Frozen in Time
1467 Words
Laurel’s Pov
I watched him saunter away, out of the dining hall after casually wishing me a happy birthday. Like his d**k didn't stretch me beyond the limits I thought I had.
Last night flashed before my eyes. The grit of his shaft was literally engraved at the back of my mind. I tasted his saliva like it was mine. He literally took my virginity.
Right now, this man had me convinced that he didn't recognize me or know me. I felt an itch at the core of my brain. My left eyes twitched severally.
I lost interest in my breakfast. It was tasteless against my palate. I dumped the rest of the food into the trashcan and rushed upstairs, locking the door of my bedroom behind me.
There was only one person who could tell me I wasn't going crazy at the moment. Cassie.
Her line rang out twice before she picked up.
“Hey! I have been trying to reach you all night.” Cassie rushed, sounding deeply stressed out.
“You have no idea. The man I danced for in your place…”
“Yeah?” Cassie replied.
“Well, I also had s*x with him.” I dumped the bomb on her without any forewarning.
“What did you just say?” Cassie exclaimed in a hushed voice. I was going to ask why she was whispering but I was more pressed on trying to make sense of how I ended up here.
“It gets worse. The man is my stepfather. The same person I was supposed to meet today!” I paused before going on since she was speechless.
“Right now, he is acting like nothing happened. I mean, not a single spark of recognition in his eyes. NOTHING.”
“Cassie, I'm losing my goddamn mind.” I confessed to her.
I began pacing in my room. My mind was in too much chaos to worry about how bad my heart was racing. I came to a stop to look out my window as I spotted a car driving off in the distance.
“He's heading out.” I muttered out loud, pressing my forehead against the cold glass. “Hello, Cass. Are you there?” I brought the phone to my ears.
Cassie was eerily quiet. I pulled my phone away just to check if we were still connect when she finally found her words.
“WHAT. THE. FUCK.” She muttered.
“Can we start from somewhere in the story that actually makes sense??” Cassie suggested.
I inhaled deeply, catching a chill in the air. “Where do I even begin?”
“THE BEGINNING!” She exclaimed louder than she had been speaking. My ears rang, causing me to shrink away from my phone.
“Okay. Okay. Calm your t**s. You are not helping. My skull is literally throbbing from overthinking.”
It took every bit of willpower within me not to blame her for sucking me into this unnecessary drama.
She apologized but urged me to go on.
I narrated everything that happened last night. Including the part where I saved him using an epipen from a first aid kit in the bathroom.
I wasn't just drunk though. He did look like an older version of Corey, now that I thought about it. Then, I didn't trust the trick my mind played on me. It was truly a weird night. One that gave me goosebumps just thinking back to it.
She got quiet again. “Cassie, are you there?”
“I'm just lost for words. This was not on my after-school to-do list at all.” She confessed.
The helpless feeling inside me was growing stronger by the second.
“Like how the hell do I have s*x for the first time in my life and the man turns out to be my stepfather!!” I was grabbing at my hair out of frustration feeling a satisfying painful tug at the base.
“Who's gonna believe me?” I wondered out loud.
“Me. I believe you, Lulu.” She tried to encourage me. “Look, you had no idea who he was before you met him. If you knew he was your stepfather, would you have slept with him.”
“No!!!” I exclaimed loudly to prove a point to myself. But the truth? I fear a part of me didn't hate the idea. Especially now that I knew what he tasted like.
She was right though. If I had known he was my stepfather, I would have ran the other way.
“This is so f****d up.” Cassie sighed.
“I know…”
“You really think he didn't recognize you?” Cassie asked.
“I don't know, Cassie. If he did, then he is one hell of an Oscar actor because he was completely unfazed by my presence while I could barely move or make eye contact with him.”
“If he remembered your face and pretended not to, then I fear we may be dealing with a psychopath.” Cassie couldn't have spiked my anxiety any higher.
“Enough of me. What about you?” I decided to change the topic, switching the focus on her.
“Me??” I could hear the hesitation in her voice.
“Yeah. How did things end with Derrick?” I moved away from my window, shutting the curtains to reduce the light that spilled into the room. The light was starting to affect the ache in my head.
“He put me under house arrest.” She admitted in a low voice. That was when it hit me, she had been speaking in a low voice through out the call.
“He did what?!” I lowered myself to the edge of my bed.
“Hey! It's better than getting bashed in the face—”
“It's not! Cassie—”
“I am fine, okay! I can handle myself.
I tried so hard not to talk about what was going on with her boyfriend in the past. She made it sound so casual when he was literally an abuser!
Even though Cassie was a year older than I was, she still was just a girl, like me. I felt bad for her.
“I have to go.” There was urgency in her voice
“Cass, are you okay??”
“I think someone is in our backyard. Catch you later.”
“Cassie. Stay safe. You are my best friend and only true friend. Remember—.” The line went dead.
~~~~
Buried dread bloomed at the floor of my belly, spinning out wools of anxiety for hours as night fell.
Cassie never called back and her number wasn't reachable.
I spent many hours worrying. Watching the white vans drive in and out, praying it wouldn't be my stepfather in any of them. At one point, I had to escape my room. I was screwing my own brains from the inside out and every sound made me jump.
I escaped to the one place I knew no one would find me. The lake beyond our backyard, which also belonged to my stepfather. I whizzled through the trees by muscle memory. Nothing had changed in my place of tranquility.
The lake was calm, greeting me with a warm seasoned breeze. It helped undo ten percent of the nut in my chest. At least the trees wouldn't judge me like my mind constantly punished me with guilt of a night I am forced to recall alone.
I stayed till it got dark. I didn't care for Isabella calling my phone twice. I could make my way back to the house blindfold. I just wanted this feeling to go away. I thought the lake would take it all away. All it did was force me to come to peace with the fact I couldn't have known.
Eventually, I had to go back.
I walked in from the back door, hoping I could get to my room before the dinner began. Inaudible voices filtered into the hallway the closer I got to the open area between the living room and dinning room.
Cassie stood in the middle of the room with Isabella arms around her, comforting. She was in short jeans and a pink top. Both looked soiled with stains that resembled blood. She also was spotting a fresh black eye.
I had barely processed the shock of seeing my best friend in my house after hours of worry. Dante walked in from the other exit.
“Oh good. You are here.” He said to me, casually taking off his coat.
“Do you like my surprise birthday gift?” Dante pointed towards Cassie with a proud smirk.
- Writer
