Tattooed Soul by Kera Lynn Read Free Book Online

checked
out. The doctor said I had a large bruise and possibly a mild concussion, but
some pain reliever and a good night's rest with someone to keep an eye on me
should put me right again.
    Marcus, of course, volunteered to watch
me, I don’t think he trusted my dad to make the effort to check on me even
once.
    This was the beginning of our
relationship.  It was strange how smoothly we moved together.  When
he was around, I was whole. 
    It had been two weeks since I woke up to
the face of my mystery man, and we had spent every moment possible with each
other. Both of us seemed to be afraid to let go, and for his part, Marcus never
forgot his promise about leaving me.
    He started staying over every night in my
bedroom. He had admitted sleeping outside my house practically every night, so
I couldn’t just go to bed and let him stay out there in the cold.
    When Richard was passed out in front of
the television, I would turn off my light. This was his cue to climb the tree
outside my window and sneak in. The first few nights he slept in the rocking
chair in the corner of my room.
    I knew he wasn’t comfortable, but he
refused to stay in the bed with me. On the third night, he made a pallet on the
floor. That was a little better, but I still felt guilty and couldn’t sleep.
    By the fourth night, we were both so
tired from lack of sleep we decided that lying on the bed together was not such
a big deal.
    As soon as I felt the bed tilt toward
him, I was immediately calmed and ready for sleep. Before we knew it, we were
cuddled together, sleeping in blissful dreams.
    School, however, was another issue. Our
first day back at school was interesting. Marcus was apprehensive about being
seen with me. This hurt at first. I thought he was ashamed of me. He seemed to
read my mind, and he told me that people saw him as a freak. They didn’t talk
to him; they couldn’t be bothered. He said he was afraid people would treat me differently
if I was with him.
    “Look at me, Becky. I am not the type of
guy a person like you should be seen with. I don’t want to cause you more trouble.”
    “Marcus, I have been alone at this school
for so long. I grasped at a relationship that was fake just to have someone to
be with. I hid, just like you. In fact, I envied you and your ability to become
invisible, but now we don’t have to be invisible anymore. You can be Marcus,
and I will just be Becky, and screw the rest of them. We don’t need anyone
else.”
    After that, we walked hand in hand to
class every day. Marcus was always waiting for me outside of my classes, and we
would drive home in my car together. We laughed, we talked, and we learned to
love. These had been a wonderful two weeks, but real life was coming up on us
fast.
    Caleb was coming back to school on
Monday. He had not been to school since the “accident”. The rumor around school
was that Caleb had been in an accident.  Rumor was that he was walking
home late at night, and a car hit him.  The driver didn’t stay around to
find out if he was even alive and had left the scene of the accident. 
    The rumor made me sick for several reasons. 
The first of which was the fact that if Caleb was injured enough for it to look
like a hit and run, we had hurt him very badly.  The second was the fact
that everyone seemed to be looking for this mysterious man in a car, who would
never be found.
    Caleb had been in the hospital for a week
and on bed rest for another. I could only imagine what type of things he would
do upon his return.
    Marcus said that the last time he saw
Caleb he was “pretty messed up”. I knew that my few hits didn’t cause that much
damage, but I never asked Marcus about it. He had taken care of the bloody pipe
with our fingerprints on it, so I had to do something for him. Caleb could be a
devious prick when he wanted to be, and Marcus and I gave him something to be
pretty pissed off about. I needed to face my demon.
    Marcus had to go to his foster