Fighting to Be Free (Fighting to Be Free 1)

I shook my head, “Nope. We broke up, not back together.”

He looked at me confused, “Then why the hell are the Barrington’s coming over for dinner tonight?”

I sighed and shrugged, “You know what Mom’s like, she wants me with Mark. She won’t accept it, she thinks it’ll blow over,” I muttered, trying not to get annoyed about it again.

He rolled his eyes, “It does usually blow over, but I thought you said on Friday night that this was it now, that you weren’t getting back with him.”

I nodded in confirmation, “I’m definitely not. She’ll see in time. Tonight should be a real barrel of laughs.” I winced at the thought of how painful this evening would be.

He groaned, “Great, I’m looking forward to this already!” he said sarcastically, jabbing me in the ribs, making me laugh.

“Yeah, me too,” I said, offering him the last piece of chocolate.

He shook his head, “You have it, pumpkin. Right then, should I go for the blue?” he asked, heading to his closet and pulling out a blue button down shirt.

“Yup. I guess I’d better go back out and help with the veggies. Same time tomorrow, and I’ll buy,” I said grinning as I skipped back to the kitchen. I loved my Dad, he really was the best in the world.

Half an hour later the doorbell rang and I felt my heart sink, I guess in a way I was hoping that Mark would cancel or something, but wishful thinking never get’s you anywhere. Both of my parents looked at me expectantly. “Great, I’ll get it then shall I?” I asked, rolling my eyes and heading for the door.

I opened it to see Mark’s parents standing there, smiling politely, holding a bottle of expensive looking wine and a basket of fruit. Mark’s parents really were wealthy and it probably pained them to think that their son was dating a girl like me. Not that we were poor or anything, actually my Dad did really well for himself. He was a financial adviser and we definitely weren’t short of money, but compared to the Barrington’s I would imagine that we looked kind of like vagrants.

“Good evening, Ellie. How are you tonight?” Susan asked politely.

How was I? Uncomfortable, embarrassed, harassed and annoyed.

“I’m fine thank you, Mrs. Barrington. How are you?” I replied, smiling and ignoring the way she was looking me over in my casual clothes.

“We’re very well,” she said smiling awkwardly.

“That’s great. Come on in, dinners almost ready,” I said, opening the door wide, trying not to make eye contact with Mark who was grinning at me wickedly from behind his parents. My Mom appeared and thankfully took them off of my hands, showing them into the lounge for drinks. I took their coats and headed to the cupboard to hang them up.

Mark followed me, as I knew he would, and wrapped his arms around me from behind. “Hey, forgiven me yet?” he whispered, biting my earlobe.

I elbowed him in the stomach and pulled out of his arms. “Mark seriously, stop it! I told you I don’t want,” I started, but he turned me around and kissed me full on the mouth. I pushed on his chest and pulled my head back, glaring at him. “You are really starting to piss me off! I’m sorry, but we’ve broken up, this is it now, don’t keep thinking that I’m going to change my mind, I won’t!” I growled quietly, still not wanting to cause a scene.

He gave me his pleading, puppy dog face, and stepped closer to me. “Ellie please, I said I’m sorry what more do you want? What can I do? I’ll do anything, you want me to beg? I’ll beg,” he pleaded, dropping down to his knees holding my hands, making me blush. Damn, this is embarrassing! “Please Ellie?” he whispered kissing the back of my hand.

Damn it! Why the hell does he have to do this to me? If he was like this all the time then it would be a different story, but he’s not.

“You like my top, Mark?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. He would hate it if I went out in this top, it was just a plain black fitted tank top but I had a red bra underneath that you could see the strap of.

He looked at it and frowned, “Yeah, it’s nice,” he answered immediately. I could tell from the tiny twitch of his eye that he didn’t mean that at all.

“Yeah, I have it in white too. I was thinking I’d wear it to school tomorrow, with that denim skirt, you know the short one that you don’t like….” I trailed off, smiling sweetly.

That did it, he jumped up, “Fuck that! You can’t wear that to school, you’ll look like a slut and all the guys will be thinking you’re easy. Don’t you f**king dare!” he growled angrily.

Now there’s the Mark I broke up with! “Thanks, you just made this night a lot easier for me.” I yanked my hands from his and walked off quickly before he could stop me. Asshole.

All through dinner I ignored Mark playing with my hair and tracing his fingers down the back of my neck. I smiled when I was supposed to, adding my piece to the conversation when I was expected to. When the talk turned to Mark and I going to college, I glared at him warningly. He had obviously neglected to mention to his parents that we’d broken up.

“So obviously, what with you two being in the same college, you’ll be spending quite a bit of time together, do you think maybe you’ll be thinking of living together?” Mark’s dad asked curiously, making me almost choke on my drink. What the hell?

“Maybe, I mean it would be easier if we rented together,” Mark answered before I could even open my mouth. Holy crap, he is seriously taking this too far. As much as he was pissing me off right now I still couldn’t embarrass him in front of his parents.