chapter sixteen

"please tatum," lydia quietly called out.

she didn't like the room that she got tossed into, in fact, she hated it. there was no light whatsoever, and although it seemed like it used to be a bedroom, it definitely did not feel like one. it was cold, dark, and lonely. lydia being alone. she was barely ever left alone her entire life, so she grew to be afraid of loneliness. when you're alone you have a lot of time to think for yourself, and that was definitely not what she needed right now.

as a child her mother would never leave her to be by herself, which led her parents into trying the babysitting route. every babysitter that they had hired was absolutely miserable at the end of the night due to her cries about missing her mother. being in this room by herself was dreadful for her. she had only been in the room for about an hour, but her mind was not quiet the entire period of time that she spent in there. she could hear tatum outside of the room the whole time, which made things worse for her. she knew that he could hear her calling out for him, and he ignored her.

on the other side of the door, tatum was also miserable. he couldn't help but feel absolutely terrible for the way he was treating her, but it needed to be done in order for her to understand that she can't make her own decisions anymore. her life was going to look a lot different now, and she was going to have to learn to accept things for what they are. he was no longer mad at his little, but he was sad for her. her cries echoed throughout the quiet house, causing his heart to clench with every shout of his name he heard from her.

by the time tatum finished making dinner he had lost his appetite. if he couldn't eat with his little, then he wasn't going to eat at all. what tatum didn't realize was that they both needed each other, and the wall separating them was bound to break at any moment. and that is exactly what it did. it was silent now, and all he could hear were faint cries coming from the other end.

"lydia?" he gently asked, placing his hand on the door. the cries had gone quiet, and he continued.

"i'm not mad at you anymore little," he eased.

lydia thought for a moment before responding.

"can i come out now tatum?" she faintly asked, sliding herself down the door and onto the ground.

without another second, the lock on the door eased off and it slowly began to open. she immediately pushed herself off of the ground and spun herself around to face him.

tatum was taken aback when he felt his little push herself into his chest, gripping onto his shirt in the process. he could smell her sweet scent as she did so which comforted him immensely. it was quite the relief for him to know that she was not upset with him for doing what he did. he understood that she was sad, but he didn't fully understand exactly why.

"don't leave me alone, please tatum" she whispered into his chest.

tatums heart clenched in his chest. he made a promise to himself that he was not going to do that to her again. instead, he wrapped his arms around her small frame, getting a bit sad when she did not do the same in return. however, he knew she was afraid, so he didn't worry too much about it. the two stayed in that position for a few seconds, until lydia pulled away. she looked up into tatums eyes, and he did the same. to him, she looked terrified. and yes, he would've usually found this attractive, but the guilt arose to his conscious after an hour of listening to her begging to be let out of the room.

"hungry now, baby?" he asked softly.

lydia slowly gave him a nod of her head, and he softly intertwined their hands together, leading them into the kitchen. he gently directed her to the stovetop so that she could dish her meal herself. lydia didn't eat much, so she placed a rather small amount of fruit salad onto her plate. as she did this she glanced to tatum, accepting that it was now becoming a habit of hers to make sure that with every move she made she was not upsetting tatum with her decisions.

"no." he stated firmly, picking up her plate from her hands.

"not enough, little." he continued, placing more things onto her plate that she didn't want.

"tate-" she began.

"lydia." he cut her off with a warning tone. she took this as her warning to stop contesting his choices.

the two ate in silence for the most part, but lydia was very uncomfortable while doing so. tatum stared at her the entire time, watching ever move she made. usually she would be fine with this, but not with tatum. she was worried that if she chewed wrong he would snap at her. she had never lived in fear or worry before, but now she was getting the experience that she lacked. it was not wanted experience, but it was experience.

after dinner lydia had resorted to washing the dishes from the meal as a way to get away from tatum. was she fully away from him? no. but atleast while doing dishes she had her back faced to him, so she could pretend he wasn't there if she wanted. she felt as though there were eyes watching her constantly in this house, and she was not wrong. tatum watched everything she did. even with her back to him she felt his eyes staring straight into her, and of course, she didn't like it. she didn't like being watched like a mouse, and she was positive that she would never like it.

"bedtime, little" his voice interrupted her thoughts. he placed his hands onto her hips from behind, and she remembered how he did this to her at the entryway at her house. she thought it was normal though, so she did not mind it as much as the other things he did. and of course, this was more tolerable than yelling or being alone.

with a nod of her head, she turned the sink off and made her way back into the original nice bedroom that she was in when she had awoken. she actually took a liking to this room, but no room compared to her room at home, though. she was still unaware that tatum had no plans of returning her home, so she figured if she stayed nice to him that he would let her go home in the morning.

taking a seat onto the floor of the room, she opened the suit cases that she had failed to unpack before. she still had no plans of unpacking though, as she figured it would be useless if she was just going to leave again in the morning. silly lydia.

she pulled out a matching lace set of pajamas, which contained a small top and small shorts. these were her absolute favorite pair of sleepwear that she owned, as she wore them to sleepovers and received lots of compliments while wearing them. they were comfortable, too.

when she was content with what she had chosen, she stood up from where she was sat in hopes to change in the bathroom. instead, she was met with tatum peering down at her. she gasped, though she wasn't sure why. he wasn't harming her, and she had come to the conclusion already that she should always be aware that he was watching her. he moved like a mouse, almost. they stared at one another for a moment, before lydia could speak for herself.

"excuse me, please" she politely asked, walking slowly in tatums direction. when she reached to be directly in front of him, he had still not given her a response. and knowing lydia, she asked again.

"tatum i need to chang-"

"no." she looked up confusingly at him, surprised at his answer.

"no?" she quietly asked.

"change here." he said firmly.

very shitty filler chapter :p sorry guyzzzz