feelings that I can barely keep my thoughts straight. I’m not used to being this happy, and I almost feel like I’m going to cry.
When I finally pull back for a gasp of air and open my eyes, I can’t keep the smile off my face and neither can he. I’ve never felt this happy before in my life, and judging by Owen’s angelic smile, I don’t think he has either.
“So... to the cocoa?” I ask, winking at him. I never wink at people, but I can make an exception for him.
Owen nods happily and offers me his hand. Together, we walk hand in hand the rest of the way down the long, icy staircase toward my apartment.
“Wait, aren’t we going to your place?” he asks, turning to me and raising an eyebrow.
“Yep!”
“Then why...”
“I live about thirty seconds away from you,” I quietly interrupt.
He stares at me incredulously.
“Seriously? All this time, and I’ve never once seen you?”
“Yep. Surprised me too,” I answer with a smile, and I turn and kiss him on the cheek. His face is as cold as ice, but I enjoy it anyway. His bashful smile only makes me want to kiss him again.
Tina and Craig are chatting happily with two pints of beer when we come in the front door, and she waves happily to Owen, leaps up, and gives him a hug. She babbles enthusiastically at him and drags him over to the table to talk, and I head to the kitchen to make cocoa.
“So what are you two up to?” asks Craig.
Owen and I glance at each other, and then in unison answer, “Just talking.”
Tina’s smile is so wide that I fear she might pull a muscle in her face. She knows me well enough that I don’t have to say anything else. For all I know, she can read my mind and already knows everything.
She leaps up from the table, grabs another beer, and then scoots her chair closer to Craig and snuggles up next to him with her head on his shoulder as he puts his arm around her.
“Oh really now! I thought you told me you weren’t into Craig like that?” I tease, and she rolls her eyes at me before turning and kissing him softly on the cheek. He turns red and Owen laughs.
“What can I say? People change,” she answers with a wide, proud smile—a smile that I know is just for me.
Friday, March 8 – 7:30 AM
Owen
I close my door, sit down at my desk, and try to pretend I’m working on my homework. I’m staring at numbers scrawled near-illegibly in my physics notebook, but they don’t mean anything to me right now. My mind is still hiding in terror behind the couch downstairs.
I can hear the fight making its way toward the stairs. Their voices echo through the heating vent and the aluminum ductwork distorts Dad’s cold, hate-filled voice into something out of a bad movie.
My mother is running up the stairs, trying break free from the fight, but Dad’s boots stomp up the stairs right behind her.
Mom starts crying, and I shudder at the sound of fist against flesh right outside my door. It hurts me even though I’m not the one being hit. He’s done it to me plenty of times before, though.
A new voice cuts through my thoughts and I bolt upright in my chair.
“Stop that! Stop hitting her!” screams Maria.
Maria? What is she doing here?
The nightmare shudders around me as if it’s about to break apart and let me wake up, but then it pulls itself back together and the torture continues.
I can see Maria’s beautiful green eyes in my mind. They’re wide and dark with fear, but she’s still braver than I am. Samantha stood up to Dad, now Maria, but I’m still hiding in my room and pretending I’m not here.
I close my eyes and bite my lip as I hear my father’s hand connect with Maria’s face, followed by her gasping in pain.
“Get up, Owen. You didn’t protect Samantha, and now Maria needs you!”
The door slams down the hall as Mom locks herself in the bedroom. Why wouldn’t she? She wouldn’t protect her own daughter, and Maria means nothing to her.
“He’ll kill me!” my mind screams as I reach for the doorknob.
I can’t let the nightmare win again. I don’t want to see Maria in Samantha’s place.
God... please don’t do this to me. Don’t let this nightmare play out like it always does.
I clench my teeth in anger and despair