I Will Buy You a New Life
Chapter 6
~*"When one door closes, another opens, but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one that has opened for us."-Alexander Graham Bell*~
"Not only does he cook, lady's and gentleman, but he also sets the table! With just 4 east payments of $365.95 you could own your very own Brian Housemaid," said Angelina using a mock announcer voice as she watched Brian set the table. He turned around and smiled at her. She had really loosened up. Maybe it was because she was at home in her natural environment...or maybe it was something else. Maybe she was getting used to him. He lit the last candle and shut the lights off, then walked over to her and offered him his hand. She smiled a little and slipped her hand in his. He led her through the kitchen and to the dining room table, pulled her chair out for her and placed her napkin on her lap. She giggled a little as he pretended to run his fingers over his long, windy mustache.
"Would the lady care for some wine?" he asked, resting the wine bottle on his arm. She nodded her head a little and he smiled at her as he poured the red liquid into her glass. He poured himself some then took his seat across from her. For a few seconds he just stared at her...watched her while she sipped her wine as the light from the candle flickered onto her face. She looked up and caught his eyes for a brief moment before looking down at her hands. Brian smiled and stood back up to serve her food. Once they both had a good amount of food on their plates, he sat back down at the two began to eat.
"This is wonderful, Brian," she said between bites. "Thank you so much, but you really didn't have to go through all this trouble."
"It was no trouble at all," he said smiling at her. "So, tell me about yourself, Angel."
"What's there to know? I live here, that's my dog, I'm studying to be a make-up artist downtown and that's about it."
"There's gotta be more. Let's see...age, family, origin. Come on! I wanna know!" he said whining like a little kid. She laughed a little and looked down at her food before looking back up at him.
"Well, I'm 23. Family? I don't want to get into it right now. Origin? I was born in this little town outside of Tampa. And umm...well that's about it."
"Do you have a boyfriend?" he asked, looking down at his wine glass.
"I don't see Kevin Bacon anywhere around here, do you?" she asked smiling. He lifted his head and smiled with her.
"Kevin Bacon, huh?" he asked, then broke out into song singing the "Footloose" theme song. She was in a fit of giggles, she could hardly stay in her chair as she watched him sing into a piece of garlic bread. "No, I'm playin, that's an awesome movie." She nodded her head in agreement.
"That's my favorite movie of all time. I could watch it a million times and never get sick of it." There was a very long, very awkward silence between the two as they continued eating dinner. He would look up at her every once in a while, just to remember how beautiful she was, then he'd smile and go back to eating his dinner. Sometimes she'd look up at him and notice the candle light dance on his facial features so delicately. They caught eyes a couple times, but she'd always look away from him, not wanting to get lost in his sky blue eyes.
"So...do you have any questions about me?" he asked, looking up from his plate. She looked up at him and nodded a little, wiping her mouth with her napkin.
"Yeah, I want to know the same things you asked me. Age, family, origin, girlfriend status..." she said the last one quietly. She still wasn't into letting him know that he had gotten to her, but she also knew it was way too late to worry about that. If he had half a brain he had caught on by now.
"Well, I'm 25 years old and was born in Lexington, Kentucky. Well, actually it wasn't right in Lexington, but right there on the edge of the city. My parents, Jackie and Harold and my older brother, Harold Jr. live up there still. As for girlfriend status..." he paused and looked at her "...we'll have to wait and see about that," he said smiling at her. She looked back down at her food quickly. He smiled inwardly, noticing how nervous she had become.
'There's definitely something there, there's no doubt about it now,' he thought to himself. He cleared his throat, causing her to look up. "I didn't mean to make you nervous, but you know it's not a secret that I like you," he said reaching over the table and stroking the back of her hand. She just looked down at it, not moving, just staring until he pulled back.
"I gotta go to the bathroom," she said and stood up, running down the hallway. She closed the door behind her and, not bothering to turn on the light, slumped down against the back of the door. She hated herself for feeling the way she did about him. She hated that he wouldn't just leave her alone, but she also hated the thought of that actually happening. She dropped her head into her hands and a few tears fell down. 'This is so ridiculous!' she said, standing up and flicking on the light. She looked at her reflection in the mirror. 'Why on earth does he care so much?' she asked, running her hand through her hair. 'Ugly, I'm just so ugly.' She closed her eyes and when she reopened them, she saw Brian behind her with his arms wrapped tightly around her body. It felt so nice, so warm, so safe so unlike anything she had ever felt before. She smiled and closed her eyes again, but this time when she opened them, he was gone. She turned around, but no one was there. She looked behind the shower curtain, no one. In the towel closet, no one. Even in the hamper, no one. "And now I'm hallucinating," she said to herself. "I'm going insane." She wiped her few tears away, gathered herself, and walked back into the dining room. Brian had turned the light back on and had blown out the candles. He sat at the table with his head resting against the palm of his hand. He looked up when she walked in and smiled. She smiled meekly back at him.
"You okay?" he asked, looking concerned. She nodded her head and picked up her fork. "I'm really sorry about whatever it was that I did."
"You didn't do anything, Brian. It's me...I'm just...I'm fucked up," she said softly. Brian looked at her questioningly. He was completely caught off guard with that one. What the hell was he supposed to say now? 'You're not fucked up, yeah seeing as I know you and everything. Shit, for all I know you could be a mad psycho Backstreet killer and I could be the first victim,' the thought of that made him laugh inside. Not knowing what else to do, he stood and switched chairs so he was sitting next to her. She looked down at her lap, not even considering looking up to see the way he would be looking at her. Like she was some sort of freak. He moved his hand under her chin to try to move her head up so she would look at him, but she pulled back when his hand got anywhere near her.
"Angel, please, I won't hurt you," he said feeling helpless. He cared so much for her already and he was ready to do whatever he had to do to make all of her problems disappear.
"I just...there's...I don't know where to begin," she said, moving her plate onto the placemat beside her and resting her head on the table. Tears threatened to escape her eyes, but she fought them off as hard as she could.
"Start at the beginning," he said, taking her trembling hand in his.
"I've never told anyone about this before," she said, her voice strained. His eyes began to fill with tears of his own, but he managed to choke them back. He needed to comfort her, not cry for her.
"It's okay. If you want to talk to me it's okay, but if you're not ready yet, that's okay too." She looked into his eyes for the first time since she came back from the bathroom. His normally bright blue eyes had turned to a sort of hazy blue with concern. She hadn't met someone who cared for her in a long time. Hell, she hadn't met anyone who wasn't a teacher or her boss in a long time. She sighed and played with her ring.
"It's going to be really hard for me to talk about since you're the first person that I've talked to about it since then."
"Take your time. I'm not going anywhere until you tell me to." She stood up and walked into the living room. Brian got up and followed her. He saw her on the couch with her knees pulled against her chest and her chin resting on her knees when he got there. He sat next to her with one leg on the couch folded under him so he could face her. She took a few minutes before raising her head to look at him.
"Can I trust you?" she asked meekly. He nodded softly, looking her straight in the eyes and she took a deep breath. "I trust you Brian, please don't make me regret that," she said more to herself then to him.
"I promise you, you'll never regret it," he said, smiling soothingly. She took another deep breath and situated herself on the couch.
"Well...I grew up in this small very religious town not too far from Tampa. I would tell you what it was called, but the truth is, I blocked it out of my memory. Anyway, like I was saying, I grew up in a very religious town where everyone knew everyone. If you were born there, you were automatically going to stay there for the rest of your pathetic life and marry the kid next door...that's just the way it always was. So, childhood was great. All I can really remember about it is going to church, though. My parents were so overprotective, but that's just the way all parents were there. It's like they wanted their kids to live in little bubbles and never learn that there was a world out there where anything was possible. So, needless to say, high school wasn't like other high schools. I'd write to my cousin in Chicago and she'd tell me all about these parties she went to and what guys she slept with and how she got drunk and all these drugs she was doing, and I was just appalled. I couldn't believe that anyone could do those things. Especially have sex before marriage. That was probably the biggest thing to me, how she could do that. It disgusted me." She took a deep breath and looked at Brian, who was listening intently. He knew she was getting to the bad part and he moved closer to her.
"Would it be okay if I put my arm around you?" he asked, looking at her out of the corner of his eye. She nodded her head. He smiled and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to his body.
"So, here I am in high school talking to the boy I grew up with and was undoubtedly going to marry someday, Michael when the teacher announces we have a new student. Now a new student in our school meant someone else who would have to get used to the way things were. Most kids learned quickly. They accepted that this was the way it was and that was that. So, this new kid, Dominick started going to our school. I thought he was awesome. He had this blonde spiked hair, his tongue pierced, tattoes. He was so everything that the people in this town lacked. He had spunk and he wasn't about to follow the rules. I started talking to him instead of Michael. Mike bored me to death. It was always the same, but not Dominick. He always had a new story to tell about what life was like in New York. He and I started dating, but we never really told anyone. Then one day Michael caught on to it and he told his parents. He felt threatened by Dominick because I was supposed to be HIS future, not Dom's. Needless to say, I was forbidden to ever speak to him again." She sighed and looked up at Brian. "You know when your parents would tell you when you were younger not to touch the stove because it was hot and you'd get burned, but you did it anyway, just to be sure?" Brian nodded his head. "That's what this was like. The more boundaries they tried to set on me, the more rebellious I became. Dom and I were like the best couple and I really thought I was in love with him. For the first year, everything was great, with the exception of the fact that I had to pay Michael off to tell his parents that we were together so my parents wouldn't know. I promised him that after graduation he and I would be together again and we'd get married. He liked that idea, so he kept his lips sealed. Anyway, after a year passed, Dominick got a little too wild. He was sick and tired of having to live in this..."
-=Flashback=-
"I am so sick and tired of having to live in this stupid little bubble!" he yelled, kicking the tree. Angelina sat on the ground watching him blow off steam. This is where they came to be them. The woods where no one ever went. The two usually just sat and talked, but today was different. He had nearly gotten kicked out of school for not "following the dress code." They told him that the tongue ring had to go or he did. "I wear their annoying ass preppy clothes everyday and I stay awake in class, what the hell else do I need to do?" he yelled. Angelina stood up and walked to him.
"Baby calm down," she said, trying to wrap her arms around his neck. He grabbed her arms and pushed her off of him violently.
"Fuck you! You're one of them!" he said, pointing back to the town. Angelina sat on the ground crying. "What Angelina? Are you scared? Never had someone raise their voice to you have you? You've never been hit have you? I've already dented the bubble, I might as well pop it, don't you think?" he asked looking down at her. Her head was on her knees and she sobbed hard. "Get the fuck up!" he yelled, grabbing her by the hair and making her stand to her feet. She cried in pain. "Look at me bitch," he screamed in her face. When she refused, he smacked her hard across the cheek. Tears streamed down her face.
"Why are you doing this?" she got out between sobs.
"Why? Why? HA! Don't you get it, Angelina? I'm the "bad" kid. I'm the one everyone looks at and laughs at and you laugh with them, don't you? DON'T YOU?" he yelled throwing her back to the ground.
"No! I don't laugh!" she screamed.
"Don't ever fucking lie to me again!" he yelled and kicked her hard in the side. She held her side as she curled into a ball on the ground, praying to God that he'd stop. "You are part of them! You're not like me, you're such a little pussy," he screamed, kicking her in the side again and again. "My parents made me move here so I'd calm down. I'll bet the fucking made you go out with me to calm me down, didn't they?" he screamed.
"NO!!" she screamed back.
"What'd I say about lying to me?" he asked grabbing her by her hair and throwing her up against a tree. She curled into a ball at the trunk of the tree, crying like she'd never cried before. "Fuck you," he said before leaving her there. She watched him walk away through her tears.
-=end flashback=-
Brian held Angelina in his arms, rocking her back and forth as she cried into his chest. He ran his fingers through her hair, doing everything he could to calm her down.
"Shh, it'll be okay. No one's going to hurt you now or ever again."
"The hate in his eyes, Brian. I can still see it so vividly," she forced out. He rubbed his hands over her back, humming softly to her. She began to calm down a little bit, and looked at him. "Thank you." He just nodded his head.
"That was horrible. I can't believe anyone is capable of being that evil to another human being," he said as she moved off of him and sat back next to him. He put his arm back around her.
"You haven't heard the worst of it yet."
"It gets worse?" he asked, choking on the last word. She nodded her head and pulled his arm tighter around her. She cleared her throat and wiped away the last few tears that fell.
"Well, like I said, he left me there in the woods by myself. I tried to stand up but I couldn't. Pain would surge through my body if I tried, so I knew walking all the way back home was out of the question. So what was I supposed to do? I was stuck in the woods by myself and it was getting dark. I couldn't scream cause it hurt so bad, I could barely even breath because the pain was so bad." She took a deep breath. "So, the next day, the cops found me in the woods nearly beaten to death and they took me in. They called my parents immediately and they came running to the hospital. When they got there, I was confronted with their questions. 'Who did this to you?' 'Where did it happen?' I couldn't answer any of their questions without telling them I was with Dominick, so I pretended to not remember. After a few days in the hospital I was released and was back at school the next day with no intents of even looking in Dom's general direction. I had learned that there was a reason for there to be an order of things. Michael would never have done anything like that to me, so the next day at school, I apologized to him and told him I had realized that he was the one I was supposed to be with. He was thankful for that, especially since I knew he knew who had done that to me. I guess Dominick saw me kiss him and flew off the handle again, but he waited until after school to do anything about it. Michael walked me home that day, to make sure I was safe. As soon as Michael was turned around and walking away, I felt someone come up behind him and cover my mouth and drag me behind the house. He shoved me up against the wall and knocked the back of my head against it." Tears began to roll down her face again as Brian tightened his arm around her.
"You don't have to continue if--"
"No, I have to," she said quickly. He nodded and let her gather herself before continuing. "So he beat me again, this time worse then the last. This continued over and over again. After the first time, he got smart and learned not to hit my face or my arms or legs and not to do it as brutally as he had. He'd bruise me in places that my clothes covered so no one would ever know. I didn't know what to do or who to go to, so I just let him do it. I tried to tell Michael without blurting it out, but he didn't get it. Then one day, Dominick didn't just beat me...he raped me too. Like I said before, having sex before marriage was the biggest no-no anyone could think of next to killing someone. I thought I could just keep it inside and not tell anyone, but then I got pregnant. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't go to my parents because they would tell me God was punishing me for betraying them. I couldn't go to Michael because he would think I was a whore. I couldn't go to anyone. I thought I could just wear my brothers school uniform shirts so it would be baggier and people wouldn't be able to tell I was pregnant, but that didn't work. My mom noticed and asked me about it. When I told her Dominick raped me, she called me a lier. She said it wasn't right to call rape on someone when it was obviously consented sex. I pleaded with her to believe me, but she wouldn't. She told me I was a dirty whore and she was ashamed to be my mother. My brother and father found out soon after and they both thought the same thing. They were all ashamed to even know me. My parents kicked me out and told me to go live in sin with Dominick. I didn't have anywhere to go so I went to Michael, thinking that if anyone loved me unconditionally it was him. When I got there his mother answered the door and told me to never step foot on her property again. I went to every one of my friend's houses praying that someone would be able to overlook their beliefs and see that I was in pain. Everyone had shut me out. When word got around to Dominick that I was pregnant, he laughed with everyone. He called me a slut with everyone and started a rumor that it wasn't him, that it was some guy in Tampa. The entire town hated me. Whenever I'd go somewhere all I would hear is 'Slut' 'Tramp' 'Whore'. Dominick continued to beat me...he beat me for getting pregnant and ruining his reputation most of the time. He kicked me in the stomach repeatedly once and that was the end of the babies life. That was his goal. So, basically I lived in the woods and waited for him to come every night and beat me. I didn't know what else to do. I was too scared to think of doing anything else. Then one day I had the idea to just leave there. To get out and go somewhere that they would never have to hear of me again. I luckily still had a key to my dad's Volvo, so I stole it in the middle of the night and headed for the first exit I saw which happened to be the exit for I-4 heading to Orlando and I haven't left since." Brian held her close to his body as tears rolled down both of their faces.
"I can't believe that anyone could ever do that to you," he whispered into her ear. She smiled slightly through her tears.
"Thank you so much, Brian. Even though I've been a pain in the ass since the day we met." He shook his head.
"Don't thank me," he said wiping his tears then hears. "If you ever need to talk to someone, I'm here for you." She smiled and nestled into his arms and choked back the rest of her tears. She looked up at the clock and noticed it was about 1:30 in the morning. "I should probably get those dishes done and get going," he said into her ear. She nodded her head and moved off of him, allowing him to stand up.
"I'll do the dishes, Brian," he was about to protest, but she stopped him. "I'm doing them, so deal with it. I probably won't be sleeping tonight anyway," she said looking at the floor.
"Listen to me, Angel," he said lifting her chin. "I don't think anything less of you now that you've opened up to me. I swear on my life that I will never hurt you nor let anyone else hurt you. You have to trust me though, okay? I know that it must be very hard for you to trust anyone again, but if you just put your trust in me, I swear we will get through anything." She nodded her head.
"I trust you, Brian," she said, wrapping her arms around him, pulling him into a tight hug. He smiled, smelling the sweet scent of her hair. "Thank you for dinner," she said as they pulled out of their embrace.
"Like I said before, it was no trouble at all," he said walking towards the door. He stopped before grabbing the handle and turned around. "I'm going to give you my number so you can call later if you need to talk, ok?" she nodded her head and ran into the kitchen to grab a pen and a piece of paper. He gave her his home number, his pager number, and Nick's number in case he crashed there tonight. They hugged one last time before he walked out the door, down the steps, and in the direction of Nick's house with sorrow in his eyes and sadness in his heart.
-=Chapter Seven=-
-=I Will Buy Chapter Index=-
-=Story Index=-
-=Back to BoNe RoKin' KaoS=-