Tattoos and Scars | Completed, Unedited

8 | Just Like Me...

I expect to see Adrian, or maybe Blake. But it's the same girl from before. Anna, I think. I quickly wipe away my tears, although I'm fooling nobody. I'm pretty sure my face is puffy, and I look like shit.

"Hey, sorry about earlier," She starts. "I mean, you're probably scared to death. We separated you from your family, and they're probably worried sick. I would totally let you go home, but I'm sorry, you have to stay," She explains. I almost laugh. My family? Worried?

Life was a cruel and sick joke. And right now, it's really laughing at me.

I take a deep breath. "It's fine."

"I understand if you don't want to talk much," She says in a friendly manner. I still don't trust her. No one's ever wanted to be my friend before. I guess circumstances are different now. But that doesn't make me trust her. Not one bit. "Friends?" She holds out her hand, and I eye it suspiciously. "I don't bite."

I give her a warm smile. Maybe I can trust her? "Yeah, definitely." My smile widens.

"Yay!" She exclaims, and does a mini happy dance. My smile fades when I see Adrian entering the room. Shirtless. That's not a good sign, and neither does it make me feel safer around him. Aside from his hard-earned muscles, he's got tattoos. A lot of them. If I wasn't so anxious around him, I wouldn't be able to take my eyes away from the details of them.

It's as if he senses my fear, so he stays at a distance. "Anyone up for ice cream and games?"

"I'm always up for ice cream," Anna agrees, and looks at me expecting me to say the same thing. There's no way I'm spending time with him. He looks quite

"I have to take a shower," I try. But I'm pretty sure he won't fall for that, since he literally saw me coming out of the shower in nothing but a towel. Did he notice my scars? But either way, once I escape out of here, I'm not returning to my dad or Adrian. I'm going to start a new life somewhere far away. I just need to find a way to sneak out.

"You just took one," Anna points out. "Come on! It'll be fun. I'll make sure Adrian doesn't hurt you." Adrian rolls his eyes when she says that.

"It's not like I'm going to hurt her. Why would I?" He sounds irritated, but he also looks a little drunk. I can tell when someone's drunk, even if it's just a little. Seventeen years with my dad and you pick up a few skills.

"You're drunk," I point out. It took quite a lot for me to tell him that but I hate it when people drink or smoke. Anna looks at me quite surprised, and so does Adrian. But in general, he doesn't seem like the guy to show much emotion.

"How'd you know?" Anna asks. I simply shrug. "Well, I'm going to use the bathroom for a second," She informs us, as she heads out of the room.

"I might be drunk... but I have self control," Adrian says in a stoic but firm manner. "I won't hurt you."

There's a genuine tone to his voice, that compels me to believe him. But there's also my experiences that tell me he's not going to keep his word. I don't trust him, and I don't think I ever will.

I turn away from him, and head towards the balcony. The cool midnight breeze brushes over me. It feels good. I've never really had time to stop and feel the breeze, and even if I did, I wouldn't. I was so used to my mind being at constant unrest, always thinking about what chores I had to do, and if I finished them right, and now the horror of that night keeps haunting me, but as of now, I let the sight of the beach beneath me steal my breath. I let it mess with my heartbeat, and play with my sight. Because, for one, I've never been this close to a beach before, and now I get to stand on the balcony of a mansion and watch the moonlit waters slowly kiss the sand and withdraw.

I take a seat on the nearby swing, and hug my knees towards my face. I've feel so free, but I know I'm trapped. And that's confusing, but for the first time, I can take a deep breath, and tell myself, you can sit down. You don't have anything to do. Just breathe.

Adrian

I don't understand her. I don't want to, I have better things to do than try to understand a girl that was supposed to be long dead by now. But there's something about her that makes me remember Ava.

It's not her looks. Hell no, Ava was dark-skinned, and she had the deepest and darkest eyes ever. She was gorgeous. And this girl, she's blonde, and she has blue eyes. They're not the ocean blue we all love. It's the faded blue, as if her eyes have seen too many nightmares in one night, and lost too many dreams. Her eyes are empty, as if they're still searching for a dream. She's falling apart at her seams, somehow managing to hold herself together. I have never seen someone more broken than her.

But she makes me remember Ava because of the way she studies her surroundings. She seems to constantly be calculating risks of making each and every move. Ava didn't trust people easily. It took me a lot to earn her trust. I still remember the day I faked an attack on her, and saved her. She didn't believe it of course, but that somehow made her like me.

And this girl seems the same way. She looks at me with this distrusting expression, and makes sure to always stay a good few yards away from me. I don't know why, just like I don't know why she has scars on her body.

I watch her curl up into a ball, while taking a seat on the swing. She looks so miserable, and lost. As if she's been deprived of love and care all her life.

Just like me... But the only difference is, I lost the love I earned because of one stupid mistake.

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