The only thing I could think of after my aunt and I argued was to leave, the last thing she said was a knockout, I didn’t even want to try to get up.
Lately, I was getting hit so many times that I no longer wanted to try to defend myself or cover up. Sooner or later, I always ended up on the floor and maybe if I stayed there, they would stop hurting me or stop caring, whichever came first.
“Celina!”
I slowly turned around, I recognized that voice and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with him right now. I wanted to go with Cris, but his phone was off, so my plan was to wait outside his house until he arrived, if he wasn’t there already.
I stopped expecting to have a forced conversation with Travis, but what actually happened was startling, he approached with his car almost running me over. Thanks to my fast enough reflexes, I took several quick steps back until I tripped over my own legs that crossed in the desperate reaction. I fell on my butt on the sidewalk. What just happened?
The boy who almost killed me, quickly got out of the car with an exaggeratedly worried look on his face. “Are you okay? I’m sorry!”
My heart was racing. “Yes, I love being on the floor and I’ve always fantasized about being run over.”
He looked at me confused. “What?”
I was about to repeat it to him, but this time with screams in between, until I noticed that his pupils were extremely dilated and he was as pale as a ghost, I knew this was not normal for him, his tanned skin always shone with his presence. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, very well, better now that I see you.”
“Travis, why are you saying those things to her?” shouted a very shrill female voice from inside the car.
Only then did I realize that we were not alone. April was in the passenger seat the whole time, she also looked very bad. I got up quickly completely forgetting about Travis and approached April who had already gotten out of the vehicle.
I was a little intimidated by the confrontation she transmitted with her eyes, but I didn’t stop for a second until I was close enough to her. “Are you okay, April? I don’t see you…”
More exalted than usual, she started laughing and pushed me hard enough to hurt my shoulder. The only thing she said to me was: “Don’t get close to Travis.”
And she repeated it three more times, each one with more fury and helplessness, as if I was disobeying her order with each breath.
This was the weirdest thing I had ever seen, what the hell was wrong with her? Her hands were shaking and her jaw seemed tense. Was she on drugs?
She was going to lash out at me again until I quickly moved to where Travis was watching the situation amused.
“What did you give her?” I said, wanting to kill him. I hadn’t spoken to April in a while, but seeing her like this gave me such a surge of anger… I was ready to punch anyone.
“The same thing your boyfriend or as far as I know, your ex would have given her.” His voice and demeanor turned dark. When he referred to him, the disgust in his words also made itself present.
I knew Travis was drugged, spontaneously his mood could change and so it did. He was angry and not precisely at Donovan.
With a knot in my throat, I began to look everywhere, hoping that someone had seen the whole situation, but the streets were completely empty, which was the most logical because it was already getting dark.
I had to leave, I felt it in my bones, I turned around one last time to see April with a murderous look and started walking quickly to head back to my aunt’s house, they took my arm with enough force to cause me to stumble backwards.
“Why don’t you stay with us for a while?” Travis growled in my ear, causing me to tremble under the hand that was firmly grasping my arm.
I tried to pull away, but he didn’t let me move an inch. Travis was breathing heavily, almost like an animal, and his breath hit my face… The disgust and fear I was experiencing was unimaginable to me ten minutes ago.
Parallel to us, April was scratching her face and looking at me as if she didn’t know me. At this moment, I don’t know her.
I wanted to scream, but I didn’t know what Travis was capable of, I didn’t want to make him angrier than he already was. Ignoring my common sense and survival instinct, I said what I thought would be least counterproductive. “I don’t think April likes the idea.”
He chose to laugh and squeeze me harder. I tried to hide my grimace of pain, but it didn’t work. “I don’t care what she…”
“Girl, are you okay?” I turned around looking for the emitter of that voice. It was an older man who was walking towards us, looking at us strangely.
Before I could answer, Travis let go of my arm abruptly to fall on the ground and have a body on top of him.
Donovan grips his hand around Travis’s neck and starts yelling things that I couldn’t fully understand because of how dazed I was to see him.
It can’t be.
“What were you going to do?! Huh?! Didn’t I warn you?! I told you to stay away from her, bastard!”
Seeing him and hearing his voice again… Why? Why was he still doing this to me? This painful feeling…
April started screaming crazily and climbed on top of Donovan to stop him, but he didn’t flinch.
I didn’t feel the need to do the same for two reasons… The first was that two minutes ago, the boy trapped under Donovan was the one who had me cornered, and the second is that he wasn’t choking him, he just had him there. It looked like he was thinking about what to do with him and I wasn’t going to stay to see it.
I looked at the older man to see his reaction to what was happening, and he seemed shocked. His eyes met mine and his look expressed indignation. He quickly took out his cellphone and I knew he was going to call the police.
That was my cue to leave.
I started to run excessively fast, I wasn’t going to look back, no matter that Donovan was screaming my name right now, I wasn’t going to go back there. I didn’t want to go back with him under any circumstances.
This hellhole is more dangerous compared to where I was before, at every corner, I find someone who wants to harm me.
And he always appears to save me.
And shatter me.
I’m not going to let that happen again. Besides the feeling of being so stupid to have let my guard down with him, it provokes nothing more than indifference in me.
My heart is numb and I no longer care.