*D'Essence's POV*

Dre.

I need to stop stressing myself over him.

I know he's tripping...but I need to focus on other things.

Like why Kenji's crazy self likes to sleep on the floor with his in the air. In MY room. Man, I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and fell face first, oh my gosh, I'm just like 'what the hellll???' I didn't know what that was but then I looked down to see that fool. In that position.

Anyways, my mother is sending me to the store to go get some butter, milk, and bread. I was walking, of course. It was only a couple of blocks away. There was a store that was even closer to our house but that one was recently robbed and so they're closing it off to customers right now so they can re-order their supplies and fix the windows.

I usually walk fast. I tried clearing my thoughts as I neared the parking lot of the corner store.

Wow. That was fast.

I spotted a group of guys just hanging around the door. Why do they look kind of familiar? And why on earth on they standing next to the sign that says, 'No Loitering' ?

Like, for real?

I was walking past them, but of course, some of them just had to say something:

"Hey, y."

"Look at that , mmm...!"

"Lookin' good lil' mama."

"Ooh, she's fine."

"If you were a booger, I'd pick you first."

I stopped dead in my tracks. Okay. Now that.. was just gross. "Oh my God. I know y'all are not trying to pick up women in the parking lot of a corner store. And you?" I pointed to the one who said that last line, "I strongly advise you to  never use that pick up line again. Ew." I took a good look at them. Why on earth do they look so familiar? They were surrounded by blunts, smoke, and brown paper bags with beer bottles and cans in them. Ugh.

One tried to touch my . I turned in 0.5 seconds. "Don't. Touch. Me."

And you know what he did? This fool chuckled and turned to one of his friends, "Haha, she's trying to play hard to get." I rolled my eyes, clearly irritated and continued my walk to the inside of the store. I was so irritated and deep into my thoughts that I didn't even notice as I headed to the dairy section of the store, that Andre had just walked out of the store with his half drunk self, his freshly new tattooed arm, one pack of cigerettes, in his back pocket, and 5 full bottles of beer in his hands. (Keep in mind that he's still underaged)

I got my groceries and as I went up to the cashier to pay for them, I heard a familiar voice yell,

"SHE DID WHAT?!"

I shrugged off the outburst, not realizing the owner of the voice, and walked out with the food I paid for.

And guess who I bumped into?

"Andre?"

He turned around, "D'Essence. What the are you doing here, when you have a store that's closer to your house? Why you out here? And what the hell is this I hear about you trying to flirt with one of my friends??"

What. The. Hell.

What did he just say? Flirt? With...with his friends? HA!!

That's like me kissing Flavor Flav.

Oh my gosh. NOW I recognize these guys!

These are Andre's brother's friends whose been hanging around Andre!! It all makes sense now! The drugs. Drinking. And i-is that a freaking tattoo I see?? What the- what the mess??

"What....on Earth are you talking about, Andre?" He carried on, "I don't believe this!! First you got that sophmore Amari all up on you, and now you're trying to get with one of my friends?? ARE YOU SOME KIND OF D'ESSENCE?"

He shoved me. Hard. But the words hurt more than the push.

I slapped his face, mad at him for accusing me likes this.

"DRE!!!"

He yelled at me some more, "DON'T YOU RESPECT ME WOMAN?" His friends started making comments. The one guy who reached for my earlier spoke again, "Yeah and you can't even flirt well. Stop playing hard to get."

I got ALL IN HIS FACE.

"CHILD, I'M NOT PLAYING HARD TO GET, I JUST DON'T LIKE YOU, YOU UGLY FOOL!!!!!" I hit the back of his head as hard as I could.

"Owwiiieeeeeeeee" he whined, "Dre, I don't liek you're girl. She's mean. You need to keep her under control."

Dre sighed, and drowned his beer. He drank the whole bottle under 60 seconds. He pointed his finger in my face, "You...are too much.. First you flirt with him, and then hit him? HIT ONE OF MY FRIENDS?" Andre turned around just for a second and then......

POWWWWWW!!!!!!!!

His fist hit my face. So. Hard.

I've never been hit so hard in my life. I sank to the ground, groceries in now ripped bags. All of his friends started yelling

"Oh SH*T!!" and ran like crazy.

Andre took a sip of a new bottle of beer, "Heh. Bet you ain't see that coming, now did you, Dee? YOU WANNA HIT LIKE A IN' MAN, THEN I'LL TREAT YOU LIKE ONE, B*TCH."

I. Was. I. Complete. Shock. My whole body temporarily froze. I couldn't even cry. He kicked me in the stomach. 17 times to be exact.

"Andre." I finally whispered. And then he paused. I mustered up my strength, and got to my feet. But only to be pushed right back down.

"I'm not done with you." He sounded so drunk. Which he was.

When? When had he found the time to become so....terrible? Without me knowing? Why?

"Andre...why-"

I cried out. He interrupted me with his drunk kisses. His lips traveled down my neck, he felt up my upper body. His fingers traced down my stomach and to my pants. To my zipper and to the button. Next thing I know, they're off.

"D'Essence." He paused again. This was crazy.

I tried so hard to set myself free, but I could not think straight enough.

C'mon D'Essence. Fight. Fight back. This will not happen. NO. "D'Essence" he called me again. I managed to punch him square in the jaw, but then he quickly hit me in the gut with his beer bottle and fell on top of me.Keep in mind that we were on the concrete of the sidewalk right outside of the store. Where was everybody?

He stayed on top of me. "D'Essence. You're mine." I stopped struggling.

Those words.

So familiar.

He continued, "I own you. Do not forget that." As he kissed me again and stuck his finger in my pants, I tried to focus on the 99 cent soda advertisement on the store's windows, praying to my dead stepfather, as if he could help me somehow.

Why?

Why me?

As if on cue, the drunk bastard passed out. Right on top of me. I didn't release my tears just yet. I made sure he was out cold for sure. I slowly and silently slid my pants back on, removing his fingers from my underwear. I picked up the groceries in the ripped bags, that brought me to such danger at a store, and started walking out of the parking lot.

The empty parking lot.

No one was a witness to what had just happened.

No witness at all.

No one.