Free Wanna Bet? by R. S. Burnett Page B

question.
    “ She thinks
I’m a whore, don’t ignore my question”
    “ He’s gone
back out there, I told him I needed to speak to you” he sits on the
bed and pats the space beside him I ignore the invitation and put
my hands on my hips waiting for him to get what ever he needs to
say to me over with
    “ Please sit
Brooke” he sighs deeply .
    “ I think I’d
rather stand for this one, don’t worry I’m sure I can handle it I’m
on a roll today so just get on with it”
    “ Let’s start
with your lip, who hit you, don’t even try and say you slipped or
fell”
    “ This” I say
pointing to my lip “Is the reason Sophie and everyone else thinks
I’m a whore”
    “ I don’t
understand … did Sophie hit you?” he asks looking confused and
shocked.
    “ No” I say
quickly shocked that he would think that.
    “ Then I really
don’t understand”
    I sigh and
sit down next to him on the bed “I have nightmares every night only
they stop when I spend the night with you, I didn’t notice until it
happened more than once. Sophie noticed it when you joked earlier
that we lost sleep because you wasn’t there. She thinks that I’m
relying on you and that you’re going to let me down and leave me
broken, I told her that isn’t the problem and that I’m already
broken or I wouldn’t have them in the beginning. Then she said that
everyone thinks that I’m a whore because I spend most nights with
you but talk to other guys at parties and things. Everyone assumes
I’m sleeping with you regularly but having one night stands as
well. I asked if she thought that as well and she just
shrugged”
    “ You still
haven’t answered my question but first of all I’m sure Sophie
didn’t mean what she said”
    “ I know, but
it’s just out of all the things to call me that one really cuts
deep”
    “ I keep the
nightmares away?” he frowns at me as he asks this one.
    “ Don’t ask me
to explain it because I can’t” I shrug at him “It’s hard for me to
trust anyone especially men, the only thing I can think is that I
don’t have nightmares around you because if I did I would have to
explain stuff to you and it’s my bodies way of keeping the secret
maybe?” I ponder aloud knowing that it doesn’t matter because I’m
going to have to explain it all to him now.
    “ So what are
the nightmares about?” he lifts his hands towards me but I flinch
back before I can stop myself. He mutters a curse and stands “You
can come in here with someone you don’t even
know , but I go to touch you
and you act as if I’m going to hurt you Brooke!” he shouts at
me.
    “ Do you think
it’s easy for me to have to watch the pain I see flicker in your
eyes every time I flinch away from you? Because it isn’t. Every
time I see that a small part of me dies, knowing that every time it
happens around you, he has won” I call back just as
loudly.
    “ Who has won?”
he’s impatient now.
    “ It’s not fair
to ask me to remember them” I whisper as he sits back on the bed by
me.
    “ Yeah well
it’s not fair for me to know someone has hit you and I don’t even
know who it is or what to do about it” he tells me
softly.
    “ I would
gladly take a beating everyday for the rest of my life and not cry,
cower away from it or attempt to fight back. Simply because if it’s
happening to me and he’s doing it to me, he isn’t doing it to
someone else. I can handle it and live through the pain; another
girl might not be able to. I can’t stop what’s happening and save
my life but I can save someone else’s. So please I am begging you
Tucker don’t try to change the way it was supposed to be” I beg him
quietly.
    “ A man does
this to you?” he asks menacingly quiet.
    “ It’s been
going on for eight years tomorrow” I shrug trying not to remember
my thirteenth birthday. “It’s too late to change anything now” I
sigh now the memories are pushed back.
    “ Does anyone
else know about this?”
    “ Sophie,