by R Holmes
I work my dick over and over, fucking my fist until I'm shooting spurts of cum all over the shower wall, wishing like hell it was her face instead.
Whenever I'm spent, and not even close to satisfied, I dry off and flop down in my bed, still naked, waiting for sleep to come. And when it does, I promise myself whatever infatuation I have with Presley is done.
Knowing it’s the biggest lie of all.
My phone rings in my pocket over and over, even though I’ve tried to spend the last hour studying, the universe is determined that I flunk this shit. I pull it from my pocket and swipe to answer the FaceTime when Alec’s face comes on the screen.
"Yo," he says, his shaggy hair falling in his eyes.
"What up? Where are you?" I ask, realizing he wouldn't be FaceTiming me from the living room.
"Headed to town, my parents need me to take care of something. Listen, I was just on Highway 12 and I saw Teach's car on the side of the road. Seems like she has a flat tire."
"So you just left her there then decided to call me instead?" I roll my eyes. My friends were loyal as fuck but fuck, sometimes they were dumbasses. Plain and simple.
"You're close, go change her tire, lover boy. I've got shit to do." He grins and hangs up in my face.
Asshole knew I'd go, the alternate was leaving her on the side of the road and hoping someone passed by to help.
After grabbing my keys and wallet I walk to the parking lot and get in my car to go in search for her. Fuck, I'm starting to feel like her knight in shining armor or some shit. Less than a mile off the road, I see her tiny ass car parked off to the side of the street, barely on the shoulder and partially still in the road.
Jesus Christ.
I pull off to the shoulder, checking my mirrors to make sure I'm actually on the shoulder and less likely to have someone hit my car, then walk over to Presley's car. She's sitting in the front seat on her phone, and she didn't even hear me approach. Women seriously have no concept of safety. I could be a fucking kidnapper and she'd have had no clue I was here to snatch her up.
I knock on the window causing her to jump and phone to go flying. When she realizes it's me, her face turns to stone. Obviously, she's still pissy over what happened in the classroom. Fine with me.
She's still a liar.
She slings her door open and steps out, slamming it back shut behind her.
"What are you doing here?"
Shrugging, I scan the road to make sure there aren't any cars flying down the highway toward us. "Alec called, said you had a flat and like the gentleman I am, here I am."
"I want you to leave."
She's acting like a petulant child.
"No can do, Teach. Gonna fix this tire so you don't end up roadkill on the side of the highway. I’m an asshole, but I’d rather not have your death on my conscience. Get in the car."
"Leave."
This time the tone of her voice causes me to glance up at her. Her expression is one I've never seen on her. She's angry, livid even.
"You still mad? Good thing I don't give a shit. Get. In. The. Car." My patience is wearing more thin with each syllable. Does she think I'm here to fucking hang out? I'm here to change the damn tire so she’s not stranded on the side of the road.
Instead of answering she turns in the other direction and starts walking away along the small sliver of grass next to the highway.
She has officially lost her damn mind.
I immediately take off after her. "Presley, get the fuck in the car," I grunt. Picking up the pace I finally catch up to her, and I grab her arm which she yanks back with so much force it causes me to stumble slightly.
The fuck?
She whips around to face me and her face is flushed red, almost as bright as her hair. "I told you that you need to leave, Sebastian. You think you can just blackmail me, and touch me without my consent and expect me just to… accept it?" she spits. I can see the figurative smoke coming out of her ears. Maybe she's a little more angry than I originally thought, but I'm still surprised by the fire that has seemed to come out of nowhere.
"You're being ridiculous. You realize people fly around these curves going eighty and can hardly see you parked here?"
Her lips flatten into a thin, frustrated line, "Whatever." And then she's brushing past me walking back to her car where she leans her tiny frame against the tiny car with her arms folded across her chest, completely ignoring me.
Ironic since I'm the one that's going to make sure she's making it home.
"Spare in there?" I glance at the trunk and she nods but still doesn't toss me as much as a glance. Fuck it, if she wants to be like that fine. I’m not going to lose sleep over it. I mean shit, I'm here doing a favor for her, not the other way around.
I quickly get her tire off and the donut put on, then finish getting each of the bolts tight enough for her to safely drive it. By the time I'm done I'm dripping sweat. Using the bottom of my T-shirt I wipe away the sheen from my face. When I look up, Presley's eyes are hungry as they travel down my stomach. I clear my throat causing her to jump and her cheeks to flame red then her gaze is anywhere but me.
Caught red handed. She can be mad all she wants but she can't deny that there's… something between us.
"Thanks." Her eyes are cast downward, and she turns away to get into the car, but my hand reaches out to stop the door from opening and it slams shut with a thud.
"This how you want it to be, Teach?" I ask.
Her eyes drag up to meet mine, and they're cold yet burn so brightly at the same time.
"I am done with this, Sebastian. Do you understand what I'm saying?" She steps closer, her jaw tight, lips pressed together with her chin high. "Done. I'm going to the headmaster and I'm reporting you for the whole list of stuff that you've done. You're inappropriate, you're crude, you disrespect me in front of other students. I am your teacher."
"You do that."
We both know she’s not.
I feel the anger rising in my chest as her eyes narrow.
"Last night was too far. Be responsible for your own actions. For once."
I step closer. The toe of my running shoe hits her pointed flats. Toe to Toe. Neither of us ready to back down, both of us ready for this fight but for entirely different reasons.
Mine is the fact that she is a liar.
Her because I pushed her too far, made it hurt too good. She’s a liar and a coward.
At least I can admit whenever something hits me in the face full fucking force. She ran from it. Something she knew intimately because she was here. Running from something else. Living under false pretenses.
"For once. You don't know me and I'm getting real sick of the assumptions from someone who's lying to every person she knows. Get fucking real," I say through gritted teeth.
She's taken back momentarily at the harshness of my words, but fuck, it was the truth.
"I'm going to the headmaster. I'm done Sebastian, you may bully everyone else in your life to get them to do what you want but you're not doing it to me. You have no idea who I am. You have no clue. I refuse to allow you to… make me a victim. I am not a pawn in some game. This is my life!"
She opens the car door and slips inside, starting the car and pulling off before I can even get a word in. I'm so goddamn mad I pick up the wrench I was using to change the tire and chuck it into the woods with a groan.
"Fuck!"
My whole goddamn life is falling apart at my feet and there isn’t shit I can do to stop it. My father is on my case worse than ever, I am failing this fucking class no matter how hard I study or how much effort I actually put into passing. The constant unfuckingbearable pressure to be the best, do the best, look the best. Everything has to be perfect. I am a Pierce after all.
Get the grades, be the champion, be the best at every single thing you touch Sebastian. Anything less and you are nothing. My father's words echo in my head. I feel the weight bearing down so hard I can't fucking breathe.
I run my fing
ers through my hair exasperatedly, pulling at the roots to feel the pain. Right now I wanted to feel anything but the pressure. I pull my phone from my pocket and send Alec a text.
Abbey tonight. I need a fucking drink.
He texts back moments later with a thumbs up emoji.
Tonight, I’m going to drink away every single problem I have and deal with the fall out later.
Presley
Past
The house is perfect. I spent the entire day making sure of it. Every surface in the house has been cleaned once, then again just in the chance that I missed something. All of the windows have been wiped, ridding them of any fingerprints. Each of the picture frames dusted, every bed stripped of its linen and washed with fresh, clean ones to replace the old. I'd spent the better part of the morning arranging everything in the pantry so it’s uniform. Wiped the stainless steel appliances until they gleamed. Scrubbed the tiles of the bathroom with a toothbrush until my hands were raw and blistered.
Still, my stomach is in knots. The feeling of despair in the pit only seems to grow with each second of the clock that ticks by. Standing in front of the floor length mirror in my bedroom I inspect my reflection. My eyes flick down my body gazing at the floor length gown that is fitted to me like a second skin. The dress is nothing I would have ever picked for myself. Backless with an empire waist, it’s tailored to fit each of my curves. I’m always to look desirable, and always untouchable. Just the way he liked it.
Underneath the makeup, the heavy concealer and powder are three day old bruises. Even as I peer at my reflection staring back, I can feel them on my skin. A constant, cruel reminder of the hell I was living in. Just as the old bruises faded, they'd be replaced by new ones, only each time they were increasingly worse.
Each time I picked my battered body and broken spirit off the floor, I swore it would be the last time. Even though I knew it wasn't the truth. It was a lie I told myself to survive. The sliver of hope I clung on to whenever I was desperate.
All I ever did was lie to myself. The same lies over and over until they felt real, until I believed them to be. I finger the diamond pendant around my neck, another gift meant to fix what's irreparably broken. With each piece of jewelry, each whisper of empty promises, more roses than my now sparkling kitchen counter could hold, I lost more and more of myself. I’m only a hollow shell of flesh and bone, even the heart beating inside of my chest now a useless organ after being broken beyond repair. Each lash flayed me open, only to be covered with a temporary bandage of sweet nothings.
My gaze drops to the diamond on my hand. The facets shine in the light from the crystal chandelier. I have it cleaned once a month by the jeweler it was purchased from, and each time I slide it back onto my finger it feels heavier than the last. It’s an anchor tethering me to a life I can never break free from. A world that I may not survive.
"Darling," an evil voice draped in a wool of velvet calls from the hallway.
"In here."
Moments later he appears, walking over the threshold into the room wearing a black and white tux, as handsome as any man had ever been, or so I had convinced myself long ago. His eyes are a pit of nothing, dark and deep. You would have to claw your way out had you ever fallen in.
"Are you almost ready?" he whispers huskily behind me, his breath fanning along the naked skin of my back. I watch him in the mirror in front of us as his eyes take in my body hungrily. I think back to the night that I first met him. I was a freshman in college, eager and anxious to see all that life had to offer me. Ambitious. Naive. A dangerous combination. After all, it's what put me on his radar in the first place.
I was sitting alone in a corner booth at Charlie's Diner, dipping my French fries into my chocolate shake while studying for an exam. The diner was dead which allowed me free time to study and eat exorbitant amounts of fries and chocolate shakes. The only patron to dine in, in the last hour, was Bob the trucker who always stopped by for a burger. I heard the bell ring above the door, but I felt him before I saw him.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. His presence was deafening. Something about the way he carried himself commanded my attention, and the second that my eyes met his over the old counter of Charlie's I was spellbound.
Looking back, I was naive and foolish, but sometimes life can show you all of the cards dealt and you choose the wrong one. He flirted in a way that could only be his, and swiped my fries as I twirled a piece of loose hair around my fingers. For hours he sat and talked to me, even though we had barely exchanged names I felt like I knew him. A strange, unexplainable pull to a stranger. As the night wore on, I told him about my life on campus and the job at Charlie’s, and as it came to an end he asked when I would work again.
I told him the next day, and then the next day he came again.
And again.
Until suddenly, it was the most natural thing in the world to see him walk over the threshold of Charlie’s, a bouquet of roses in hand, or something I had mentioned in an offhand comment the day before. He was engraving himself in the walls of my heart and I was hopeless to stop it.
But like more things in life, things were never as they seemed.
"Darling?" His voice breaks through my thoughts, and I'm brought back to the present. Charlies fades away, the smell of grease and apple pie fading with the memory.
"Yes, I'm almost ready," I whisper, giving him his favorite smile. The words leave my mouth, but I don't feel them. They don't sound like me, simply like an imposter who has taken my place. He places his hand, warm and calloused, against my back, each inch he moves higher, I stiffen. Immediately I regret my body's reaction to his touch because I know he's felt it. His eyes darken as his hand clamps around the nape of my neck, squeezing so hard I'll have bruises in the perfect shape of his fingers tomorrow. Panic seizes my chest, my breath constricting with his hold on me. I’m too afraid to take a single breath.
By tomorrow, there will be no one to see the marks left behind.
"Do not embarrass me tonight. Do you understand?" His voice is so cold it sends a shiver down my spine. The threat in his voice almost sends me spiraling to a panic attack. I nod.
"I understand."
"Good girl. I know you can be on your best behavior darling. Your dress is delectable, it was made for your body." He gives me a sinister grin.
Tonight, our sprawling mansion would be filled with some of the most influential people in our state. Governors, senators, actors, musicians. Each of them a pawn in the game he so excellently plays. We will serve a five course meal fit for a king, enjoy the finest wine imported from Italy. Laughter will ring out in the hallways, settle itself in the walls of our home. From the outside looking in, this home is perfect. The finest mansion that money can buy. Porcelain floors, state of the art kitchen, fitness room. More rooms than are sensible. A full staff to wait hand and foot on the missus of the house.
A perfect prison.
My husband will charm every woman in the room with his smile. He'll talk business with the investors, drink whiskey with the governors. Dance his way through the crowd with beautiful women on his hand. This is his show and he shines. Nothing unobtainable. Nothing’s too far out of his reach.
What they didn’t see is the man behind the mask. The cruel, vile, deceitful villain.
The devil in disguise.
After all… the devil was once an angel too.
Present
My hand shakes as I pick up the small black phone and hold the button to power it on. I promised myself it would be for emergencies only. Too afraid to take the chance on anything less. I can’t stop the pounding of my chest as fear creeps in, threatening to pull me under. It was times like now when the memories hit me with so much force I almost get sick when I think of the pain, the soul crushing fear that encompassed me. I would’ve given anything to escape. And I did, except now I live with that same fear every day that I will be caught.
I dial the number I know by heart, the one that has never chang
ed.
One ring, two rings, and then the voice I needed so desperately to hear comes through the speaker. The same voice I haven’t heard for almost a year because it wasn’t safe and I couldn’t put their lives in danger.
“Presley?”
A sob escapes hearing my name. “Mama.”
It’s like coming home.
10
Sebastian
I fucked up. I mean really fucked up. Not just like you forgot to take the trash out and it's trash day, or forgot to pay a parking ticket, but I mean, the fucked up that has consequences that make you feel physically ill. And I feel like I just got socked in the gut by the quarterback of the winning team. My ass is most definitely on the losing side, and it feels like shit.
Last night, after the argument with Presley, I got so drunk I blacked out. Don't remember a single fucking thing, and apparently in the process I somehow stuck my dick in Mara. Which, I'm single… I can do what I want. I don't owe Presley shit even though I've got some strange ass infatuation with her, she's free to touch whoever she wants.
But… Mara.
Goddamnit, Sebastian.
She's like a succubus sucking the life out of anyone she can get her hands on and that's the first sign I was fucked up out of my mind, because sober Sebastian wouldn't touch Mara with a ten foot pole. Actually, make it twenty because everything about her disgusts me. Drunk Sebastian, must feel differently. The only thing I can remember and even then... it's a hazy, jumbled mess, is her on top of me, trying to eat my face. Honestly, I was so out of it that she basically took advantage of me, and that's fucked up shit. Imagine if the tables were turned. I'd find myself in handcuffs the second it happened.