Alice
I was that girl.
The one in the back.
Always in the back.
Or the one you waved at because she looked familiar but never really hung out with because she looked too lonely.
Fun.
But at least I was doing something.
And I was outside.
Everything about Andrei said stand down and make sure you put at least three feet of distance between us, and every time I got close, he either physically pushed me away or yelled.
There was meaning behind everything he did, everything he wore, the way he spoke to people, the words he used.
Yet another reason why when he claimed me as his wife, I knew I was stuck, and as long as it wasnât real, I was fine.
I shivered. The very fact that he gave me his name enraged me, and then it filled me with a feeling I refused to acknowledge, one that told me I meant something.
I tried not to think of his kiss, his reaction, the way his lips slid across mine in a way Iâd never experienced before.
I could count the tiny breaths he took between each assault, the way his muscles flexed beneath my fingertips like any second he was going to slam me against the wall harder and rip my clothes off.
The thought should terrify me.
Except it was different; his kiss was different.
Or maybe I was just glamorizing the fact that I was being held hostage, sold by a family who used me, to a new master who would end up doing the exact same thing.
The idea deflated me as I made my way into class and sat down in the very back.
Students trickled in.
Nobody looked my way.
And I wondered what made me so invisible to the people around me. When I was punished by those closest to me by being seen?
To everyone else I was a nobody.
But my own family? They punished me for things I couldnât control.
And Andrei seemed angry at his own reaction.
What was so special about a girl with blackish brown hair and blue eyes? Whatâs so special about me?
And sadly.
Even after two different classes.
I came up with absolutely nothing.