that if I disobeyed her once she'd go running to her dad.

It was temporary, I was told. I was being used to get back at the ex-boyfriend, and I told myself I'd be able to handle it, that it'd be normal once again once my job and purpose was no more. I failed, however, and I witnessed the moment she threw the key away forever.

She kissed me in my room, her bright pink nails digging themselves painfully through my hair, and I knew she was serious. "And that's why you love me, right?" She'd force me to say 'yes'. Her eyes shifted, from looking at me as if I were her trained puppy to ones of pure adoration. "Never leave me," she'd order, and all I could do was nod. I wasn't letting my family go through that pain again, I wouldn't allow myself to see my parents suffer once more.

She isolated me from my friends, introducing me to her circle and forcing me to join. I watched helplessly as any girl who tried to talk to me was humiliated mercilessly by her. "Luke, it's only me, isn't it?" I nodded. "But I'm prettier, right?" I nodded. "You'll never love anyone else as much as you love me." It wasn't even a question, she told me how I felt, I nodded.

I threw on a white shirt and snuck out of my house, tiptoeing across the cold road to Rose's door. I knocked once, and she opened the door with a bright smile and twinkling eyes. "Hey Luke," she wrapped her arms around me tightly. "Wanna see what I got for us?" She winked, and gripped my wrist before I could answer.

Her and my parents loved us together, thinking we were the happiest couple on earth. They didn't know she suffocated me, treated me like her chess piece, stole me from my friends and replaced every thought in my head with her twisted delusions.

I was dragged up the stairs and locked inside her bedroom. She pushed me against her door and ran her fingernails down the thin material of my shirt. Her lips were on my collar bone, staining my skin with lipgloss. She looked up at me with wide, and what others might consider innocent eyes. She pushed me onto her bed, kneeling over me before leaning down to kiss me again, her teeth biting at the sensitive skin around my neck. "Babe, what's the surprise?" I asked hesitantly. She looked up and smirked, her eyes drifting to the drawer of her bedside table. She forced herself underneath me, so I was hovering over her.

She was a lonely girl. Her overbearing nature only allowing for a few, select friends who obviously only took a liking to her for her looks. A lack of affection could be the cause of my situation right now. I seemed to be giving her what no one else had, including her parents, who only showered her in material possessions.

"Check the drawer," she whispered. I reached over, leaning on my elbow and pulling it open. I looked and was surprised to see a pair of pink handcuffs. I blushed, "r-really?" I asked. She shrugged, "why don't you be in control for once?" She bit her lip. My mind was screaming around a million different things, but I blocked it all out and held her hands above her head. Without thought, I handcuffed her left hand before pulling the other around a bar of the bed head behind her and securing the other tightly around her right hand. She pulled against the chains and giggled, "come on, Luke," she arched her back, pressing her hips against mine.

I imagined Ava's face, her face if she saw what I was doing right now. I knew I had to do something. I stood up quickly, leaving her room and almost tripping down the stairs. "Luke?" She shouted. My heart was beating like a hummingbird, and my eyes ran madly around the living room searching for something, anything... They landed on a lighter on the table beside the front door. My hands acted without consent from my brain, gripping the lighter and scrambling back up the stairs. "Luke, what are you doing?!" She screeched. Red blinded my vision, and my fists clenched, the lighter digging painfully into my right. I entered her room and locked the door behind me. "Rose, this is for controlling me." I knocked her lamp off her desk, loving the sound the shatter made. Her eyes widened. "L-luke?" She whimpered. "This is for suffocating me." All her make up and nail polish landed in a heap on the floorboards. I couldn't hear her any more, my mind was focused on letting out all the pain she'd caused me for so long.

I turned to her after who knows how long, her floor tainted with everything her parents gave her to show their love. I walked slowly to her side. "Rose," I cooed. She stared at me with a look of terror and shock I'd never forget. I kissed her on the cheek. What she did to Ava was my breaking point, and I was done playing useless, scared and pathetic.

"This is for breaking me."

The lighter lit, and she watched as I moved the flame to the curtain above her bed. It caught fire instantly, and she thrashed madly against the handcuffs and mattress. I took a step back, watching the fire consume the purple material. The orange engulfed the decorations on the ceiling almost instantly, and I watched in a complete blank daze.

"Luke!" Her throat seemed to tear to shreds at her screams. "Why are you doing this?! Luke, help!" I was forced out of my daze, and as the flames made their way to her hair, I knew there was no fixing what I'd done. I turned, left, and closed the door quietly behind me. "Luke, I love you! Come back! Luke, why?" I blocked out her pleads as I made my way calmly down the stairs.

"She won't hurt you again, Ava."