Family Comes First

Chapter 15: My Rewarding Punishment

It seemed like I stayed forever on Jimmy's lap. My face was nuzzled in his neck while he ran his fingers through my hair. He had taken the elastic out and played with the wet strands. It ended when he patted my back before he took my arms off from around his neck. He was careful with my wrist.

"I have to go outside and talk to Dad," he said.

I nodded. I bit down on my lip to stop myself from frowning. I didn't want him to leave me yet. I did not want to be left alone.

"Do you want to wait here or in the living room?" he asked.

"The living room," I said.

I didn't want to know what the sheets on the bed looked like from last night. They were most likely covered in my blood. I had to make sure that I was good so that it never happens again. Jimmy does not want to do it, so I should not give him a reason to.

"Let's go," he said.

I got off of his lap. He laced his fingers through mine on my good hand. We walked down the stairs together. We went straight into the living room. I sat down on the couch and Jimmy crouched in front of me.

"Wait here until I come back, okay?" he said.

"Okay." I nodded my head.

"Good girl."

He kissed my cheek before standing. I watched him as he walked out of the house. I sat in silence and picked at the hem of my sweater as I waited for Jimmy to come back inside. It felt like a long time before he finally came back inside.

When I heard the kitchen door open, my lips lifted into a faint smile. He smiled when he saw me and tucked his long hair behind his ears. He sat down beside me and kissed my cheek again. His lips were dangerously close to the large bruise on my jaw.

"Dad and Tommy left to go into town," Jimmy said. I forgot about our conversation the other night about them going into town every once in a while. "We got everything done that needs to be done, so we pretty much have the day off."

I smiled bigger. I did not need to spend the day alone. I got to spend the day at Jimmy's side.

"I want to reward you," Jimmy said.

I knit my brows. He just punished me last night for doing something stupid, so why would I get a reward? I was expecting him to continue to punish me. It showed me that he did not want to hurt me. It showed me how much he cares about me.

"Just wait a couple of minutes," he said. "I want to make sure they're gone first."

He got up off the couch and walked over to the window. The rusted blue pickup truck was pulling out of the driveway. The stones of the gravel driveway crunched under the tires. Jimmy let out a deep breath and the tension left his shoulders.

I went to get off of the couch, and Jimmy held out his hand to stop me.

"Wait for a minute," he said.

I sat back down, and Jimmy walked out of the room. I could not see what he was doing, but I could hear him moving around in the kitchen. He came back into the living room with a bag of frozen peas. He placed it on top of my bad wrist.

"That should help keep the swelling down," he said.

He kept my wrist in my hand as I stood. Jimmy looked over his shoulder at the window. He must be making sure that Charles and Tommy were really gone and had not come back. Whatever he is going to reward me with must make his father angry. I could not believe that Jimmy would do something so special for me.

A couple of minutes passed of us standing still in silence.

"Come on," he said, breaking the silence.

Jimmy pulled me out of the living room. I tried my best to keep up with his pace so that it did not strain my wrist. We walked into the kitchen and went to the back door. He hooked his fingers around the chain and pulled the key off from around his neck.

I could barely believe what I was seeing when I watched Jimmy unlock the back door. He opened the door, and the sun poured into the house. It burned my eyes. I have only seen the sun through the bars for the past few weeks. We walked out onto the wooden porch.

The autumn breeze was like heaven against my skin. I took in a deep breath of air. I ignored the pain in my swollen lip as I smiled. I looked over at Jimmy to see that his face was beaming.

"I thought you would like it," he said. "I couldn't imagine being cooped up in the house all day. We can come out here when it is just the two of us. You just can't tell Tommy or Dad that I let you out here."

I nodded and looked out to the barn. It was the last thing you could see before a thick array of trees. I noticed a line of chicken coops along the side of the barn. I wondered what they grew, but I did not bother to ask.

"Thank you," I said.

Jimmy wrapped his arm around me and pulled me towards him. He pressed his lips against mine. I gasped when he hit the swollen bit. He pulled away and then kissed my forehead.

He sat down on one of the plastic chairs that were by the door. He pulled me down onto his lap. I wiggled around until I could find a spot to settle into that did not hurt.

I was finally outside. This was the thing that I wanted more than anything a couple of days ago but now it is different. If I tried to run away, Jimmy would catch me especially after being injured. Where would I even run to? It was not like I wanted to get back to those perverts at the club.

Jimmy was right. They were the only ones who cared for me.

--

Jimmy and I spent most of the day outside on that chair. My body was exhausted from last night, and I found myself drifting off to sleep in his arms. Jimmy did not say anything about it, and when I would wake up he would be running his fingers through my hair.

When we went inside, we both pulled leftover food out of the fridge and heated it in the oven. Once we were finished eating, Jimmy guided me upstairs like he normally does.

Jimmy assisted me with putting on another T-shirt. My muscles were sore as I stretched my arms up over my head. Jimmy moved the covers to the side, and I crawled into bed. He tucked the blankets around me and sat on the edge of the bed.

He reached for the nightstand on his side of the bed. He opened the drawer and pulled something out. I could see that it was a novel. The cover of the book was faded and torn, and it looked like pages were falling out. He tucked a piece of hair behind his ear, and I could see the title.

Lord of the Flies.

He was going to share something with me that he loved so much. I reached out my good hand and wrapped my fingers around his wrist. He flashed me a smile before he began to read.