Thin Line Between Love And Hate

Chapter 17

Carly sat silently on the couch lost in thought. She had insisted to Johnny that she was fine and he could go, the last thing she needed was him there when Sonny got back from where ever he was. She couldn’t stop thinking… she was thinking so much and so hard her head hurt. When Deke had grabbed her she had turned into this weak thing begging him to let her go. She remembered Lisa and how she used to beg the same way. Carly got up and checked herself in the mirror again, she had tried her best to cover up the bruise Deke had given her when he’d slapped her. She hoped it didn’t show too much. But there was nothing she could do about the bruises that were on her arms, she had a long sleeved shirt, which covered them, but Carly knew they wouldn’t be going away any time soon. Carly heard a key turn in the lock and she tried her best to smile.

Sonny walked into the apartment, saw Carly standing in front of him with a worried smile plastered on her face. “What’s up?” Sonny asked as he made her way towards her.

Carly opened her mouth to answer him and after a minute closed it again not having a clue as what to say. She had thought that when she saw him she might have some idea as what to say but she didn’t. “I have to talk to you.” She finally said lamely.

Sonny looked closer at Carly with concern on his face. “What happened, what’s wrong?”

Carly turned and sat down her bruised face being showcased by the way she was sitting. Sonny quickly sat down beside her and brought his hand to her cheek. “What’s this? Did Bobbie hit you again?”

“What? No” Carly sighed knowing this had to be said. “I found a place to live Jake said I could rent one of her rooms, even though I’m not 18 yet. I was leaving when I ran into… I ran into Deke.”

Sonny’s expression turned deadly. “He hit you?!”

Carly nodded. “He started talking about what he did to you, I told him to stay away from you and he grabbed me. I tried to get away and he hit me.”

“I’m going to kill that son of a …”

“Sonny no,” Carly quickly interjected. “I’m fine and the last thing you need is to go after Deke, besides Johnny showed up, he just appeared and had Renaldo take Deke away. Johnny brought me home, he wanted to stay with me but I told him I was fine.”

Sonny looked at her seriously. “Are you though? Deke is a scary guy, he must have brought back some bad memories.”

They both knew Sonny was talking about Lisa and what Carly had gone through as a child, but Carly shook her head. “I’m fine!” Carly looked at Sonny and saw the worry and the guilt in his face and sighed. “I promise, I’m fine, it’s just a bruise and Johnny promised he’d take care of Deke. So neither of us have to worry about him anymore.”

Sonny nodded as he got up. “Do you need anything?”

Carly looked up in surprise. “You’re going out? You’re not going to go see Johnny are you?” Carly saw the look in Sonny’s face and knew that was exactly where he was going. “Sonny just leave it alone, don’t get involved with this guy… we both know what he does for a living.”

“I can’t just leave it Caroline, Deke hit you I have to find out what’s going on.” Sonny saw the love and concern in her face and he softened a bit. “Look I’ll be careful, I just have to take care of this. I have to.”

Carly nodded as she watched Sonny leave, scared that he would do something stupid in order to make Deke pay.

~~~~
Johnny had been expecting Sonny to come by so when Renaldo announced him he just nodded and waited to see which way Sonny was going to go with this.

Sonny walked into Johnny’s penthouse, he needed to know some things and Johnny was the only person who could help him right now. “I hear I owe you a thank you. Again.”

“You don’t have to thank me, nobody should get away with acting the way Deke was, but your welcome.”

Sonny nodded. “How bad was it? I know Deke, I know how he gets when he’s mad…”

Johnny sighed. “Let’s just say it’s good I showed up when I did. How is she doing? She sure has a lot of spunk.”

Sonny smiled. “Told you off right?” When Johnny nodded Sonny laughed. “She does that when she’s scared. I think she’ll be okay… it just brought back some bad memories for her.”

Johnny saw the look on Sonny’s face and knew there was much more to this thing than what he had witnessed. “While let me know if I can help.”

“Actually you can, you can tell me what you did with Deke.”

Johnny looked at Sonny seriously not saying anything.

Sonny continued unabashed. “Look I’m not stupid, I just want to know if he’s gone for good, normally I wouldn’t be out for blood but he hit Carly. She’s been through enough without Deke scarring her to death too.”

Johnny walked over to the mini bar and fixed himself a drink. “I’m only going to say this once. He won’t bother you again.”

Sonny nodded understanding. “Thank you, I don’t know how I can repay you, but I will.”

“Don’t, there is no need, I have something of a problem with dirty cops myself, forget about it.”

“While I’m going to go, I haven’t been able to work much and I have to put some more hours in if I’m going to pay my rent.” Sonny said heading for the door.

“Where do you work?” Johnny asked.

“Luke’s, I do the books, run errands that kind of thing. He’s really good to me, and his sister Bobbie owns the building I live in. I won’t be out on the street or anything. I just don’t want to take advantage.”

Johnny nodded looking at Sonny. He liked the kid; he had since he’d first met him. “If you need some extra money, I could always use someone.”

Sonny looked at him wearily. “What would I do?”

“Deliver papers, run errands, nothing to big. Are you interested?”

“Yeah, I mean if it’s not to dangerous, if I got hurt again Carly would kill me.” Sonny said seriously.

Deke laughed. “Yeah I know what that’s like. If you’ve got the time, I have some papers that need to be delivered to the Port Charles Hotel.”

“Sure” Sonny said eagerly.

“Just leave them at the front desk, the name is on the envelope.” Johnny said handing Sonny a large envelope with business contracts in it.

Sonny nodded, “All right, thanks.”

Johnny handed a bunch of bills to Sonny. “For your trouble. Come by tomorrow and I’ll see what else I have for you.”

Sonny took the money surprised that he was paying him now before the job was done, but not about to argue. “Thanks, I’ll take care of this right now, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Great” Johnny said as he watched Sonny leave.

~~~~

Carly was now officially freaking out, Sonny had been gone way to long and all of these horrible images kept flashing through her mind. She was sure Deke had found Sonny. Carly heard someone come in the font door and immediately bolted towards it. “Sonny! Where have you been? I’ve been so worried…” Carly stopped when she saw that it was only Jason that had come in. “Oh, I thought you were Sonny.”

Jason nodded. “I figured that, what’s going on, why are so you worried about him?”

“He went to see Johnny, and I’m pretty sure he’s going to go after Deke.” Carly said sitting back down on the couch in despair.

Jason looked at Carly confused. “Why would he go after Deke?”

Carly turned and looked at Jason showing him her bruised face. “I ran into him at Jake’s. Let’s just say he lives up to his reputation.”

“Are you okay?” Jason asked softly.

Carly was surprised by the tenderness in his voice. “I’ll be all right, Johnny showed up and had his guard get rid of Deke. I had to tell Sonny, it’s not like I can hide this and he would have found out some other way. But God Jason, you should have seen his face, he looked like Deke had hit him. I know he feels responsible, who knows what he’s going to do.”

Jason sat down next to Carly. “Sonny can take of himself, and this Johnny guy seems to be watching out for him. Sonny probably just wanted to find out what was going on.”

Carly sighed. “I hope your right.”

“What were you doing at Jake’s?” Jason asked after a minute.

“Oh, I was asking Jake if she had a room to rent, she said she’d let me rent form her even though I’m not going to be 18 for a couple more weeks.” Carly replied.

“That’s great Carly, I’m glad things are coming together for you.” Jason said honestly.

Carly nodded smiling slightly. “I am too.”

~~~~

Carly sat on the couch at Chloe Morgan designs doodling a sketch. She couldn’t stop thing about Sonny. When he’d finally come home from Johnny’s he’d barely said two words to her, he just said he’d talked to Johnny and everything was fine. He’d held her like she was about to break and gone to bed. Carly had let him go, she knew he was upset, but it had been over a week now and Sonny was still barely speaking to her. She had moved out a few days ago, he had helped, it wasn’t like he was ignoring her he just seemed distant, really distant.

Chloe walked into the reception area and spotted Carly daydreaming. “Caught you” She said jokingly.

Carly looked up surprised and smiled apologetically. “Sorry, I was drifting.”

Chloe nodded glancing at the paper in front of Carly. “May I?” She asked motioning towards the drawing.

Carly looked down at her sketch embarrassed. “It’s just a doodle.” She handed it over to Chloe apprehensively.

Chloe studied it for a few minutes and then looked back up at Carly. “It’s very good, you have talent, you should think about taking some courses next year after you graduate.” Chloe said handing it back to her.

Carly’s mouth dropped. “You’re kidding?”

“No, I’m not, I’m not saying you don’t have any rough edges, but you have a lot of potential.” Chloe said seriously.

Carly just nodded, still in shock, she’d never had anybody tell her she could be something in such a long time. Not an authority figure without an agenda at least.

Chloe got up as her phone started ringing. “Think about it.”

“I will.” Carly said quietly before going back to work.

~~~~

A few days later …

Carly closed the door to her tiny apartment at Jake’s glad to be home. She’d a really bad few days, Chloe had been trying to get some designs for this big party done and there was a ton of work to be done, school had also been crazy her teachers had picked now to assign all the papers for the year and Carly was literally drowning in deadlines. Not only that but she hadn’t seen Sonny in days, every time she called him he wasn’t home and when she did see him at school he always had somewhere to go. Carly sat down on her bed glad to finally be able to relax. Carly’s head shot up as she heard a knock at the door. She groaned not wanting to deal with anyone right now. “Who is it?” Carly asked in an irritated tone.

“Sonny.”

Carly eye’s went wide with surprise, and then squinted with anger. “What do you want? I thought you were to busy for lowly me?”

“Just let me in Spencer, I’ll explain.” Came Sonny’s equally irritated tone from behind the door.

“It’s open,” Carly said before closing her eyes and putting her head on her folded hands.

Sonny walked in and immediately saw how tired Carly looked. “You look wiped, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Chloe’s got everybody running around like headless fowl.” Carly said with her eyes still closed.

Sonny was silent for a moment and than in a confused voice asked. “You being chicken with their heads cut off?”

“Whatever” Carly said finally opening her eyes and stared at what stood before her Sonny Corinthos in a tux with flowers and a giant package under his arm.

“Happy Birthday”

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