Holes Left By You
Chapter 1: Not Again
Tears race down her cheeks, landing on the soft fabric of her shirt. Stella sits on her bed, protectively curled up in a ball, rocking back and forth to comfort herself. An ice pack covers her forearm as she attempts to keep the bruising down. Pain shoots through her when she lies down from the bruises on her back where she had been thrown into a wall.
Her worst nightmare had come true: somehow she had fallen in love with another man who abused her. The first few months with Zach were good, no signs of violence at all. When they started to sleep together, he began to hurt her. Stella kept her mouth shut about it, enduring the pain in her body.
I should have never trusted myself to pick another boyfriend; I'm two for two in choosing violent men to be with. This has to end soon. I think everyone is starting to suspect something, she stares up at the ceiling, motionless except the soft rise and fall of her chest as she breathes heavily.
"What did I do to deserve this?" Stella mutters into the darkness before falling into a light sleep full of bad dreams.
MS
Zach kisses Stella, pinning her to the wall. He has a death grip on her arms, pressing them as hard as he can to the wall, and she is sure no blood can circulate through her wrists.
She tries to pull her arms away, but it is useless. "Ow. Let go of me."
"Stop complaining, or I'll make it hurt worse," he threatens but eases up slightly. Dragging her by the wrists, he leads her to the bedroom and tosses her onto the bed.
Stella lets him kiss her shoulder. That soon turns into biting; she tries to suppress her screams as they start to hurt her severely. It feels as though he is a vampire trying to draw blood from her. Zach's hands make their way under her shirt to her stomach, trying to lift the shirt off her. "No," she protests. "I don't want to."
He pulls away as though respecting her wishes. In rage, he throws a punch at her, connecting it with her cheek. "Don't you say no to me."
Getting over the shock, she stands. "I'm leaving," Stella tries to push past him.
He continues to block her exit, "No, you're not. You can't leave until I say you can."
"I don't care about you anymore. Get out of my way."
Zach lunges at her and puts his hands around her throat. "I'll kill you for that. Take it back, or I'll kill you."
"Never," she struggles to say. Everything goes black.
MS
Stella's eyes bolt open, and she observes her surroundings. "It was just a dream," she assures herself. The pain comes back to her when she sits up. "Or was it?"
Before leaving her bedroom, she looks at herself in the mirror. No bruise on my face. I must've dreamt that part.
On her way to the kitchen, she stops to get the newspaper. Then she pours a bowl of cereal and adds some milk before sitting down. After finishing her breakfast, Stella goes to her closet to pick out clothes for work. Carefully she narrows down her choices for a shirt: must be long sleeved to hide the bruises and cover up he bite marks on her neck and shoulders.
They have to know something. It's the middle of May, warm outside, yet I'm wearing long sleeves. And I'm pretty sure all the guys have noticed the change in how low my shirt is cut; they seem so disappointed to see me recently. Finally she just grabs a sweater that fit her requirements, not caring what it looked like.
Stella showers and dresses, double checking to make sure no one could see any tell-tale sign of her latest relationship. When she finishes drying her hair, she hears her phone ringing. "Morning, Mac."
"Can you meet me in the park in twenty minutes?"
"Yeah."
"See you soon."
She hangs up too, making sure one last time she looked okay. Heading out, she grabs her coffee mug from the counter.
A/N: So I hope you like it so far. I've got eleven more chapters for you guys, all of which but the last one are typed as well. The past few days I've been meaning to post this first chapter and I never got around to it. My grandparents are here to the week so my mom makes me stay downstairs rather than in my room all evening or on the computer. And we finally get a new NY tomorrow; yeah! Wonder if will have any updates on Stella's HIV thing; I really don't think I can wait another month and a half to find out. I'm temporarily stuck on my story. I have two more chapters I need ideas for and then I know what I'm going to have happen in the last three. Guess I have some thinking to do at the bus stop tomorrow; although every time I come up with an idea while standing there in the morning, I forget it by the time I get home. Anyway, the theme on NY is the whole Marie Antoinette and French Revolution thing; when I found that out, we had just finished learning about that in history. And the "Let them eat cake" line was in Providence last night. Syd has the randomest dreams in the world. My friend is upset because she thinks she's going to get a B in trig this quarter because she missed three days when she was sick and failed the quiz. Tomorrow and the next day we have a test in the class. She wants my hall passes that are extra credit if you still have them because she lost her's. Unless I miss over twenty points on the test, I have an A in the class. What should I do? I really should shut up now. Hope you enjoy. I'll update hopefully tomorrow.