by Sandra Raine
"Take a shower, Jane." Dominic grumbled
While I was happy to rid the filth from my body I couldn't tell what were tears and what was water? All I knew was that I was feeling beyond shamed as the humiliation hadn’t even begun to compare.
The bathroom door suddenly opened, and I immediately tensed up beneath the triple showerheads: cowering in my stance, clenching my thighs together as I quickly covered my breasts with both arms 'cause I feared what was on the other side of the shower door. And I prayed that it be Dominic and not Justin or Josh, or worse, another guy or guys from that frat party. My prayer was answered.
"There's some clothes on the bed,” Dominic said giving my distraught appearance a quick glance over. “Come down to the kitchen when you're done. I'll be waiting." I held my tongue and merely nodded with Dominic closing the shower door.
I heard faint laughter coming from the kitchen as my feet touched down from the stairs to the grand black and white tiled floor adorning the foyer. Then, and much to my surprise, Bob Ray, Tanya and Dominic's father, stopped short of his brisk walk toward the double front doors when he noticed me. I immediately tensed up again as soon as Bob Ray’s baby blue eyes lit up with him smiling up at me: His smile was exactly like Dominic's. It was genetically eerie, and infectious.
"Hey there, kiddo!" Bob Ray greeted, extending his hand out to me so I could shake it.
Bob Ray towered over me. His muscular physic accompanied by his handsomeness also choked my space. And he, too, possessed Dominic's charm. And that was just as eerie and infectious.
"'Morning, Mr. Ray." I mumbled a bit on the shy side while I gently shook his hand. Bob Ray's hands were just as soft as Dominic's. And that alone was disturbing.
"How are you and your family doing?"
"Good. We're doing good. Thanks for asking."
"That's always good to hear," Bob Ray agreed, stealing a glimpse at his Rolex. It was obvious he had better places to be and many people to sue. And he looked too content on doing both. That, too, was disturbing. "Everyone's in the kitchen. Make yourself at home, okay, kiddo."
"Thanks, Mr. Ray." I said through a weary smile. Bob Ray then gave me a quick wink before exiting the front doors.
"My father likes you," Dominic mused suddenly forcing me to flinch ‘cause I hadn’t expected him to be spying on me. Dominic then reached for my overnight bag, stripping it gently from my shoulder and briefly rummaging through my contents. Satisfied on not finding something that could easily damage his reputation as “pimp”, Dominic zipped up my bag and handed it back to me.
"In the kitchen," Dominic then gestured with a lazy tilt of his head over his shoulder. I nervously stepped around Dominic and headed toward the direction of the voices. Tanya, Justin and Josh were already sitting around the breakfast table eating and bullshitting about some TV sitcom.
"Sit down." Dominic ordered, kicking out a chair for me. I quickly sat down which was beside Tanya but away from Justin and Josh. "Tanya, get Jane something." Dominic then ordered Tanya.
Tanya nodded and got up from table and eased her way toward the cappuccino maker while Justin glanced my way.
"Don’t you think she’s kind of young for your cougar dick?" he then mused to Dominic.
“She ain’t much younger than what you're used to fucking." Dominic affronted leaving Justin to scoff. Dominic reached for Josh’s pack of cigarettes and lit one which took me totally by surprise 'cause I had never seen Dominic smoke especially with him being our high school's starting Quarterback.
Tanya settled my cup of cappuccino down in front of me along with a Danish, and suddenly my stomach soured - I could literally feel the aftertaste of last night's torment rising in the form of bile at the base of my throat. I slowly pushed the Danish away as I was trying to avoid spewing all over the Ray's pricey kitchen table.
"Massive hangover?" Josh teased leaving everyone to smirk. I shifted an anxious glance at Dominic ‘cause I wasn't sure if I was supposed to answer, or grin and bear it?
"It's a free country, Jane," Tanya interjected after reading my questionable expression. I ignored Tanya and kept to my silence and uneasily sipped on my cappuccino particularly when Justin slid a cell phone toward Dominic who in turn picked it up and handed it off to me.
"The rules, Jane, are simple,” Dominic began to say as he paused to sift a few ashes onto my Danish. “At exactly nine o'clock that cell will ring. You'll pick up, then after, head outside. One of us will be waiting for you in a car preferably a few houses down from yours. When you're done for the night, we'll drop you off right where we picked you up. If the cell doesn't ring at exactly nine, then you’re free to go to bed. Simple."
I gulped down at the cell in my hand. It was generic looking - no camera and probably no texting abilities either. "Umm. . .How many hours will I be you know, out?" And my asking was a big mistake especially with Justin.
"It could be five minutes or five fucking hours! What fucking difference does it make!?" Justin erupted. "This isn't a fucking job interview you stupid bitch!"
"Hey! Hey!" Tanya slighted as she shot Dominic one of them "say something" glares but he said nothing in her defense. I mean, Dominic just sat there dragging on his cigarette, staring at Tanya with no interest to her concern that is until he stabbed the butt end of his cigarette into the Danish when he finally decided to acknowledged her at all but it was merely to bark an order.
"Tanya, take Jane to the living room and wait for me there."
“Fine!” Tanya bitched with a heated roll of her eyes as she rose from the table. "C'mon." she said pinching my blouse to follow her.
I could have easily followed Tanya straight to Hell just to get away from Justin and Josh who I were starting to hate each second that passed. I took a seat on one of the two leather sofas facing one another, with Tanya sitting on the other. I stared down at the carpet wishing I could turn into a tiny bug so I could get lost from my so-called "friends". When I looked back up I found Tanya gazing at me as if she were having a heretical thought; her gaze sent chills up and down my spine like if she were a lesbo or something.
"You looked pretty last night," Tanya said suddenly which caught me by surprise particularly her gaze which sent chills up and down my spine ‘cause it was something a boyfriend would say to a girlfriend. “You know,” Tanya then gushed, “when I was taking that video of you." And not only was I mortified, I also realized she was fucking serious!
"So, do you usually do that?" I probed, trying to keep my anger under control.
"Do what?" Tanya retorted.
"Take videos of your brother having sex with girls? I mean, is that some kind of a sick and fucking twisted fetish you got going on with Dominic or something?" Tanya's jaw clenched. I could sense I had insulted her with my comment but I didn't give a shit. Just like she didn't shit about the way her brother and her cousins took turns fucking me while she watched.
By this time I was glaring hard at Tanya who, and in my opinion, was nothing but a cold hearted conniving bitch who preyed on unsuspecting girls like myself.Tanya who was no more than two-fucking-seconds from feeling my wrath.
"What?" Tanya scoffed behind a wicked grin while I was no more than two-fucking-seconds away from making her feel my wrath.
"God!" I chastised. "How can you even begin to stand yourself?"
Tanya suddenly jumped up from the sofa. And I, too, was just as fast on my feet. I figured if I couldn't beat Dominic down then I could sure in the hells beat Tanya up. But just as Tanya made an attempt to slug me, Dominic unexpectedly intervened, seizing Tanya’s fist and shoving her back down onto the sofa. Dominic then turned to me, probably with the intent to hit me but I had already done Dominic the favor of sitting back down. Still yet, that didn’t stop him ‘cause he still raised his hand to me. And it must’ve been my covering my head, not to mention, cowering that made him change his mind.
"Look at me, Jane!" Dominic fumed as I looked up at him wearily. "If you don't want me to fuck up that pretty little face
of yours two things are going to need to happen here: One, don't ever ask questions about "work". And two, don't ever insult my sister. And to answer your question, Jane, Tanya doesn't have a fetish with the shit I do. She knows that if she doesn't do what I tell her to do then I'll beat the fuck out of her too! There's no favoritism here, Jane. The sooner you understand that, the more respect you'll have for her. Now as for you, Tanya," Dominic then said, shifting his attention back onto Tanya. "Just because you're part of this business doesn't give you the right to hit Jane. You touch her, and I'm going to hurt you. Understand?" Tanya sucked back her pride as well as her anger and stiffened a nod. "Understand?" Dominic then said looking back onto me. I, too, sucked back my pride and my anger and forced a nod. "It's time for you to go."
I was tempted with this thought of driving myself off a cliff as Dominic walked me to my car. But the thought quickly escaped me when he slid my overnight bag off my shoulder and opened the car door like a gentleman he presumed himself to be. After Dominic settled my overnight bag onto the front passenger's seat, ge then pulled me to him and held me sternly.
I didn't respond to Dominic's welcoming and comforting embrace as I would have normally done if this were any other circumstance - my body instead cringed from the gesture. I mean, I was literally on the verge of crying. But as with driving off a cliff, that, too, escaped me as Dominic lifted my chin and gazed at my obvious fear of him.
"You still love me, right?" Dominic coached with a hint of persuasion clinging to his tone. I kept to my silence and forced a smile. "Tell me you love me, Jane?" he then pleaded, sounding in a state of desperation, like if he didn't hear those exact words his world was sure to crumble and that he would die from absolute despair. And God how I wished that could be so. But this was reality, real life, and it sucked.
Dominic’s silver tongue then swept over my bruised lips. And just like the way his cock raped my pussy, his tongue raped my mouth.
"I love you," I whispered with the last of Jane’s dying breath.
Chapter 9
The nightmare ended, and a new nightmare was just hours away from beginning.
I was glad that nobody was home when I got home; it was Sunday, and my family was at Church.
I ran upstairs and bolted through my bedroom door like the fucking police. And instead of beating some potential criminal down, I instead hurled my purse and overnight bag across the room and screamed from the top of my lungs; cursing and yelling at God until I fell to my knees once I realized that I was no longer Anna Jane Parker, daddy’s innocent little school girl, but "Diamond", the teenaged jewel whore in Dominic's crown.
After a second bout of crying and screaming, cursing and yelling, I got off my knees and took another shower to rid the filth from my body which felt like it was mounting by the second but it was no use. I still felt dirty, not to mention, foul like a piece of cloth used to scour a bathroom's toilet.
I stared at myself in the bathroom’s mirror, surveying my lower lip: It was still swollen and split from that one frat guy who backhanded me before raping me. And then there was that bruise etched in my left cheek from Dominic hitting me. And for the life of me I couldn't begin to think how I was going to explain my face to my parents. The only thing I could think of was foundation and a miracle.
I quickly got dressed the moment I heard my parents’ voices lingering downstairs while trying hard to conceal the wounds. As I made my way down the stairs Bree was making her way up. And instead of walking, she was running. I must've been a ghost in Bree’s eyes 'cause she just rushed past me and straight into her bedroom. I quickly dismissed Bree's behavior after reminding myself that I had a bigger issue to worry about and that was my appearance. As I neared the kitchen, I noticed I had become extremely nervous. My breathing intensified, and both my palms began to sweat the closer I got to the kitchen.
"Hey, mom," I said strolling into the kitchen coolly and casually after I had stopped about a foot away from the kitchen’s door and took a deep breath. And luckily for me my mother was chatting it up on her cell.
"Oh, hey, sweetie!" she whispered right before she covered up the mouthpiece mouthing HELP!
I shook my head and forced an elated smile 'cause this was the perfect opportunity to slip past her. But then my father had unexpectedly walked into the kitchen from the patio doors, disrupting my get-away via the kitchen stairs.
"Hey, Sweetheart, how was the party?" he then asked suddenly, and quite optimistically. I turned around and stepped down from the first step of the kitchen stairs as he was in the midst of retrieving a few Steaks from the freezer.
I quickly looked away from my father the second he glanced in my direction; a reaction I found as odd considering that I wasn't in the company of Dominic and his cousins where I was free to say or act however I pleased. I grasped a better hold of my emotions and faced my father like a head on collision.
"Alright," I mustered.
Settling the Steaks onto the counter, my father unexpectedly paused within his conversation after he settled the Steaks onto the island block. He then raised a quizzical brow beneath an accompanying smirk where my stomach took a sudden and hard dive ‘cause the smirk reminded me of Justin's.
"Just 'alright'?" he amused. "I mean, it must've not been that bad, Sweetheart. You didn't call like you said you would."
"Sorry, Dad. We grabbed a bite to eat afterwards. It was kind of late." I quickly, yet casually said to avoid a possible argument.
"God, that woman can talk!" My mother complained, slamming her cell down onto the counter.
"Easy, CeCe, no new phones 'til Christmas." My father reminded playfully. He then kissed her brusque on the cheek and headed back out on the patio.
"What happened to your lip?" my mother pried suddenly, sounding a little too concerned, particularly when she dabbed a finger around the tiny wound and made a sour face. "It looks bad."
"It doesn't feel as bad as it looks," I casually lied, pulling away. I didn't want to give my mother the opportunity to detect the bruise on my cheek either, especially with her magnifying glass eyes.
"Well just make sure you put some ointment on that lip before it gets worse," she suggested as she worked our kitchen which wasn’t ultra-chic and cold like the Rays but contemporary and warm. She then started to complain about Miss Gerard, a devote Catholic and a very prim woman who, in her mid-fifties refused to drink from the Challis for personal reasons, put a fundraising event together to help our church during the toiled recession, and who unfortunately put my mother in charge of the decorations without her consent. And now with my mother ranting and raving about it, and me unfortunately not caring to hear it, I politely excused myself from the kitchen and headed back up to my room and spent the next couple of hours in mourning. Nine o’clock was just around the corner and I was desperately dreading it.
I got up from my bed and picked up my purse from off the floor and retrieved the cell phone Dominic had given me earlier and studied it for a moment; my fingers fidgeting with the buttons, the menu, the apps only to find that I couldn't get neither of them to work. It wasn't until a few minutes later had I discovered that the cell had been completely stripped down to nothing. And what struck me as odd was the talk button 'cause when I dialed my cell from this cell to retrieve its number on my caller ID, my cell never rang. I redialed my number, this time placing the cell against my ear to see if there was a dial tone, and there was - for a second. But then to my surprise an automated recorder turned on, prompting me for the cell’s password in order for the call to go through.
"Great," I groaned with this ache stabbing my insides ‘cause Dominic and the cousins had rigged the cell so I wouldn't use it personally. Then I began to panic when I found myself wondering what would happen if I found myself in a predicament with Dominic, Tanya, the cousins? I mean, who would I call with a rigged cell?
Then, a real wave of panic began to filter through me particularly as I stared down at the cell while images of last night played in my head: Th
e party, my drinking, those guys raping me, Dominic, Justin and Josh taking their turn with me while Tanya watched through the eye of a camera.
Then I remembered that remark. That degrading "entertainment" of a remark! And all the while I was passed out drunk upstairs Dominic was downstairs pimping me off to guys to violate my body. There was no telling how many guys took their turn on me, or how many of them ejaculated on me, or how many of them anally raped me, and quite frankly I didn't want to know. My morale was already damaged, and had been damaged the second Dominic walked into Tanya's bedroom and stole my virginity from me. But as flattered as I was to have had the most popular guy in school, the epitome of every teen girls dream boyfriend take an interest in someone like me left me vulnerable: An easy target, an easy prey, now an easy lay. And I never saw it coming.
I shoved the cell beneath my pillow and curled myself into a fetal position and rocked myself back and forth since there was no one here to cradle me, to cradle my soul, to tell me that everything I experienced thus far was nothing but a bad dream. But how could I convince myself that this was all a bad dream and I'm about to wake up when in reality I was that dream? I mean, how do I step outside my body and release my human spirit from this imprisonment without hurting the one's I loved? And nowhere did I see an exit: Not between Dominic and Tanya and the cousins, not to mention, that awful video. Or maybe because I felt like I was running blindless within a dark tunnel in search of a light refusing to shine that very exit upon me?
"Not hungry, Sweetheart?" my father casually implied over our grilled steak dinner which were always held on the patio every Sunday when it wasn’t scorching hot or raining. I shook my head and forced a smile.