“Him”

I thought he was a nice guy, I guess I thought wrong. I’m stuck, I tried to get out, but I am his prisoner now. I have no one to talk to, no one to save me from him. This was his plan all along, now he has me all to himself.

6 months earlier

“I think I’m in love with him,” I say to my friends, drifting off into my mind. All I can think about is him. My best friend, Karlie had paired me up with him and not long after we started dating.

“Aww Harper, y’all are so cute!” She exclaims. Her dark hair flows over her shoulder, she’s gorgeous and really popular, everyone likes her. She’s the type of person whose smile can brighten anyones day.

“Omg girl, I totally ship you two!” Squeaks Sam. We met Sam in year 11 when he moved to our school, he became very well known when he started dating the school football captain. We all got accepted into the same Uni so now we’re closer then ever.

I love these times, our group, sitting on our corner table in Maccas. It was in this same spot when we were 16 when we made a pact; that no matter what, we would never stop being friends and that no boy could come in between any of us. We aren’t 16 anymore.

Grayson

For the first few months, we were completely and utterly in love with each other, nothing could get in the way of our love. We talked every night for hours and hours, he treated me like a queen. His Queen. I convinced myself that he was the one and that someday, we might even get married but that changed. He changed.

We were getting ready to go to Karlie’s party; her parties are the best! There’s loud music, dancing, everyone’s getting drunk, and it gives you such a chill fun vibe. Every year she holds one at her parents’ house when they go on their annual fishing trip. Hundreds of people come, most of which I’ve never met, I love meeting new people so it was always exciting.

My car was being serviced, so Grayson came to pick me up. He sat on my bed as I got changed into my outfit. Once I had it on, I look at myself in the mirror, it was a beautiful dress, I had fallen in love with it as soon as I saw it. Karlie, Sam and I had picked it out the day before. It was bright red with silver sequins and a low cut chest. I opened the door, excited to see my boyfriends reaction, but instead of a happy, surprised face I was expecting, a grumpy, unimpressed face stared back at me.

“What are you doing, wearing that?” He demanded. I look at him, confused, I thought he would have liked it, but instead he was angry, I had never seen him get angry like that before.

“I-i-i thought you’d like it,” I stutter.

He sighs and says in a calm voice, “I love it baby, but the other boys there will too. I want you all to myself. Please change.” I started to protest but he put his hand to my mouth to silence me. I stomp back to my closest and find a less revealing outfit. I understand why he wanted me to change, but I’m still upset, I loved that dress. I get into a new outfit — which he approves of — and we left to go to Karlie’s.

A few hours later, we were drunk and having the best night of our lives. It strikes 2am, and there were only about 50 people left. We gathered around in the living room to play our traditional game; Truth or Dare.

It starts with the birthday girl, Karlie turns towards her boyfriend, Jake and asks him, “Truth or Dare, baby?”

He smirks at her drunkenness and replies with a sly, “Dare.”

She begins thinking of a dare and exclaims, “I dare youuuuuuu to run butt naked now the street and back!”

We all laughed, probably because what she actual said sounded a lot more like, ‘I dwar pooo to run buth naded dwown da stweet!’

We all stumbled outside to watch as Jake, strips and begins his sprint down the street. I was laughing and pointing at him when Grayson grabs me and pulls me back inside the house.

“Heyyy! Why’d ya do thatttt?” I mumble at him, annoyed.

“You shouldn’t have been looking at him, why were you looking at him, are you going to dump me for him, does he look better than me??” he said angrily \, I felt like he was interrogating me, I didnt do anything wrong, but I guess its kinda sweet how he’s so jealous.

“I’m sorry, I just thought it was funny. Trust me babe, no one will ever come between us, I love you more than anyone in the world.” He smiled, satisfied. Once Jake was back, Grayson announced that he and I were leaving. I groaned and asked him why. He ignored me, said his goodbyes and walked to the car, dragging me along with him.

On the car ride home, I grunted at him and asked him again why he made me leave the party. He says that he was tired and wanted to go home.

“I didn’t have to come with you though,” I whined, he hit his foot on the brakes and pulled over, I shot forward and hit my head on the dash.

“Ouch! What the fuck Gray!?” I yelled.

He looked at me furiously, his eyes were like fire, his voice was low when he said, “Oh, so you don’t care about me? You’d prefer to spend all your time with them and not me? Why are you so ungrateful, I do so much for you! Do you like one of those boys, are you going to dump me for them?”

I stared at him shocked, that was the second time he’d yelled at me today. I was a bit confused as to why he was all of a sudden very jealous and controlling, he had never been like that before.

I didn’t want to cause anything so I just told him, “Listen, I love you, okay? You are my love, my everything, my boyfriend. I don’t like anyone else; you are my life. I will never leave you okay?”

He looked at me, and nodded. After a few minutes of silence he turned to me and apologised for yelling. I told him it’s okay, but honestly? It’s not, it scared me, but it’s okay, I was sure he wouldn’t do it again. When we arrived at my house, I kissed him goodnight and walked into my house. I didn’t bother changing. I just fell onto my bed and as soon as my head hit the pillow, I fell asleep.

I woke up the next morning — or should I say afternoon — completely zoinked. I had a massive headache, a horrible hangover. As I was lying there, my memories of the previous night came flooding back. He yelled at me, twice. Because of small, stupid things. He’d never done that before, maybe he was having a bad day; I’ll talk to him today I concluded. I grabbed some Panadol from the cupboard and made some coffee. I drowsily got ready to go see him. I put on some grey trackies and a small singlet top. I grabbed the keys to my car and left. I had to pull over multiple times because I kept falling asleep. I really shouldn’t be driving.

The 15-minute car trip soon turned into 2 hours, when I finally got to his house, it was 5 o’clock. I stumbled out of my car and knocked on the door, he answered. I gave him a small smile. He gave me an apologetic look in return and hugged me.

“I’m sorry about last night, I don’t know what got over me,” he said. That instantly made me feel much better. I walked inside and we went up to his room to watch some tv. I stay there until late at night, I couldn’t be bothered driving home so instead I fell asleep.

Most cherished, Grayson

I need to confess something to you. Ever since I met you, I can only think of your joyful, green eyes. You filled my heart with unexpected joy and my head with amazing dreams of us together. My love can only grow more and more each day.

I dream of us spending time together and from time to time I would gently stroke your brown hair while you keep smiling. In moments like these my life would simply be complete.

When I’m alone in the quiet, it always feels like I can hear your voice, whispering me sweet nothings, just like the blessed music of a guitar. I wanted to tell you this from a long time ago, you are as essential to me as is my beanie.

You are the best I ever had and I must be the luckiest person to have you in my life. You are my sunny day in spring. I’d give up all the Ice-cream in the world to know that you will be right there beside me for the rest of our lives.

My heart skips a beat at the thought that soon I will bring you blue roses to show you once more how dedicated I am to you, for all eternity.

Yours always and forever,

Harper

Once I am finished, I place it on his bedside table and leave. I hop in my car and immediately turn on the heater, it is so cold. I wait in the driveway for the car to heat up and when I am warm, I drive away. I make a quick stop to my house before I go to school. I grab a new change of clothes, a hairbrush and my books. I lock the door and drive to school. Once I am there, I find Karlie and Sam at the food court. I take my breakfast out of my bag and sit with them. We talk about the party, but I can’t stop thinking about Grayson; my phone, the party, the dress, everything. I drift off into my mind, I don’t remember the rest of the conversation.