Chapter 22

"I am color-blind, Coffee black and egg white, Pull me out from inside, I am ready, I am ready, I am ready, I am, Taffy stuck and tongue tied, Stuttered shook and uptight, Pull me out from inside, I am ready, I am ready, I am ready, I am fine."

As the song played, Belle felt her stomach shrinking and her heart breaking. It was the first time she'd heard it since listening to it on repeat after splitting up with her ex-boyfriend and love of her life. The memory of the pain hit her like a sledgehammer to the chest.

"What the hell is this, Caine?" Damien frowned at his friend's odd music choice.

"Leave it on repeat. Trust me," Caine replied, casing a cruel grin in her direction.

Damien rolled his eyes. "Nah, I want something loud and banging."

A sigh of relief escaped her lips, one that didn't go unmissed. He chose a band that she didn't recognize. One with no emotional connotations of any kind.

'Thank you, Damien,' she thought.

"Lay down on your back," Caine demanded. He circled the room like a predator closing in on prey, eyes fixed on Belle.

She looked to Damien, asking him if she had to obey. There was always the flying chance he would take her side and let her off.

Or was there?

"Do as he says," Damien said, dashing her slim hope.

She lay back, feeling naked and vulnerable as the horrible boy ordered her to open her mouth.

"If you can catch this in your mouth, you get a reward, if not, you get a punishment," he said.

'Catch what?' she frowned up at him as a warm, wet spatter of saliva hit her cheek and dripped down the side of her face.

She heard laugher as Damien joined him, looking down at her.

"Let me try," he said.

A moment later she had spit in her eye and both of them were laughing hysterically.

They did this a couple more times before finally landing one in her mouth and cheering like football fans at a match.

"I feel like that was more my achievement than hers," Damien boasted.

"Damien!" a female voice shouted.

"Coming!" he shouted, and stomped down the stairs, leaving her alone with Caine. He used a slender index finger to push the saliva from her cheek into her mouth.

"I guess I'll have to think up a punishment for you," he whispered.

Belle didn't respond. Didn't even look at him. She figured he would get bored of tormenting her if she failed to react.

When he tutted and shook his head Belle closed her eyes and turned away, praying he would leave her be.

She jumped as Damien burst back into the room, asking, "Caine, do you want to stay for dinner?"

To Belle's relief, he declined.

"I assume you want food?" he addressed Belle.

"Yes, please," Belle replied. So far, he'd only fed her crisps and chocolate bars from the hidden collection under his bed. The thought of a proper meal made her salivate.

"One extra plate!" Damien shouted to his parents without moving, nearly bursting her eardrums.

"Act like a normal person in front of my parents, okay?" he ordered her.

"I am a normal person," Belle replied flatly. Honestly.

Both boys laughed like a pair of hyenas.

"Say that when you've wiped the spit off your face," Caine sneered.

"You did that. How does your weird fetish make me abnormal?" Belle asked in a dead, flat tone of voice.

Belle regretted sticking up for herself when she saw the look the pair exchanged. She wished she could scoop up the words from the air and shove them back down her throat.

It was pointless apologizing too, and besides, it was the truth. She hadn't lost her dignity. It hadn't fallen away or slipped into a ditch somewhere. This pair had stolen it from her. It was on them.

"Dinner!" Damien's Mum shouted, saving her for the time being.

She watched as Caine stood and gathered his things.

"I've left a present in your bag," he said to Damien. He turned to Belle, eyes flashing dangerously. "You're going to hate it."

She tried not to think about it, focusing on the prospect of a cooked meal in her tummy instead.

Mr. and Mrs. Cross were setting the table together as the pair approached. They looked up, eyes wide in shock.

"Oh, you must be Damien's girlfriend," Mr. Cross said, offering his hand.

'Girlfriend?!'

"I'm Belle," she said, accepting his hand.

"Oh," the mother cried. "It's just like beauty and the beast."

"Am I the beast in this scenario, Mum?" Damien asked, eyebrow raised.

His mother giggled nervously as she indicated for Belle to sit. From their reaction to her, she guessed this was the first time their son had brought a girl to dinner.

They placed a plate in front of her.

"I'm sorry it's nothing special. We don't get time to cook," Mrs. Cross apologized for the oven heated frozen meal of battered fish and chips with a side of peas.

"It's great, thank you," Belle assured them.

"Damien tells us you're a first-year student," Mr. Cross said. "What are you studying?"

'I was so focused on food I forgot about the awkwardness of meeting other people's families,' Belle thought, wishing to stuff her face rather than talk.

"I'm studying Medical Sciences," she told them, knowing how they would react. "Damien mentioned you are both Doctors."

"Ooo," Mrs. Cross cooed, turning to her husband to smile.

"You are?" Damien blurted, spitting out his peas. "How did you get past the Med school exams?"

"Damien," his mother gasped.

"Oh, he's right, I act like an airhead, but I get decent grades and I... I guess I want to help people," Belle muttered, poking at her food with her fork.

"You?" Damien scoffed. "You're as dumb as a bag of bricks."

"Damien!" his father scolded this time.

"It's okay," Belle hastily assured them, not wanting Damien to get into trouble.

"It's not okay," Mrs. Cross assured her. "Damien you shouldn't speak to her that way."

"She likes it, don't you Belle?" Damien said, flashing her a cruel smile.

"So did anyone hear about the plans for the council to relocate the library to the city?" Belle asked loudly, looking at his parents.

"Oh, terrible," Mrs. Cross said, shaking her head.

"Awful. The Council have been tearing down our little towns public services for the past ten years and this is the final straw." Mr. Cross tutted.

As the Cross's discussed the best plan of action to fight the Council, Belle noticed the way Damien was looking at her.

"I guess you aren't so dumb," he muttered under his breath.

"Bread and butter pudding?" Mrs. Cross offered. It was her favorite pudding of all time. Her eyes lit up before Damien uttered no and pulled her away from the table.

"Oh, please?" Belle whispered.

"No," Damien repeated. "I don't want you getting fat."

At that comment, Damien's mother dragged him into the hallway. Belle overheard the woman scolding her son, and his grumpy responses, hoping she wouldn't be punished for it.

"One day, when I'm picking out the residential home, you are going to regret not being nicer to me," Damien said.

This made his mother groan and his father laugh.

"Oh, if we live that long just take us outside and shoot us. We've seen the state of end-of-life care in this country," his Dad joked.

"Come on," Damien pulled her up the stairs, away from the relative normality of the kitchen. He pushed her onto the bed and pushed her back, straddling her as he leant in to kiss her.

'Does he think I'm his girlfriend,' Belle wondered, confused by his actions. He must have sensed her hesitation because he pulled away.

"You don't want to kiss me?" he huffed. "Fine. We'll do something else."

"I—uh—" Belle went to protest, but she could tell by his face it was too late. He ripped through the contents of his bag before pulling out a small bag with the sex shop logo.

"Oh," he frowned as a slim chain fell onto the bed. "I see."

He pressed the little clamps at either end of the chain between his fingers.

"I think I know what this is for," he said.