Thanks A TON for the reviews guys :P

I know I'm being quite evil to the cheerleaders (as in making all the stupid people cheerleaders etc), but it's nothing personal :P I love cheerleading :)

Anyways... ENJOY!!


Chapter 19 - All alone

"Don't forget to bring me a souvenir." Continuing to stroke her hair, Luka kissed the top of her head.

"How could I ever forget that?" She smiled even though she knew he couldn't see it. "Oh yeah, I could of course just get the best souvenir ever, and then give it to one of those popular cheerleader girls. I bet they would love that." She tensed up, about to say come up with some smart reply, when his laughter softened her up. "I'm just kidding, Abby." Pretending to be mad, she leaned further into him.

"I know that." She tried keeping up her façade, but the soft touch of Luka's fingers running through her hair made it pretty impossible.

"I'm gonna miss you, Abby." She snuggled closer to him, turning a little so she could see his face, even though she continued looking down.

"You're only going to be there for a month. You'll come back before you know it, and then you'll wish you had more time there." He carefully placed his hand under her chin and lifted it up so she was looking at him.

"That doesn't matter. Even if it was just a couple of days, I'd still miss you." She gave him a weak, sad smile before looking away. Even though she absolutely hated compliments, he somehow made her feel just a little bit human. Like she wasn't just some worthless piece of nothing as everyone else thought she was. Made her feel... Special?

"It's getting late, though. I should get back." She broke the silence as it grew too awkward. She didn't really want to go home. She didn't want to at all actually, she'd much rather sit here on the beach with him, looking at the sunset. "And don't you have to leave soon anyways?" She didn't want him to leave, but it was like a defence mechanism. A subconscious one that is. She wanted to believe that she would be just fine, but she knew she'd miss him more than she'd ever admit. Lately, being with Luka was the only thing that got her mind off everything else. And with him in Croatia, she'd be all by herself.

"Well," He placed her loose hair behind her ear. "If you really wanna get rid of me that badly." She quickly shook her head and looked at him.

"No! No, not at all." He smiled and kissed her forehead. "How about I walk you home?" He gave her another smile and leaned in to kiss her, but this time not just her forehead. Abby smiled as she leaned in as well, needing a kiss that would last until he came back home.


"Aww, you look a little sad." She tensed up as he started giving her a shoulder massage. A painful shoulder massage. "What's bothering you, Abby?" She took a deep breath, putting down the stack of papers full of numbers that she was typing into excel.

"Eric's leaving for soccer camp tomorrow."

"Ahh." She held her breath, knowing the tone of his voice and not liking it. She bit her lip as he violently spun the computer chair around, digging his fingers into her shoulders. "Is that all? Or do you wanna tell me the truth?" She looked down, trying to block out the pain from his nails.

"It is the truth." She barely got to finish the sentence before his hand slapped against her cheek.

"The whole truth then." Biting her lip she looked up at his intimidating eyes, quickly looking away again.

"Luka left for Croatia today." She waited many seconds before looking back up at him.

"Oh, I see. So your boyfriend's gonna be gone for?" He looked questionable at her.

"A month."

"A month. Your mom is on one of her self proclaimed 'adventures', meaning she's probably gonna be gone for weeks, maybe months, and your brother won't be home for 2 weeks." He looked expectantly at her, so she nodded slightly. "So you're gonna be stuck alone. With me." He sent her that stare that sent shivers through her body. "Huh?" Biting her lip, she nodded. "Well then it's a good thing that I've got lots of work for you to do over these upcoming weeks." She looked scared at him as he grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the chair.

"How about we start out by giving you a little lesson, huh? Should teach you not to be late for work again." Knowing better than to do so, she couldn't keep her mouth shut.

"What... What do you mean?" He gave her a big, fake smile

"Well, you're gonna have to pay for the money I lost by you not showing up in time. And I'm not talking about working overtime, sweetie."


Abby pulled her knees closer to her chest, trying to wipe away the tears on her cheeks. She really, really just wanted to be at home right now, but instead she was stuck here in some dark, smelly, old, warehouse room, her entire body feeling more sore than ever. But that's probably what you get from, well... 'Doing it' on the cold, concrete floor.

Her head flew up by the sound of the door slamming, but when she saw it was Richard she looked back down, resting her forehead on her knees.

"Oh, are you that mad at me? That you won't even look at me?" She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"I know you hate me," Biting her lip she looked up at him, her cheeks still stained with the sticky, salty water from the tears. "But how could you do that?" Richard just shrugged his shoulders, looking at her like he hadn't done anything wrong.

"First of all I don't hate you. And secondly, it was easy. I don't have to give him his daily pay check if I can just pay him 'with you'." Abby closed her eyes and looked away. Somehow she couldn't believe what he was saying, didn't want to believe it. But at the same time it didn't surprise her at all that he would use her in that way.

"Now get dressed." He kicked the shirt, laying on the ground, towards her. "You've still got work to do out there." Abby picked up the shirt as Richard started walking away.

"So that's it?" Surprised, he stopped walking and turned around. Abby's voice was shaking, but she was at least talking. "This is my new 'job'?" He shrugged his shoulders, giving her an expressionless glare.

"I wasn't planning on it, so not unless you want it to be." She quickly shook her head, hoping that she hadn't given him any ideas. "Well then you better make sure I won't regret it." He threw her pants, which were laying on a box, at her, giving her an evil stare before turning back around and leaving the room.


Abby as good as passed out the second she fell onto her bed. She had barely gotten any sleep these past two weeks. The summer vacation was usually a time where you could relax, but she hadn't had a chance to do so. Richard had made her take a lot more shifts at McDonald's since she didn't have school, and on top of that he had her work in his factory every day. She didn't really care about that, though.

But the worst thing was definitely being at home, when Richard would want his so-called 'fun'. And then again, that almost happened just as much at the factory as it did at home, but at least he wouldn't 'torture' her nearly as much there.

Apparently he felt like she needed to pay him for, well, she wasn't even sure. Being alive? She took a deep breath. At least Eric would be coming home in a couple of days.

She really wanted to just stay in her bed, get some sleep, but she still had at least another hour of work to do, doing all these weird calculations for Richard.

Groaning, she tried to sit up without bending her upper body. It had been beaten blue and yellow and she was pretty sure she'd bruised a couple of ribs.

She sat down at her desk and took a sip of her now cold coffee. She absolutely hated coffee, couldn't stand the taste or the smell, but she desperately needed it if she wanted to stay awake.

She tried not to fall asleep. She really did. But the yawns kept on coming, and it got harder and harder to focus on all the numbers as they got more and more blurry. She was pretty sure they were jumping around all over the papers.

She put her elbow on the table, leaning her forehead in her palm. The sleep deprivation was taking it's toll on her, and having tried it before, she could feel she was about to black out. She knew she would get in trouble if she didn't get this done. A lot of trouble. But she wasn't able to hold it anymore. She was longing for her bed. Her nice, warm bed, with soft pillows and duvet. But there was no way on earth she was ever going to make it to there.

Her arm slowly started sliding away from underneath her head. She tried to stop her head from banging against the table, but it was too late. She was already unconscious.

Maybe, if she was lucky, she would get a few hours of sleep before he'd be back home from his night shift.