by Sky Corgan
“Well, you don't have to worry about that now.” I gave her hand a gentle squeeze, noticing the tears that were forming around her eyes.
“I'm sorry.” Kim wiped her face with her arm. “I just . . . when I think about it.”
“Stop thinking about it. I'm here. Everything is okay.”
“Oh Dom. I'm just so glad you're alright.” She stood and leaned over the hospital bed, untangling our hands to caress my face while she kissed me. It was strange to feel her lips so hard upon mine, so desperate.
It had all been worth it. Even if I had never woken up. Even if I had died, it would have been worth it to me. To save the woman I love.
Epilogue
One Year Later
So much had happened this past year, but most of it was good. Dominick was released from the hospital a few days after he had awoken, once they made sure the swelling in his brain had gone down. We returned home, and I babied him to death for a while until he was fully healed. He acted like it drove him crazy, but I think he secretly enjoyed it.
Jeff never made good on his threats, which we were both thankful for. About two months after the accident, Dominick got a call from Jeff's father saying that he had returned home and was back to his old bullshit. Dominick sent him all the money he had collected from Jeff's paychecks. What the man did with it, neither of us know nor really care about.
Both Tammy and Marcus started coming around more, and by coming around more, I mean actually hanging out at the condo with us. Tammy and I had fun taking turns cooking dinner for each other. We eventually made it into a routine where one Sunday, they would come to the condo for dinner, and the next Sunday, we would go to their house.
It took a while for Tammy and Marcus to adjust to my relationship with Dominick, but eventually Dominick and Marcus became like best friends. They got so close, in fact, that Marcus ended up being the best man at our wedding.
Dominick flew his parents in from Virginia so that his father could give me away. It was strange seeing his parents again, since I had only really spoken to them a handful of times when we were kids, but they welcomed me into the family with open arms.
Speaking of being flown in, we decided to have our wedding at the Ayana Resort in Bali, Indonesia . Since we didn't have many guests, it was easy for him to fly everyone in for the event.
The wedding was more than anything I could have imagined. Tammy helped me get dressed in a stunning Vera Wang wedding gown. The bottom of it had the typical flowing white train, while the top was embroidered with black leaves and flowers. She mumbled that she wished she would have been able to splurge on such a dress when her and Marcus got married.
Dominick spared no expense. Everything was the finest of the finest. At our reception, there was an ice swan and a dove release. I thought it was a bit pretentious, but he insisted on making the event memorable for all. Just marrying him was memorable enough for me. It was the only memory of our wedding that I'd ever truly need.
Once the wedding was over, our guests enjoyed a night at the resort before being flown home so that we could have our honeymoon in private. We took a bicycle tour and cooking class together, but for the most part, Dominick preferred ravaging me in our room.
By the time we returned home, I felt more exhausted from the sex than anything else. My body was so sore that I had to put him on a sexual time out, to which he replied that it was the first sign we were actually married.
In other noteworthy news, I got my associates degree and am now working on my bachelors. Dominick and I are starting to go house hunting. I want to live in the same neighborhood as Tammy, but the houses there are huge. With so many bedrooms, we'd have to have a lot of babies to fill them.
Tammy and Marcus were finally able to conceive through in vitro. They used it as a last resort, having painfully gone through every other procedure you can think of to get pregnant. I felt bad for them that it had taken so much, but at least they were finally getting what they had waited so long to achieve. In all honesty, I was kind of hoping they would hold off until I was pregnant so that Tammy and I could have our kids at the same time. But I could certainly understand her not being willing to wait.
Dominick only wants one kid, but I want a whole liter of them. He doesn't want to start a family until after I finish college, but since he's not making me work while I go to school, I don't really see the point of waiting.
“I'll get a baby off of you eventually,” I teased him one night while we were curled up together watching television.
“It's hard to get a baby off of me when you're on a sex strike.”
“It's not my fault you broke me.”
“You're not broken; you're just married. Babies don't happen without sex, you know.”
“You're insatiable.”
“Just trying to give you what you want.” He shrugged with a grin.
“I want babies.”
“Wait until after you graduate. We have all the time in the world.”
It was a nice thing to hear him say and actually be able to believe it. There was a lot of time before my biological clock started to run out, so I suppose there was no point in rushing it. All in good time.
That seemed to be the mantra of our relationship. All in good time. No matter how much I had wanted to rush things, they had gone at a snails pace. Our relationship. Telling Tammy about us. Having babies would probably be the same. That was alright though. Everything worked out in the end.
Slowly, we had built a life together. Maybe it still wasn't conventional, but it was perfect for us. There would be ups and downs in the future, I was sure. But we were together now, completely, finally. And at the end of the day, that was all that mattered.
Bonus Excerpt from Damaged
Kids can be cruel. You never realize it before you start going to school. Your parents shelter you the best they can, only introducing you to the parents of other kids whom they don't mind you playing with. It's the age of innocence. The age where everything is alright in the world.
That first day of school is scary. Your parents do everything they can to prepare you for it, telling you it will be wonderful, that you'll have fun and make lots of great new friends. They don't tell you about the assholes waiting to point out even the smallest flaws. They don't tell you about the bullies. Because if they did, would you ever let them drop you off in front of that imposing building without kicking and screaming and causing a scene.
I started kindergarten like every other child, nervous but excited. I didn't cry when my parents dropped me off. I genuinely liked my teacher. Everyone seemed nice . . . until recess.
“Bug eyes,” I heard a kid say. I was minding my own business, swinging on the swings. I hadn't made any friends yet, but I wasn't too worried about it. It was the first day, after all. I certainly hadn't expected to make any enemies.
“Hey, bug eyes,” the voice came again, this time accompanied by a sharp blow to the back of my head.
Tears welled up in my eyes as I brought the swing to a halt, turning around to see this chubby red headed boy with freckles glowering at me a few feet away. He wasn't alone either. On either side of him was another boy, looking at me like I was no better than trash.
“Why'd you hit me?” I asked, rubbing the back of my head as I fought back the urge to go into a fit of sobbing.
“Because you're ugly. What was your name? Tara, was it? An ugly name for an ugly girl. Tara the Terror.”
I ran away crying and spent the rest of recess in the bathroom. You'd think that someone would have come to ask me what was wrong, but all the other kids just gave me awkward glances as they went about their business. It wasn't until a teacher entered that I got consoled. I told her that I had fallen off the swing, and I had the bump on the back of my head to prove it. The asshole had thrown a rock at me, but I wasn't about to tell the teacher that. I was afraid, and naivety led me to believe that if I didn't talk about it, the problem would just go away.
It didn't. The boy, whose name I
found out was Daniel Delp, decided to make a game out of stalking and terrorizing me every chance he got. At the bus stop, he'd get kids to gather around and call me Tara the Terror until I broke down into tears. On the playground, he'd chase me around and throw rocks at me. It seemed like he was friends with half the school, and he turned all the other kids against me. I was alone, scared, hating school. Every day became a struggle to get me out of bed. I cried when my Mom dragged me out to the bus stop in the mornings.
Finally, it got so bad that she had a meeting with the principal and Daniel's parents. That stopped the harassment for a little while, from Daniel at least. His cronies picked up where he left off, making my life a living hell. As soon as his parents took him off restrictions, he was back at it again, joining the rest in their mocking of my horrible name and big green eyes.
I'm not sure if a five-year-old ever had lower self-esteem. Days and weeks and months of being told I was ugly and hideous and horrible made me cry so much that my mother worried my face would be tear stained forever. I begged my parents to move, but they told me that this was just a part of getting initiated into a new school. It didn't make sense to me, but I chose to trust them.
Making friends was impossible with Daniel Delp on my back day after day. If I did happen to find someone to play with, Daniel would start making fun of them too, and that would quickly end my play session. No one wanted to be the target of his nastiness, and I couldn't blame them.
Instead of being something I looked forward to, I dreaded recess like the plague. It was a time to be feared, a time when Daniel and his gang would find me and torture me. It was a time spent playing a seemingly never-ending game of hide-and-seek, and not the fun kind either. I tried staying in the bathroom throughout recess, but the teachers took notice and forced me out. I tried hanging around the teachers during recess, but that only gave Daniel and his friends something else to tease me about. I asked if I could stay in the classroom during recess, and that worked for a while, but then my teacher became concerned that I was developing anti-social behavior, so she sent me back out into the gladiator pit again.
Living in fear never becomes a routine that you can settle into. You just push through it, hoping and praying that things will get better. If it wasn't for one fateful day, I might have had to endure Daniel's torment for the entire school year, maybe even for the rest of my adolescence.
The day started like any other. The clock ticked down to recess, and I watched it with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. While all the other kids were thinking about what games they were going to play, I pondered where I would hide. Where could I go that would take Daniel the longest to find me? The previous day, I hid out around the jungle gym. There had been a lot of kids playing on it, and I managed to blend in for a while. It took almost ten minutes before one of Daniel's friends pointed me out. It would be the first place they looked for me today.
When the bell rang for recess, I made a mad dash for the tunnels. There are only so many hiding spots on a playground, and I knew they wouldn't give me refuge for long, but it was better than being out in the open.
Breathlessly, I crawled inside, jumping when I noticed that the tunnel I had chosen was already occupied. Thankfully, it wasn't an enemy. The boy who was curled up at the other end of the tunnel barely paid me any mind. He was reading a book, lost in his own world.
“Can I come in here?” I asked timidly, praying he wouldn't refuse me entry. By that time, I was sure Daniel was out looking for me.
The boy grunted, and I settled down beside him. Anxiety was already getting the better of me. I knew it was only a matter of time before Daniel found me, a matter of time before my nightmare began. I wrapped my arms around myself, fighting back tears. You'd think I would have gotten used to being called ugly, to having rocks thrown at me and my hair pulled, to being pushed down and mocked. But every single day opened a new wound that I worried would scar me forever. I mewled silently as I waited for today's dose of torture, trying not to be too loud, lest the boy beside me suddenly decide to kick me out for crying.
Apparently, I wasn't being quiet enough. After a while, he sighed and set his book down before asking me, “What's wrong?”
“Daniel Delp is going to come bully me,” I whimpered.
“Why?”
“Because he says I have big eyes.”
The boy looked at me thoughtfully. “You do have big eyes.”
His comment only made me sink further into myself. Tears streamed down my face and stung my eyes. Why did everyone hate me so much?
“They're very pretty,” he added.
“Huh?” I looked over at him.
“You have pretty eyes. They're like emeralds. Very unusual.”
His vocabulary and demeanor confused me. He was so serious and strange. Why wasn't he out playing with the other kids?
I took a moment to look the boy over. He was short, with hair so blonde that it was almost white. His eyes were the brightest blue I had ever seen, like the waters of the Caribbean. They were amplified by a pair of thick glasses. This boy probably got picked on too, I decided.
I was about to thank him when Daniel Delp popped his ugly head in through my side of the tunnel. Panic filled me as I realized my sanctuary was over. It was time for my daily dose of hell to begin.
“Look what I found, boys. It's Tara the Terror. Tara the Terror, Bug-Eyed Tara.” He pointed at me for his friends to see and then laughed. “Get out of that tunnel, so we can chase you,” he told me.
“No.” I wrapped my arms around myself, trembling in fear.
“Then we'll throw rocks at you until you get out of the tunnel.” He reached down and picked up a fistful of rocks. His friends followed suit, preparing to force me out of the tunnel with stone projectiles.
“Yo,” the boy beside me said, leaning over to look at Daniel.
“What do you want, Four Eyes?” Daniel scoffed.
“You're Daniel Delp, right?”
“Yeah. So? What of it?”
“I'm Darren Jones. Your father works for my father.”
“Who cares?” his voice rose in irritation.
“If I tell my father to fire your father, he will. Leave this girl alone.”
If Daniel was scared, it didn't show. “You can't do that.”
“Try me. If your father gets fired over this, you'll have more than a week of being grounded to look forward to. Try the entire year, maybe even your whole life. If you go away now, I won't have to tell my father anything.”
Daniel huffed. “You're lucky your family owns half the town.” He turned his attention to me, “Tomorrow, Terror.” And then, by some miracle, he took his gang and left.
I was in utter shock and disbelief of what had just happened. Was I actually free of ridicule for one day? Who was this kid sitting beside me?
“Thank you,” I muttered.
“You're welcome,” he replied.
“I'm Tara.”
“I know.”
For the rest of recess, I sat quietly beside Darren while he continued to read his book. It felt good to know I was safe, if only for a little while.
That night, I told my parents about Darren and what had happened with Daniel Delp. They tried to explain to me that his parents were important people in our town. His father owned most of the restaurants and shops, and his mother ran a real estate agency. That didn't matter to me though. All I knew was that Darren was my savior, and I needed to stick close to him if I wanted to survive public school.
The next day at recess, I found him in the tunnels again. Quietly, I slipped in beside him. When Daniel came looked for me, he could only glower at me from a distance. Darren was my shield.
Of course, it didn't take him long to realize I was following him. The one day he wasn't in the tunnels, I tracked him down sitting against the gate at the far end of the playground. Trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, I sat beside him, curling my knees up to my chest as I watched the other children play. Darren never playe
d, and I didn't understand why, but I didn't question it. As long as I was safe by his side, I didn't care what we were doing.
“You're following me,” he commented, barely glancing up from his book.
“Yes,” I admitted sheepishly.
“Why?”
“Because when I'm with you, Daniel doesn't pick on me.”
He sighed but said nothing more.
It took us a while to develop anything even remotely resembling a friendship. At the beginning of our relationship, I followed him like a shadow. He was never cruel to me, and he never turned me away, but he didn't seem particularly interested in me either.
Eventually, it bloomed into something more. We were together all the time, and my parents finally asked me if I wanted to invite him over for dinner. When he arrived, my mom fell in love. She couldn't get over how polite and well-mannered he was. It made me feel a bit embarrassed for the way I acted at home. He was all "Yes ma'am”s and “No ma'am”s, “Please”s and “Thank you”s. I looked like a little Neanderthal by comparison.
Then it was my turn to go to his place. My eyes bugged out as we pulled up in front of his gargantuan house. It was hard to believe that only three people lived there, but that was the truth of it. Darren had everything a kid could want. Every new video game console that came out, his own computer, a big trampoline in his backyard, a basketball hoop, and an in-ground pool. Despite all that though, he seemed most interested in his books. One of the walls in his bedroom was nothing but a giant book shelf. His other walls were decorated with posters of authors, composers, and scientists. The kid was a brain. How he didn't get bullied was beyond me.
After the initial introductions between our parents, we found ourselves staying at each other's houses quite frequently on the weekends. It seemed like every weekend I was either at his house, or he was at my house. His father was a stern man, but his mother was sweet and fun. She was always grateful for my company, telling me she wished she could have a daughter, but after having Darren, she had gotten ovarian cancer and could no longer have children. His parents talked about adopting, but his father didn't seem too interested in the idea.