Tatiana
The aggressive sound coming from my alarm had me grumbling loudly, kicking the heavy duvet off my body, and cursing at the universe for forcing me to wake up at such an hour. I pick up my phone, staring at the message from Emily gushing about the first day of school and the game later today.
I drag my body into the bathroom, and even after a hot shower, I still look like a newly transformed zombie. D*mn it! Why did summer break have to be over so soon? In hindsight, it was my last year of high school. Nine more months and I would be out of here and in my dream college. I hate everything about high school. One would think that despite having everything — I was on the cheerleading team, I had straight As, a bright future at Yale, and of course, a rich mother —my life should be perfect. It was everything but perfect. I walk into my closet and rummage through the endless rows of clothes, searching for something worthy of my first day back in school as a senior. I settle for a baby pink crop top and jeans. I pick up a blazer for later in case it gets chilly. After a last look in the mirror, adjusting my perfectly styled hair, I dashed for the stairs. “You look pretty.” My mother says as soon as I walk into the dining room. She’s busy on the kitchen counter and barely throws a glance my way. I give her a faint smile when she meets my gaze. “Meh, you look like a dull stuff with cotton. I mean, look at your cheeks.” Ah, there it is. One of the imperfections in my life. My stepbrother, Hasan. “And you look like you snuck into Earth.” I clapped back, pulling out the chair furthest from him. Rather than taking offense to my insult, Hasan laughs. I mean, really laugh. The melodious sound of his laughter does something to my thighs that infuriates me. “Settle down, kids.” Mom places the last dish on the table. “I didn’t do anything, Mom.” “Yeah, yeah,” Hasan mocks, making a silly face at me that makes me want to throw a loaf of bread his way. Hasan is my stepbrother. A thorn in my side that is impossible to get rid of. My mom adopted him when I was in fifth grade. I had come home that day from school to find the f*ck*r lying on my bed. No one lays on my bed, not even my mom. He casually introduced himself as my brother, as if it was totally normal. And I have been stuck with him since then. Hasan is irritating and frustrating and urgh! He makes me want to poke him in the eye with a burning stick. I swear I couldn’t stand him. I hated him more than I hated everyone else. But something happened in the summer I was away with my friends. In my eyes, Hasan had the obscenest glow-up known to mankind. Of course, having Arabic genes helped. Deep eyes, high cheekbones that most women pay to have, long lashes, thick jet-black hair, a subtle beard, and teeth so f*ck*ng white they blind you. He had gone from geeky and annoying to cover magazine-worthy hot. Suddenly, I stopped seeing him as my annoying stepbrother. He became so f*ck*ng hot that most nights, I had to touch myself while thinking of him doing nasty, dirty things. “Jesus, Tatiana! Are you even listening?” My mom snaps her fingers in my face. I blink, slowly coming back to. My gaze first lands on Hasan, who gives me a knowing look, his plump lips expanding into a teasing smile. God, he is so f*ck*ng annoying. “Yes, Mom.” “I will be out of town for the next days. You are in charge; watch over your brother and report back to me if he does anything foolish.” Mom says calmly, digging into her bacon. “I am not his babysitter.” I state. Hasan makes a silly face. I grab the loaf of bread on my plate, ready to use it as a weapon when my mother spoke up. “No. but you are more responsible than he is. You are in charge, and that is final.” My mom says in a stern tone, one that leaves no room for debate. Knowing I will be in charge of Hasan makes me unable to stomach anything. I know he would go out of his way to make my life the next days a f*ck*ng nightmare. I shift back my chair, grab my backpack, and storm out of the house. Outside, the sun is already overhead in the sky, and it's blazing hot, which is weird for the current weather in New Hampshire. I get into my car and put on my seatbelt. After making sure the gear is in neutral, I press the push start button. The silent hum that always comes on after I do this doesn’t come on. Something is wrong. I try again. Same outcome. F*ck. I step out of my car and open the bonnet hood. I realize how stupid I look because I didn’t know sh*t about cars. What exactly was I supposed to be looking at? I sigh heavily in disappointment. As cheerleading captain, I am expected to be in school earlier than everyone else, but my bloody car won’t start, and I am stuck. “Need a ride, sis?” Hasan’s irritating voice resonates behind me. He wears his signature smug smile as he throws his backpack over his shoulders, tucks his hand in his jeans, and comes to a halt behind me. He is close. Too close. I feel his breath against my neck. I quickly pull away from him. “You don’t have to stand that close to me.” I try to move away from Hasan, but he grabs me before I can. He slams my back against my car and brings his body dangerously close to mine. My heart pounds in my chest loudly; it supersedes the sound of my heartbeat. I duck my head backward to avoid Hasan’s face drawing close to mine. “Hasan. What are you doing, Hasan?” I look around nervously, scared that someone might see us in this position. Hell, even Mother was still inside and she could walk out any minute. But Hasan didn’t care. He doesn’t reply. He smiles, takes his hand out of his pocket, and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. Then, as slowly as possible, he leans in, his breath fanning against my neck. “I know what you do every night before bed.” Before Hasan’s words could settle in my subconscious, he disappears into his car. Not only leaving me stranded without a ride to school, but also wondering if he was awake when I snuck into his room and masturbated on his work table. ____________TatianaI felt suffocated. My lungs refused to pull in enough oxygen as I stumbled through the crowd, weaving past strangers whose faces blurred out completely. Hasan’s laugh echoed behind me, mocking and haunting through the five fragile years I had spent trying to bury him in the darkest corners of my memory.I couldn’t be here breathing the same air as him.I couldn’t risk those eyes that once looked at me with obsession, but in the sweetest way possible were now sharpened with hatred.So I bolted through the crowd, every step sinking me down like I was running through a quicksand, as my pulse hammered in my ears. Five years. Five whole bloody years since the damn video. Since my mother’s screams. Since Hasan had been dragged out of our lives and my life ruined forever. Five years since I had betrayed him with the most cowardly act of my existence; pointing the finger at him, letting him take the blame for something we had been a willing participant for. I had thought he was gon
TATIANAThe night had barely started and it was already falling apart.I stepped into the club, music pounding through my chest, club lights slicing through the smoke as I forced my body into motion. It was supposed to be easy, just my everyday routine to smile, dance and collect my tips. But tonight, some client decided to make it personal.A man heavily induced with alcohol but with an entitlement heavier than it all had cornered me during my slow set. “Hey, doll, come over here. I want to talk.”I shook my head, forced the faintest smile. “I’m working. Sorry.” I replied. His gesticulation disgusted me and even after months of working here, I still couldn’t stomach such people.The man sneered, reaching for my arm. “Don’t give me that, you know you want this.”Him touching me was my thirteenth reason. I pulled my arm back, slapping his hand away. “Back off,” I hissed. “No means no, you sick fuck!” I barked as I picked up his glass, threw the contents on his face and slammed the glas
TatianaFIVE YEARS LATER.The nightmare always started the same way: me on my knees in our old living room, my mom holding up her phone to my face with the video that ruined everything, her face red with a mix of tears and rage. “Do you understand what you have done, Tatiana? You’ve ruined us, Tatiana!” she screamed. “You’ve dragged this family into filth.” she added, her voice laced with pain and betrayal.I tried to speak, but my throat felt like it had been sewn. My hands shook so badly and my lips trembled horrendously I thought they would fall off.“Mom, I’m -”Mom’s hand raised in the air and I flinched, bracing for the slap, but then an arm hovered over my face. “Don’t touch her.” Hasan said in a cold tone, his eyes red with rage. The fire in his voice matched the fire in mom’s eyes. Hasan’s jaw locked, every vein in his neck visible as he stood in front of me like a barrier. My mother’s face crumbled, grief twisting her into something even more terrifying than rage.“I lost
TatianaI didn’t move. I just lay there, breathing in the faint scent of Hasan’s shirt, the warmth of his arms around me like a shield I never knew I needed. My body was heavy from crying, but inside my chest, my heart wouldn’t stop beating as if it was trying to remind me of the mess that is my life.I could have stayed like that forever, cocooned in the safety of his hold, but the more I listened to his heartbeat against my ear, the more something stirred inside me. The same thing that caused all these headaches.Lust.I wanted to stop thinking. About the damn videos. About the blackmailer. About my withering friendship with Emily. About the videos. I didn’t want to feel like Tatiana Olivera. I just wanted to feel like I belong to him.I tilted my face upward. Hasan’s jawline loomed above me. My hand lifted on its own, brushing against his chest. Hasan froze, but only for a second, then his gaze dropped down to mine and then I kissed him.It was hesitant at first, unlike the other f
TatianaEmily’s face was crimson, her hands trembling at her sides. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, every breath a dagger tearing through the fragile air between us.“You don’t know me at all,” she whispered first, her voice quivering. Then it cracked into something sharper. “You never knew me, did you?”I opened my mouth, but the apology got tangled with my shame. The words came out fractured and brittle. “Emily, I didn’t mean…”“Yes, you did!” she screamed, her voice slicing through the walls like glass shattering. “You meant every damn word. You’ve been sitting there, staring at me like I’m a criminal, doubting me, blaming me after everything I’ve done for you!”Her hysteria was so loud I didn’t realize my door had opened until I saw movement. Hasan appeared in the hallway, his expression unreadable. And then, behind him, Mom emerged from her bedroom, her robe wrapped tightly around her as if she had already been woken by the storm erupting in mine.“Girls?” Mom’s voice had a whip
TatianaI’m not sure how long I stared at the grainy footage in my hand, but I know it’s a long, long time. In fact, so long that when I blinked out of my state of shock, the time above my phone indicated that minutes had passed, within which Emily had descended a few steps and right when she was about to put her hand on my shoulder, I quickly tucked away my phone.Emily looked at me warily, hiding her concern behind a mild chuckle. “You okay, T? You looked like you’ve seen a ghost.” Tilting just enough such that her face was inches away from mine.“Yeah, just another message from the stalker.” I say. Emily sticks out her hand.“Let me s-““No!” I answer quickly, quickly before Emily could even finish talking, thereby raising suspicions. Emily tilted her head quizzically. “I mean.. it’s nothing. Just another silly message. Let’s go upstairs.”Thankfully, Emily didn’t press any further. We walked to my room and barely seconds after sitting down, Emily began listing out names of people