There was always a wall around me. It was there to protect me but it created a distance between myself and others. My father was a beat up dad who loved to gamble and drink and my mother was a coward. Every time my father came home angry, his first instinct was to beat me, either with his belt or hands. On a bad day, A few kicks concluded the beating. Mother would always watch or ignore me.
After the beating, she would prepare me a few meat dishes. I loved meat and she knew that, like that would make me feel better. When I thought things couldn't get any worse, Father invited some of his friends over when I was away from school. When I came back, I saw one of his friends on top of my half naked mother. I felt like crying but I couldn't, the shock triumphed and the anger took over. Without realizing it, I smashed the man's head with one of the empty beer bottles lying around. Mother was shocked but she didn't have time to be. She urged me to run. I was reluctant to but if I hadn't, Father and his friends would have done something to me, something bad.
With only my school bag and the clothes I had on me, I ran out of the house. There was a heavy downpour so it was easy to escape. I wandered about for 3 days without any place to stay. I used my lunch money to feed myself but it was nearly not enough. After three days, I stood on top of a bridge, wanting to end it all.
That was when I met him. His name was Aaron. A kind yet strange man who saved me and took me in. He provided me a place to stay, food and clothing and as payment, I was to do the house chores and help out at his cafe which was also a bar, well at night. He had 5 rules.
Curfew at 10pm
No alcohol until I'm old enough
Breakfast and dinner together
Notify or Take permission if I ever wanted to go somewhere
And always be honest.......
Those were the rules he laid out.
I followed it diligently.
Slowly I opened up to Aaron, every moment I spent with him was filled with colors. Aaron made me go back to school despite my strong objection. He wanted me to make some friends my age. I didn't want it because of the tuition fee but he assured me that he was going to pay for it. That amount of money is nothing when it comes to securing my future and happiness he said. Aaron was 8 years older than me so he was more of a guardian than a friend so it wasn't easy to talk to him about my private life but we tried to make it work.
2 years passed and I was now 17 year old. My life with Aaron became the normal, I knew his friends and enemies and he knew mine. Everything was perfect until that fateful day, when I allowed my feelings get the best of me. During the 2 years I lived with Aaron, I slowly developed feelings for him. It was too be expected since he was the only person I could lean on, a competent and gentle person, Compassionate and hard-working, let's not forget handsome. He was the perfect guy and I was deeply, passionately, terribly in love with him.
Part 2 coming up!
