Page 9

"Elaine." My mother's sleepy voice came from the door to the kitchen.

I had just opened the front door, and thought that I had managed to leave before my parents woke up that morning.

Sighing, I turned around to face her. Black was smudged under her eyes, and I guessed she never removed her makeup from the night before.

She looked like a complete wreck. My mother stopped really taking care of herself when she found out my father cheated.

She drank her sorrows away, and rarely ate.

She had lost a substantial amount of weight and looked like a corpse standing in front of me.

"Yes?" I asked softly, hoping she wouldn't want to talk to me for long. I already had an earful last night. She was upset I was never home and told me that I had abandoned her.

"Why are you leaving so early? School doesn't start for another hour and a half." She said groggily.

"You know me, I like to get to places early." I shrugged, hoping she would buy my excuse.

"But an hour and a half? For God's sake it's five in the morning! The teachers probably aren't even at school yet!" She asked incredulously.

I didn't want to tell her where I was going so early in the morning.

The park and library had become my safe space since my parent's conflict began.

In the early mornings I would walk around the deserted park and take the time to destress.

My mother would probably try to tag along if she found out.

Although she was more pleasant in the mornings, she still usually had nothing good to say anymore.

"I meet up with some friends beforehand..." I lied, "we like to go over our homework together."

"Don't you spend time with your friends after school? Why don't you go over your homework then?" She pressed.

A while back I started the lie that I was spending most of my time with my "friends.

" At first, my parents were overjoyed that I had finally started to get a social life.

But, after a little while they started to get suspicious of how much time I would spend away from the house.

I tried to leave the house before my parents woke up and come back after they had fallen asleep.

Of course, some days that was not possible and those days I would try to sleep as much as possible.

It was a mistake coming home after Dominic dropped me back at school yesterday afternoon.

I just wanted to take a nap, but my mom caught me before I could lock myself in my room.

"We don't want to do more work after we spent the whole day working at school." I tried to explain, hoping she would buy it.

My mom came closer to me and carefully looked me down. I slowed my breathing, and tried to look as confident as possible.

"You have a boyfriend, don't you? That would be the only reason you would be gone so long." She accused.

Seeing this as the perfect opportunity to keep up the facade that I started with Dominic, I said "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I figured you and dad would be upset."

"Why would I be upset? If anything I'm happy for you. You have never talked to boys before, so I am just surprised." She replied, changing her voice to sound more cheerful. However, it sounded forced. "What is his name?"

"Thomas." I replied quickly. "And he is waiting on me right now at school so I need to hurry."

"Have a good day." My mother whispered in my ear when she came over to hug me.

"You too." I said back, actually hoping she would have a good day for once. She shut the door behind me when I started heading to my truck.

I knew I was technically not supposed to be at the park this early, but there was no one there that could catch me.

I found a patch of grass free of dog crap and plopped down on the ground.

Water instantly seeped through my pants and I regretted that decision.

There were benches all around me, but I alway preferred sitting on the ground.

That morning I was too distracted to see if the ground was wet before sitting.

I got up, and moved to a bench. My entire bottom was wet, and it probably wouldn't dry before getting to school. I groaned in frustration.

I pulled my phone out of my bookbag and powered it on for the first time in days.

As soon as it turned on, text message notifications flooded it.

Many were from Amelia. She was wondering where I went after lunch yesterday.

She was wanting to call the police if I didn't respond because she was afraid Dominic kidnapped me.

I mean, he kind of did. However, I prayed she didn't actually call them.

I finally texted her back saying I was safe and just went home after Dominic and I spoke.

I then noticed that I had a bunch of text messages from an unknown number. I held my breath as I opened them. There were nearly twenty messages from him.

"Meet me outside by the bench outside of the cafeteria.

I'm waiting there now

Where are you?

It's been nearly 30 minutes since school let out

Did you seriously ditch me?

Elaine, I really need to talk to you

Can we at least meet tomorrow morning before class?

Elaine?

Why are you ignoring me?

I have something very important I need to tell you.

I really want to tell you in person.

Elaine, I promise I am not going to hurt you.

Then there were messages from last night after he dropped me off at home.

I know everything I said sounded weird but if you just give me a chance to explain you will understand.

I really don't want you to be afraid of me.

Please give me a chance to explain.

Elaine, I would never hurt you. Well, not again at least.

This last message wrenched my heart for some reason.

Please don't ignore me. I don't want to be strangers."

I felt kind of bad for him. There was clearly something mentally wrong with him, and he seemed desperate to have me trust him. But, I didn't need to get involved with someone who doesn't have a concept of reality. He already bit me once, what if he lost control of himself and hurted me again?

I decided to send him a kind message. I'm sure if I just ignored his messages, he would just keep pestering me. So, I hoped that my message would finally put an end to this.

"Hey Dominic, thank you for helping me yesterday.

I am sorry but I don't think it's a good idea for me

to talk to you again. I hope you understand."

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding, and I could feel my stomach sink.

The weight of my decision felt heavier as I hit send.

I watched the message bubble appear, showing that Dominic was typing a response.

My heart raced, unsure of what his reaction would be.

Seconds felt like an eternity until finally, his message came through.

"Elaine, please, I beg you to listen to me. I can explain everything if you just give me a chance. I understand if you're scared or confused, but I promise you, there's more to all of this than you know."

His words tugged at something inside me. What did he mean by "more than I know"? I decided that I didn't want to know. Didn't need to know.

"Goodbye Dominic."

I blocked him.