Abbi... Read online

  Karen thought for a moment. “I’m not convinced. She was definitely crying and she tried to shout out. I think it may be more sinister than that. I don’t even think she knew she was crying you know.”

  “Maybe I will come on over when she is alone and talk things over,” Claire said.

  “That might not be a bad idea,” Karen said. “Come on. Let’s go.”

  Abbi’s eyes clouded over for a second or two. Mark knew that she had been thinking of the attack again. It had been happening all day.

  “Are you going to talk to me and tell me what happened?” he said quietly while holding her hand.

  “I don’t want to relive it all again. It was bad enough going through it once.”

  “Abbi, look at me.” Mark waited until she did. “You think about it all the time. I see it in your eyes when it comes back to you.”

  “I know and I hate it.” Abbi’s eyes were now filling with tears. She swallowed a couple of times.

  “Right okay. I will try to tell you but give me a few minutes.” She paused and took a few deep breaths to calm down. “It was over in about thirty seconds. It was very quick.” She closed her eyes and continued to speak slowly with her eyes shut. Mark kept hold of her hand. “I was walking home and got a sense that someone was watching me. Next minute I was on the floor on my back and I struggled to get away from him. I mean, I really struggled. So he slapped my face to make me stop. It worked for a second or two so he managed to get a better hold on me. He had a hand over my mouth so I bit him. Probably not the best thing to do in hindsight.” Abbi took a deep breath again and continued still with closed eyes a couple of tears were leaking out of her eyes.

  “Cos I bit him he slapped me again. I kept struggling but he wouldn’t let me go. He wouldn’t! I don’t remember much more. I felt a searing pain go through me a couple of times and then I blacked out almost instantly. I hate that I don’t remember more than that. It is so infuriating that I feel like there is more that happened. But I don’t remember or I’m subconsciously blocking it or whatever it’s called. I can’t remember and I need to know what happened. I can’t remember! I don’t know who it is either. Who did this to me?” She gestured at her face.

  She finally opened her eyes. Mark half wished she hadn’t told him. He thought it might help her but to imagine that happening to Abbi was not a good image. And it came to him far too easily. He realised that he was trembling slightly and tried hard to stop.

  “You’ll be alright,” he said. It was more to assure himself than it was her. However she nodded.

  “Thank you for being here for me,” she said while hugging him. What else was I going to do, he thought to himself, but he didn’t say it. He felt her relax slightly and thought that maybe telling someone had been good for her.

  As he left Abbi on her own he took a deep breath and tried to take it all in. He hoped that she would feel slightly better after confiding in him. He hoped for all kinds of things. He didn’t want to leave her which would soon become inevitable.

  Mark left her alone after making sure that she was okay. He had even bought her a new mobile phone as her old one had been stolen in the attack. Mark had programmed his number in it in case she needed something else.

  “Stop fussing over me,” Abbi said. “I’m fine. Now go and have fun. It is your holiday after all.”

  “Nothing is fun on my own,” he told her.

  “Alright then. Leave me alone so I can get some sleep and rest without you annoying me.” They both burst out laughing.

  “Fine. I’ve got the message,” he said smiling. He kissed her on the top of her head and left her. Abbi fell into a fitful sleep when Mark went. She kept dreaming of men dressed in black and coming at her. Whenever they were about to stab her she woke up suddenly, her heart in her mouth. It was only two in the afternoon she noticed as she woke up again.

  She gingerly walked into the kitchen to get something to eat. She went to the fridge and got a yoghurt out. She walked back to her room and turned on some rock music very loudly to drown her thoughts. When she had finished eating she went to sleep again. This time she slept peacefully.

  Over the next couple of days Mark was extremely relieved that she seemed to be getting better. Abbi was still tired quite a lot but she would heal. When her survival had been in doubt he could only think of the next few hours. Now he had a problem. In less than two weeks he was due to go back to London with his parents. He had never wanted to go less than at the present moment.

  Before the attack he was trying to work up to saying goodbye. He was now stuck. He seemed to fall in love with her more as the day’s went by- not less. Even scarred as she would be, she was still one of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen.

  He had also appreciated the way she had vehemently denied the insinuation of rape with those two officers. He had been listening to every word through her door when they came around. Finding the two of them like that had evidently thrown them. He wished he hadn’t seemed as annoyed as he had done. Both of them thought that he had been attacking her. It caused him a slight twinge of unease at the fact that two officers thought him guilty.

  He walked in to his holiday home and saw the rest of his family gathered in the kitchen. “What’s going on?” he asked immediately.

  After a moment Steve spoke up, “We are leaving. There has been an opportunity which means that our father is needed in London.” Mark looked at his father for confirmation. He got it.

  “When?” he asked dreading the answer.

  His father still wasn’t saying anything. He only looked at Mark. Steve cleared it up again by saying, “Seven in the morning, the day after tomorrow.”

  “No,” Mark whispered. His father left the room. Mark followed him out into the garden.”

  “Look I know you don’t want to leave your tart but we have to go,” his father said.

  Mark ignored the slight on Abbi to start an argument. “Yes you are needed up in London. I’m not arguing there. Please let me stay here. Just for a week.”

  His father shook his head. “No you all have to come with me.”

  “Dad my girlfriend has just got out of hospital after a knife attack. I have to stay with her.” His father didn’t say anything. Mark could tell he was beginning to get through to him. “I am only asking to stay here for seven more days. I will leave when that time is up. I promise. I will then join you to show my face in all those meetings you insist on before going back to Oxford. Please dad. Give me a week.” Mark stopped to let that sink in. “I have to stay with her. Did you ever have to do anything when you were my age?”

  Unbelievably his father nodded at him. “However,” he began. “You will come back to London when your week is up otherwise I will drag you there myself with no sympathy whatsoever.”

  “Yes, fine,” Mark said. He breathed again. His father walked away, presumably to tell the others the change of plan. Mark looked up to the sky. He had managed to get an argument past his father. He smiled to himself.

  The next morning Claire was surprised to get a call from Abbi. She picked up the phone. “Hello.”

  “Hi it’s Abbi,” came the reply.

  “Oh. I wasn’t expecting you to call me,” Claire said honestly. “How are you feeling?”

  “Terrible,” Abbi replied instantly. “I’m just in quite a lot of pain and I can’t sleep.”

  “Explain to me what’s happened,” Claire said patiently.

  “I usually sleep on my front,” Abbi started. “I kept going to sleep on my back so my injuries wouldn’t hurt as much. I keep rolling over in my sleep onto my stomach and the pain would wake me. That and the dreams.”

  “Dreams?” Claire encouraged her.

  “I… I keep dreaming that men in black are attacking me. It’s awful. I can see it happening painfully slowly all over again. The actual event probably lasted less than thirty seconds but it gets worse every time I dream it.” Abbi sighed into the phone.

  “Don’t worry. It will get bett
er,” Claire soothed. “There may be a link between you lying on your stomach and the dreams associated with that injury.” Claire stopped careful of how she phrased the next question. “Is Mark there to comfort you?”

  “No,” Abbi said instantly. “I don’t want to worry him. He has done so much for me.”

  “He might want to be worried by you,” Claire said.

  “I don’t care if he does,” Abbi said swiftly. “I really don’t want him to be more worried than he is at the moment.”

  “You are thinking a great deal about him. Does he think so much about you?” She heard Abbi giggling down the phone.

  “I think so,” Abbi said with certainty. “He didn’t want to leave me yesterday because he was worried about me. He left when I told him that I had had enough of him hovering over me. After that he left.” She paused. “I know what you are worrying about”, she said. “Please stop worrying about that. He wouldn’t rape me.”

  “I didn’t say that,” Claire said.

  “No but it was implied,” Abbi said. “I do appreciate that what you saw probably looked very wrong but it wasn’t. I wanted him to kiss me but he kept stopping when I cried out due to the pain in my lips. I told him to ignore it. That’s all he was doing.”

  “You were right. It did look very bad,” Claire said. “If you say that’s all it was I will believe it.” Claire really wanted to believe it too. “Are you having sex with him?” she asked gently.

  “That’s none of your business,” Abbi said quickly. After a moment she added, “Yes. Twice.”

  “Why only twice?” Claire asked immediately.

  “Lack of opportunity rather than anything else,” Abbi replied. “When we were together, we were in a hotel room with privacy away from our parents.”

  “Why did you call me?” Claire wondered.

  “Because I wanted to talk to someone who doesn’t know me and won‘t judge me and won’t say anything,” she said.

  “I am always here if you want to chat okay?”

  “Thanks,” Abbi said and then the phone went dead. Claire didn’t know what to think now.

  Just after she had ended the conversation with Claire her phone rang. Abbi looked but she didn’t really need to. Only Mark had this number at the moment.

  “Hi,” she said.

  “How are you this morning?” he immediately asked.

  She smiled at his concern for her. “Yeah, I’m alright.”

  “Can I come over?”

  “Oh yeah sure,” she said. “Ignore my mum though. She has been in a really weird mood ever since… Ever since I woke up at the hospital.”

  “Love you,” he said. She smiled.

  “I love you.” When the conversation had ended Abbi immediately got dressed as fast as her injured body would allow her to. She might feel rotten. It didn’t mean she had to look it.

  Within about ten minutes Mark was sitting on the bottom of her bed. He gave her a kiss hello. He was looking extremely down.

  “What’s wrong?” Abbi asked.

  “I have got bad news,” he said. He took her hand. “Here goes. My family is leaving tomorrow morning.”

  “What! That’s less than twenty four hours away!” She burst out.

  “Hold on a minute,” Mark said quickly. “I have managed to persuade my father to let me stay here for an extra week.” Neither of them said anything while Abbi let it sink in. “I do still love you,” he told her. She had dropped her head into his chest while he wrapped his arms around her.

  “I know that I knew this was coming,” she said. “It doesn’t make it any easier. It is just such a short time away.” Her arms were tightening around him.

  “I got us seven more days,” he whispered to her. “Just remember that it could be worse.”

  “This is just typical,” she said. “Our time is running out and I am not really well enough to move very far out of the house.” He tilted her face up and gave her a kiss. She didn’t cry out from the pain like she had been doing. “I don’t want to loose you,” she said.

  “We have a week,” he said gently.

  After a while when neither of them said anything Abbi asked, “would you do me a favour and lie down next to me?” He nodded and they both lay back on her bed. Abbi looked at him. He wrapped his arms around her, careful of her injuries. She sighed and leaned into his shoulder.

  Within a minute Abbi was asleep. She hadn’t got much last night Mark guessed. She settled down and Mark looked at her. She was gorgeous. She tried to turn away from him in her sleep. He stopped her by grabbing her arm and turning her towards him. Otherwise she would have settled on her injured stomach. She snuggled closer to him in her sleep. This was incredibly comfortable Mark thought.

  However within about ten minutes of her sleep she sat bolt upright. “What’s wrong?” he asked her.

  “Dreams,” she said cuddling up to him again. “I keep dreaming of my attacker,” she said quickly.

  “What do you dream about him?” he asked her gently.

  “I dream he has me again and they… He stabs me over and over again. It’s awful. I can‘t bear all the pain and I wake up.”

  Mark was silently crying as she said that. It terrified him that she was still hurting this badly over this. It wasn’t bad enough that they nearly killed her, they were haunting her dreams now too.

  “You need to forget him,” he said softly.

  “I know I do. I’ve been trying. It’s not easy,” she said impatiently. She looked at him and was shocked to see him crying. “Don’t cry Mark. Please.” With a huge effort he stopped. “Can you take me out somewhere?” she asked.

  “Are you well enough?” he asked. She nodded.

  “I would like to be away from the same four walls for just an hour or two,” she said. Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Abbi’s mum and Jess were in the house so both Mark and Abbi stayed put. Soon though there was a knock on Abbi’s bedroom door. Eleanor popped her head around the door.

  “You’ve got a visitor,” she said. Mark and Abbi had sat up by now. The door opened wide and Rosalyn walked in with a bunch of flowers.

  “Hi Abbi,” she said. Mark held Abbi’s hand quite tightly as Rosalyn came in. Eleanor shut the door and all three of them were left alone.

  “What do you want?” Abbi asked.

  “I’ve come to say I’m sorry,” Rosalyn said. “I was an idiot on the phone and I really am sorry.”

  “This has nothing to do with the fact that I nearly died about a week ago,” Abbi asked shrewdly.

  “Well, I…” Rosalyn didn’t know what to say. She looked at Abbi for the first time since coming into the house. She was shocked by the state of it. Abbi saw Roselyn recoil slightly. Abbi stood up and walked over to her.

  “If you were really sorry it wouldn’t have taken you this long to visit me.” Abbi was suddenly furious with Rosalyn and saw her for the pathetic girl she was. Always blaming someone else. “What gives you the right to come here and look disgusted at my face? It’s my face. It’s not your problem. You didn’t apologize for the phone call at the time. If you had have done it would have been such a small thing we would have both forgotten about it by now. You feel guilty. That’s the only reason you are here.”

  “Abbi that’s not true,” Rosalyn said. But it was and they both knew it.

  “Get out,” Abbi told her. “Get out of my house.” Rosalyn slowly departed taking the flowers with her. Abbi breathed heavily as she sat back down. Mark asked her twice if she was alright before she answered.

  “Yes I’m fine,” she said while holding his hand. “That one has been coming for a while.”

  “What do we do now?” he said.

  “I guess we just keep sitting here,” Abbi said. They held hands in the silence all morning.

  Abbi had fallen asleep again. She was still holding Mark’s hand in her sleep. Mark looked at her, thinking about her. He would miss her so much when he left. But he had to leave. He would keep in contact with her though. He could
n’t not. Mark ran his fingers lightly through her hair. Abbi woke up with a start.

  “I didn’t mean to wake you,” he said straight away.

  “Don’t worry about it,” she said. “I’m not exactly enjoying my sleep recently anyway. Please take me out somewhere. I’m going crazy.”

  Mark wasn’t sure that leaving was best for her. “I will go and ask your mum if it’s alright?” he said to give him some thinking time. He left her room and went searching for Eleanor. He found her doing some ironing in the kitchen while listening to the radio. She turned it off when she saw Mark.

  “Abbi wants to leave the house for a couple of hours,” Mark told her. “Is it okay if I take her out for a while?”

  Eleanor nodded. “Be gentle with her,” she said quietly. Mark walked back to Abbi’s room.

  “You can come out with me if you want,” Mark told her. She looked so grateful that he knew he was doing the right thing. “I walked over here so I’m going to get my car and come back.”

  “I think I can manage walking to your house,” Abbi said smiling. “I’ve been stabbed, I’m not an invalid.” Mark didn’t say anything but walked with her out of the house. By the time they got to his car she was pale but still walking.

  “You’re sure you are okay to go out?” Mark asked again. He was beginning to doubt the wisdom of what he was doing.

  “Yes. Now please don’t ask me that again.” Abbi impatiently got into the car.

  “Where do you want to go?” he asked her.

  “I don’t mind,” she said shrugging. Mark thought he would take them to a cinema for a lunch time movie. When the movie had started and had been going for five minutes Mark looked at Abbi. She was asleep again. She looked very peaceful.

  As the movie ended Abbi started to stir. Mark gave her a gentle shake.

  “I guess I fell asleep,” she said smiling.

  “Yeah,” Mark said. He kissed her forehead and they left. At some point during the film it had started raining. Neither of them had so much as a coat.

  “You wait here,” Mark told her. “I’ll go and get the car and stop outside here.” Before Abbi could say anything Mark had left the cinema and was running into the pouring rain. Abbi felt much better. She had got some dreamless sleep. Finally. She was hungry though. Maybe they could get something to eat before going home. As this thought occurred to her she saw Mark’s car outside and he beeped the horn. She quickly dashed out and got in the car.