Author's note: Thank you guys again for reading my story. I hope you all are enjoying it. Please remember to vote an comment.

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It felt like I stayed forever on Jimmy’s lap. I kept my face nuzzled in his neck while he ran his fingers through my hair. He had taken the elastic out that I had put it in and played with the wet strands. It ended when he patted my back and took my arms off from around his neck. He was careful with my wrist.

“I have to go down and talk to Dad,” he told me.

I nodded my head and tried to not let it show that I was upset. I didn’t want him to leave me yet. I didn’t want to be left alone.

“Do you want to wait here or in the living room?” he asked me.

“The living room,” I said.

I didn’t want to know what the sheets on the bed looked last night. They would be covered in my blood for sure. I had to make sure that I was good so that it would never happen again. Jimmy doesn’t want to do it, so I shouldn’t give him a reason to.

“Let’s go then,” he told me and I got up off of him.

He laced his fingers through my good hand and we walked down the steps together. We turned at the bottom of the steps and he let go of my hand when I sat down on the couch.

“Wait here until I come back,” he said.

“Yeah.” I nodded my head.

“Good girl,” he said leaning down to kiss my forehead.

I watched him as he walked out of the house. I sat there picking at the ends of Jimmy’s sweater with my good hand. There was nothing else to do, and it felt like a long time before Jimmy finally came back inside.

When I heard the kitchen door open, my lips lifted into a faint smile. He smiled when he saw me and tucked his long hair behind his ears. He sat down beside me and kissed my cheek. His lips were dangerously close to the bruises.

“Dad and Tommy left to go into town,” Jimmy said. I forgot about the conversation we had the other night about them going into town every other night. “We got everything done that needs to be done, so we pretty much have the day off.”

My lips curled into a bigger smile. I didn’t need to spend my day cleaning the house, I would still have to cook dinner, but it’s better than a boring day alone.

“I want to reward you,” Jimmy told me.

I knit my brows at him. He just severely punished me last night for doing something bad, so why would I get a reward? If anything I would expect him to make today unenjoyable. What I did last night was bad, and I’m surprised that he wouldn’t continue to punish me. It shows how much he didn’t want to hurt me. How much he cares about me.

“Just wait a couple minutes. I want to make sure they’re gone first,” he said. He turned his head to look out the large window. I could see the pickup truck pulling out of the driveway. The sound of the tires running over the stones leading out to the road was audible from inside the house.

Jimmy got up off of the couch and I went to get up too. He spun around on his heels and held a hand up to stop me.

“Wait here for a sec,” he told me.

I sat back down and tried to watch him as he walked away. I couldn’t see because the stairs were blocking the way, but I’m pretty sure I heard the fridge door open. When he came back in, he had a towel in his hand. He sat back down beside me and put the towel on my bad wrist. It was cold and realized that he had filled it full of ice.

“That should keep the swelling down,” he said.

He kept my wrist in his hand and held the ice over top of it. Jimmy kept looking over his shoulder over to the windows. He must be checking to make sure Charles and Tommy were really gone and hadn’t come back. Whatever he was going to reward me with would make his father angry. It showed even more about how much Jimmy did really care for me.

A couple minutes passed before either one of us said anything.

“Come on,” he told me, breaking our silence.

He slowly got up with my bad hand still in his. I tried to match his pace so there would be no strain on my wrist. I followed him as he walked through the kitchen to the door. He let go of the ice on my hand and I reached out to keep it in place so it wouldn’t fall off. With two fingers, he hooked the silver chain and pulled it up over his head.

I couldn’t believe my eyes as I watched Jimmy lean down to unlock the door. He opened the door and the sunlight flooded the house. It burned my eyes and I realized that the only sun I have seen for more than a week was through the bars. He guided me outside to that wooden porch I had barely been able to see.

The cool autumn breeze felt heavenly against my skin. I took in a deep breath of the fresh air, and ignored the pain in my swollen lip as my lips curled into a big smile. I looked over to Jimmy to see he was staring at me and smiling too.

“I thought you would like it,” he said. “I couldn’t imagine being cooped up in that house all day. We can come out here when it’s just Dad and Tommy going into town. You just can’t tell them that I let you out here.”

I nodded my head and looked out to the barn. It was the last thing you could see before a thick row of trees. I noticed the line of chicken coops that were beside the house. I wondered what they grew, but I didn’t bother asking.

“Thank you,” I said.

Jimmy wrapped his free arm around my waist and pulled me in towards him. He pressed his lips against mine and I gasped in pain as he hit the swollen bit. He quickly pulled away and kissed my forehead.

He sat down on one of the plastic chairs they had out by the door. He pulled me down onto his lap and I wiggled around until I could settle in a place that wouldn’t hurt.

I was finally outside. This was the thing I wanted more than anything a couple days ago, but now was different. If I tried to run away Jimmy would catch me for sure, especially with me being injured like this. But what would I be running away to? I wasn’t eager to go back to that club and entertain perverted men. Jimmy was right. They’re the only ones who truly are protecting me.

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Jimmy and I spent most of that day out on that chair outside. My body was exhausted from last night and I found myself drifting off to sleep in his arms. Jimmy didn’t say anything about it, and when I woke up he was still running his fingers through my hair.

When we went inside, we both pulled out some of the leftover food out of the fridge and warmed it up in the oven. Once we were finished eating, Jimmy guided me upstairs like he always does.

He gave me another T-shirt to change into. It took me a lot longer to get ready as I carefully peeled the clothes off of my sore body. Putting the shirt over my head was a challenge with one hand, but I managed. Jimmy moved the covers on my side of the bed and I crawled in. I lied down and he tucked me in.

He went over to his side of the bed and pulled something out of his nightstand. He got onto the bed and sat beside me, but was facing me. He has his legs crossed underneath me and I noticed that it was a book he had in his hand. He tucked his hair behind his ears and opened it up. The cover of the book was covered in tears and folds and it looked like pages were falling out of it. I managed to see the title on the cover before put the book down on his legs.

Lord of the Flies

He was going to share something with me that he loved so much. I reached out my good hand and curled my fingers around his thumb. He flashed me a smile and he began rubbing my knuckles with his fingers and then he began to read.

“The boy with the fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way toward the lagoon.”