Ellie
“Please don’t run away from me. Please, Daddy, don't leave me with her!”I jolted awake, my heart pounding like a drum in the silence of the night. My wide-eyed gaze scanned the darkness of my room as I forced my breathing and heartbeat to align.The face of my 6-year-old self remained photographed in my mind. I couldn’t shake away her teary eyes and bruised body as she ran after her father, stopping only to watch as he drove further away from the house, leaving her with Satan herself.A part of me still resent my father for abandoning me that day with her. He eventually came back after a week but that look of horror on his face, him getting his keys, him yelling at my mother asking her how she could do something like that to me, me thinking all the torture was finally over, me thinking he would save me, only for him to drive off and leave me with her with no explanation, it all remained photographed in my mind. There was no “I’m coming back”, or “I’m taking her with me”, he just left.“Hey, are you okay?” a sudden voice pierced through the quiet, startling me.It was Aiden, his big frame leaning on my door. I hadn’t even noticed when he came in. “You were talking in your sleep. My room is next door and the walls are fucking thin.”He sat softly on the edge of my bed. I turned on the lights to see he was shirtless, his hair was ruffled and with dark and tired eyes, he leaned closer to me.“Are you okay Ellie?” his voice softened and he placed a hand on my thigh sending uncontrollable chills down my spine.“Yeah it was just a nightmare,” I said, brushing his hand off before getting up. He let out a heavy sigh before putting his hand in his pocket and pulling out a cigarette and a lighter.“You keep cigarettes in your pockets when you’re sleeping?”“I forgot it there, okay? Let’s go to the balcony.”He lit the cigarette and passed it to me. I didn’t smoke, but I also didn’t want to turn it down.Under the cool night, there was a comforting relief on the balcony, each rhythmic inhale of the cigarette syncing with the peaceful quietude. I passed the cigarette to him.“So what’s the story?” He said after taking a drag.“What do you mean?”“Your nightmare, you, your dad. What’s your story?”A heavy weight rested on my shoulder as my eyes continued to lock on the night sky.“My mum wasn’t the best person...” I contemplated whether to tell him or not, but then again, who would he tell? Plus, I highly doubted Aiden gave a crap about my past.“She was a meth addict and she used to hit me.” The words spilled out faster than my brain could keep up with.Aiden choked on his drag before looking at me with widened eyes. “You look surprised,” I said with a chuckle before taking the cigarette from him.“No shit I’m surprised.”“You shouldn’t be. We lived in the worst part of Coney Island. Half of the people there are addicts and hate whatever kids they have. CPS is sick and tired of Coney Island at this point.”“Yeah, but still. Did your dad hit you too?”“No. He was always busy with work. He had to work 3 jobs to put food on the table so he was barely home. He didn’t even know about my mum’s addiction at first.”“How’d he find out?”I placed my feet up on the table and turned my gaze to him.“He found the bruises on me when I was 7. He and my mum got into this huge fight and he...left.”His already widened eyes grew larger. “He left you? That’s fucked up.” That question panged my heart. Hearing it from another person hurt more for some reason.“Only for a week though. He and my mum got into a huge fight again when he came back. She started screaming that she wouldn’t let him take me away. She...um..she grabbed a knife, and yeah...”“Anyways, the cops came before she could hurt us, and they sent her to jail. I haven’t heard from her since.”I took a deep drag of the shortened cigarette. Aiden sat up and took it from me.“Is that what your dream was about?” I nodded as I sunk into the chair. This level of vulnerability was making my body quiver, and all I wanted to do was disappear.“Yeah.”The silence between us grew uncomfortably thick, each passing moment adding weight to the awkwardness. Sensing the tension, Aiden reached out, placing a hand on my thigh I guess in an attempt to soothe me.As our eyes held an electric gaze, I sensed a shift in the air. Aiden must have felt it too because he lifted his hand from my thigh to my face, moving my curls behind my ear. His fingers stroked my cheeks softly.“Aiden...what are you-His gaze fell to my lips as he used his thumb to draw on the corner of my mouth.His lips connected to mine softly, and they melted together – soft and easy, like a slow dance. It was a gentle kiss, the kind that spoke volumes without saying a word.But it was with him. Why did I let him kiss me?“Why’d you do that?” I whispered as our lips parted away.“I’m sorry,” he said softly, his eyes still in a daze. I could feel his warm breath on my face, and all I wanted was for him to close the gap again.“It’s okay.” His finger brushed over my lips again before he stood up.“Um... I should get going.” I nodded, and with that, he was gone.***The party was a chaotic explosion. Jason Bridger’s father owned one of the elite clubs in Manhattan, and I guess with a “please daddy” he could always have his parties here.Hot sweaty bodies swayed on the dance floor, laughter echoed through the air, and the scent of booze lingered strongly in the air. As I made my way through the dance floor with Jasmine and Ana behind me, I questioned why I came here in the first place. I should have listened to Aiden.Speaking of Aiden, we barely spoke after our kiss last night. God, I needed to talk to him, but I also never wanted to see him again.Who the fuck kisses their stepbrother?!“Girl you need to loosen up,” Jasmine said. She yelled a bit since the music was deafening.“Is it that obvious?” I asked.“Yeah, your face is all scrunched up, what’s going on?”I wanted nothing more than to tell her that I kissed Aiden, to gush about how it made me feel, about how his lips were so soft and so gentle that it made my stomach pool with butterflies, but I couldn’t.No one could ever know, they’d think we were little incest babies. Like c’mon, he wasn’t my brother, we weren’t actually related.“I just need to use the bathroom.” I lied before surfing my way through the crowd to the girl's bathroom, only to find a long ass line.“Hey princess.” a voice echoed behind me.“Aiden I told you toBut it wasn’t Aiden, it was Ander. His tall inebriated frame towered over me as he swayed around.“Looking... for Aiden?” His voice slurred.“Uh...no but have you seen him?”“Yeah, follow me.”We walked slowly through the club until we got further and further away from everyone else.The music drowned out and I could barely make up the figures of everyone in the club. “Hey, Ander...are you sure Aiden’s here?”The air thickened as he cornered me, his body drawing closer to me. The heavy aroma of booze clung to Ander like an invisible cloak, a potent blend of whiskey and hard gin.“You’re Aiden’s little princess.” He used his finger to stroke my cheek in a way that made me quiver for all the wrong reasons.“Why don’t you and I have a little fun Ellie?” his grip on my waist tightened as he pushed my body further into the wall.“Ander...stop.”Panic equally tightened its grip on me, each unsteady heartbeat a drumroll of apprehension. As he pushed his body firmly to mine, I fought to steady my breathing. Without saying a word, he laid slobbering kisses on my face and neck. I wanted to fight, to push him, and kick him away but my body worked against me.The club became muted with distant echoes and the pulsating lights grew dimmer and dimmer. It was like I watched him from a foggy distance, disconnecting from my reality.No, no, no, no, please stop.Please.ELLIE“What the fuck are you doing?!” a familiar voice called out. The weight of Ander’s body on me was released before a heavy thud rang through my ears. With shaking eyes, I looked at Ander’s body on the floor with a furious Aiden on top of him. My body was still frozen in place as Aiden’s heavy fists met with Ander’s face. The sound of his bones cracking pulled me back into reality. “Hey, are you okay?” a gasp left my mouth as Kai gently grabbed my face. He placed a jacket over my body before pulling Aiden away from an unconscious Ander.“Are you okay? Did he hurt you?” Aiden rushed over to me. “I want to go home, please take me home.” ***Dad and Emily had gone to some gala and the maids were already in bed when we got home. Aiden carried me bridal style into my room and I didn’t complain, I just wanted to be home in my bed and far far away from the thoughts of Ander all over me. He placed me gently on the bed and took off Kai's jacket. “I’m going to kill Ander when I see
ELLIEI froze instantly, as I wondered just how in the world I was having that phone call. It seemed like I was still reeling from the trauma of having been close to getting raped by some fucking pervert.But then, it was happening to me right there. The one person I had been running from had finally caught up with me. It was quite a moment of truth for me as I was face to face with the one moment I was running away from.All the traces of the pleasure that Aiden had infused me with had suddenly disappeared in the heat of the fear of the moment that was happening to me so suddenly. Myriads of questions came into my mind, as I was simply overwhelmed by the heat of emotions that came from the reopening of wounds that I had tried to close with the bandages of time. But somehow she was about to have me all fucked up again like she had left me back then. The phone was almost falling off my hand as I was trying to get myself to come to terms with the fact that my past hadn't left me, it h
AIDEN“What are you still doing boy?” The sound of my mother's voice from behind nearly had me jumping out of my skin. There just wasn't any feeling more frightful than that was. “Mom…” I turned to see her standing with Ellie's father. Something about seeing Ellie's father standing beside my mother got me freaking out in no small way. “You frightened me…”“If you're frightened, then you have got to be up to something really suspicious…” My mother was perfectly displaying the one thing I disliked the most about her— her ability to know almost every move I would possibly make. She had studied me like a book, and knew all of my tendencies, almost making it hard for me to ever fool her. If I didn't act quickly and smartly, then I'll get fucked.“Well, I just couldn't sleep, and I decided to take in the view from the balcony for a couple of moments before I started feeling a bit drowsy. Headed to my room right now…” I kept the pace of my speech as relaxed as I could, as I couldn't risk
AidenI still had my eyes on the text I had gotten from Ellie, which had me wondering just how quickly things had gone wrong. Did I do something wrong last night?Perhaps, it was just the downside of a legend acting like a simp, by sending cute, little good morning messages. “Come on… this is serious, Aiden…” I said to myself as I discarded that thought from my head. I was just getting the shock of my life when I heard that Ellie had left for school before me. “Are you serious?” I asked, staring at my mother in shock. “How could she…” I contained my curiosity as it had the potential to expose me if I wasn't careful. My mother had a way of drawing inferences that never failed to make me shocked. “Is there a problem with her leaving so early?” My mom's intuition was already kicking in at that point. “Why are you so concerned all of a sudden?”“Nothing, really. I'm just shocked to see that she's already getting the hang of things so quickly. Just hoping she won't get lost on her way.”
ELLIEWho the heck was she? And why was she speaking to Aiden in such an endearing manner? I didn’t know if it was still the booze or just sheer jealousy. But then, why would I be jealous? He was my freaking stepbrother for crying out loud.“Ellie, just calm down for a second, alright?” Aiden looked like he wasn’t going to back off anytime soon. “What the heck has gotten into you lately?”“You wanna know what has gotten into me so bad?” I had lost coordination of both my words and my body as well. “Yeah…” Aiden maintained, still trying to keep his voice down in order not to create a scene right there and then. “Why don’t you go away, then I might just get better, because the last thing I need right now is having you around me,” I said, not knowing why I was so mad at him. Seeing that girl still standing beside him was making me even angrier by the second. Why wouldn’t she back away even though she saw that we were arguing? She still stood, staring like she was enjoying the scener
ELLIEThe three boys were coming at me with hostility in their steps. I couldn't see any way out for me as the fourth person was coming at me as well. Things were about to get even more fucked up as it looked like I was going to get. “There’s nowhere to run sweetheart. It's just us in here.” The ringleader of the boys repeated as they were closing in on me. My first option was to get something to defend myself with. But I just couldn't see anything in sight. It was almost looking like it was just a lost cause. “Come here…” he was closing the distance between us in a quite frightful manner, but I was able to get myself moving through the right spaces in between the rows of seats. Soon enough, my courageous spur of energy was snuffed out by one of the pervs who had closed in on me from the other side. Before I could turn, I felt one of them against my back. “Let go of me…” I let out, as I felt an annoying pair of hands come on my breasts. He squeezed with such voracity, as he was t
AIDEN“Put her down…! Now!” I let out angrily with a folded fist.Surely, a volcano was about to erupt within me as I watched Ellie being wrapped up in Kai's arms like they were a romantic couple that couldn't get enough of each other.The sight of them being together seemed to spell out the hopelessness of the dream I had of having Ellie to myself. There just wasn't anything that could be more painful at that point. “Aiden, could you just relax so I could explain everything to you?” Kai requested, being totally unaware of the volcano that was brewing up on my insides. “She was in danger and I just happened to be there in time to save her from those goons that tried to forcefully screw her in the basketball court.”Those words did little to water down the anger that nearly ate me up from inside. It felt like she was going to be his for life. There just weren't any words to describe what exactly I was feeling at the moment.I noticed the look in Ellie's eyes, which almost looked like
ELLIE“We're here…” Kai announced as he looked at me with a smile.My heart knew no peace until Kai pulled the car over in front of the house. It had been a suspense-filled ride, as I had laid flat in the backseat, hoping that we weren't going to get caught by Aiden's mother or even worse get pulled over by the cops.“For real? That was fast…” I let out as I finally sat up in the chair and looked around to make sure I hadn't been taken to the wrong location. “You surely are a delivery guy.”“Well, I just know the quickest ways to get things done,” Kai said as he was in a hurry to get out of the car. He hurried and opened the door for me to head out. “Do you still need me to carry you in my arms?” He asked teasingly. “Maybe…” I wouldn't mind being carried all the way into the bed in my room. My body was longing for that feeling of security that only Kai's arms could give me. “Just one last time…”“Alright then,” he said, with his arms ready to receive my body into them one more time.