Define Me

by Culine Ramsden

  “M O M !!!!!!”

  “Henry, calm down. Let the kids get dressed and then we can all talk. Caitlin get upstairs and sort yourself out, … quickly.”

  “Yes mom.”

  I pushed Vincent up the stairs and quickly went into my room.

  “Oh shit, sorry about that. I didn’t think about phoning my mom last night but never expected them to come here”

  I started laughing, not because it was funny but the look on Vincent’s face was priceless.

  “Caitlin, this is not the way I wanted to meet your parents. Your father looks like he is going to cut my balls off and feed them to me”

  I couldn’t stop laughing.

  “It’s not funny! You better get dressed before he walks up here and finds me in your bedroom.”

  Vincent scooped his clothes off the floor and headed into the bathroom. I quickly got dressed and then knocked on the bathroom door to hand Vincent his shirt. When I got out of my room Heather and Cole were already waiting for us, she is such a chicken shit.

  “Why did you guys not go downstairs?”

  “Oh fuck, no ways was I facing your dad on my own. You will be right there with me. We are in so much shit having guys sleeping over.”

  “We are over 18; my dad can’t do anything to us.”

  “Oh yeah sure, he can’t do anything to us. I don’t know so much about the guys.”

  “Heather shut up.”

  I turned to look at Vincent and Cole. Heather and I both started laughing, fuck we were in shit.

  “Caitlin Marie Steward, get down here right now”

  (When my dad uses my full name I know I am in big trouble.) The 4 of us walked down to find my mom and dad in the kitchen, my mom had made some coffee and was sitting at the kitchen table. My dad on the other hand was pacing the kitchen, he was furious.

  “Sit and explain yourself.”

  “Can I first introduce my friends to you? Mom, Dad this is Vincent my boyfriend and his friend Cole, they own the health bar on the beach.”

  Vincent and Cole got up shook my father’s hand like true gentle man; I saw my dad appreciated that.

  “Good day sir and ma’am.”

  “Good day boys, we will talk later about you being half dressed in my daughters house, but for now I need to know what happened last night, why you look like you have been beaten up.”

  “Ok, well Hunter found me, even after you changed my number, I thought it was all over, he pitched up at the house last night and demanded I take him back, when I told him I would never take him back, he attacked me. That is when Vincent showed up and he ran away. We reported it to the police and there is a warrant out for his arrest.”

  “Oh my darling, did you go to the hospital?”

  “Yes mom, only a few cuts and bruises, but nothing major.”

  My dad walked to where Vincent was sitting and put his hand on Vincent’s shoulder.

  “Thank you!”

  “My pleasure sir.”

  “Caitlin, what did the police say?”

  Vincent put his hand over mine and looked at my mom.

  “Ma’am, the police said that they will do all they can to find him but in the meantime Cole and I will make sure that both the girls are always nearby. With our shop being so close we can keep an eye on them. One of Caitlin’s old school friends, Brent is also here and he has offered to help.”

  “Well I don’t know, he managed to sneak in already.”

  “Yes dad, but now we know he is around and I will be more careful.”

  “Darling I think you need to come home with us until this is all over.”

  “No mom I don’t want to run and what about school, I can’t miss out on any of my classes.”

  “You can start again next term redo the ones you missed, my sweetheart I don’t feel happy leaving you here with that crazy boy out there.”

  “I will be fine mom, I promise.”

  Vincent squeezes my hand and looked at my mother again.

  “I will look after her, I promise, he will not get near her again.”

  “I am not happy about this but the minute you feel the need to come home, phone me and I will come and get you.”

  “Yes mom.”

  “Now that, that is settled, tell me what these boys are doing here half dressed?”

  “Um, well, um, dad”

  “Henry we both know, so let’s not embarrass the kids more, all I will say is I am not ready to be called Nana yet; so be careful. Caitlin I know you are a big girl and I can’t tell you what to do, but you still have your whole life ahead of you. So tell me, how old are you Vincent?”

  Oh shit, this is not going to go well. OMG please Vincent lie.

  “I am 34 ma’am.”

  “W H A T!!!!!”

  “Joanna calm down, you are the one that just said Caitlin is a big girl.” My dad looked at me. “Caitlin I think it is time your guests leave, we need to talk alone.”

  “Yes Dad.”

  We all got up and walked towards the front door, Heather was already dressed and ready for work.

  “You are such a cow, you could have at least stayed and help me out here, my parents are going to try get me to leave with them I know that.”

  Vincent put his arm around me and whispered in my ear so my dad couldn’t hear him.

  “If they want to do that just, call and I will come and steal you away from them and hide you at my place.”

  “Whatever scary pants, I saw your face when my dad walked into my house, so don’t tell me you will protect me against him, you are not match for my old man.”

  Vincent kissed me and walked out the house.

  “I will phone you later, don’t go anywhere, I will be watching.”

  “Love you, speak to you later. And for you Heather we will have to talk about this friendship I don’t think it will work for me anymore, you just leave me to deal with this on my own.”

  “I love you to my friend, see you later, don’t be angry with me, your dad still scares me, even after all these years.”

  “Yeah, whatever get out of here, bye Cole, have a good day.”

  And with that my friend walked way leaving me to deal with the hurricane I knew was about to erupt in my kitchen.

  I walked into the kitchen; my parents were waiting for me.

  “Caitlin, sweetheart we are very worried about you. With the events of last night we are really not happy with you staying here until this boy is caught.”

  “Mom I can’t go, for so very long I let Hunter destroy me, I can’t let him win again. There are a few things I need to tell you. I didn’t want anyone to know until last night, because I was ashamed but I have to now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I need you to let me tell you the whole story and then you can talk, ok?”

  I told my parents everything that happened at school, the abuse and also about when Brent saved me. My mom sort of knew about the holiday but not the entire story. Halfway through my story my dad sat down next to my mom, putting his arms around her. She was taking this all very hard and I felt sorry for her more than me.

  “Last night was the end; I have told the police and Vincent what I just told you. Today is the day I stand up for myself and look forward to a fresh start. I don’t want to be a victim anymore. Hunter needs to be stopped before this happens to another girl. Please respect my choice to stay.”

  My mom got up and came to stand next to me pulling me up into her arms, we both stood there crying. I could feel my mom’s pain and sadness.

  “Thank you for telling us my darling, I know this must be hard for you.”

  “Mom, I need you to be strong, for me.”

  I walked away from my mom and started making breakfast for us.

  “Now sweetheart, we need to talk to you about Vincent.”

  I knew this was coming.

  “Caitlin, Vincent is more than 10 years older than you. That is a big age gap.”

  “I know mom and I understand what yo
u are saying but mom, I know he is the one and yes it has only been a short while. He respects me and he loves me. Allow me to feel what it is to be loved and not controlled. I really love Vincent and I want you to try like him too, get to know him the way I know him.”

  (Ok maybe that was taking it a bit far, I don’t want them to know him the way I know him that would just be weird.) My mom looked at my dad and then back at me.

  “Ok, I will respect your wishes, but we will be staying the weekend to check him out, I expect the two of you to spend as much time with us as possible so that we can get to know him. There will be no boys sleeping over while we are here and Caitlin, I am very serious, I am not ready to be a Nana.”

  “Y E S mom!”

  “Great, so let’s have breakfast I want to go shopping, you ok to spend the day with your mom? I have missed you.”

  “Yes of course, just want to chat to Vincent at the shop and then I will be back. Dad what are you going to do today?”

  “I think I will be checking the security on the house and make sure that, that young man doesn’t step foot in your house again.”

  “I will be back in an hour mom, is that ok?”

  “See you later darling.”

  I walked into Simplicity to find Heather and Cole sitting at one of the tables.

  “Hi, guys.”

  “YOU SERVIVED, I was worried if we would see you again, and your dad was a tad pissed when he saw the naked men in your house”

  “Yeah sure you were worried about me; you walked out leaving me to fight the battle. Luckily it wasn’t so bad; my mom did most of the talking, my dad just sat there. I told them everything even the things that happened at school, things I never thought I would have to tell them. It is done and now I can move on. … Where is Vincent?”

  “His in the back, I don’t think you should be going in there right now.”

  “Why not?”

  “He is talking to Brent and asked us to give them some time, even you.”

  “Bullshit, if they are talking about me (I know they are) I want to know what is going on.”

  Cole got up from where he was sitting and started walking towards me. I turned around to go the kitchen, but Cole managed get hold of my arm before I could go any further.

  “Caitlin please, I have never seen Vincent like this, let him talk to your friend alone, come sit down, I will get you some coffee.”

  I had been waiting for what seemed like 30 minutes and they were still talking. Cole watched me so that I didn’t go to the office at the back of the kitchen.

  “Please Cole; I need to see him.”

  “What’s that, who do you need to see?”

  I turned around and Vincent was standing right behind me, I did not even hear. I jumped up and run into Vincent’s arms that were my safe haven.

  “You took your time in there; I have been waiting for you. Where is Brent?”

  “He left through the back door, we all need to have a meeting again this afternoon and I think it is best if your dad is part of it, is it ok if we meet at your place, say 2? Brent has a friend that runs a private security company and they will also be at the meeting.”

  “Don’t you think this is over kill, the police can handle this?”

  “No Caitlin, I am not taking that chance. From what you told me last night and the things Brent told me this morning, I’m not leaving this up to the police to handle. I have just found you and sure as hell not going to let any asshole like Hunter take you way from me.”

  What could I say to all that, behind my braveness last night and this morning I was shitting myself. I was scared of Hunter I had seen what he could do but I didn’t want everyone to know that. I didn’t want my Dark side to take over again. I needed to be strong; I need to prove not just to everyone around me but to myself that I could do this.

  “Ok, well that is fine; I will let my Dad know. By the way, could you spend this weekend with my parents? They want to see if you are good enough for their little girl, but no sleeping over and that goes for Cole, do you hear me Heather!”

  Chapter 24

  At 3 my house was full of big scary men, Heather and my mom were helping me in the kitchen preparing snacks and something for everyone to drink.

  Brent took control of the meeting giving everyone an overview of the last night’s events, thank goodness he did not go into details about the past but he did say that Hunter had a history of abuse. I could see it was hard on my dad but he handled it very well. Earlier in the day my dad upgraded the alarm system in the house and also had the locks changed. The last thing was to change my phone number, I was not happy about it but my dad insisted. I walked out of the meeting; I could not take another minute of it all. I needed to be alone.

  “Here you are, I was looking for you, why are you sitting up here on the balcony?”

  “I needed some time to myself, up here I can look and listen to the sea. It’s the only way I can calm my mind. Vincent is this all necessary?”

  “Caitlin from what I saw last night, that guy is a psycho and will stop and nothing.”

  We were interrupted by my phone ringing, I wondered who it could be, it showed private caller. I looked at Vincent and then back at the phone.

  “What is wrong?”

  “It is from a private number.”

  “You want me to answer it?”

  “No, I’ll do it.”

  I didn’t have time to say hello.

  “Why did you take so long to answer the phone beautiful? Too busy licking your wounds.”

  My eyes shot up to Vincent, I clicked over to speaker phone.

  “HUNTER! The police are looking for you.”

  “Listen and listen well, you think what happened last night was bad? Wait and see what will happen if you don’t tell the police it was just a misunderstanding. I will destroy you and that boyfriend of yours.”

  Before I could answer, Vincent took the phone from me.

  “Now you listen to me Hunter, we will find you and you will be sorry for what you did, you will never lay your hands on Caitlin again. You are a piece of shit and I will make sure you sit behind bars for the rest of your life, do you understand me?”

  “Do you think I am scared of you pussy, who do you think set the fire at your house, oh yes, wait you don’t know about that yet do you? I guess you better hurry home.”

  Vincent handed me the phone.

  “I need to get home, go downstairs and tell Brent about the phone call.”

  “You can’t go alone, let me go with you.”

  “No you stay right here, I will take Cole with me.”

  We both rushed downstairs, Vincent called Cole aside and told him what had happened. They both left. I was not happy about it, I realised then that Hunter was more dangerous that what I thought.

  “Caitlin, what’s wrong, why did Vincent leave so quickly.”

  “Brent, Hunter just called me and said that I need to drop the charges against him and that Vincent’s house is on fire.”

  “What, give me your phone, let me see if we can get that number traced.”

  “He called from a private number.”

  “Oh, well let’s see anyway. I am going to leave one of these guys here with you; I need to get to your boyfriend’s house. What is the address?”

  I looked up into Brent’s eyes; all those memories from back at school came flooding back. It was all just too much I couldn’t take it; Brent put his arms around me.

  “Princess we will sort this out; I will fix it I promise. I failed you once before I will not let that happen again.”

  I rested my head on Brent’s chest, I could hear his soothing heartbeat, for a second I forgot that it was not Vincent but my inner self snapped me out of it. I pulled away pushing Brent away from me.

  “Sorry, thanks; I better go see where my mom is.”

  I walked away as quickly as I could I need to put distance between Brent and myself. My mom and I sat at the kitchen table, drinking coffee. Every 5 minute
s I checked my phone. I had texted Vincent trying to find out what was happening but nothing. I was getting really worried. Heather tried Cole’s phone but the same thing. Shit I didn’t have Brent’s number so we sat and waited. About 2 hours later Vincent, Cole and Brent walked through the front door. His face was black and he looked terrible. I jumped up and ran to him.