chapter thirty two

" lydia, what the fuck do you think you're doing?"

tatum growled out intensely, causing lydia to shoot her head up quickly followed by a loud gasp.

"i- i- it was r- ringing and i didn't know w- what it was," she began before being cut off.

"you're so fucking stupid, little." tatum calmly stated, which caused lydia to slightly relax a bit. she expected him to blow up on her, but his calm demeanor almost changed her expectations momentarily.

"you're so fucking stupid to think i wouldn't test you." he raised his voice, grabbing lydia quickly and placing her underneath him on the bed.

"why can't you just fucking behave? huh? why do you always need to leave? i don't make you happy, little?" he yelled, causing lydia to begin shaking underneath him as he pinned her down.

lydia didn't know what to say, she didn't know how to fix it. this was a new feeling to her, too. she took pride in the way that she was good at resolving things between others, as she never really got in any type of altercations herself. she thought that she would always be able to find a way to fix things and de-escalate situations, but with tatum things were different of course.

"why do you have to be so bad? why can't you just fucki-" he began but was cut off by the small girl.

"i- i'm not bad, tatum!" she objected, struggling against his weight in an attempt to get out from underneath him.

but instead of words, she received a feeling that spoke more from tatum than she had ever received from him before. she had never felt this kind of feeling, as it was a physical pain instead of emotional. a wide spread stinging sensation flamed across her cheek, followed by complete stillness from tatum. whether she was slapped or punched, she didn't know. she couldn't think. as for tatum, he was in shock. he vowed to himself that he wouldn't put his hands on her in this way since the moment he first saw her. but obviously, none of his original plans were working out how they were supposed to.

she was little, naive, and nothing short of caring for him and his wellbeing. yet here he stood, towering on top of her as she shook so violently with fear that it felt as though she would over stimulate at any moment. he was supposed to be her protector, her care giver, her boy. yet he felt as though it was nothing short of addicting to make her feel this way. to break her down, make her cry. it's almost like his brain was playing tug a war with him in his mind, part of him wanted nothing more than to apologize relentlessly to her, scooping her up and spending the rest of the night together in bed as he cooed words of empathy towards her. but the other half of him was visibly viscous, only looking forward to further beating her down until she knew she needed nobody other than him. it was an endless game for him, and at the end, he didn't know which would win.

lydia's tear filled eyes stayed locked onto his, anticipation working its way up through her skin. she wanted nothing more than to stick up for herself, but she just couldn't. he was too big against her, and she knew she stood absolutely no chance. even if she were to put up a fight, she knew who would win. with every time that she attempted to be brave and help herself out, followed more destruction than before. her state of shock almost made her brain feel blank, until it didn't anymore. she didn't know what came next, and she definitely didn't want to know, either.

taking notice to the pondering evil but shocked expression that tatum held on his face, she took advantage of it. he was weak right now. she knew he was going to war with himself in his head due to his delayed reactions to her movements. and with that, lydia used all of the possible strength that she could muster up inside of herself to push him off of her. and when she was successful, she felt a rush. she won. she over powered him, she couldn't let him catch her now. without thinking another thought, lydia ran out of the room with every muscle she possibly could.

"lydia!" she heard loudly from behind her, only causing her to slam the bedroom door behind her to buy herself a slight amount of more time.

this was the smartest move she could have possibly made in that moment, as she took notice to her car keys in which sat peacefully on the hallway side table where tatum had left them. with the adrenaline that was coursing through her body she grabbed the keys, immediately followed by her running to the front door. and just as she reached the locked door knob, the bedroom door quickly flung open behind her.

this did nothing but pump more adrenaline through her body, causing her to swiftly unlock the door and dash through it. she could hear the alarm going off from tatums phone as the houses security system went off, but she didn't care. as soon as she felt the cold night air hit her skin she hit the unlock button on her kia, jetting inside of it. immediately locking the doors, she quickly looked up for a briefly second before starting the car. she was met with the tear filled eyes of tatum as he ran extremely quickly towards her car. but he was too late, and she began the drive down the driveway, kicking up dust along the way.

as she sped off into the street, she could make out two shining headlights emitting from tatums car through the dust behind her. this scared her more than anything, as she couldn't imagine what he would do to her if he caught up to her in that moment. this being said, she swiftly stomped on the gas pedal down the confusing road that he happened to live on. issuing her cars turbo for the first time, she hit almost 100mph within no time down the straight road that was his neighborhood.

she didn't remember her way out and to the city like she thought she wouldn't from driving it with tatum so many times, but she didn't care. she took all the twists and turns that she could possibly see, ending up in a part of the neighborhood she had never seen before. it was simply a turn into a wooded area in which held a sign that stated ", but she was content with that as she had made up a plan in her frantic little mind. she would sit and wait for tatums car to pass, as the area she sat in had no street lights, therefore making her vehicle almost invisible to anyone that passed at a high enough speed if she turned her lights off.

and sure enough, he did. it took about two minutes of lydia sitting in the empty pull off to see tatums car fly down the main road in front of her, which caused a sigh of relief to exit her mouth. she waited a few seconds before dashing out of her hiding spot to make sure that the boy was really gone, and when she came to the conclusion that he was, she made her dash to the city. she gained recognition of her surroundings as she passed a familiar street sign, and she knew she needed to turn to be able to reach the city.