the bahams.

Otto quickly realised there was a Wes

shaped hole in her emotional fortress - one she had no idea he created until it was far too late.

She cared about him, she didn't love him, but she cared deeply for him.

And that's why she listened to him, she had no clue what had gone on the summer prior, and she had no desire to know. She liked her friends - or she liked her old friends. They weren't her friends anymore, not after she ditched them for two weeks, dodging them in the halls and feigning sickness when Kie tried to come around and see her.

Although she didn't have to pretend that much, she had felt like absolute shit for the past two months; although in the last two weeks, after what happened the night Wes almost punched her, she blamed it on the stress.

Stress can do all sorts of things go to the body so her feeling unwell because of it wasn't out of the question.

Plus, she didn't spend too much time pondering why she couldn't keep food down and half her usual favourite foods now seemed revolting.

Her days were now dedicated to Wesley Harrington. He decided just about every aspect of her life, he dropped her off and picked her up from school, and she had no clue where she would be sleeping until he either dropped her off at her house or drove her to his. Which was most of the time, she usually only spent two or three nights at her house.

He chose what she ate and when she ate it, he chose what she wore and when she slept.

He chose everything.

And she was fucking miserable.

She felt trapped in a cycle she didn't know how to stop, every time she even thought about leaving - saying no - he dug his claws a little deeper into her back. He futhered the control he had on her life.

Although she could only blow off her friends for so long, they rightfully had concerns.

The last time they spoke to her in a conversation that lasted longer than ten seconds, was the night Wes dragged her away.

Picking up her things from her desk after the period before lunch Otto packed them away in her bag. She took her time, she didn't want to see her friends in the hallway and have to pretend to ignore them and their attempts at conversation.

It only made her life harder.

It made her feel even more guilty and miserable than she was.

When the door to the classroom slamed shut Otto looked up out of habit, the entire group that she had been so desperately trying to ignore was standing in the classroom.

"Otto, what the fuck is happening?" Kie broke the ice bluntly.

Otto smiled but they all saw right through it, it was all bullshit. "There's nothing going on, I have a boyfriend it's not shocking that I'm spending time with him."

Her logic wasn't impossible, the same thing happened to Pope and Belly when the first got together. For a few months all they did was hang out with each other.

But the timing was strange, surely if they were just in an obsessive honeymoon phase it would've started when they got together, and not weeks later after Wes threw a tantrum and dragged her out of the Chateau.

Not to mention she looked - with peace and love - like shit. The usual light tan and glowy skin was replaced with a pale complexion and dull, pallid skin. Her face seemed less full and the bags under her eyes could no longer be covered with makeup; makeup she never wore before that night. She wore it because he wanted her to, probably because she looked worse for wear. Even her hair looked less shiny than usual.

"You can tell us if he's hu--" JJ tried to tell Otto.

"My relationship is fine, and quite frankly it is also none of your business so kindly butt out." She snapped half-heartedly.

She wanted to ask for help, she wanted them to fix what she had messed up. But she didn't, she couldn't, she was in drowning in deep water and anyone who tried to help would just be pulled in beside her.

Later that afternoon Otto sat at a barstool tucked behind the stupidly large kitchen island.

The smell of meat cooking made her want to vomit, but she held it in, trying to instead breathe through her mouth. Wes was having a 'conversation' with her, although the only input she needed to put in was the occasional "oh", "yeah" or an "okay", beyond that he carried the entire conversation. Not once did he ask a question about her; he didn't really ever inquire about her, unless it was for the purpose of deducing if she was doing something wrong.

His parents were on a short holiday in the Bahamas, meaning it was just Wes and Otto there.

Meaning she hadn't gone home in a week.

Another thing Wes had managed to control was how, when, if and what she said to her parents.

He knew her father was terminally ill and she only had limited time with him, he knew that and quite frankly didn't care. He let her stay at her house when she was being 'good,' as some fucked up reward and not the bare minimum.

Both her parents were concerned, neither if them liked Wes at all, they found him pompous and arrogant. Both of those were unarguably true.

But every time they raised concern Otto would spin a lie that put a bandaid on a bullet hole.

He had cooked up two steaks, his own was huge, and hers was smaller than the palm of your hand.

When she reminded him she didn't eat meat weeks ago, after the incident at the Chateau an extremely one-sided argument ensued. With him yelling and her pretending to be anywhere but there.

She hated eating meat, sure she did eat for more moral and environmental reasons, but beyond that she simply didn't like the taste.

Every mouthful she struggled to keep down, she couldn't throw up a meal he cooked in front of him. So she stomached the steak, ate the bland broccoli and the mashed potato where potato was the sole ingredient.

Wes couldn't cook to save himself.

Otto was genuinely surprised he didn't expect her to do it, but he didn't. It was probably a control thing.

Once she ate the last bite she excused herself to the toilet and promptly threw up the entire neal she shoved down her throat.

She knew it wouldn't last long in her stomach.

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