Chapter 48: Chapter 48

I saw his car disappearing right before my eyes and I failed to persuade him that it was not fair what he was doing to me. The cold breeze gave my skin chills, tears sprung down my eyes and I sobbed on the side of the road, hugging myself.

"He didn't pay?" one of the guys from the other side of the road yelled, chuckling. I watched them through the corner of my eyes and they were staring at me, what were they thinking about me?

"You can still earn money tonight." the other one mumbled and they all got up. My heart began racing in my chest, I was hugging myself and shivering from the fear.

Should I go back? But it is a long way back to the cinema and I don't even know where this road leads to. With no exact plan in my mind, I started walking briskly in the direction Tucker has left to.

"We will pay don't worry." they were now crossing the road, almost rushing. There were more than six of them, and all of them sounded drunk, bad for me I knew that. From walking briskly to run, I don't know how quickly that happened, but I found myself sprinting madly in the middle of the road with these guys following me like crazy.

I stopped when they surrounded me from all the corners. I was breathing profusely, shaking badly, and crying my eyes out.

"I'm not t--hat t--ype of a gi--rl." I stuttered through sobs, quickly veering from one side to the other to make sure none of them was coming closer.

"That's what everyone says." One guy smirked and all the others laughed.

"but-- i--- am--no--t." I cried and hugged myself tightly. They were laughing at my cries; this was a game for them.

"She looks so fragile." The guy from the back wrapped his arms around my waist, totally catching me off guard, and stated in my ear. I veered around, hitting him with my elbow, but I missed it obviously, at least I was able to push him away. My heart was beating loudly, they had started to come closer, and to make things worse, they were now trying to touch me or grab me. All my fears of losing my virginity to the wrong person rushed back at me. This was unfair, just because I was alone off the road doesn't mean I was anybody's property. It was getting difficult to save myself but I wasn't quitting when suddenly a car honked at us.

"Run!" they all chanted and scattered away in haste. The guy from the car was none other than Tucker himself, he came back. There were mixed emotions covering my skin along with goosebumps.

"You guys are done," Tucker yelled as he chased them for a little while and then rushed back in my direction. I was wondering what he might be expecting from me, to hug him? to thank him for saving my life that he jeopardized in the first place?

"You okay?" he uttered, maintaining a distance as he might have seen the anger on my face by now.

"Did you want me to be okay?" I yelled loudly, he had never heard me raise my tone and that totally shocked him. I wish I had respected myself before, I was crawling so much in his feet that I have become just dust for him.

"I came back, even when you did me so wrong, hurt me, made me feel like cra* I still came back and instead of thanking me for forgiving you, you are giving me this attitude?" he stated that whole paragraph with such a shameless face that it was the first time that I wanted to shout at his face that he was sick, crazy person. I have never urged to hit someone, but at that moment, I really wanted to smack his face.

"Oh really?" I gritted my teeth, faking a smile, "you left me here with these guys who would have done anything to me an--" I hadn't even finished yet when he intervened.

"I came on time, what were they supposed to do in five minutes?" he shrugged his shoulders and deepened his stare in my eyes.

"Kidnap me, it only takes one minute to ruin someone's life, Mister Tucker Arch." I never thought I will be yelling at him; I'll be arguing with him like that. I remember whenever Dina used to object, I would say to myself that if he was my boyfriend, I would never do that to him.

"You are exaggerating things." he scoffed, rolling his eyes at me. I wondered if he really loves me because you wouldn't even think about your lover being in trouble yet here he was taking big risks. "let's go, it's late." he muttered, trying to grab my arm but I dodged his touch. He watched my face and then his hand, guess I shrugged his ego off.

"Did you seriously do that?" he questioned, shocked at my response when he should be really guilty of his action.

"You can do anything, but I can't even stop you from touching me when I am hurt?" I shouted in his face, the look on his face was enough to let me know that he was raging now.

"Okay!" He took a step back, glared in my eye, and then gritted his teeth, "Let's go home." He walked towards the car but halted when he realized that I wasn't following him.

"I don't feel safe with you anymore," I announced, looking down. He has crossed the limits by leaving me on the road, in the middle of nowhere and the comments he had made were disrespectful as well.

"Oh! So I am a useless pr*** now." I knew he was going to make an issue of it. He was allowed to do anything but if I ever mentioned that his particular action has hurt me, I was the wrong one. It was strange how he could do anything and I can't even complain about it, with people like so, it is hard to live with them. "Let's go home," he said again, but this time his eyes were deadly staring into my eyes, hinting to me about the consequences of defying him again.

I didn't want to be left here on the road again, so I jumped in the car, not really talking or moving. In my head, I just wanted to go back home as soon as possible.

He parked the car and I rushed out of the car, briskly walking in the direction of our house and he followed me with the same pace. We got in the house and were greeted by Lauren, who was staying awake for us.

"How was yo---," she halted once she saw my face, I had been crying this whole ride, I ignored her and despite her calling my name countless times, I ran upstairs and locked the door once I was inside. How can someone risk someone's life who they claim to love?

I was feeling unsafe with Tucker, there were times when I was left alone with Steven and honestly, I never felt unsafe with him. And then Steven's face popped right in front of my eyes, he ignored me, he doesn't even care if I exist or not. Steven doesn't even know yet that I am dating Tucker, but he is over my friends like I am nothing. Why did I choose Tucker's love over Steven's friendship? He was such a thoughtful person, always trying to listen to me, understand me. With Tucker, I have begun to get irritated, his arguments were lame too.

I sat down on the floor and cried, why was I even concerned about what Steven thinks of me when I was the one who pushed him away.

"I can't stay with Tucker, he will leave me as he left me on the road," I whispered in my mouth and cried, hugging myself and shaking miserably at the reminder of all the things those men said about me on the road.

They always warned me to stay away from Steven because people will say things about me, but what about Tucker? Hanging with him made me a s*** today in people's eyes. It is a small town and word spreads around quickly, I sobbed at the thought of things people could possibly say about me.

I heard a knock on my door and my body retracted. It was Lauren and behind her was Tucker standing with his head down. They came in and Lauren made us sit on the bed, she pulled a chair for herself and placed it in front of us.

"What happened tonight was horrible," she had her head lowered down, I knew she was going to defend her son's actions. "And I see no fault of Giselle!" she announced and I shot my head up, looking at her face in shock.

"Dina is her friend, so what if she came and talk to her? Don't suffocate the girl with these rules when you have no rules for yourself." She muttered at her son, who hadn't raised his head all this time. "Then you left her on the road? Are you a man? Do you have a backbone? Is that how you will disrespect your lady?" she got up in a rush and slapped Tucker's head aggressively, He didn't react or raise his head, the guilt was visible on his face.

"Then on the top of that, you decided to silence her by making it appear as she forced you to do that, you did all that over a question you asked her, and then you didn't even wait for her response." She muttered, pointing her finger at him, she was talking about the question he asked me that do I want to be with friends? Why I was looking at them?

"Let me answer that question for you dear son," she gritted her teeth, "yes! She should be with her friends because at least she will be protected by them, unlike you, who would leave her anywhere, exposed to harms." She finished and Tucker lifted his face in a quick move, "how can you take her for granted?" she lightly slapped his face and I got up to come in between them, I didn't like her hitting him like that.

"See, she is still defending you, protecting you when you failed to protect her." she got up, announced, and left the room. I sat on the bed, looking away. Everything that Lauren said to him was something I wanted to say, but because he wouldn't understand a thing, I remained silent. Her words soothed my aching soul.

"He used to abuse me," Tucker mumbled and I veered my face swiftly at him. He was still looking down, tears running down his cheeks, I wondered who he was talking about. "He once left me on the road, in the middle of the night to teach me manners. Giselle, I walked back home scared, crying and I was only nine at that time." I was watching him in fear, who did that to him and why didn't he ever open up about it? And where was I when that happened?

"Father wanted me to be a man, he taught me to punish people." he finally looked up and his eyes had this pain in them that I can't explain.

"Tucker!" His name left my mouth in gasps, he sighed. I wanted to hug him, but he was too zoned out to react to anything I was going to say, he just wanted someone to hear him, to hear what he had been going through.

"When I left you on the road, I thought it was the right decision, but soon your face popped in front of my eyes and I couldn't do it anymore, I rushed back to you." he stated, "I am so sorry Giselle, I don't know why I do stuff like that, I am just not okay." He suddenly burst on crying like a kid, covering his face in his hands and sobbing. It was so painful to see him broken like that. I hugged him and he instantly placed his face on my chest, crying and shivering, I can feel his heart beating louder than ever.

"He wanted me to be a man, I am not supposed to cry." All of a sudden, he lifted his face and cleaned the tears with the back of his hand and got up, "I will apologize in the morning." He stated and briskly exit my room. Even though I wanted to follow him, I didn't because he needed some time alone.

I can't believe Uncle Ben has been treating him like that. That reminded me of that one time he was Eight and he accidentally broke the vase while playing with a ball in the house and the next day he had bruises all over his body, what was going on?

I was exhausted, I can't even blame him for what he did to me, he was being manipulated by his father, Lauren treats him so well made sense now, she wanted him to be confident and loved by a girl who wouldn't even imagine to hurt him. Even though he was being taught to punish people, he still broke his rules and came back to me tonight.

I laid down in my bed and that's when my phone beeped, it was from Dina.

Dina: Are you seriously dating him?

I read her text and sighed, if she had texted me an hour ago, my answer would have been more like, not anymore, but knowing what he was going through, I decided to stay by his side.

Me: Yes!

It took me a lot of courage to type that, I even decided to not think about Steven again, I am done with him as well, I don't even want anyone's friendship, I need to focus on Tucker now.

Dina: How can you do this to me?

Me: I didn't do anything Dina, you dated him when he was my crush and now I am dating him when he is your ex.

Dina: How can you be okay with that?

Me: Just like you were okay with the idea of dating your friend's crush, maybe you didn't know about it before, but eventually, you did come to know of it and we were still hanging out with him by your side, so why are the rules different for me?

Dina: It's not that you are dating my ex, it is what he did to me.

Dina: How can you date someone who broke your friend's heart?

Dina: How can you be with him when he broke up with me because of you?

I sat straight in my bed, in shock. What does she mean by he broke up with her for me?

Dina: How can you do this to me? How can you care for him when he hated me for caring for you?

My eyes were reading her texts and shock was making my heart beat louder.