Understanding Me
copyright 2010
To have Mandy understand his painful past, Duke puts her in a position that will not only have her understand him, but hopefully change her perspective.
Duke's P.O.V
Mandy doesn't understand what I went though in the past. She thinks I had it easy, but the scars on my body tells a different story. My plan is to have her understand that I didn't have a perfect life in the past and to have her understand me better.
That night, the team was doing their thing, Mandy was watching TV with her brothers. She's become very close to them ever since she's been here, that was 8 years ago. I was sitting on the other sofa. It was kinda hot so everyone was in either shorts, tank tops, whatever to keep cool. Me, I was dressed in sweat pants and a white t-shirt. Mandy doesn't understand why and questions every other hour if I'm okay with not overheating. I reassure her that I'm okay. I'm used to being dressed this way in hot weather.
Mandy was dressed in denim shorts and a pink tank top, not afraid of showing any skin, or scars for that matter.
I stood up and approached Mandy, she looked up at me. "Hi." She said.
"Can I steal ya for a little bit?" I asked, offering her my hand.
"Yeah, sure." She replied, taking my hand and I lifted her up. "Whatever for?"
"I want to show you something."
"Okay."
So we walked to our bedroom, where we can get some privacy. Once there, I locked the door so we couldn't be disturbed.
"Mandy, can I ask you something?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you afraid of showing off your scars?"
"No, why you ask?"
"do you know why I wear what I wear?"
"No." She said shyly. "Are you teaching me something?"
"Maybe. More of, 'getting to understand me better' if you know what I mean."
"Okay."
We sat on the bed, across from each other. I dimmed the lights a bit.
"Okay, I want you to take your tank top off for a second, I want to show you something."
Mandy took off her tank top without hesitation, "Is this another one of your sexual teachings?" she asked.
"No, I just want to show you something."
She threw her tank top on the side, her body revealing several scars on her stomach, chest, and shoulder. Her shoulder scar was covered by her bra strap so I pulled that down to her arm.
"See your scars?"
"Yeah, what about them?" She asked.
"Scars tell you a story, a reminder of your past when you mentally want to forget them, but physically they are there as your reminder." I said while I was pointing at the scars that were on her shoulder, chest and stomach. "For example, how did you get the one on your shoulder?"
"Skating accident. Someone's blade went through my shoulder and I had to get stitches for it. It happened when I was 10." she replied.
"Okay then what about the one on your stomach."
"Appendectomy. That happened on my 16th birthday, I missed my party and everything. So they brought the party to me in the hospital. Worst night of my life."
Then I pointed to the one on her chest, just above her right breast. "Then how did you get that one?"
She hesitated for a moment, "I was attacked one night when I was18, talking about wrong place at the wrong time. I was almost raped but I fought back and in return, I got stabbed there. I was hospitalized for a month because it collapsed one of my lungs. I almost died a few times." She replied. "Where are you getting at?"
I took off my white t-shirt and my sweat pants, only to be in my boxers. "My scars tell me about my past that I want to forget." I sat back down on the bed, "You see, you think I have had an easy life, but my body is going to tell you different."
She fell silent, listening to me and paying attention. I took her hand and I lead her to one of my scars on my chest. "This one, I was attacked as well, by my friend, who I thought was a friend. When we were on a heist together, he ended up stabbing me in the chest and trying to cut me open. He left me to die and he took the gem in the process. I lost a lot of blood that day and I had to stay in the hospital as well."
She only nodded. Then navigated her hand down to my lower thigh where the other scar was, trying not to respond to her touch.
"how did you get this one?"
"When I was either 10 or 11, my uncle and my aunt had a fight one night. It got so bad that my uncle had a small gun pointed at her. I was afraid so when he fired that shot, he ended up getting my thigh instead of my aunt. I had to have surgery to get the bullet out. But I saved my aunts life and she thanked me. She was in that kind of relationship for a long time. I loved my aunt so much, that I took a bullet for her."
"Like you would for me." she whispered, turning her head away. "What happened to your uncle?"
"He ran like a coward, never to be seen again."
"You were protecting her because you didn't want to see her hurt."
I only nodded. "I have normal scars when I was a kid as well. But there is one more that I want to show you."
I guided her hand again to my chest, where my heart is, "this one I was beat up again, only this time, this attacker had brass knuckles. He punched me in the chest so many times that his brass knuckles cut into my chest. Breaking my ribs and cutting me open, nearly missing my heart. It did expose my rib cage. Once the attacker was gone, I walked home, luckily it was raining so it helped clean it a little. But not before, I collapsed in front of my doorstep. Someone found me and rushed me to the ER. There I got stitches and over night observation. It got infected so they had to cut me open and clean it out. Leaving this scar in return."
"Where did you get this one?"
"My father while I was trying to help my mother get way from him."
"You were protecting her." Mandy replied.
I witnessed her eyes brimming with tears. "you loved her so much that you didn't want anything to happen to her."
I nodded while her tears were streaming down her cheeks. "I love my aunt and my mother to much because they taught me one thing that my uncle and my father never taught me. That was to respect women and treat them as such. They also taught me how to be a gentleman and yea to be smooth with them."
I let got of her hand as more tears stream down her eyes. "I'm sorry." she sobbed.
I gathered her in my arms and soothed her "You didn't know." I said, while stroking her back.
"thank you."
"For what?"
"Opening up to me. Showing me the light, teaching me a life lesson." She said when she looked up at me. Her tear stained cheeks said it all. "And most importantly to know why you are the way you are."
I then wiped her tears from her face with my thumbs, "yeah, I was going to tell you sooner or later. There's no need to cry for me."
"You did what you did because of your respect for women while getting beat up in the process. You were trying to protect them. Like you protect me." she said.
We both laid down on the bed covered ourselves in sheets. "I'm more than just a man who likes to woo his woman with love, kindness and yes with sex, I will protect you until my last breath. It's because I love you." I said while stroking her hair, our eyes met, never leaving to look at anything else.
She returned my affections with her stroking the side of my head. "I love you too." she replied sweetly.
Both of us got closer and closer until our beaks met with a kiss. The kiss that lasted forever in my eyes. When we parted, she smiled at me until her eye lids got heavy and she cuddled me and she fell asleep. I wrapped my arm around her as she was sound asleep with her head on my shoulder. I couldn't help but stroke her hair with one hand and her arm with the other.
"I'll protect you until my last breath." I said, "Until tomorrow, my love." then my eye lids got heavy and I fell asleep as well.
End