"So, you would've just left him here to torment someone else? What if it was one of the girls who didn't know you as well as I do? Who would've walked them to class or changed his schedule? That guy is a psychopath! He tried to kill me. He shouldn't be in any school!"
"She's right." The nurse came back in, but her white coat was open, and it was clear she had a uniform on underneath it. "Agent Jamison lost it. We should've pulled him the first time she complained about his behavior."
The principal sat back. "I asked for him to be removed, but your superior refused. He thought she was a good lead."
"I'm not a good lead. Why in hell would he tell me anything about anything? I'm just his history partner."
"You went to his house," Karen pointed out.
"Yes, with his mom and dad and sister all there. What did you expect us to chat about, the latest drug run or something? I was there to work on a history assignment!"
The door slammed opened, Marky took in my wrapped form, and then he turned on the principal. "It's one thing to have shit at our school coming after me, but you crossed the line when you went after her."
"That's why," Karen pointed to Marky, who was glaring down at the principal.
"Because he's pissed off that you hurt his friend?" I hissed.
"No, because he cares about you, that's why he'd confide in you. If you have any…"
"She doesn't know shit, because I do care! You don't let the ones you love know anything! My mother knows nothing! My father goes to the butcher shop and sells meat to the neighbors. That's what she knows, that's what I know. This whole operation was a shit waste of time! My father loves me, so I know nothing! I'm clean, just like she's clean, just like my mother and my baby sister! What you did, that was harassment and assault."
"I have to agree with the boy on this one, Karen. You've gathered nothing at all during the month you were on campus. Ms. Salvecchio was repeatedly harassed, and in my opinion, roughed up. Your man was constantly on her, grabbing her and restraining her."
There was a loud bang, as the door slammed shut. Marky had left. I realized I had never told him about the trouble I had been having with Robert, aka Jamison.
"He didn't know. Principal Stewart, he didn't know. You shouldn't have told him. He's going to kill him!"
"Good, at least we can file charges against him," Karen smirked.
I didn't know where I got the strength from, but I found it and punched that bitch square in the face, burns be damned. "He's pissed because your agent, a grown man, was harassing his teenage friend! He took out Chris when he grabbed me last year, and he was just another kid. Your so-called agent sure as hell should've known to keep his hands to himself!"
I felt a gentle hand on my back and turned to see Principal Stewart give me a soft smile while speaking on the phone. "Yes, you heard me right. I need law enforcement officers to remove a couple of rouge agents from my school."
"We're not rouge agents!" Karen snapped.
"You really think your superior had this in mind?" he pointed to me, his tone was low and deadly. "She's my charge here on campus. I told Agent Jamison to stay the hell away from her, and that she was a good student, but he refused. You think this is what your boss wants to hear? Every damn surveillance tape Jamison requested showed nothing but her greeting Marcello and walking away. Several had him with other girls and them laughing together. They don't have the relationship you've tried to imply. She's an exceptional student who was able to reach out and encourage a fellow student to do better academically, and you go and tear that apart. You literally sent all their hard work up in flames, seriously burning her in the process!"
The door opened, and two officers stepped in. "There was a report of trespassing?"
"Yes, remove her, and her partner is around here somewhere, most likely in the middle of a well-deserved beating." I was shocked by Principal Stewart's fury.
One of the cops cuffed Karen. "I can handle her. You go with the principal to check out the surveillance cameras," he told the other.
"Will you be alright, Gabriella? I believe your mother is on the way," Principal Stewart asked concerned.
I nodded yes and cringed from the pain. I wanted them to get Karen and Jamison out of the school, before anything happened to Marky.
I sat alone quietly. I guessed my mom or someone was supposed to take me to the hospital. I heard the door open and was surprised to see it was Marky's mother. "Hey, Mrs. Valente, did they call you down for Marky?"
"Yes, they said he'd most likely be sent here after they find him."
I nodded, but stiffly. My neck, chest and face were bright red with first-degree burns, and it hurt to move them.
"Can I ask what happened, honey?"
Tears flooded my face, and I felt her carefully sit next to me. Her hand touched my back gingerly. "Is it okay to touch you here?"
"Yes," I whimpered out, and she put the full force of her hand into a soothing rub.
"I saw the cops taking out a woman. Is she the one who did this?"
"No, it was Robert, or Agent Jamison, the Fed who kept trying to go after Marky."
"Christ, let me get my husband on the phone."
Before I could protest, she had stepped out of the room. I could hear her yelling into the phone, but the door kept me from making out what she was saying exactly.
She stormed back in. "We're suing his ass for touching you, baby girl. He's going to lose his money, his job, and then he's gonna know what it's like to be a scared little girl."
"I don't want anyone to get in trouble. Can't he just take a long walk off a very secluded short pier?"
She let out a hardy laugh and sat next to me. "A girl after my own heart."
The door opened again, and my mother walked in. "Well, what happened, lab accident or something?"
"No…" I started.
"Fine, whatever, the nurse seems to have you patched up, so go home and lay down."
"She has some very bad burns. She needs to go to the hospital," Mrs. Valente cut in.
"Listen, lady, I know my daughter. She'll be fine with some aspirin," she snapped, then turned to me. "Now get up, go home, and get to bed. It's not like it's far, and you can still walk, so get moving." She swayed a little, and I knew then why she couldn't take me to the hospital…she was drunk.
I let out a sigh and fought off another bout of tears. "Can you call dad and ask him to take me to the hospital? This hurts so bad, Mom."
"I'm not calling that bastard for anything. He thinks he owns me and everything in that damn house just because he has a job, but I've been married to that ass for eighteen years. There's nothing in that house that shouldn't be mine!"
"Mrs. Salvecchio, this isn't about you," Mrs. Valente snapped. "Your daughter needs to go to the hospital, and your beef with your husband should never interfere with caring for your child."
Marky came in, wiping some blood from his face. "Hey, Mom, what are you doing here?"
"I was called down. I was told my son was trying to kill someone on campus."
"Are you alright?" I butted in.
He frowned at me, and then he glanced at my mom. "She taking you to the hospital?"
My mom huffed. "She can call her father if she wants to be a whiny little bitch and make a scene. I'm out of here." She staggered out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
I closed my eyes, trying to ignore my mother's complete disregard for me. The burns hurt like hell, and I didn't have any way to fix them.
"Honey," I felt Marky's mom's hand on my back again.
"Could you please call my dad?" I stifled my need to cry. "I can't move my hands or arms, and I don't want to touch my face right now."
"Oh, baby girl, we'll take care of you, I promise."
She told the attendance office that my mother had asked her to take me to the hospital, since she had to take her Marky, anyway. They bought it hook, line and sinker, because they believed my mother would've cared enough to want me at a hospital receiving p
roper care. It was sad how wrong they were.
Chapter 7 – Pain, Pain, and…Pain
On the way to the hospital, Mrs. Valente used her Bluetooth to call my father's work and asked him to meet us there. He asked where my mother was and why she wasn't taking me, since caring for me had been her reason for sitting on her fat ass all these years.
Mrs. Valente hung up on him. "You're eighteen, right, honey? Screw your fucked-up parents. You don't need them to be treated. We'll cover your costs, since it was because of us that you got pulled into this mess."
I was in too much pain to even consider arguing. What little relief I had gotten from the anesthetic spray applied at school was starting to wear off.
We didn't go in through the front door of the hospital, but a side one, and we walked straight down the hall. There was a doctor going over a file, and when he saw us, he ran to meet us. "Is everything alright, Ann Marie?"
"No, Gabby took a hit and needs to be treated."
"Yes, of course."
He ushered me right into a room, and Marky explained that the burns were from butcher paper. They looked at each other, and the doctor nodded.
"Marky needs to step out. There's a chemical component that needs to be washed off. Would you be alright with Ann Marie helping me with your clothes?" he asked me.
At that point, I didn't give a shit who took off my clothes. I just wanted the pain to stop. "That's fine."
The pair worked meticulously. They removed everything I wore, cutting it off to avoid rubbing it across the burns. I didn't know what he put in the tub in my room, but if felt good when he carefully lowered me into the cool water. He and Mrs. Valente gently poured the liquid over the un-submerged parts and my face.
After a good thirty minutes of soaking and rinsing, I was laid out to air dry on the bed.
"Once you're all dried up, we'll wrap your burns. This should help with the pain," he said, as he put an IV in the back of my hand.
Mrs. Valente sat with me as I dried. I was finally able to get up the courage to speak. "Thank you, for helping me."
Her hand went to the top of my head. "Oh, sweetie, I know you don't understand it, but you're a part of my family now. I know you don't have experience with how a family is supposed to act, but this is it. We take care of each other. Loyalty is everything to us."
It didn't take long for the medicine to fully knock me out. When I woke again, Marky was sitting next to me, and the doctor was checking my IV.
"I've given you some antibiotics. They'll cancel out your birth control if you're taking any."
"I don't…it's against…I'm a…" My eyes glanced at Marky, and then I noticed his mother come forward from across the room.
"She's a good Catholic girl, Joey, she doesn't take them," she smiled down at me, and I bit my lip, only to regret it when I felt the pain of my burn.
My cell phone rang later that night. It was my mother, asking when I would be home, so I could make a booze run for her. When I told her I would be in the hospital for a few days, she huffed, upset with me. "Fine, I'll walk down there myself. Your father is being even more impossible than usual."
She hung up on me again, and I looked the other way, trying to hide my tears. Marky grabbed my phone and turned it off.
I was finally cleared to go home three days later. The burns on my face had pretty much healed, and only my arms were still bandaged. Neither parent said anything to me about it. I went about my life as before and tried to ignore the fact that neither parent even asked how I was doing.
When I went back to school, one of Marky's crew kept an eye on me, but Marky kept his distance. He didn't put his arm around me anymore or kiss my head. We didn't really chat or joke anymore. He came off as blank and indifferent, and it hurt more than any words he could have said to me. I couldn't help but feel hurt by his distance, and when I asked Frankie about it, he told me that Marky didn't want to risk me becoming a target again.
It turned out that the Valente's had taken the pictures they had snapped of our project and had had them blown up, so Marky could do the report on his own while I was in the hospital. It won both sets of bonus points. We received the full one hundred thirty-five points on the project. It helped that Mr. Ramos had seen it before it had been destroyed. He didn't count it late and delayed the class judging until Marky could reproduce it. I think he was impressed that Marky even took the time to make it again. I knew Principal Stewart was as well.
The night of the winter formal, I was thankful my body was healed completely, except for the few scars on my arms that would never go away. Principal Stewart asked me to work the refreshment table. I readily accepted so I could attend, even if I didn't have a date.
I snuck a pair of my mom’s black high heels and put on a simple black knit dress I had worn to my grandmother's funeral a few years back. The dress was pretty tight and a lot shorter than I remembered, but it was all I had. I figured that was to be expected, since I was no longer a short, flat-chested teenager. I had grown up and filled out a whole lot in the past two years.
I took my place behind the table and made sure no one spiked the punch. I didn't look up, until I heard some girls talking about how hot Marky and his buddies looked coming in. They surrounded his scowling little sister, making me smile. His eyes landed on me for a minute, but then returned to his sister as she moved across the room.
I went back to guarding the punch bowl, until Mr. Ramos came to relieve me. I took a bathroom break and tried not to let Marky ignoring me hurt so much.
As I was crossing the dance floor on my way back, someone grabbed me from behind. I was ready to elbow them, until I felt that telling pinch on my ass. I leaned back into his arms, relaxing against him. I looked over my shoulder, hoping he could see how much I wanted him back in my life. "I miss you."
"Christ, I've missed you so much." He grabbed my face and did something I never thought he would do in front of the entire student body. He kissed me, with a deep needy passion, while he turned me around and pulled me tighter against him. He never let up on my lips, unless it was to gasp for air for a second and then dive right back in again.
He practically carried me out of the school. I half expected him to toss me into the back seat and take me, but he put me in the front seat and had his fingers in my pussy as soon as he shifted the car into drive. I gripped his shoulder, unable to control my body's response to him.
He didn't pause, when we got to his house. He carried me straight into his room. My dress was off in seconds, his clothes were shed, and he hovered over me, attacking my mouth, my breasts, and eventually, my pussy. I screamed his name when my release hit. I hoped to god no one was home, because I was sure they would have heard me.
He made it back up to my neck and begged, "Please, please let me have you. I swear you're it for me. I can't stay away. I won't touch another woman for the rest of my life if I can have you."
That was all I needed to hear. He would finally be mine, mine alone. "Yes," I barely got out. His hips thrust against my clit, as his mouth attacked mine. I heard his nightstand drawer close, but it seemed like he couldn't reign himself in enough to pull back and put the condom on. I finally grabbed it from him, because I wanted him as bad as he wanted me.
When I looked at it to see where to tear it open, I panicked. "Marky, there's a hole in this."
He stopped immediately and pulled back. "No, no…he wouldn't..." He took it from me, and once he saw the pinprick, he crushed it in his hand. He dug through the drawer, looking at and tossing each condom he found. "That son of a bitch, that son of bitch!" he yelled.
He barely got his pants back on, as he stormed out of his door. "You bastard, where the fuck are you?"
I heard his mother answer first. "What the hell is going on, Marky?"
"Where's dad? Where the hell is that son of a bitch? I'm gonna kill that bastard!"
"Hey," I heard his father's deep voice, "Why all the shouting?"
"This!" He must have taken one of the compromis
ed condoms with him.
"Marcello, please tell me this wasn't your doing," his mother sounded cool and fierce, all at the same time.
"She's a nice girl."
I heard a slap. "How could you do that to her? Hasn't she been through enough? You want her to get knocked up and be kicked out of school, too?"
"You're damn lucky I didn't use that!" Marky shouted at his father, but his tone changed. "Shit, oh shit, fucking shit, do you know what you've done? Goddamn it! I've been fucking Luisa Marie with those! Shit, shit, shit!"
"Who's Luisa Marie?" his father asked him.
But it was his mother who answered that question. "You were doing the maid? Christ, Marky, why can't you keep it in your pants?"
Hearing that he had been fucking someone else crushed me. I had thought he had given that up, because for the last two months after I had been burned, I had watched as he pushed the girls away left and right at school. I was so stupid to assume he wasn't getting his needs met somewhere else. I slowly pulled myself together and got dressed, ashamed that I had almost given in to him again.
"I was in the shower, and then she was there, sucking me off before I could step out. Every damn morning for six weeks, for six…" he stopped, "No, no, no, she's pregnant, she's fucking pregnant! I've been fucking her every day for six weeks, and she hasn't had a period. That ain't right, is it, Mom?" He seemed to be begging her to tell him different.
I heard another thick smack.
At that, I knew the chances of us being together had been dashed. He would never be mine, and if his penchant for fucking maids proved anything, it was best that we had stopped when we had. I was so stupid for wanting more with him. I walked slowly up the hallway, only to find his mother glaring at his father, who was holding his bruised cheek.
"Can I get a ride home, please?" I wasn't sure if anyone had heard me, but his mother rushed over to me, taking me into her arms. I couldn't hold back the tears, as I sobbed for everything I had lost. "Please, can you take me home?"
She ushered me into her car, and as we drove to my house, I hid my face as I cried.
Straight Up Interfererence Page 5
