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“I’ll find a keeper myself.”
“Alright Ms. One last thing, I’ll need your last name.” She said, hands on the keyboard, ready to type.
“We don’t have one.”
She didn’t bother hiding her shock and confusion as she opened her mouth, yet unable to speak. Mr Rey filled in for her. “She meant your family name.”
“And I meant we don’t have one,” I retorted blankly.
“There are two Arianas in seventh grade, how are we supposed to know who is who?”
“The one without a surname is mine, this is very simple,” I looked at Mr Rey smiling dryly. How were they not getting it?
She laughed amusingly and removed her glasses. “Okay you are good at cracking people up. Thank you, I really needed that. Now what’s your family name?”
Was this bitch calling me a comedian?
I hit the table and both of them jumped in shock.Calm down Alex. “Which part of my expression showed that I’m joking? If it bothers you so much, then write ‘without a surname’ as their last name. All I know is we do not have a family name,” I half yelled and stood up.
I didn’t want to give my last name because I didn’t want it to affect them in the future. Whether it was my former surname or new surname, I didn’t want my problems to rub on them in the future.
“I’ll leave now, Mr Rey. They’ll start on Monday.” I turned to leave, but then I remembered something important and turned back to them. “Before I get them a keeper, they are in your hands. I swear to God, Mr Rey and Mrs Principal, if Ariana and Kendal complain about you or this school, I’ll snap your necks even if they are lying.” I gave them a dark glare to show them how serious I was and after some seconds, a smirk made its way to my lips.
Good, they better be scared.
“I’m just joking, relax. I just have a weird sense of humor.” I laughed and they smiled nervously, their trembling lips showing how hard they were forcing the smile.
“Please have a nice day.” I kept a creepy smile on my face and gave a small wave.
“You too, Ms Alexis.”
6
JAYDEN
EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD
‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’
I sprang from the bed as I had a nightmare. The recurring nightmare I’d had for the past three years since Jordan and her mother got saved from the hell that my dad put them through all because his friend ran with his money.
I remembered how Aunty Laura thanked me that night even though I didn’t do anything special. Even though I was part of those who had raped her daughter, part of those who had raped the only girl I ever crushed on all my life.
Flower, my Flower.
I wondered what she thought of me. I wondered what she was like now, and I wondered if I’d ever see her again. She must hate me so much, she must think I was a coward. Or worse, she must think I was happy with everything that happened.
I just wanted one more chance with her. One more chance to tell her how much I loved her, how much I cared. I just wanted to tell her how broken I was by what happened. I was turning eighteen today, which meant she turned fifteen last month.
Was she also –like me– a broken mentally deranged teenager who got panic attacks and always apologized for being the cause of the misfortunes in everyone’s life?
Had her relationship with her dad also –like mine– gone sour to the extent where living in the house with him became torture so she had to move out and stay with her grandma?
Did she also –like me– take four different therapies because she couldn’t stop having nightmares of those nights, because a gun to her head and me inside her hurt so bad?
Did she also –like me– find out that her dad still had the videos that my dad had taken and that he jerked off to it? Just the way I found my dad and brothers jerking off to a video of her, including Raphael who wasn’t okay with it from the start.
I liked her. They knew I liked her, they all knew, including her fucking father. So how could they do that to the both of us? How could they ruin us like that? Was that what family was?