Chapter 7
Chapter seven
Laurel
It takes Carrson eleven days to break me.
Eleven days and nights, I’m alone locked in his bedroom.
The only person I see is him when he comes to bed late at night, but he won’t say a word to me.
The only meal I get is the dinner he brings me, always something I can eat with my hands.
No utensils. No knives or forks I could stab him with.
Plastic cups that can’t be broken. The amount of food I’m given dwindles every day, until I lay awake at night unable to ignore the angry growling of my belly.
On the third day, I wait by the door, holding a wooden chair I got from the sitting area high above my head.
When Carrson enters the room, I use my whole body and slam into him.
He staggers once, then turns and grabs the chair from me.
He tosses it into the hallway along with any other furniture that’s light enough for me to pick up.
The twin nightstands, the ottoman at the end of the bed, the shoe rack in the bottom of the closet, they all get chucked out of the room.
He gets into bed, rolls away, and goes to sleep.
It’s not until he’s left the next morning that I see the blood that stains his pillowcase, and I grin, happy I hurt him.
On the seventh day, I attack him with a plastic hanger that I broke into pieces, sharpening the tip until it’s a spear.
He dodges as soon as I make my move and deflects easily, avoiding my attempt to stab him.
He drops to his knees and sweeps a leg out.
Like a ninja, that leg catches me in the back of my ankles, tripping me so I fall onto my face.
I lay there panting, stars dancing in front of my eyes, the wind knocked out of me.
For that I lose all the hangers in the closet, along with the clothes.
I’d been wearing my dirty pizza shirt and occasionally Carrson’s shirts, which are so big they hang like baggy dresses down to my knees.
All that is taken away, so I’m left naked all day and night long.
On the ninth day, I try to smother him with a pillow while he sleeps.
Not a very well-thought-out plan, but at this point I’m exhausted and starving.
Half-crazy, desperate for the sound of another human voice.
Carrson kicks me out of bed, literally. He takes his foot, plants it in my side, and pushes me until I fall off the side of the bed onto the cold hard wood floor.
Every time I try to climb back up into bed that night, he repeats the kick until I eventually give up and lay huddled, shivering, naked on the floor.
On the tenth day, I stay in bed all day and cry.
It's not the nakedness, or the hunger, or the need for companionship that finally makes me succumb. It’s my dad.
Carrson’s words echo through my brain, louder every day.
“Try not to think about how your dad is doing out there all alone, without you to take care of him.” Those words torment me, because I can’t not think about my dad, worry about him, wonder how he’s doing.
In the past year, we’ve switched places.
I’ve become the parent, and he’s the child.
As every day passes, I worry more and more that I’ll find him dead.
On the eleventh night, Carrson comes to bed and lies down beside me, careful not to touch me. He never touches me, even when he sleeps.
I roll onto my side and face him. He looks tired, with dark circles under his eyes that weren’t there days before.
“Hey,” I say softly. “I want to see my dad.”
Black eyes meet mine. “Then you know what you need to do. Accept the bond.”
“Fine,” I huff.
“That’s not enough,” he says. “I want to hear it and make it good.”
The pressure of the last eleven days has only intensified my hatred for him. It’s grown harder, sharper. A lump of coal turned into a diamond with jagged, cutting edges.
“Fine.” I scowl. Overly dramatic, I say, “Oh great and mighty Carrson, I accept your terms. Free my father from his vices and provide for my future and I, Laurel Turner, will bond myself to you for the term of one year. To end on the day of your graduation from this esteemed university. Cross my heart and hope to die.”
I expect him to reprimand me for being sarcastic, for making a mockery of something he obviously holds dear, but he doesn’t.
Instead, Carrson looks at me. “That’s the first time you’ve said my name.
” He smiles in the darkness, a shark’s grin.
All sharp white teeth. “I accept as well. Cross my heart and hope we both don’t die. ”