Song for this chapter:
*Rooting For My Baby- Miley Cyrus
BRIANNA'S POV
"Baby, can you get me beer?" Tyler asks me, his eyes glued to the football game playing on the large flat screen TV in front of him.
"Sure." I say and untangle myself from his embrace, standing from my spot on the couch and making my way through his small apartment until I reach the refrigerator.
I open the heavy metal door and grab one of the beers off of the shelf. I turn the cold glass bottle in my hands, hoping that this is the last drink that Tyler will have for the night. He's already had two, and I know how he gets when he's drunk, it's not pretty.
"Brianna, I'd like my drink today, please..." I hear Tyler's voice call from the living room, and I flinch and the loud and unexpected sound.
I quickly close the door of the refrigerator and pad my way back over the where Tyler sits on the couch.
He reaches for the bottle that I'm holding and removes it from my grasp before popping the cap off and taking a sip.
I let out a soft sigh as I sit down beside him again and his toned arm rests itself on my shoulder as I lean my head on his chest and pull my knees to my stomach.
"You never told me about school today. You know the agreement we made, Brianna. I'm allowing you go to school, and in return you have to tell me what happened. How many times have we been over this, babe?" Tyler asks, his voice hinting at the irritation that he's clearly feeling.
"I'm sorry, I just forgot." I say and sit up, turning my body slightly to face him.
"Um, well nothing really happened today. At lunch I sat with Erica and Kayla-" I begin, only to be cut off my Tyler.
"What'd you eat?" He asks and I glance up at him, finding him already staring me down.
"I- um I just had an apple, I think." I tell him and he raises an eyebrow at me.
"You think? What, you can't remember what you ate for lunch?" Tyler patronizes me and I look down at my hands, beginning to pick at the already peeling skin around my nails, a nervous habit that I've developed.
"I had an apple." I correct myself and he takes another sip of his beer, sighing.
"What else happened?" He asks and I shrug.
"Um, Mr. Wagoner asked me to stay after class so that he could talk to me about my missing assignments, but that's really it. Today wasn't that interesting." I tell him, attempting to get a smile out of him, but I get the opposite.
"You were alone with him?" He questions and I look up at him, now regretting telling him about the netting with my teacher.
"I-" I begin, but cut myself short when Tyler springs up from the couch, knocking me off of him, and my heartbeat begins to accelerate.
"Really, Brianna? What the fuck?" He yells and I jump slightly at the volume of his voice.
"You can't just fucking go into a room alone with another guy! Do you know how dangerous that is? You don't know him, what if he hurt you? Or tried to take advantage of you?" He starts and I shake my head and stand up, taking his hand into mine to trying to calm him down.
"Tyler, it wasn't like that. He's my teacher, he just wanted to talk to me about my grades." I say, attempting to calm him down but he pushes me off of him, causing me to stumble back onto the couch and he begins to pace around the room.
"One thing. I ask for one thing from you, and you can't fucking do it!" He exclaims, running a frustrated hand through his short black hair and I stand up from the couch again.
"Tyler-"
"No!" He screams, chucking his half full beer bottle at me, but I jump out of the way and it hits the wall behind me.
"What the hell is wrong with you!" I scream at him, balling my fists in anger and he glares at me before stalking over to me, grabbing my shoulders and shoving me against the beer stained wall. The glass from the broken bottle pierces the souls of my feet, and I whimper as the shards bring a stinging pain to my skin.
"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with YOU?" He booms in my face and tears begin to blur my vision.
"You're a kid, Brianna! You can just go around talking to these random guys!" He scolds me, his face just inches from mine and I chew on my lip, trying to hold back my tears as he continues his lecture. I will not cry in front of him again.
"Baby, I'm not talking to any other guys. He's my teacher, I don't know what you want me do?" I say softly, my voice shaky, and he scoffs at me.
"I want you to stop whoring around!" He shouts, connecting the back of his hand to my face and I topple over, falling onto the wooden floor and burst into tears.
Tyler stands over me for several moments, watching my break down under him. Eventually, he sighs and bends down so that he is eye-level with me and I do everything in my power to stop crying, but I can't stop the sobs spurting past my lips, or the tears streaming from my eyes.
"I don't want to hurt you Brianna... but you just don't listen." Tyler says, attempting to give a reason for his verbal and physical assault and wiping the hot tears off of my cheeks.
He sighs before looking around, his brow furrowed in frustration.
"Look at the mess you made..." He says, blaming everything on me once again.
"I'm sorry." I lie, my voice hoarse and he looks at me.
"I'm going to go take a shower, I expect all of this to be cleaned up when I get back." He says, pressing his cold lips to mine and lingering there for several seconds before breaking the rough contact.
"I love you, Brianna." He says and I close my eyes, attempting to hide my disgust. He doesn't make sense. Nothing makes sense on this goddamn planet.
"I love you too." I lie once again.
"I know." He says confidently and stands from his crouching position. I hear his boots crush the already broken glass on the floor as he walks away, disappearing down the hallway and as soon as he is gone, tears begin to flow like hot waterfalls down my cheeks. I don't know how many more of Tyler's harmful lectures I can bare.
"Hey... Brie, wake up." I hear a familiar voice say, confusing me when I don't recognize it as Tyler's, and I feel someone shaking my shoulder.
I gasp and my eyelids spring up, along with my body, and I see someone out of the corner of me eye. I smack the persons hand off of me before moving away from the dark figure quickly.
My eyes begin to adjust to the dark setting of the room and I look around at my moonlit surroundings, remembering that I'm in Harry's room.
I glance to my left, finding Harry staring at me, a worried and confused expression weaved into his features and I sigh in relief when I realize it was him who was shaking me, and that the events that I thought had just occurred were only those of a nightmare.
