Despite all the happenings during the weekend, we acted pretty much the same during the whole day. Not that I expected for us to suddenly walk around, arms linked as we skipped and sang together merrily. This was fine. I was still the silly me and she was still the serious girl who blushed and put up with me as I messed with her. Only thing different was, she seemed a bit more lenient.

  All of those nice feelings were taken away from me as soon as I arrived home. I had just shut the door behind me when I heard mum calling to meet her at her office.

  I had hoped the house being empty, seeing that dad’s car wasn’t parked outside, but I had no luck.

  I walked up the stairs and got inside the second room to the right.

  My mum’s office is probably something a lot of people might find envious. Nice, stylish vintage furniture, with lots of books on the bookshelves and leather seats. That caused the room to have a woody, leathery and papery smell a lot of people might find pleasant. Not me, though. Any time I entered here was because I was either going to be briefed about something or scolded.

  “Hi mum,” I said as I walked up to her desk.

  “Have a sit,” she ordered without lifting her eyes from her ptop.

  I sat quietly, waiting for mum to finish what she was doing, my anxiety pilling up.

  “Mind telling me why you two were at that store?” she asked, finally looking at me.

  She reclined and crossed her legs, her intertwined hands ying on her p. She looked calm enough, but that was simply to make me lower my guard.

  “Why? I mean… Violet needed to buy some stuff there, so I went with her.”

  “Oh, so she took you along so you would buy her something.”

  I looked at her amazed. Just how in the world could she think such a thing knowing nothing about Violet?

  “No! I just went to give her an opinion!”

  “Is that really it?”

  “Yes! Why would you think that about her?”

  “Isn’t it obvious? If a girl her age is working as a waitress, her family must be dirt poor, right? I’d even say she is only working at the Le Perrot to find some idiot she can seduce to—”

  “V-Violet isn’t like that! She is—”

  Mum spped the arm of her chair. She was still with a stern face, but her eyes were burning with anger. She uncrossed her legs and I felt my blood run cold.

  “It looks like my suspicion might have been correct.”

  “W-w-what suspicion?”

  “That you are the idiot she’s trying to seduce.”

  My mouth hanged open and for a second my vision went bck, but I didn’t fall unconscious. I was too scared to let that happen.

  “N-no! You got it all—”

  “Why were you two in that section?”

  “I-I t-t-took her t-t-there… to m-m-mess with h-her.”

  “To mess with her?”

  “As a joke! It… it was… it was a j-joke.”

  She stared coldly at me while I was breaking down. Then, she tapped her p with her index two times.

  “Mum please! I have PE tomorrow,” I pleaded.

  “Now, Abbigail Gardener.”

  Shaking violently, with my sobs making it hard to breath, I did as she commanded.

  As was the procedure, I pulled my skirt and underwear down to my ankles and id my belly on her legs.

  “Which hand does mummy write with?”

  “T-t-the r-r-right…”

  “If you know that, why is your butt to my left?”

  “S-s-sorry,” I pleaded as I changed my position. As soon as I did so, she grabbed me by the neck and started dishing out her punishment as I covered my mouth. I didn’t beg for her to stop. I knew it was pointless.

  “I don’t want you to spend any more time with that girl. Do you understand?” she demanded after she stopped giving me sps.

  “I-I-I won’t do it.”

  “Good girl.”

  During the weekend I had tasted what freedom and having a normal life were like. I even had Violet wanting to stay my friend after facing my mum.

  “She is my friend so… I-I-I won’t do it!”

  After having experienced that… I could rot in hell for it, I’d still cling to Violet and what she represented.

  “What?! Why you little…” she yelled as she began her second dose.

  That one was even harder and longer. It reached to a point I wasn’t even completely feeling the blows. Either that, or she was getting tired.

  “I’m telling you to stop meeting her for your own good,” she said, panting. I have no doubts she believed that, in her own twisted way, it was the truth. Unfortunately for her, I didn’t hold the same belief.

  “She is my only true friend in years… I just won’t…” I mumbled between sobs.

  She gave up on using her hand and grabbed a hardcover. Still, when she stopped, I stayed defiant.

  “I’m cutting off your allowance permanently. Also, if you aren’t back home fifteen minutes after the csses have ended, you better have a good excuse to not be home by then.”

  “Fine.”

  “And I’m only allowing you three hours of free time during the weekend.”

  “Are we done?” I asked in a gesture of defiance. I was still feeling terrified, but I was also tired of it. For some reason, that day was the first I ever stood up to her.

  “You’re lucky I’m tired. Yes, we are done here. I’ve wasted enough time with your stupidity,” she said as she pinched me before standing up without giving me time to do the same.

  I tumbled on the hardwood floor and smacked the desk in two pces with my back and hips, but that barely registered. I had been beaten like never before, but in a way, I felt like I had achieved some form of victory.

  She was looking down at me, as I id on the floor while trying to pull up my clothes, still crying and in pain. I felt like an ant looking up to a mountain. And I still felt like I had won.

  “You used to be so well behaved,” she said before leaving.

  “Ow!” I cried out when I got up and tried to walk. It looked like I was going to be limping for at least a few days.

  “I can’t go to school like this…”

  People would ask why I was walking weird, and I wasn’t going to be able to lie this time as I most likely would start crying. Mum would have my skin for that. But most of all, I wouldn’t be able to worry and lie to Violet. I just couldn’t.

  That night, I was sitting at the dining table, a bit sideways, and staring at my untouched food. It didn’t awaken any desire in me to eat it, nor had it any favour. I was thinking about cleaning up when my father came home.

  We looked at each other without talking at first. He was with a worried face that grew even more worried as he saw my clearly red, swollen eyes. I averted my gaze back to the pte I had in front of me.

  “I heard you and your mother had an argument,” he began with a coarse voice.

  I told him yes, but also told him it was nothing when he asked what it had been about.

  “Look Abbigail, I’m not here to yell at you. I just need to know what happened,” he said as he sat down by my side, pcing one of his huge hands over mine. The way he did it so gently gave me some courage to speak.

  “She…she doesn’t like… Violet.”

  “I’m sorry, erm, Violet?” he asked confused.

  “Violet… my friend…”

  “What?! She told you not to be friends with her?!” he spoke fbbergasted.

  I didn’t answer. I didn’t have to. He knew mum for longer than I did, so he already knew that was entirely possible. Since he went quiet for a while, I stood up and started to take my pte to the kitchen counter when I heard the sound of a chair scrapping the floor.

  “Why are you limping?” he asked in a thundering voice.

  “I-I fell,” I said without looking at him. My body was starting to shake again and my eyes welling.

  “She told me she gave you a punishment…Is that… Is that why?”

  I turned slightly to him. My body was now in a state it would be more accurate to describe as convulsing. So much so, I dropped the pte on the floor.

  “N-no! Mum will…” I panicked as I crouched down and started trying desperately to pick up the pieces and food from the floor.

  My dad’s face went from worry to completely horrified as he saw my reaction. He walked towards me and gave me a hug as I started sobbing.

  “Don’t! You’ll cut yourself!”

  “But mum will—”

  “I’m going to talk to her. I swear, she will never y a hand on you again. I swear.”

  I started crying all over again with him rocking us back and forth, gently caressing my hair.

  “Could you show me where she hit you?” he asked when I calmed down.

  I shook my head, afraid of what mum would do if she found out and embarrassed of the pce it was.

  “I need to see it, Abbigail,” he urged me. “I need to see it and as proof. Please?”

  I was trembling a lot with how scared I was, but ended up doing as he asked. The face he made when he saw how swollen and purple my right cheek was… it would haunt my dreams, I was sure of it.

  I told him I couldn’t go to school like this. People would notice and start asking questions.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll call school tomorrow and tell them you’re not feeling well.”

  “But mum will—”

  “I’ll deal with her about that too. Enough is enough.”

  “…Thanks dad…”

  I apologised to him for having him cleaning my mess, but he simply told me not to worry, and that I should go and try to sleep something. I crouched down the best I could by dad and kissed his face before thanking him again and wishing a good night.

  It was hard to find a comfortable position as even when on my belly, the gravity was enough to hurt enough to keep me awake. And then came the shouting between my parents.

  I shut myself in the bathroom with a pillow wrapped around my head to further muffle the voices. It was in the bathtub I slept that night, the coolness of the porcein helping in easing the pain.

  When I woke up, I felt like a zombie and completely hollow.

  My phone was ringing, and for the third time that day according to the notifications. It was almost lunch time, so there was only one person it could be.

  I ignored the call and checked the notifications, confirming it had indeed been Violet calling me all those times. I sent her a message saying I had caught a flu, so I was going to skip csses some days.

  I just couldn’t face her. Not just yet. I wanted so much to be with her right now, I was crying and saying her name as I id colpsed on my bed. I wanted to be with her so much. Confide with her. Have her comforting me. But I couldn’t. I’d just make her worried sick. And I just couldn’t do it.