Three Steps Away From Freedom

I walked into my house and Gabes started jumping up at me. “Ok, ok Gabes. Lets go upstairs.” I said and carried Gabes up the stairs to my bedroom. I’m guessing that my mom and Keith were asleep because of all the lights being turned off. I grabbed my guitar off of my floor and sat on my bed. I tuned it and started to play a song that I learned when I took lessons. The song is called ‘Thunder’ by Boys Like Girls. I finished playing and looked at the clock which read twelve-ten. “Justin’s probably out on his walk.” I mumbled to myself. I got up and looked out of my window hoping to see Justin, but no such luck. I walked to my dresser and changed into my pajamas. Gabes followed me to my bed and attempted to jump on it. I caught her before she fell and put her onto my soft pillow.
I laid in bed and thought about what could happen tomorrow. What would Cody do if he found out that Justin was there? What would happen if he hurts me again? I tried to think positively and eventually fell asleep. The next morning I awoke in a sweat because of another nightmare. This time Cody brought me into a basement and beat me to a bloody pulp. He pressed on my cut and punched me in the face. He kept repeating, “This is what you get for rejecting me.” Kelsey then walked into the dark room where I was laying on the floor. She kicked me in the stomach and I heard one of my ribs crack. I screamed in pain and she had a look of amusement on her face. “And that’s what you get for betraying me.” she said and laughed with Cody.
I was lying in fetal position in my bed when I woke up. The dream made me even more terrified to see Cody than I already was. My dreams mean a lot to me and I rely on them a lot, but this one I just wanted to forget about. But I cant just forget about it…What if something like that happens? Will Kelsey be there too and treat me the way she did in my dream?
I got up out of my bed and walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth and hair. After I was finished I put my hair up messily not caring what I look like. I then walked into my room and threw on a pair of black sweat pants and a plain white tee-shirt. I put my black hoodie that I got from Florida and slipped on my tan clogs. I glanced at the clock and it was ten-thirty seven. I hurried downstairs and grabbed a pack of chocolate chip pop-tarts even though I wasn’t that hungry.
I took my phone out of my pocket and texted Justin telling him to leave. I took a deep breath before I opened my door and slowly strolled toward the café. There were knots in my stomach and I was unbelievably nervous. I arrived at the California Café and saw Cody through the window. Chilled crawled up my spine and I took another deep breath before I opened the door that seemed to be heavier than it was previously.
He looked at me in a very peculiar way and motioned for me to move faster. Fortunately he was sitting next to the wall where Justin wanted me to sit. He smiled lightly at me as I sat down and wondered if Justin was here yet. “So what do you want to talk about?” he asked. “I want you to leave me and Justin alone. I’m sorry that I rejected you, but that doesn’t mean that you can treat us like this.” He leaned over the table to get his face closer to mine.
“Your cute when you try to be serious.” he said and kissed my cheek. I pushed him away and he fell back into his seat. “What do you think your doing?” I asked hating the way that he thought that he could do anything to me. His face suddenly hardened and said, “Look, I want you to date me and you cant do that with Justin in the way. Just get rid of him.” he said with a fake smile. “No! Justin is my boyfriend and I don’t want to date you anyways.” I said coldly. “Uh huh, so you’re going to play hard to get? I’ll wait until your ready for a real man. Plus I have Kelsey right now. Oh that reminds me, she wants you to come to my house to meet her. She’s going to be there waiting.” he said convincingly. “Kelsey wants to talk to me?” I asked hopefully. “Yeah, come on let’s go.” he said in a monotone voice.
I followed him to his car obviously not thinking. He opened the car door for me and I hesitated. I didn’t know if I could trust him, but I have to talk to Kelsey. ‘I hope Justin will follow him.’ I thought as sat in the front seat and he shut my door. Cody sat in the drivers seat and said, “Off we go!” and he drove off. I squeezed into the seat belt not wanting to let go. “Would you relax?” Cody said when he saw my stressed appearance. “It’s not like I’m going to kill you.” he added and laughed. I felt very, very uneasy when he said that so I then had my right hand next to the door handle just incase I had to jump out of the car. “So what is it about Justin that you like so much, huh?” he asked. I didn’t respond and gripped onto the seatbelt even tighter which made my hand feel a bit numb.
He snapped his finger in front of my face and said, “Hey, I’m talking to you.” I stayed silent even though I wanted to scream in his face to shut up. All I wanted to do was talk to Kelsey ad convince her to take me back as a friend. “Lacie, I asked you a question!” Cody said violently. “What.” I mumbled almost inaudibly. “You’re scared of me, aren’t you?” he asked then chuckled. “Of course I am. You’re the one who put me back into the hospital.” I practically yelled at him. “For what? Oh that…I didn’t mean it. I just needed to teach Justin a lesson.” he said casually as if it wasn’t a big deal. “By hurting me? That’s not the best way to let someone know that you like them.” I snapped back. “Well I’m sorry.” he said. “I don’t accept your apology.” I replied silently. He stopped at the nearest open curb and looked at me. “Look, you need to keep you comments to yourself. If you don’t stop your going to make me very mad and you don’t want that, believe me.” he said.
I kept looking straight ahead when I felt like he was speaking right next to my ear. I was quiet for the rest of the ride to his house. He parked into a driveway with a nasty brown garage. I un-buckled my seatbelt and got out of the car. “Right this way.” he said as he directed me to the front door which looked old and chipped and worn out along with the rest of the house. He opened the already unlocked door and allowed me to walk in before him. “Lacie?” I heard a voice say when I got into the dark room. Cody turned on the lights and I saw Kelsey sitting on the couch. She looked infuriated when she saw me. “Cody said that you wanted to talk to me.” I almost whispered. We both looked over at Cody and he said, “I, uh, I have to go to the bathroom.” and he walked out of the room.
Kelsey then got up and headed towards the door. I grabbed her arm and said. “Kelsey, please talk to me.” She jerked her arm out of my grasp roughly. “Don’t touch me, I don’t want to talk to you.” she said coldly. I was hurt by her words, but I guess I deserved it. Why would Cody bring me here if she didn’t want to talk to me. “Please, Kels, don’t let this ruin our friendship.” I pleaded. “I trusted you Lacie. I guess that everyone was right when they said you were a backstabber. I should’ve listened to them.” she said. I felt my eyes welling up with tears. I blinked and let one fall to my cheek. She walked out of the door and I sat on the couch. My cell phone started to vibrate so I took it out of my pocket. I opened it up to see that I had a new text.
“Put that phone away!” I heard Cody yell from across the room. I jumped about two feet off of the couch and my phone fell to the floor. “You’re not leaving here yet.” he said. I went to pick my phone up off of the floor but Cody was faster. “Hmm, interesting.” Cody whispered to himself as he read the open text. I just stared at him hatefully. I stood up from the couch while he was pre-occupied with the my phone. I turned around to face the door and started walking towards it. I was about three steps from freedom when I felt two large arms settle on my shoulders.
“Oh, you’re not going any where.” he whispered in my ear. “Get off of me.” I demanded. I could feel him breathing next to my neck. He leaned closer and laid soft kisses on me. I tried to get out of his grasp, but he was too strong. “You still owe me. Remember?” he mumbled against my neck. “Not like this.” I said and elbowed him in the gut. He then released me to hold his stomach. I ran to the door again and got to the door knob when my ankles were pulled out from under me and I whacked my head off of the hard wooden floor.