Rachel groans softly, dreams are still sleeping in her eyes. Her lips felt numb and cold, as if she spent her entire night kissing the corners of ice cubes. Her soul was bruised like fresh fruit. She was exhausted to the very marrow of her bones. She felt like a rag that was wrung out and thrown, just to be picked up and used all over again.

Rachel felt hollow and dark. The feelings came and went, but she wasn't necessarily mindful of such. She figured it was simply her body's clockwork.

Her eyes adjusted focus, blurs of the world developed definition and detail. The sheets were drenched and uphended. Rachel's bra was above the pillow she rested her head on. Drunk kisses and promises marinated between her lips.

A sigh leaves her lips as the memories course through her mind, like adrenaline.

However, she was alone in the bed. Undressed. Confused. Depleted. In his room.

Rachel sat in silence for several minutes before she heard his voice.

"About time you're awake, you were sleeping like a dead log," Ace opened his room door with so much ruckus, it made Rachel startled.

Ace's room was dreary and untidy. He had curtains that haven't changed at least since the first time Rachel set foot in this room, which was, at least, two years ago. His posters of punk rock stars were soiled, ripped, or both. He had aging condom wrappers on his dressing table. Clothes were jumbled in drawers and spilled out of them. Old alcohol seeped into the wooden floors.

Rachel had yet to utter a word.

Ace dropped a bag to the floor. His bitter eyes laid on his girlfriend."What's the matter with you?"

This was all Rachel could muster. Her gaze was away from her partner, and blank. She picked at the bed linen. "Good morning to you, too, Ace."

"Feisty little girl," Ace walked closer to the bed with a smirk on his face. He raised his hand, Rachel naturally flinching. He touched her cheek with the pads of his finger, running them across her lips.

"Don't act like I didn't have you screaming last night," His eyes watch hers carefully. As he traces his fingers down her body, he keeps his eyes fixed.

"Begging for more," He's at her thighs now. He drew a cycle of circles on Rachel's upper left thigh, and it was making her crumble. Ace nibbles Rachel's ear, kisses her neck slowly.

"You're my good doll," Rachel's legs opened. Fresh warm white is ready to wash over last night's result.

His finger eases into her inner lips. Then eventually her warm, deep secrecy. "And you know that no matter what…" Ace's smile deepens as a fragile noise leaves Rachel's lips.

"You can't get enough of me, and come back for more," He motions to spread Rachel all the way, but she resists.

The lassitude is clear in her voice. "Stop."

Ace leans in for a kiss, trying to win Rachel over. "You're so pretty when you're in denial."

Rachel pushed her boyfriend off of her, feeling heat rise in her body.

"I have had enough of you!" Rachel's voice breaks.

The rage was coming fast.

Ace's voice raises. His tone that he used to get what he wanted vanished. "What the hell is your problem?"

"Oh, I've got plenty," The words pronounced faster than she could process. "I am tired of you. Sick and tired. Tired and sick. The money you took from me,"

Ace dipped his hand in his pocket and took out a thousand dollars.

"I always give it back."

Rachel took the money and ripped it. Ace's face rinsed in anger.

Ace grabbed Rachel's arm, snarling. "You ungrateful bitch,"

She broke free of his grasp before it tightened.

"You give just to take. That's the first issue." Rachel felt the tears bubbling in her eyes.

"You just ripped ten bands to shreds, are you fuckin' crazy?"

"You better bet your bottom dollar that I am insane,"

She hissed then her hand flashed in fury. "I don't want money from you. I don't need money from you. I do not depend on you and I am my own person,"

Rachel takes a small bottle of beer from nearby, bashes it into a wall. She contracted a cut, but she doesn't care. She was exasperated. Vexed. Wrathful. The infatuation was her drive. Her blood was hot with the hell she was raising.

"The drinking with your horrible ass breath and misaligned ass teeth. You drink and then it's up to me to tolerate your sorry ass," She drops the bottle to the ground. "Then you kiss me, tell me you love me. You never think straight, sober or intoxicated, I'll be the one to tell you—"

Ace yelled, but Rachel was numb to it all. "You're not gonna throw a tantrum and fuck up my place!"

"Oh, baby. You have me all the way fucked up," Her smile was hysterical, her eyes were sharp. "These sheets," She snagged up the linen aggressively. "Tired of losing myself in them!"

Rachel wanted to break, but kept talking.

"Tired of being used on them. Tired of being forced under them." Rachel gathered the sheets and shoved them in Ace's chest.

"I want my bank's routing number out of your phone. My location will no longer be shared with you when you request it. I want all the money back you took from me. And I want you out of my life."

Ace snapped, getting a grip on Rachel again. "ABSOULETLY FUCKING NOT!"

Rachel felt small and powerless once more. The fear shook through her body, but she refused to let the tears fall.

Ace chuckled ominously. His gaze clashed with Rachel's. "You've been acting real fuckin' different since you moved towns. You used to do whatever I said when I asked with nothing but a "Yes, Sir." Now you're acting all big and bad. You better respect me like your life depends on it. You've changed. Let me find out that you're fuckin' with someone else and you can bet I won't see Heaven's Pearly Gates. But…" He lightly slaps her cheek and holds her face in his hand. Ace parts open his lips in such a toxic way. "You know deep down," His voice darkened. "No one will love you the way I do."

Rachel whispered tenderly. "Let me go."

"Rach," That pleasing tone returned like it was nothing. "I promise I won't do this again. I'll give you anything, do anything you want,"

"Let. Me. Go."

Ace, with hesitation, drops his hold on Rachel.

Rachel quietly puts on her clothes, takes her phone, and her house keys. None of her requests were taken into account, but she would come up with a second plan as soon as she was on the other side of the door.

"You know you'll come back to me,"

Rachel cut his voice off with the slam of his door.

The young woman swiftly removed herself from the house. It was then, her mother called.

"Mom? Hey."

Rachel didn't know what to do with herself. She traipsed along the shattered sidewalks, and past the jaded, squalid houses.

"Hi, sweetheart. Are you okay? I haven't heard from you all morning."

Rachel quickly glanced at the time on her phone. Past noon.

"Yes, everything's alright," Rachel kept her words solid. "I just woke up late. I'm on my way back home now."

"Oh, okay. Would you like me or your father to pick you up? I know the mass transit commute from our old town to the new is like eating soup with a fork."

Rachel chuckled weakly. She always loved her mother's random, silly metaphors.

"That would be so nice, if you can."

"No problem. We'll be there within the next hour and a half. How was your time with Ace? I know he's such a sweetheart, and vows to take care of you."

Rachel's mind froze, then she glanced behind her.

"It was fine," Her lip was quivering and her throat was burning with pain.

Nevertheless, Rachel endured emotions in such a way that no one could tell she was hurting.

Arella's words, like honey on a fresh wound. "I'm glad to hear it. I'm sure Ace missed you so much, especially since you've moved away."

"Right. Okay, I'll see you when you get here, alright, Mom?"

"Okay, Bumpkin. See you soon."

Rachel ended the call, and that's when the tears finally washed down her face.