chapter fourteen

"t- tatum?"

tatum swung his head to the dark corner of the room, making eye contact with lydia. hearing her voice comforted him, so he sighed of relief in which caused his shoulders to drop. lydia looked down at his hands, causing a confused expression to make its way onto her pale face. those were her suit cases, and she knew it. there was no mistaking the pink color of the bags that she had used so many times before to go traveling with her family.

"w- why do you have my stuff?" she whispered, barely audible.

"my sweet lydia," he softly said with a smile, walking toward her.

she watched as he came closer to her with every step, backing herself into the wall so much that she almost felt like she became apart of it. when she could finally see him up close, she didn't know how to feel. he looked so happy, and she had never seen him like that before. he was always straight to the point, very monotone. sometimes he would slip in a laugh here and there about something she would say.

he cupped her face with his large hands, staring straight into her eyes. she was becoming scared, and she didn't know how to tell him this. she held a blank spot in her mind of all previous activities that lead up to this point, the last thing she remembered being him pulling over to the side of the road. as she thought longer and harder, she became increasingly fearful.

"i- i- i think i'd like to go home now tatum," she started to say before being cut off by an expression of anger being held on his face. his demeanor completely changed, and it made her even more nervous, as if that were even possible.

"you home little." he aggressively stated, tightening his grip on her cheeks. she never thought that having someone cup her face would hurt her, but tatum was hurting her.

she stared at the boy, not daring to speak or make any movements. what happened to the tatum that she knew? why did he switch his personality so fast? why was he being so aggressive with her since the last time she remembered speaking to him? she had so many questions that she desperately needed the answer to. and for once, she decided not to ask them.

"please tatum, you're hurting me" she whined, gently placing her small hands on top of his to ask him in a non verbal way to be less aggressive. she didn't want to anger him, and she didn't even know if she had already done something to anger him. the blank spot in her memory was really bothering her, as she was never the type to forget things. especially this, because she was excited to see tatum.

his expression softened, as did his grip on her face. he slowly removed his hands from her face, causing a slight feeling of alarm as he noticed the red marks on her face from him gripping it so tightly. he felt as though he had already fucked up, and this upset him. he never wanted to hurt his little, but she needed to understand that when he's angry, he's angry. he had tried so hard to hide this from her so that she would not feel fear while around him, and he felt like he had now failed that simple task.

"are you hungry, baby?" he cooed into her ear, causing a shiver to go down her spine. she looked up at him again, feeling less scared this time due to his sweet tone.

"n- no thank you" she replied, hugging herself with her arms. this was something she did when she was nervous, and in this moment, she was rightfully nervous.

tatum looked her up and down slowly before grabbing her arm and taking her over to her suit cases that were laid out onto the floor.

"unpack." he said firmly, motioning his head towards the large closet in the room.

then, like nothing ever happened, he left the room. lydia was at a loss for words, and at a loss for thoughts as well. she didn't know what to think of the situation, and she felt as though she didn't even have enough energy to try and make sense of her surroundings. how did going to the fair end up being staying at tatums for a night? how did she not remember so much? how could she have gotten herself into such a situation? she didn't know the answer to any of those questions.

but what she did know, is that she didn't want to be here. when she had awoken and took in her surroundings her eyes fell upon a window in the room, which held nothing but darkness. this atleast told lydia what time of day it was, and she began to think that maybe she had fallen asleep in tatums car and he had brought her here so she would have somewhere to stay. but that also couldn't have been right, because her mother had taught her that men should never take you anywhere at the end of the night but back to your house. never theirs.

after staring at her clothes for a bit, she decided to let tatum know in a very kind way that she no longer wished to stay here or be around him anymore. he was scaring her, and friends don't scare friends. something was wrong.

sitting up from her spot that he had placed her in on the floor in front of her suit cases, she headed to the bedroom door quietly. she took the door handle into her small hand as slow as she possibly could to avoid making any sounds. twisting it, she had fell upon the realization that it had been locked. if she wasn't panicking before, she was panicking now. it was definitely not a normal thing to have a friend lock you inside of their room.

her breathing hitched in her throat, and she began to shake the door as an attempt to opening it. she almost wanted to cry in that moment, as she felt that she was in a very dangerous situation. mostly, she was disappointed in herself. all of the things that raya had taught her about taking her safety very seriously were all kicked to the curb by lydia when she met tatum. she thought he was harmless, and she would soon learn that her mother telling her to never trust anyone would be an important lesson that she should've learned a long time ago.

the door handle suddenly stopped turning, which meant that someone was holding it on the other end.

"little?" his voice beamed through the door.

"t- tatum?" she quietly asked, softly placing her hand on the door as if he could see it.

"..are you scared?" he asked.

"i- i'm scared" she replied without hesitation.

she heard the lock on the door let loose, and she silently sighed of relief to herself. when the door slowly opened, she was met with tatums eyes looking sweetly down at her.

"don't be scared of me, little one" he said softly.

"-if you want out, you need to ask me, okay? this door stays locked at all times." he explained to the girl as she slowly nodded her head in understanding.

she started walking out of the room before being stopped by his chest, as he refused to move out of her way. she looked up at him once again.

"ask." he firmly said.

"c- can i please come out?" she begged. he stared at her for a moment before speaking again.

"of course, my lydia" he replied to her, swiftly moving out from in front of her. she began making her way out of the room again, before her wrist was firmly grabbed from behind her.

"say thank you." he demanded in an angry tone once again.

"t- thank you t- tate," she whispered amongst the two.

tatum tilted his head back and clenched his jaw in an attempt to control himself. her stutter was getting to him, as he thrived on seeing her afraid and helpless. she didn't know how hard she was making things for him, but what she was soon going to know, is that she was here

hii i quit my toxic job today so i've had lots of time to update this story recently! i'm very excited about that because this book is my fave to write :p i hope u guys don't mind all the updating bahaha