Chapter 43 Her safe haven
SAN FRANCISCO
The sound of her phone ringing had woken her up from her deep slumber. She couldn’t remember when she fell asleep. Jovy made an attempt to sit up but the whole of her body ached badly and it was almost as if she had been plummeted with a plank during the night and in the early hours of the morning.
Jovy checked the time on her phone, it was past noon. She had slept for a long time. She picked the call without bothering to check who the caller was. Knowing her father or Amelia would try to reach her by all means, she had blocked them from being able to connect to her in anyway and had only given Alice the chance to do so.
‘Hello.’ Jovy grumbled.
‘Don’t tell me you are still in bed girl?!’ Alice bellowed into the receiver.
Jovy moved the phone away from her ear immediately. Sometimes she wondered why Alice was so extremely loud. If she wasn’t the only friend she had and considering the amount of love she feels towards her, there was no way she would have kept up with being friends with her. They were the exact opposite of each other.
‘It’s not like I have school to attend.’ Jovy seethed her teeth as her legs touched the cold wood floor. She stood up with her battered and aching body and headed to the bathroom.
‘Oh! Well…that’s what dick does to one. You have become really sassy.’
‘What?’ Jovy laughed. ‘Why would you even say that?’
‘I have never heard you sound so curt before. Now, you are all grown up and I am so proud of you.’ Alice faked tears.
‘You are really something.’ Jovy laughed, settling herself into the bath that she had prepared.
Jovy placed her phone next to her, careful not to put it by tip to avoid getting it into the water. She turned on the speaker to listen in. The water consuming the whole of her wrecked body made her let out a satisfactory moan.
‘I am really pissed at you, Jovy.’ Alice said with her voice sounding serious.
Jovy managed to sit herself up properly. ‘What did I do?’
‘Why the hell would you hang up on me and listen to him like a robot?!’ She snarled.
‘You had insulted him, Alice.’ Jovy defended.
Alice let out a scoff. ‘Are you listening to yourself right now? That bastard has you wrapped around his fingers and you are sprouting this nonsense! Is that how good his dick is?’
Jovy stayed quiet uncertain of what to say. She knew quite well that the last thing she would like to get involved in, is a brawl with her best friend. Alice is much more important to her than Logan was even though it was becoming clear that she might be enjoying this moments than expected.
‘Fuck! That hunk must be a beast in bed if you are willing to stay this quiet. Oh my goodness! Jovy!’ This time Alice was laughing her head off.
‘Stop laughing…Alice.’
‘Really? I need you to spill all of the tea and give me a run down of how he gets down with you.’
Jovy furrowed her eyebrows. ‘Never! I don’t ask you about David or any other person. Do I?’
‘Relax babe. I was just looking out for you!’ Alice protested. ‘I didn’t want to be unfair to you, knowing that you have never indulged in such before. But now that you have, I would gladly share. Don’t be so stingy.’ She persuaded.
Jovy giggled, knowing the game Alice was playing really well. ‘There is nothing to tell Alice.’
‘Come on, why are you so clingy with your details?’
‘Maybe because it is rated eighteen.’ She teased.
Alice wolf-whistled. ‘Fuck you!’
They both laughed for some seconds. Jovy was feeling more relaxed as her bones straightened out the more she stayed in the water. She had mixed up the water to help mop her almost broken bones.
‘Let’s get real now Jovy. How do you feel?’
‘Would it be wrong if I say, I don’t have any idea how I feel?’
‘Is that a bad thing?’
‘Maybe not. It doesn’t feel scary.’
‘Look Jovy, I know it’s not actually my place or maybe I am not one to tell you this. But I really don’t feel good about all of this. Jovy, it feels like you are getting yourself into a deep shit that you can ever imagine.’
Tears laced Jovy’s eyes as memories of how Logan had gotten down with her all through the night flashed through her mind. For a moment, she had thought she would pass out. He had fucked her with no mercy and hardly giving her enough time to catch her breath. She felt used and more like she was some play toy. But it got crazier when all she can think about is how sexy and good looking he is.
‘Is it safe to say you are craving for attention in the wrongest of places?’ Alice broke into her reverie.
Jovy sighed. ‘No one has ever paid me much attention this way.’ She said in a low tone.
Alice sounded hurt as she let out a faint wince. ‘I do pay you all of my attention, Jovy. I try my best to be-‘
Jovy cuts in. ‘I know Alice. But his attention feels different. It’s almost like I feel safe with him despite the situation surrounding our togetherness.’
‘Have you lost your damn mind?’
‘You keep asking me that same question, Alice. Maybe I have actually lost my mind, maybe not. As crazy as it sounds I want to be here.’
‘Do I need to sign you up to a mental institute?’
Jovy sniffed as she stared hard at the wall. ‘This isn’t a joke, Alice.’ She mumbled.
‘I am not joking either. You can’t waste all of this with him. You have skipped school for the first time in your entire life, all because you met him. How about your dreams, Jovy?’
Jovy swallowed hard. ‘They were just fantasies. I have come to realize I had no actual plan in the first place. I just wanted to escape the hell hole I was in.’
‘And you think you have finally done so?’
Jovy couldn’t respond to the question as the tears became heavy on her eyelids and they dropped speedily.
‘Jovy-‘
‘I just want to be loved…Alice. Nothing else.’
‘And you would be if you can let go of the thought that this godforsaken man who comes from only the Moon Goddess knows where, that he is the one to find you that happiness.’
Jovy sniffed. ‘You would never understand it, Alice. Do you know how jealous I feel whenever I see you and your father together? Sometimes, I wish I was his daughter instead. All my life since the death of my mother, all I have experienced is bitterness and total hate. I wake up in a house my mother spent the whole of her life in feeling scared and sad over the situation I was in. I come everyday to school with one scar or the other. I have nothing to be happy about, I have strived and pushed through everyday hoping my father wouldn’t find a fault in everything I do. But it all ends up worse than I can ever imagine.’
‘I know our lives are different and I may not totally understand how you feel. But you don’t know this man too well.’
‘Fine! I do not know much about Logan but I feel safe with him. I know all I have to do is let him fuck me, but right here I am not scared of getting beaten by my father anytime soon or getting locked up and having the stale bread that had been left to rot away in the fridge. This place just feels peaceful, Alice!’ Jovy wailed profusely as she could also hear her best friend’s sniff from the receiver. Realizing Alice was crying along with her only made her pump the tears harder.
‘We would scale through this together Jovy. I promise.’ Alice muttered.
Jovy nodded her head in affirmation. She knew there was an utmost solace and sincerity in Alice’s words and it eased every of the pain that she was feeling in her heart.