"Come on, just let me explain." I could hear the gruff voice of my, now, ex-boyfriend calling from the other side of the street. I could hear his boots scuffing on the pavement behind me as he started to jog across to get to me.
"Absolutely nothing left to say, Garret. Pretty sure what I just saw was more than enough explanation for me." I told him over my shoulder as I kept walking at a fast pace. I was headed home. I was repulsed. I felt sick. I was fighting the urge to break down into tears.
"I'm doing this for us." He says and I can't help the bubble of laughter that erupts from my chest. I can't help but stare at him, incredulous at the thought of it all.
"What the actual fuck," I said to him, finally stopping and turning around to face him. I knew what the implications where. I knew what that could potentially mean.
"You are, quite literally, getting into bed with the same club as my dad for us?" I ask him slowly, seeing if he catches on to the fact that I am not amused. "How fucking stupid can you be, Gar? That shit is fucking dirty. The shit that they do is not something you want to be a part of."
"If they take me in, if I prospect and earn my patch, then you will be my old lady. No one can touch you then and I mean no one." He tells me, mimicking my slowness of speech. "You have no fucking idea how hard it is to see you come into school every day covered in new bruises, how hard it is to not even be able to hug you properly because you're in so much pain." He lowers his voice and steps closer, reaching out to touch me. I step back and shake my head.
"I would rather that than what you are getting into. What happened to the plan Garret? The one where we were supposed to walk away from here. One more year, that's all we had to make it, and we could run. Go as far away as we fucking wanted."
"Plans change, babe. They have to. Your dad was never going to let us just walk out of this town. I had to do something. This just…sort of fell into my lap."
"Oh, I'm sure it did." I spit back at him, unable to control the broiling heat of jealousy that rolled through me. "Guys like them don't give two shits about their old ladies, Gar, not a fucking one of them. There is no bright side to this. You are going from the pan into the fire and you're taking me down with you."
"I wish you wouldn't see it that way. I am trying to protect you. This is all I know. This is the life we grew up in. I couldn't make it flipping burgers, and neither could you. This life? This is all we have. If we take over there is nothing, we couldn't do baby, we could run this town, take over one day, make it how we want. I mean fuck, they already see me as the prodigal prince because of my Dad, you're the fucking princess. It was meant to be this way. Don't you see that?"
The guy in front of me looked like my Garret but hearing the words fall from his mouth made him a stranger. I had no idea who I was talking to. He was buying into the company line, the bullshit story a bunch of bikers all wanted them to believe. It was some twisted fairy tale, a twisted arranged marriage sort of line that just shouldn't exist anymore. Garret and I had always dreamed of getting away from here, going to see the beach, going to other countries. Traveling and never putting down roots until we found the place we loved enough to call home. We were going to get married, have fucking babies and stay as far away from this town as we possibly could. We wouldn't even come back for the funerals that would eventually begin. I couldn't help the tears that slipped out of my eyes then. Knowing that this was the point in my life I had always feared. I knew that there was a chance we might get ripped apart. It felt like a betrayal. Seeing my dad's vice president sitting in my boyfriend's living room like he owned the place, handing Garret a leather cut with a prospect patch on the back felt like a stab in the chest.
"Who are you?" I asked him in a whisper before I turned around and continued my path home. I felt him still behind me, heard him try to speak, but I tuned him out. This stranger had nothing to say that would make this better. When I rounded the last corner, I stopped short, seeing all the blue and red lights flashing around the raggedy trailer I shared with my dad. I felt Garret put a hand on my shoulder, but I shrugged him off. His touch didn't offer comfort, it now felt oily and slimy just as my dad's touch did. The closer I got to the house the more I could hear my father's booming voice echo out.
"You're overstepping yourself. I have never laid a hand on her. Not once." He was saying.
"Then, tell me, Mister Montgomery, why is it that she comes in every single day of class with new bruises on her, not to mention the days when she can barely walk?" I heard my art teacher, Miss Sevres's voice respond to his, much calmer and softer but laced with no less steel. I stole a quick glance at Garret out of pure habit and he was just as confused as I was. A third voice spoke then.
"Alright, calm down you two. We will see for ourselves when the girl gets home and then we can put this whole mess to rest." I assumed he was the police officer. "Try to phone her again, would you Sir?" He asked my father and a moment later I felt my phone go off in my pocket, my ringtone giving away that I was standing there outside the door. I walked in then, looking over the scene. My father was sitting on the edge of the couch, his hands laced together in his lap. I knew from the look in his gaze that once everyone was gone, I was in for it. I swallowed hard and looked at the two officers in the room flanking the petite art teacher I had come to adore.
"Dad, what's going on?" I asked him.
"This woman seems to be under the impression that I am beating you." He said with a chuckle. "Imagine that sweet pea, she thinks I am hurting you." His tone was light but the look he was giving me would melt anyone lesser. I wasn't impervious. I was afraid of my father, but I also knew that if I just did as I was told then I wouldn't be punished further.
"That's ridiculous," I tell him and then repeat it to the officers. I can't look at Miss Sevres. I am having a hard time not just looking down to the floor. God, I hated lying and I honestly sucked at it. I was never going to be a smooth talker, blunt truth usually poured from my mouth.
"I'm afraid that this accusation is more than we just overlook with a simple statement. Miss Sevres claims that she noticed a bandage on your arm this afternoon. May we see it?" My gaze jumped from him to my dad. If I took my jacket off, they were going to see everything. I had stupidly worn a tank top underneath. I hesitated and looked back to the officers for a moment.
"It's nothing, really, I just burned myself on the stove. It was an accident." I lied through my teeth. Oh, the stove was what burned me, but it wasn't an accident. My dad had pushed my arm into it and held it there. This wasn't the first time that someone had sent officers to check on me, but these two seemed to be marching on despite knowing who they were going up against.
"All the same, Miss, we need to see." He told me in a firm but kind tone.
"Mercy, honey, just show them. If I am wrong about all of this then I truly am sorry but, I don't think I am, am I?" Miss Sevres was watching my face, hers was full of kindness and softness that I had never seen. She really thought she was helping me.
"Just show them" Garret murmured in my ear, and I knew that I couldn't just get away with not doing it. I gave my dad a look of apology and I shrugged off the leather jacket. Miss Sevres hadn't ever seen my arms, how bad the extent of it was. There were old scars from cigarettes all over my arms and a couple scattered on my chest and back. Bruises of various shades covered my arms. They looked like dots all over, suspiciously shaped like fingers. I pulled off the bandage and showed them the collection of round loops from the stove top. If it was an accident, it was a bad one, from their darkening features I knew it was obvious. I knew the line I was supposed to say. I knew what I was supposed to tell them, I did it myself, I'm just clumsy, I fell, I got into a fight after school… I knew what I was supposed to say but I froze. If I told the truth my father would kill me, and yet…. If I told the truth I could just as easily be free.
It was a whirl then, my dad lunging for me, Garret pulling me out of reach as the cops tackled him to the ground. Miss Sevres was at my side, urging me outside but I couldn't move. I knew I had just signed my death warrant; my silence had just cost me my life. If he didn't kill me his club would, rats weren't allowed to live. I was going to die. That thought wasn't what froze me, sadly enough, it was just the unknown. I had no idea what was going to happen from this point.