Little Things (Second Chances 1)

“Craig, no! Don’t hurt her! I’m feeling much better now. “ My mother rushes behind us and grabs onto my other arm. He looks behind me and growls before letting go of my arm and I stumble backward into my mom’s arms. He crouches down toward me and points his index finger, “Next time, your mother won’t be able to help you.”

A stream of tears runs down my face as I tremble in my mother’s arms and stop breathing out of fear and anxiety. I can’t even think straight right now; my mind is scattered and filled with thoughts of what he’s going to do to me. My heart is pounding in my chest and all I sense is hatred for this man. He retreats into his room and my mother guides me back into the living room. She cradles me as I let the tears flow and my cries are muffled into her chest. After a few minutes, I slowly begin to calm down and breathe softly as I gain my composure again.

“Raya, it’s okay, honey. You should head to school. I don’t want you to miss your finals. Trust me.” She combs her fingers through my hair and rubs the tears off my cheeks. I wrap my arms around her and squeeze, wishing that I will never have to let her go. She kisses my cheek, “Go on. I’m fine.”

I shake my head in protest, “I can’t leave you, Mom. You shouldn’t stay here with him.”

She whispers softly, “Your birthday is coming up in a few months. We will leave then. I promise.”

I sniffle lightly and my crying subdues as I wipe away the last few tears. “Why wait? Let’s just leave now.”

“Honey, there are just a few things I need to take care of and I need to save some more money.”

She pleads with me to stay a little longer and I breathe a heavy sigh. “Okay. I’ll be back in a few hours.” I’m still trembling but not as bad as I

was before. I head upstairs to grab my backpack, cell phone, and coat. As I exit my room, I hear Craig watching TV in his room. Only four more months, Raya. Four more months.

As I enter the halls into the school, I breathe slowly to calm my nerves. Trying to think clearly and forget what happened earlier is easier said than done. The halls are filled with students wrestling junk from their lockers. Some are gathered into small groups chatting about finals while the couples are putting on a vivid display of an all-out kissing war. I make my way to Forensics class and see Duke sitting at our usual table. Just as I’m about to enter, a girl screams loudly and my startled body jumps as my skin begins to crawl. I turn around to find a girl being slung over a guy’s shoulders; I’m assuming their friends, since she begins to laugh. Shit, that scared me. Breathing deeply, trying to catch my breath, I walk into the classroom and sit next to Duke.

He leans into me, “Hey, you okay?”

I smile at him, “Yeah, just nerves from the final.” He stares at me for a few seconds longer, waiting to see if I have anything else to say, then he leans back into his chair.

Mr. Cerillo and the other students trek into class with Rob following behind. He gives me and Duke his infamous nod and takes a seat next to Duke.

“Alright, class, the final consists of fifty multiple choice questions, ten true or false, and three short answer questions. You have the entire period to complete the final. If you finish early, please return your answers to me and you may leave the class. I hope you all enjoy your winter break and it was a pleasure having you in the class.”

The class replies with shouts and cheers, forcing him to hush us. He passes out the test and instructs us to begin. I look at the first few questions and feel confident with the knowledge I’ve gained. Yeah, Raya, you got this. Duke reaches over to grab my hand and squeezes it. We look at each other and smile. He winks at me and whispers, “Good Luck.” I nod my head in response and let go of his hand and turn by attention back to the test.

As the time passes by and my classmates start clearing out, I glance over to the clock. Fifteen minutes left. Rob has already finished and left about ten minutes ago. I glance around to see who’s still left with me. I see Stacy in the back with a few other students and Duke is still sitting next to me. He looks at me, points to my test and whispers, “Focus, Raya.”

I roll my eyes and laugh softly. I look down at my test and read a question about the complexity and identification of extracting fingerprints. My thoughts go back to the first class of the semester and I smile. That’s when I met Duke. I giggle softly as my stomach begins to flutter. I shake my head, clearing my thoughts of him, and answer the final questions. As I get ready to answer the short answers, Duke puts his stuff away, leaves his seat, and gives his test to Mr. Cerillo. My eyes follow him as he turns to me and nods toward the hallway before he exits the class.

I finish the test and give it to Mr. Cerillo. “Thank you, Mr. Cerillo. Happy Holidays.”

He takes the test from me and places it with the others. “Same to you, Raya. Enjoy the rest of the school year.” I smile at him and head toward the hallway where I find Duke, Melanie, and Taylor lounging by the lockers. Taylor sees me and pulls me into a bear hug, squeezing a little too hard, causing me to gasp for air. He laughs and steadies me on my feet.

“So, how’d you do?”

I smack his arm and he pretends that it hurt. “I have a good feeling I did well. I felt confident.”

Melanie wraps her arm around me, “Hey, I got something for you.”

My eyes widen with shock. “You did? I didn’t get anything for you. Sorry.”

She laughs and shakes her head, “Don’t worry about it. I saw this in the store and immediately thought of you. It’s nothing expensive or anything.” She reaches into her backpack and passes me a small bag. I look over at her, my curiosity piqued.

Duke leans in, clearly curious as well, “What is it?”

Opening the bag, I remove a small box and open it. I dig my hand in and pull out a small bobble-head of Harry from One Direction. Melanie and I burst into laughter and I give her a hug, “Thank you!! I love it!” The guys don’t find it as funny as we do and glance at each other with confusion. I laugh and tell them who Harry Styles is. They just nod and shrug their shoulders; clearly they don’t give a shit about boy bands.

Taylor wraps his arm around me, “Come on. I’ll walk you to Calculus.”

I smile up at him and wave bye to Melanie, telling her I’ll call her tomorrow. Duke follows close behind me and Taylor as we make our way to Calculus for my next final. As we near the room, Duke enters the class while Taylor keeps his arm on me. “So, are you doing anything tomorrow night?”

My body stills and I see Duke staring at us. “Umm, I work tomorrow, but I’ll have to check with my mom and see if there are any plans.”

“If you’re free, I’d like to take you out. There’s a new Italian restaurant that opened up on 59th. Maybe we can check it out and see a movie afterward.”