Pain

Both of them slept in each other's embrace until the morning light creeped into the room steering Caleb awake. He carefully released her and left the room.

Don woke up with a migraine. He tried to get to the shower but he had a pretty awful vesalgia "remind me to never drink again" He spoke lazily to Caleb.

"get your ass off the bed and straight into the kitchen. Your cooking!!" He smiled broadly.

" you don't mean it. Am here dying over a heart ache and a head bang and all you care about is your stomach " He hissed.

" hey I wasn't the one who held your throat and forced down five bottles of rum down it neither was I the nigga that went into your brain and told you to break someone's heart" Caleb winced a bit.

" Jeez take it easy man. Am cooking okay. No need to get loud over me" He went into the shower leaving Caleb to a copy of the times magazine.

A few minutes later, the two went into the kitchen to prepare quite the spread.

" It's unusual for you to think of helping me talk less of even being here on a Saturday. Thought you had a raging plan with your buds" He smirked.

"Yeah yeah. Am starving let's just get to it " Caleb shoved him aside. Opening the cabinet, he pulled out two packs of pasta.

"hol' up dude. We never had to consume two packs in one meal. Just one. You don't mean a night without me in the kitchen and your that famished " an eye brow was raised at Caleb.

"fine okay. Your friend's upstairs" he sighed

"Bella is upstairs" a look of astonishment followed behind an anxious face. "What is she doing in your room?What did you do to her? What did she say?"

" Don can it. I mean Angie " He opened the it's emptying it's contents into a pot with boiling water. "She was at the party last night probably stranded so I gave her a lift. It was too late to get her home so she crashed at our place and Stuffs led to Stuffs and....."

Don signalled him to stop with a hand held out to him showing his palm to his face "I don't wanna know the kinda crap you did last night. Just don't get in trouble. Dad and Uncle Drey wouldn't be in the slightest way happy to find out about any disturbing news"

Angie steered in the bed feeling the comfy cotton sheets work their magic on her skin. She almost didn't want to wake but her mind clicked. With a fright, she opened her eyes in a rush letting the lights flood in blinding her vision temporally. She recollected her memories, images of last night's events crashing into her senses. Her eyes circling, her skin recollecting each tingling touch that burned her. She ram into the shower in an attempt to soothe the spots that tingled but the water didn't help. Her soft hair stuck to her skin like leather as she dried her body.

"Gosh. I did shit. This is bad. How did I let myself go" tears rolled down her smooth brown face falling to the floor in full drops. Her eyes burned as she fell to the ground crying her eyes out. She hugged herself tightly maybe in a passionate resolute to rewind the hands of the clock to prevent the theft of her most valuable asset as a woman.

For a while, she stayed curled up beside his wardrobe, her towel tied firmly around her chest. Her eyes were puffy and red from the mountain of tears that her eyes had rained down. She sniffed holding back the tears that still threatened to tear her down. Standing up, she shuffled through his clothes and picked up a blue t-shirt with a pair of skinny jeans. She washed and dried her face before grabbing a few notes from his bag. As quietly as she could, she exited the house before he could come looking for her.

Her eyes were still teary when she reached home. Quietly, she headed for her room but the dreaded presence of her father halted her.

"For the past two days you evaded this house. Where were you" He stood with a belt in hand and a bottle of beer in the other.

"Why the fuck do you care. All you ever do is drink your salary away with the blood sucking leeches that you call friends. To hell with you" She yelled frantically trying to find a means to push her aggression at.

"You dare yell at your father" He staggered towards her. Swinging the belt aimlessly in the air to strike at her hopelessly. She stood there waiting for the belt to slash at her. She was willing to take the hit if it would take her mind off her wasted mind. Her eyes shot in anticipation for the stinging pain of the belt. For seconds she waited, still no slash came. Her eyes opened to find the man cold on the cream tiles, snoring heavily.

More tears tugged at her. Her father's helpless nature pushed at her sanity. How could her mother marry a man like him. Why didn't she ever fight back when he hit her and her siblings over and over again. So many questions poured over her and her tears followed to answer each unanswered question. Her mother was too weak like all of them to be able to raise a finger at him.

She left him to nap out on the floor. With heavy footsteps, she went to her bed to swoop herself in a pool of tears with no shoulder to cry on.

She had dreams like every other kid and now she wasn't sure of herself. If not for Bella's father, they would have been on the streets by now begging

for scraps. Her mother had a frail health and with their father's constant spending, there wasn't enough to take her to a proper hospital. Her sister had told her that her father had even take the pride of dipping his hands into her closet to carry the money she had earned selling drinks at the club to buy more drinks for his friends. Why was she remembering all of these now?

She let out a loud yell but her frustration heightened. More hot tears rolled down soaking the dirty bed spread.