Then…
Silence was surrounding us as he cooked breakfast. He had been carrying me around the house since I hurt myself, but other than that, he's been kind. He graciously switched my ankle brace to the other side so he could tend to my wound. It was ugly and I couldn't stand to stare at it for long when the bandages were off. I couldn't put any weight on that side.
I waited quietly as he put the bowl of oatmeal in front of me. It had some brown sugar sprinkled lightly over the top with some strawberries cut and thrown in the middle of it. I reached out to start eating, but he slapped my hand.
"No, Doll, you eat only when permission is given from the head of household. Do you understand?" I pulled my red hand back to my chest and nodded with a tiny whimper in my throat. I swallowed it back down, not willing to give him the satisfaction.
He sat down in front of me with his own bowl and nodded, giving me permission to eat. I quietly ate with him and my mind ran through ways I could incapacitate him with my spoon.
Once he finished, he stared at me as I slowly ate. I wanted to find any way I could to piss him off. Maybe then he would decide this whole thing he had planned wasn't worth it. I wanted him to let me go. I wanted my dad. Maybe my mom too.
After a while, he decided I was done and took my bowl and spoon away. He silently put them in the sink and lifted me out of my chair. I wrapped my arms around him, scared that I was going to fall. He quickly moved me to the couch and began to unwrap my ankle. He worked quickly as he dressed the wound. The past few weeks have done it good and it was slowly healing back over.
"I have to go to work today, Doll. I've been away a bit too long, so you will be here alone until lunch time. When I leave and you're healed up enough, I will expect you to make your own lunch and dinner for us both. You will also be in charge of keeping the house clean, any time you disobey, there will be consequences, do you understand?"
I stayed silent as I stared at him.
"I said," he took a pause in his words as he took my chin in his hand, "Do you understand, Doll?"
"Yes," I managed to squeak out.
His grip tightened for a second.
"Yes, what?"
"Yes, Nathaniel." I whimpered as he released me.
"Good girl."
Now…
When I reached the cafeteria, I was already pissed off. Some students had taken to treating me like garbage and teachers spoke down at me like I was an idiot. I had brought a protein shake to drink for my lunch because I knew for a fact the food here would be prissy and expensive.
I quickly found Oliver in the crowd and almost ran to his table and pressed myself into his side as I sat down. He looked down at me and gave me a small smile.
"Hi, Rosalie," his voice whispered.
"Hi," I squeaked back out in response.
"Who is this, Oli?" The voice was deep and came from a boy with dark brown hair and eyes that reminded me of emeralds. His hair had a single green streak in the front.
"This is my sister, Rosalie, this is my friend Jasper," Oliver said and the boy waved. "She's gonna be sitting with us, so please try to get to know her, she's a little shy."
I looked at everyone at the table before my eyes settled on a small girl staring right back at me. I almost immediately recognized those chocolate eyes and the dark hair with the light highlights she had added when we were young.
"Gracie?" I asked, my voice wavering slightly as she started tearing up a bit.
"Hi, Rosie," she replied before plopping down next to me and wrapping me up in her arms. "You were gone so long we thought you were dead! Your mother was so distraught and sad! What happened to you, Rosie? Where did you disappear to?"
By this point, I realized the silence that surrounded the cafeteria. Everyone was watching, staring at the scene before them. Everyone heard her ask what had happened to me. I quickly pushed Gracie away, knowing this would be best for us both, and running away from here, as fast as I could.
When I reached the bathroom, no one was inside that I could see, so I quickly locked the door behind myself and let the tears fall. I wiped the tears away so my makeup wouldn't run and pulled the hair off my neck and tied it loosely back when I heard a gasp.
I ripped the tie out and let my hair drop as I turned around to a girl with black hair and black fishnet stockings on her legs. Her hair was pulled up into a ponytail and her hair was tightly curled so it looked like a little poof. Her lips were black and her eyes lined in the same color with small specks of glitter in the dark color. She was slightly taller than me as I looked up at her while she moved closer.
"Now don't try to hide that, lemme see the ink job!" she said, pushing my hair back. I squeezed my eyes shut as she stared at my exposed tattoo. "Does it go all the way down your body?"
"Yes," I squeaked out.
"Wow, so you're Delo's new racer that everyone's been talkin' 'bout," she said, she had a heavy accent twisted in her words but I couldn't place where I had heard it from before. "Damn, Reece will be mad he's been beaten out by a chick for the past three years."
"Please don't tell," I pleaded only to open my eyes to see her contacts colored her eyes a royal purple.
"Please, newbie, I wouldn't dream of it. I'd love to see the smiles wiped off those boy's faces once they figure it out though," she said, pulling away from me. I rushed to fix my hair over the colors. "Name's Persephone," she added, holding her hand out towards me.
"I'm Rosalie," I said, putting my hand into hers.
"I can tell we're gonna be great friends, Rosalie."
I let out a small snort at that, "Yeah, we just may be."
"You racin' tonight, Rosalie?" she suddenly spoke, catching me off guard.
"I am."
"Good, you're givin' me more reason to go tonight, Rosalie."