The Child Bride

Ch-7: Anna

Matt is running late.

He usually never runs late, he had demanded her weekly schedule after the very first day; he had bitched and complained about her weird hours and the number of classes she was taking causing him to miss ‘important’ things he never expanded up on but by the end of the day he was always there. She is not complaining exactly, because she is pretty pleased by the fact for once Matt is not on time to pick her up, it means she would have something to hold over him when he starts ranting about how awesome he is at navigating traffic again.

It’s kind of nice, staying in campus after hours, she always leaves quickly that she never really had the time to sit and appreciate the scenery, even with all the students milling around. The university is not that large or famous for that matter, but the campus is nice and her professors are competent and it’s quiet enough that she doesn’t easily feel suffocated, but enough people around that no one pays her much attention.

Or that was the case until she noticed the guy stalking her a few minutes ago.

That coupled with the fact Matt was running late didn’t really sit well with her. But for once she wasn’t actually worried, for the first part she can take care of herself, as a kid she had the habit of punching her way out and she had brought down a guy twice her size when she was ten solely by kicking and biting. She knew how to operate a gun, even shot it once in a not a so memorable occasion that had ended disastrously, being raised in a torturous abusive crime family covered self-defense at least. Besides she is pretty sure she had noticed the guy in one of her classes, he is around her height, doesn’t look older than 18 and is wearing geekier glasses than her, and he keeps making a lot of noise and stumbling over his steps for a guy meant to be stalking ‘The Carllone Bride’.

She contemplates on texting Matt about him, but there is still a nagging fear that if she complained about something they won’t let her go to college anymore, so she simply ignores him and opens a book to read as she waits for Matt to pull up in his usual spot.

Surprisingly enough there is a soft tap on her shoulder not ten minutes later. She doesn’t flinch like she usually does at strange touches, mainly because she had heard him coming. But when she looks up, the stalker boy is grinning at her awkwardly, shuffling from feet to feet holding a plastic tin that was making all the noise.

“Hi” he greets, the words coming out in such a high pitch and speed that Casey just blinks. “I am Ben, Benjamin Malory-Uh, we had Women studies together, I mean for the first week before you decided to drop it-I mean, I am not blaming you for dropping it or anything-That would be crazy, a complete stranger coming over and blaming you for dropping a course, right? But you raised like really good points the week you were there, like really good ones that the class is barely the same without you, but it’s still pretty good though- So that you can come back if you want, or is too late?- Then don’t, I mean what do I know?” he laughs , it’s so uncomfortable that she can tell he is more or less forcing himself to do it.

Casey does recall him once he mentioned the course, most of her classes were solely biology and chemistry based, with a lone math that drove her insane because her ultimate plan was to get enough credits to get into the post grad Veterinary program, she had checked out Women studies mainly to have a non- science credit, and it was pretty good, nice professor, nice topics but then she had realized the irony in talking about women’s right while she was forced into an arranged marriage at 18 and had no rights what so ever. It kind of felt painful that she had quickly switched on to a history class.

“Casey, Uh Casey Carllone” she decided to do the proper greeting thing, almost saying Devitto before she caught herself. She didn’t feel regretful about that particular change; she had never really been a Devitto.

“That’s a really nice name-I knew that, I mean not in stalkerish way, but in a general ‘I asked around’ kind of way, you have a couple of classes with my friends and my older sister is annoyingly a know it all about these kinds of things-So yeah, Haha I knew your name” he laughs again, Casey realizes he is sweating and seemingly seconds away from passing out that she forces herself to smile at him so that the guy can hopefully ease down a little.

“Okay” is all that’s she is able to say. Only mildly weirded out, but considering her life she probably shouldn’t be as she had daily midnight therapeutic sessions with her older husband and an aquarium. “Uh Can I help you?” she asks at last.

“I baked cookies” that was not what she was expecting, but the tin that he shakes a little in answer does make sense now, “They are good old fashioned chocolate chip because you can never go wrong with chocolate chip, everyone like chocolate right? Haha, unless you don’t?- Holy s**t do you not like chocolate? f**k- f**k” then he proceeds to swear at himself; seemingly hyperventilating.

He hands her the tin before she could even blink again.

“You know what just keep it, or throw it away- you should definitely throw it away, I only spent like three hours on it, pff-I am gonna go, bye” and then just like that he runs away without another word, she thinks there are a group of people hiding behind the bushes who instantly start laughing and snickering once he runs away but Casey is too confused to react.

Casey spends a few minutes just staring at the box of cookies in her hands, too confused to even notice Matt pulling up until he starts honking.

“Never underestimate the amount of weird in my life” she mumbles under her breath before she gets down from her post and walks toward the car.

“Here eat this” she shoves one of the cookies towards Matt as soon as she is inside the car and has managed to open the tin. They look really nice, big and brown and that’s a really damn good smell, she could sniff it all day and do nothing else.

Matt for once simply takes the cookie from her, choosing not to say anything. He moans lewdly as soon as he takes a bite. Casey instantly shrinks away and looks at him with disgust, trying to get the sounds out of her head.

“Oh my god, this is good- f*****g heaven in a bite!” he says before showing the whole thing into his mouth and proceeding to moan just as loudly. He extends his hand to take another but she slaps it away.

“Hey, I was just checking if it was poisoned” she says but she lets Matt take another before she tries one for herself, and wow, okay, she was wrong, instead of smelling it she could eat this alone and nothing else for the rest of her life.

“By risking my life?” Matt fakes gasps in between his bites.

Casey simply shrugs “Queens are more important than guards” she smiles and happily focuses on her own cookie, well technically her stalker guy’s cookie, but still he gave it to her and she would rather hit someone than waste it away now. “A guy gave it to me” she even informs Matt, so it’s all okay,

Matt stops eating, then looks at her and opens his mouth before abruptly closing as if he decides it’s not worth it.

“I’ve had a hell of a day as it is, we’ll have the ‘stranger danger’ conversation another day kid” he says as he starts the car again, pulling out roughly which is when she finally notices that that there is someone else in the car with her, who is sprawled out on the back seat completely passed out and once again reeking of alcohol.

“That’s my husband” she notes with a mouthful of cookie.

“Uh huh, that’s your passed out husband who got into a fist fight, then threw up in my car twice” Matt explains his ‘hell of a day’. And there are enough bruises to show for it too, the bruise on his jaw he has gotten just a week ago had just barely managed to fade away but now it seems his face would be littered with more of it.

“How’s the other guy?” she wonders.

“Two broken ribs, a few teeth were knocked out and Boss also managed to smash his hand real good” Matt informs, but he doesn’t look very regretful about it.

“Should I be proud?” she is not even pulsed by any of this anymore.

“The other guy was a d**k” Matt simply shrugs, but his posture says that she should be proud. “You might have heard of him, Carter. We were friends actually, he was Don’s best friend, much like brothers until he decided to f**k the girl Don was in love, and announce their new relationship in his face just as the said ‘girl’ started leading him on once again”

“I am assuming the girl in this equation is the infamous Marin?” she wonders taking another cookie, Matt can’t have any as he was driving.

“Mmm- Hmm” he agrees; then takes a quick look at the rear view mirror to make sure Don is still out, “If you ask me she is the one who needs to get punched, the b***h is worse than five Carters combined. The only thing she ever cared about was his money- He is yet to figure it out”

“She broke up with him because of me” she realizes.

“No, she used you as an excuse. Don would have left you at the alter and said goodbye to everything he build if Marin asked him to, and he tried to I am sure, he asked her to marry him a million times just in the month before your wedding, but Marin wouldn’t say yes, because without you and your family’s backing in Carllone Inc., Donatello Carllone would be a pauper, he would have lost everything and she didn’t have much use of that version of him” he spits out angrily, he almost grazes another car in his hurry to get home “So she chose the next best thing, his best friend. For once Don was pissed, but he blamed Carter and with extra investments from your family after your marriage he managed to cut Carter out of his business entirety, Carter was obviously not pleased” Matt explains.

“Well that sucks” she says, but its big lie. Because if Don had left her at the altar, she would have been completely useless to the Devittos, the only reason she managed to stay alive and safe to the degree she did was because she was promised to Don, because the rest of the assholes didn’t have the ‘permission’ to touch her before Don did. The Devittos would have managed to find some way to blame her, they would either have taken their repercussions on her and then married her off to an even worse guy as used goods because she wouldn’t have been the hot commodity anymore.

It makes her a terrible person, but she is glad Marin was a b***h.

The rest of the ride is mostly silent, Matt grabs another cookie saying it was the only good part of his dad and Casey lets him. She doesn’t worry so much about the stalker guy, because the cookies are seriously good and she never really had much of a self-preservation instinct.

By the time she deposits the cookies and her bag by the kitchen counter, Matt is dragging an unconscious Don into the house, most of Don’s weight being supported by his friend. By that point Matt doesn’t even think about getting him to Don’s room, but rather deposits him by the couch in front of the aquarium like a bag of potatoes.

“The couch stinks by the way” Matt informs her as he finally manages to get away and straightens out his previously strained back. She simply shrugs again.

She is used to the smell of alcohol, was used to it even before she got married to the alcoholic, almost every Devitto drank all the time, as a kid she had made the grave mistake of making a disgusted face when one of her older step brothers came home drunk, he had retaliated by holding her down on the cold floor and force feeding her a pint of whatever the hell he was drinking, she was 9, it burned her, she’s never touched the thing ever again, but she got used to the smell.

“Right, Uh – I’ve got to rush back to the office, smooth out some feathers-”Matt starts, opening into his ‘sorry, I am leaving him with you’ speech.

“I got it” she cuts him off, mainly because he looks like he is having another aneurism again. Matt smiles at her and leaves quickly enough.

She suspects Don would be out for hours, so she takes the time to take a shower, change into her Pajama pants because apparently that’s not acceptable college wear, and two layers of shirts and one of her thick hoodies. By the time she settled down on the floor next to Donatello and the fishes, she has a glass of water and Aspirin for Don, a book open in her lap even with the dim lighting and a couple of granola bars and her stalker cookies for an early snack.

It’s the most comfortable she has been in a while.

Don only wakes when she is around 20 pages into Molecular theory of Biotechnology, and the reason she knows he is awake is by the loud groan and the light tugging of her hair. Over the past weeks she’s managed to actually touch Don without being afraid it means something else, he had initiated it with laying on her lap whenever he came home, and Casey enjoys carding her fingers through his hair, it’s weird she knows that all too well, but it calms the both of the down in particularly hard nights where Don is too drunk to remember his own name and Casey is on edge from another panic attack or a nightmare. It’s easier now, something had changed and she is starting to realize not all touch can lead to pain.

She lifts up the aspirin and the glass of water wordlessly, barely taking her eyes of her book, he groans and grunts and tries to go back to sleep, it takes another five pages before he eventually settles in and starts speaking.

“This is f*****g weird you know” he notes.

“It’s been weird for months, talking about it aloud is only going to make it weirder” she shrugs, easily turning another page. “Cookie?” she asks remembering the easily lowering stash, huh, she wonders if she can pay stalker boy-Ben, his name was Ben- into making more, well technically Don will be paying, but honestly these are the kind of cookies that deserves to be brought, all other usage of money is completely non-essential when compared to these. “A guy gave it to me” she adds as she extends it upwards.

“You shouldn’t accept cookies from strangers” the drunkard actually chides her.

“Repeat that after taking a bite” she murmurs out easily, eyes barely leaving the pages of her book. Don does, and he makes a sudden, strange noise.

“You should definitely accept cookies from strangers” he changes already leaning down to grab more, “But Matt looked him over right?” he asks again.

“I’ll let him know” She agrees and lets him eat her stash for a few more minutes of silence.

“No story from fishily tales today?” he asks when the silence stretches on and the cookies disappear.

“You are not drunk, just hungover” they’ve never really addressed this thing, she’s never felt the need to until today after Matt told her exactly what Don was trying to distract himself from.

“That can actually be rectified if I could bother to get up. I am keeping you for your ridiculous blabber and the business investments. It’s a good thing nobody told you to shut up when you were young- well younger” he is seemingly in a good mood, there is a hand going through her still mildly wet hair.

“Uh huh, they just taped my mouth shut and tied my hands behind by back, I was four” she says before she can think over her words, s**t, she never really had a good brain to mouth filter. Don’s hand in her hair stills suddenly and her attention is easily taken off her book.

It’s not like that was the worst thing she could have revealed, it wasn’t the even the worst part, no, the worst part was that it left her vulnerable and defenseless to her step brothers ministrations, she couldn’t even scream for help when they decided burning her skin was their new hobby, not that it would have helped either.

She probably should not have thought of that because her heart is picking up again, the rush of memories suffocating her for a second.

“I won’t- I won’t do that” Don’s voice pulls her out, and the thing is, she trusts him. It’s stupidly irrational but she does.

“Did you know you were named after a Ninja Turtle?” she grabs onto the first thing she can think of in order to change the subject, “You might be too old for the movies, but you must have watched the cartoons at least right?”

“I was named after my grandfather” he says it in a tone that she suspects he is smiling, “And I am not too old for anything. I am 29” he grumbles.

“But you haven’t watched the movies have you?” she asks and Don doesn’t say anything, “You should have had siblings, preferably three brothers and we could have had the whole gang. Your mom really missed out” she says and this time he actually laughs, it’s a sudden small thing that she actually turns around to see the aftereffects of it. It’s a nice look on him, something she hadn’t seen before.

“I’ll let my Ma know then” he says easily, then goes back to running a hand through her hair for the next few minutes, “Your Mother called you Anna” the words are so unexpected that Casey actually drops her book but she doesn’t dare to turn towards him.

“I-I remember her sometimes, she called you Anna, I don’t how that turned to Cassandra” he goes on, “I can call you that, if you like?” he suggest and she freezes.

They Devittos had removed every trace of her mother, her name must have included in that, she didn’t even have a picture as reference just a few words about her from some of the same older maids who took care of her when she was younger, even those words had to be passed in secret because Mrs. Devitto would have punished them otherwise. But whoever she was, her mother must have been pretty good, opposite of Mrs. Devitto if she was willing to get killed for her, and sometimes that’s all that she needs.

“Don’t” she tells Don, and hates the way her voice cracks, “That’s- That’s hers isn’t it? She would probably use that if I ever see her again, on one should use it before her” she mumbles so low she doubts Don hears her.

But his hands on her hair get smoother, so she guesses he did..