Dark Leather

No one even noticed that Ilana had been gone, the maid when she came
home that night merely commented that her parents had left early Saturday on a
business trip and wasn\'t sure when they\'d be back. Ilana had mumbled
something in reply and went up to her room.

She took a long hot shower, the heat hurt at first but soon her whole body
was numb, then and only then did she get out and go to bed. Her sleep was
haunted and restless all night.

The next morning as she ate breakfast the incident with Celest seemed
merely a bad dream, nothing more, though their was pain in her back when she
was dressing and when she moved just right. The day started out well and
normal, for a Monday, but the day went downhill when she saw Celest as she
came into school, instead of waving she just walked by trying to ignore her and
pretend she doesn\'t exist.

Somehow she got seperated from her friends and pushed back by the
crowd until she found herself suddenly alone. Out of nowhere an arm appears
and slams her up against the wall, into a small knook behind a roll of lockers
where she couldn\'t be seen.

\"My, barely a twenty-four hours away and already your being defiant,
naughty girl.\"

Celest says as she steps into Ilana\'s line of vision, a displeased look on
her face. Ilana tries to speak but stops when she shakes her head.

\"No, no excuses, I warned you what would happen if you disobeyed me. I
didn\'t give you anything hard to do, just a little wave was all I asked, but no, you
don\'t seem to know how to listen, well, we\'re going to fix that, now won\'t we.\"
Seeing Celest had brought everything back, the whole reality of it, and she
felt as if she were at the edge of a cliff with only one way off and that was down,
down onto the sharp rocks below.

Celest leans in closer, an evil smile on her face, their lips touch and Ilana
freezes, Celest holds her head in place and kisses her hard enough to bruise.
She doesn\'t stop there, her tongue moves out, trying to get into Ilana\'s mouth and
when she fights it Celest squeezes her face until she complies. Celest forces
her tongue to react to her\'s, not satisfied until Ilana is kissing back, while their
kissing Celest\'s free hand works it\'s way under Ilana\'s shirt and to her back
where she presses against the still sore wounds, not hard enough to reopen
them but enough to cause alot of pain.

Ilana\'s back arches and she moans in pain, red hot pain sears through her
back and her body, filling her, and when it ends their\'s a dull throb in her back
that she could of sworn was in the shape of Celest\'s hand. Celest pulls back, a
satisfied look on her face, Ilana shrinks away, more scared then she had been
before.

\"I don\'t want to see you disobeying me again...\"

The last bell rings, warning anyone who\'s late that they had better get to
their respective class.

\"Time to go, wouldn\'t want to miss school. Don\'t forget, your going home
with me after school.\"

Celest says as she walks away, her words sounding like a threat to Ilana
who slowly made her way to her first class, trying to ignore the pain in her back.
The day went by in a daze for Ilana, nothing seemed as it should be, and
everytime she went near Celest she would give her a warning look and when
Ilana would wave at her the look would turn into a full out smile.
\"What\'s up with that?\"

Christine, one of those blond, blue eye, dumb cheerleaders spoke up after
Ilana had waved at Celest. Ilana had never liked Christine, but because of her
money and the status that her parents had she had been made part of the group,
and only because all of the boys had voted her in, Ilana knew it had something to
do with the fact that Christine didn\'t know how to wear cloths, only strips of
fabric, and was willing to sleep with anyone.

Ilana gives Christine a dirty look but doesn\'t answer her, one plus to being
the leader she doesn\'t have to answer for her actions, not unless they put the
group at risk, which was very likey to happen soon, but right now while she had
the power she would use it, every bit of her face, her body language, told
Christine to \'go to hell\'. As usual Christine looked away and didn\'t argue, she
never did, though she\'d talk about you behind your back.

Celest to had gotten questioned about the waving by Michelle who had
been sitting next to her during lunch on one incident.

\"So, are you two friends now?\"

Celest had just shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

\"Lets just say that we have an understanding.\"

Michelle let it slide, but she had noticed that as of late Celest had been
distancing herself, they didn\'t go out to the mall on the weekends, they didn\'t
meet up at their favorite pizza place after school, the only times that they see
each other anymore is during school, and even then Celest doesn\'t talk much.
Michelle knows that something is wrong but she\'s almost afraid to ask, afraid of
what the answer might be.

Celest was outside waiting for Ilana after school was over, waiting through
the crowd of teenager\'s that went by. Ilana had thought that maybe by being one
of the last to leave Celest would of given up and left but she\'d been wrong, Celest
was more determined then she had thought. She didn\'t even fight it, image or
not, she didn\'t want to be in pain anymore, she wanted her old life back.

\"Where are you going?\"

This had come from Andrew, he had quite possibly come to closest to
being a friend to her, she had never allowed anyone as close as she had allowed
him, though she hadn\'t ever thought of him romatically, besides, he\'d had a crush
on Michelle his whole life. He was one person she didn\'t want to hurt.
\"It\'s none of your business, Andrew.\"

She sighs, no, she couldn\'t hurt him.

\"I\'m getting too low in my grades, if I don\'t pick them up then I don\'t
graduate, and she\'s the only one who can help me. There, you happy now?\"

\"No, because you seem so sad, Ilana, I don\'t like it.\"

Ilana\'s back gets straighter and she looks him in the eye.

\"You don\'t have to like it, it\'s my life not yours.\"

With that she left and walked over to where Celest stood, she seemed to
get smaller the closer she came to Celest, she felt smaller for sure. Celest
waves at Andrew as they leave the school yard. He doesn\'t know what\'s going on
but something\'s wrong, Ilana isn\'t usually that scared, nothing has ever scared
her, feeling eyes on him he glances up and finds Michelle looking over at him,
their eyes connect and for that split second they shared their fears for their
friends and understood each other, then the contact broke and they were worlds
apart.


***


Celest unlocked the door to her home and motioned Ilana in, she did has
told, hugging her books to her, she didn\'t know what was going to happen and
the uncertainty of it scared her more then any knowledge might. When they were
inside Celest shut and locked the door behind her, the sound of the key turned
made Ilana jump and she laughs, putting the key in her pocket.

\"Come.\"

She commands and makes her way to her room. They had the house to
themselves for who knows how long, her mother had went out the night before to
a party and when she does that she usually stays gone for days on end, not that
she was really their when she was home, the way she stayed doped up.

\"So, I\'m tutoring you?\"

Celest says with a smile as they walk into her room, she sets her
backpack behind the door. Ilana clutches her books closer, her hands are almost
completely white she\'s holding them so tightly.

\"Well, since that\'s what your saying your grades had better improve.\"

Putting a hand on her shoulder Celest leads Ilana to the desk and tells her
to sit down, when Ilana pulls out her homework Celest takes her own and sits on
the bed and in no time she goes through and finishes it. Her mind can somehow
process everything and find the answer to it in minutes, she spends most of her
life thinking her every action out before doing anything, though it may only take a
seconds thought.

Celest lays back on the bed after placing her backpack on the floor, she
watches Ilana work, struggling with her work, after about five minutes she moves
off the bed and stands, bored. She walks up behind Ilana and looks down at her
homework, sighing at what she see\'s.

\"Your never going to get anywhere doing that, what are you just putting
things down?\"

She smacks the back of Ilana\'s head and moves to the side then
proceeds to show Ilana the right way to go about it, smacking her when ever she
doesn\'t get something right. Ilana does her best to do what Celest says, but after
a point she can\'t hardly think past the pain in her head, finally Celest announces
that their done and she happily puts the books away.

\"You may become something after all.\"

Celest stretches and yawns, the clock on the desk says that it\'s five til ten,
Celest is glad she only works four days a week, giving herself the weekend and
Monday\'s off, three days off in a roll is nice and the pay is still more then what
most make. If it wasn\'t for her job she wouldn\'t have much to live on. When her
stomach growls she chuckles.

\"Sounds like it\'s time to eat. Come.\"

She says and makes her way out of the room, Ilana hesitates, making her
more then a little angry.

\"Don\'t even try me.\"

Celest picks up the whip which had been hanging on a hook behind the
desk, Ilana shrinks visibly and stands.

\"Good. You don\'t want to make me angry, especially not when I\'m in such
a good mood.\"

Celest places the hand with the whip at Ilana\'s back an leads her out of
the room, Ilana tenses up and moves when she\'s suppose to. In the kitchen
Celest walks over to the table and points to the floor beside it.

\"Kneel.\"

Ilana does as ordered, too scared not to plus her head was still ringing
from all the smacks. While Ilana kneel\'s on the floor Celest makes herself a
sandwich and gets a glass of water before taking a chair beside Ilana. She\'d
been far to lenient to Ilana, she knew that, she knew also that she\'d have to start
getting tougher, harden up, because if she didn\'t do this right the first time then
their would be no second chances. Life doesn\'t give second chances.

Ilana looks up at Celest, almost begging her for some food, Celest only
shakes her head and gives her the glass of water.

\"No food, not until I say so.\"

Ilana takes the water and drinks, too afraid not to, she could just see
Celest taking even that away if she hesitated to take it, she didn\'t want that to
happen. What she did want seemed so far away, she wanted everything back to
how it once was, if she could go back in time she would of left Celest alone, why
she had even picked on her she wasn\'t sure, except that she needed someone to
vent to. Even though she has both her parents and is rich she is alone, her
parents don\'t notice when she\'s gone, don\'t care either.