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FOR the first time ever at Sam’s house, I lie awake listening to the early morning birds. The stench of alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana lingers faintly. His soft but demanding lips kissed me as though he’d known me for eternity. It was the kind of kiss no-one would ever forget. I bring my fingers to my swollen lips and smile. The mark he’d left on my skin was an indirect reminder his hands had touched me. It was his confession of his love. I didn’t say it back. I couldn’t. Do I love him? I’m not sure what love is. Look at my family. The only love I know is between me and Em, but even that feels strange now.
‘Well, look what the cat dragged in!’ Sam’s snide remark comes through the bedroom door. ‘And, just what the fuck, are you doing in my house with my blanket?’
‘And hello to you too mole,’ my Mum replies to Sam. ‘Ava gave it to me.’
‘So, the little slut thinks she can give things away,’
‘Please, my daughter’s nothing like you!’
‘Ha, you don’t know I damn thing about me,’ Sam says.
‘I know you better than you think, Sam,’ my Mum replies.
‘I want you gone in five seconds. I don’t need to listen to a bipolar bitch.’ Something slams, and I hear Jeremy talking in a low whisper. I get up, out of bed and creep, well try to, past Sam’s room. The floor mutters under my feet.
Sam’s door flings open, and she pushes me up against the wall.
‘Well, if it isn’t the little slut,’ she sneers.
Jeremy is sitting on the bed, looking bored.
‘Who said, that you could invite garbage into my house?’ Sam raises her fist.
I close my eyes tight, and she punches the wall behind me. ‘Where’s your bodyguard? Or has he already had enough of you?’
The front door crashes open, and the whizz of wind breezes through the house.
‘I thought I told you not to call her that.’ Dakota grabs Sam’s arm and pushes her back into her room. She lands on her bed. Dakota shields my body.
Jeremy gets up and walks towards Dakota. Jeremy is shorter by centimetres. He comes up to Dakota’s nose.
‘Who do you think you are? You can’t come in here and push my girlfriend around.’ Jeremy shoves Dakota in the chest.
Dakota’s hand comes up and punches Jeremy in the nose. Blood spills everywhere.
‘Oh my God, Jerr, babe,’ Sam stresses.
Dakota grabs my hand, and drags me out the back door and over the fence. He jumps twice as high just so I can glide over it.
‘Don’t come back, you little slut!’ Sam calls out from the back door.
Dakota picks me up and he runs, before I even get the chance to scratch Sam’s eyes out. The trees zoom past us as his feet take us to safety. The light blue of the sky caresses the dark shades of the forest trees. It seems like the only thing I can focus on as Dakota runs. The wind on my face has a calming effect. Or is it the smell of moss, dirt and nature? Dakota’s scent. I hug myself tighter into his chest and close my eyes.
When Dakota stops, he asks. ‘Have you been kicked out before?’
I open my eyes again.
His fingers are drawing swirls on my back as he holds me with ease.
I think about my answer.
‘No— not really,’ I say.
‘That doesn’t sound convincing.’
I snuggle into his chest. Dakota hand comes around and places it on my butt holding me in place. The smell of the forest lingers on Dakota’s shirt.
I sigh. ‘Em and I were kicked out, so we went to Jane’s house, and when we came back, our room had been turned upside down.’
Dakota kisses my head before he puts me down on a log.
‘I never thanked you for taking me away from that toxic situation. I’ve always dealt with Sam and her ways on my own. No has ever stood up for me before. So—.’ I don’t get to finish; Dakota’s fingers are on my lips.
‘I’ve said that I would protect you. I mean it, Ava. I can’t let anything happen to you.’ Dakota leans down and rubs his nose along mine. ‘You’ll always be safe with me.’ He winks.
Dakota does a complete one-eighty and runs off. He starts doing Parkour through the trees and then stops at one of the cut-down trees and punches it.
I get up and walk over to him.
The stump he hits isn’t even moving. Dakota’s hammering fists ram indents into the wood. It has indents in it from his hammering fists. As I get closer, Dakota stops and flings himself into another tree, landing on the ground further away from me.
I walk closer to the stump he was just at. The tang of blood and his woodsy smell mixes into the wood. I lean in and sniff. I feel dizzy on my feet as I sway; my vision blurs. The smell makes me delirious. I stagger back a few paces before leaning on a tree and slumping to the ground.
My eyes grow heavy, and I close them for just a moment.
‘He will snap out of it soon,’ a deep voice muses.
The heat radiating from a warm body slides down the base of the tree and sits next to me. I open one eye and look at who it is. Dark, slick messy hair sits on top of his head. Dash is wearing sunglasses.
He smirks.