“Who, Oliver?”
“Mia.”
“What does Mia have to do with this?”
“Everything.”
The small room went quiet as Dr. Conway’s brown eyes bore into mine. “I want to try something.”
“Anything.”
“First, I need you to relax. Get comfortable and close your eyes.” I sunk back into the leather chair and hesitantly closed my eyes. The sound of papers shuffling sounded around me and the slight gust of air blew over me from the AC vent. “We’re going to do what’s called mindful meditation. You don’t have to speak. I only want you to listen to my voice.”
Dr. Conway wasted no time and continued speaking in a soft voice as I tried my best to drown in this spot and lose myself from the world around me.
The only vision that came to my mind was Mia.
Big brown eyes. Hair the color of an oak tree—twisted shades of lights and darks. Her touch so delicate yet able to penetrate my soul. I sank deeper and deeper.
“Why are you smiling, love?” It couldn’t be past six in the morning. The sun has yet to come up, but the light she’s putting off warms my very soul. There’s definitely a smile on her lips this very moment, and it’s touching every inch of me, waking me, filling me—my heaven.
“How did you know I was smiling?” she asks inamusement.
“I can feel it.” I can also feel her turn to face me as I lie on my side. Then her finger runs across my lashes as they do every morning to get me to open my eyes.
“Because I’m happy,” she finally responds. It was my turn to smile, though with her it was hard not to. “Open your eyes, Ollie.”
“No.” The only time I have ever refused her. She knows I would give her anything, but opening my eyes? We’re not ready forthat yet.
“Why not?”
“If I open my eyes, it means you have to leave, and I’m not ready for you to go. When my eyes are closed, I get to pretend it’s a Sunday morning and we have no place to be.” A bigger smile spreads across my lips as an idea comes to mind. I have to show her. She has to see this world I created for us that one day I’d give her. “Go on, close your eyes.”
“Why?”
“Just close them … ” I insist as I trail my fingers up her side and rub her bare back. “Are they closed?”
Her giggle fills the room, and the sound is music to my ears. “Yes, Ollie. My eyes are closed.”
“It’s a Sunday morning, and I already made your coffee before sneaking back in bed with you. Yousmell it?”
“Mmhmm … ”
“The whole day is ours, no work, no obligations … only you and I. The sun is coming up, Mia. You feel the warmth coming through our bay window and the darkness behind your eyelids slowly lifting? Do you feel it?The sun?”
“Yes, Ollie. I canfeel it.”
“We can take your coffee to the water and finish watching the sunrise, or we can lay in this bed all day. I have a few books on the shelf that I haven’t read to you yet. Or, we can put on our trainers and walk along the boardwalk, hand in hand because that’s what we do in the summer on a Sunday morning.” I brush my fingers along her cheek. “What would you like todo today?”
“Mmm … all of it.”
Flashes of Mia and I faded as new, unwelcomed ones, sprang from a place I never wanted to return.
“What did I say, brother?” Oscar asks. “Or need I remind you?” My arms yank against the rope tied tight around my wrists behind the chair. If I were older and stronger, I’d be able to bust from these ropes and save her. I’d be able to do something—anything. But I’m only twelve, scrawny and pathetic. Oscar reminds me every bloody day.
Jasmine lays naked across the bed, completely vulnerable, yet tame. She doesn’t have to be constrained by rope or have tape over her mouth; Oscar’s threats are enough to push her into submission. In Jasmine’s eyes, she is his girlfriend. In Oscar’s, she’s his third victim. She never saw this fate coming, but I did. Keeping my distance became difficult when all I wanted to do wassave her.
But she beat me tothe punch.
