Battle Hardened, War Weary

Her torso and her shoulders displayed an array of scars. Some scars were minimal, healed up wounds that left dark-hued markings. The others were harsh-looking in appearance. They were either healed up wounds that formed keloids or hypertrophic scars. He only seen the ones that adorned her front, but as he sat there with her, his fingers felt the ones on her back. His eyes traveled to the one scar that first caught his attention. The one scar that made his body turn cold and a flame of anger shoot through him. It scarred the flesh that covered her left breast as if it was some sadistic form of a badge. Truck guessed from the pointed top and to the bottom, it was about twelve inches long and about nine inches wide. The scar was shaped in the manner of the item that burned her flesh: a clothes' iron. Her skin even had taken the form of the iron's ventilation holes. Judging the appearance, he guessed that the wound was old, which meant that she received this wound when she was a child. An image of a nine year-old Kali popped into his mind and then the thought of someone hurting her like this entered his brain. He grew enraged again, but he quickly stamps it down. Right now, he needed to focus on her. Besides, he thought that the scars slightly marred her beauty, because for Truck she was still gorgeous.

After removing her bra, he cautiously placed both of them inside of the bathtub. The temperature of the water felt great against his skin, so he assumed it didn't bother Kali. Grabbing a complimentary sponge from out of the gift basket, he dunks the sponge into the water and proceeded to clean Kali. He started out with her neck, washed every visible body part that was below and ended with her feet. As he cleaned her, he spoke to her in a soft whisper. Once lathering her up in soap, he rinsed her off and then laid her body against his. Soon, he stopped talking and allowed the music that was playing from the other room to try to snap her out of her daze.

"How did you get the nickname Truck?"

At first, Truck thought the question was a figment of his imagination. But, then he felt her move against him and eventually stare up at his face. A big wave of relief landed on him, once he realized that she finally out of her self-imposed trance. "You want to know about my nickname?" he asked, confused.

"Yes," Kali said with a smile. It wasn't the type that reached her eyes, but he'll take it. "From what I've remember, everyone called you 'Daniel' or 'Danny'. It wasn't until I saw you play your first game as a pro, on TV, that I've heard people call you Truck. Or... 'The Mother-Trucker' sometimes," she said to him with a rolling of her eyes.

Truck let out a deep-rumbled chuckle. "You don't know how many times I've tried to tell my coaches, the staff and my teammates to stop calling me that. Every time my mother and grandmother hear that name on television, I always receive a call from the both of them. Um... in regards to the Truck nickname, I received it during my rookie year, in training camp. It was during a practice and we were doing Okalahoma drills. Do you know what Okalahoma drills are?"

"Yeah, it's when a player is being tested on their contact skills by the coaches," she said to him.

"Very good," he said to her, while giving her nose a slight tap with his finger. "Anyway, I was being pitted against a big son of a bitch that goes by the name Tank. Do you know who Tank Lawson is?"

"No, but I'm going to guess that he is a big son of a bitch," she said to him with a smile. He chuckled and gave her a playful swat on her bountiful ass.

"Yeah, he's a big son of a bitch, but he's perfect if you want him to guard your quarterback. Well, in an Oklahoma drill, I was pitted against him. The Truck nickname had come from when I tackled his ass down to the turf and everybody said that I ran him down like I was a Mack truck. It's not original, but that's how I've gotten the nickname."

"Oh."

Kali's line of questioning did not stop there. She then asked him about his days in college and then about his rookie year of being in the Professional Football League. Then, she asked questions about miscellaneous topics. With every question, he gave her an honest answer. Truck understood the gist of her questioning. He knew it was a way for her to trust him again and to gain of sense of familiarity with him. He also saw it as a way for him to earn her trust.

It was an hour later since her 'return' and they were now lying in the bed again. After their bath together, Truck dried her off and then applied some jasmine-scented body lotion to her skin. Now, she didn't mind his appraisal of her scars and the act of being nude in front of him. He thought that it had to do with the fact that she was too busy asking him questions. They left the bathroom and gone back into the room. He instructed her to get in the bed while he turned the clock radio off, as well as, the desk's lamp. The room was filled with a low neon blue glow that shone from the walls' sconces. He shuffled over to the bed and climbed in on the emptied side. Kali scooted over to where he laid and rested her head against is massive chest. He felt too tired to even get something started with Kali and for once his dick agreed with him.

"So what do you have planned for tomorrow?" she asked him.

"Huh?" he said to her. "Um... I have to go to team meetings, then practice, do a couple of interviews, practice, go out... with some teammates, hopefully, I am in here and in bed before midnight. Why do you want to know? You want to take me out on a date or something? Cause, if you do, I have to tell you that I'm not a cheap date...." Then, he slipped into a sarcastic, over-exaggerated feminine dialect. "I want to go to a nice restaurant and eat some lobster and steak and drink from $400 bottle of champagne—

"And if I take you out to some fancy restaurant with expensive food and $400 bottles of champagne, I am expecting to be tapping some ass that night" Kali informed him. The statement caused Truck to break out in a hearty guffaw that echoed off of the walls. His body trembled from the laughter's exertion.

"That's cute. Real cute of you" he said to her.

"But no, I just wanted to know to... just to know. If you can't tell by now, I am asking random, dumb questions to... get to feel safe again."

"I know, baby, I know" he said to her. A pregnant amount of silence floated through the room. Both could sense that the other was still awake. "Kali?"

"Mmm?" she hummed.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure. I've been asking you questions. It's only fair."

"What was that thing?" he asked. He was met with silence. He thought that he asked an inappropriate question. He was about to apologize for asking, when she stopped him.

"I am trying to think of a way of explaining it to you without you being confused. A lot of normal people don't get it—

"You are normal, Kay-Ray" he said to her, also mentioning her childhood nickname. "You're just a normal human being who's gone through some shit and you're doing the best to get through the pain. If you ask me, you're stronger than a lot of people. I know chumps who can't even get through practice without bitching."

She was silent for a bit. He felt moisture on his chest. He was aware that she was crying again. "Thank you" she said to him. She removed herself from his embrace and sat up.

"You're welcome" he said to her, feeling a lump formed in his throat and his eyes sting. He hasn't felt this way since his baby brother's funeral, eight years ago.

"Shit, I'm crying again and I haven't even answered your question. Um... to answer your question, I tend to... check out from time to time, when I don't want to deal with shit. Abby, she's my therapist, told me that a lot of PTSD people do it, when they are confronted with something that makes us uncomfortable."

"PTSD?"

"Yeah, it stands for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder."

"The shit that army vets have after they return from war?" he asked.

"Yeah, the one and the same, except anybody could get it, including civilians. At my weekly meetings, I've met people who are survivors from car accidents and from other things like natural disasters and such. But there are a lot of old guys in my meetings who did fought in Vietnam. I was diagnosed with it two years ago."

"No shit?" he said, feeling in awe of the severity of how Kali's illness.

"Yeah, no shit." Again, there was silence. "I started doing it, the blacking out thing, when I was a kid. Back when I was beaten, or when other bad things happened to me. I would allow my mind to take me out to sea at night—

"Out to sea?" Truck said, sounding confused.

"Yeah, one of the places that I go to, in my mind, is out to sea. And I go at night. I think the ocean is beautiful at night."

"You can't see shit, at night, so how is it beautiful?"

"That's the beauty of it. You can hear the sea, but you can't see it. Have you ever stood in the ocean at night?"

"No, I've never had the urge to" he said as he adjusted himself.

"Well, I have and it's fascinating. It's thrilling. It's like being on a rollercoaster," she informed him.

"I'll take your word for it. You said that you've go to other places?"

"Mmm-hmm. There are two other places. One is a cenote that I've visited a few years ago, on a trip to Maya Rivera. In Mexico. The other place is an igloo. I've never been there. I saw a picture in a magazine and I thought it was beautiful."

There was a large mount of silence that occurred. Then, Truck said: "Kay-Ray, please tell me that the person who did that shit to you is rotting away in a jail cell or dead at least?"

Kali let out a sigh. "One person is indeed dead while the other is rotting away inside of her head, in some funny farm, out somewhere in New Jersey."

"The other person... is she your mom?" Truck asked.

"I'm tired. I am going to sleep now," she said brusquely. She lied back down. Instead of lying next to him like before, Kali was now lying in the unoccupied spot in the bed and she had her back facing him.

"I'm sorry for asking," he said to her, sounding remorseful.

"No, don't be, Truck..." she sighed. "... I'm the one who should be sorry for snapping at you. To answer your question, yes, it was my mom."

Truck wanted to know about the other son of a bitch, the one who had the fortune of being dead. But, he knew that Kali didn't want to talk about that painful part of her past. Plus, he heard how tired she felt, in her voice. So, he decided to end his line of questioning for the night. He scooted over to her side of the bed. He pressed his bigger frame against her smaller one. He whispered a 'good night' into her exposed ear. He was about to pull away from her, when he felt her clasp his thigh. He stared down at her hand and witness it makes its way up his thigh, to find his left hand. She then grabbed a hold of his hand and guided it to her front, where she ended up having his left arm cradle her torso. She wanted him to stay there. He smiled, gave her a kiss on the cheek and lied down next to her. He relished the time that he's spent with her tonight. He tried to memorize every detail from tonight. He managed to remember a few things, before slumber's veil had fallen over him. The last conscious thought he had, before falling asleep, was how come being with her felt so right and yet it is so wrong?

The sounds of Ludwig van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" pulled her out of her sleep. She was having a good sleep. No, she had a great sleep. After she woke up, she didn't know where she was at first, but then the memories of the previous night flashed through her mind. Amazingly, at some of those memories, she found that her pussy was wet as a result. She looked to her sleeping companion and felt the urge to wake him up. But first she needed to answer her phone.

Using the dull, neon blue light as a light source, Kali made her way from the bed, across the room and to where her purse was stored, without bumping into any piece of furniture. She grabbed her purse out of the chair and fished her cell phone out of the bag. She stared at the screen and checked the Caller ID. The words "The Asshole" in big, bold letters were smeared across the screen. A sense of annoyance and disgust blew up inside of her. She let out a huff of air before answering her phone.

"Hello," she said into her phone. She thought her voice still sounded hoarse.

"Well, hello there, my darling" the caller from the other line greeted.

The caller's voice was the type of voice that could've made any woman drop her panties. It possessed a deep baritone type of tone. The only thing that marred the voice was the fact that the owner of said voice always added feminine inflections. Kali knew that due to this habit, a lot of people thought that the caller was a gay man. It was an accusation that followed him since they were children. He wasn't gay; Kali knew that tidbit of information, all too well.

"How are you, on this lovely morning?"

"I'm doing fine, Ryan. In fact, I was sleeping" she informed him.

"Sleeping? On this fine, Friday night? You should be out partying. Or better yet, you should be here in the City, perhaps entertaining company in the form of a football player perhaps."

'So this is why he calls me,' her mind thought. "Are you referring to Daniel?"

"Why yes I am. He's in town this week, in fact. His team is playing the Juggernauts on this Sunday. I am going to assume that he's called you already."

"Yes, yes, he has. I am with him, right now," Kali informed him.

She expected for him to say something in response. Instead, he was silent for a period. It was an obvious sign for Kali that Ryan was perturbed. She knew that he was the type to become hot-tempered easily and that he was prone to fits of jealousy. A broad smile reached her face and inside of her there was a bit of happiness at the thought that Ryan was angry.

'If he doesn't like sharing his toys, then the asshole shouldn't have shared his toys with other people. Serves him right.' After the silence ran too long for her, she said a "hello" into her phone.

"I'm... I'm here... Just thinking..." the baritone-effeminate voice said to her.

'He's pissed,' she thought. In her mind's eye, she imagined him sitting in an expensive, asinine piece of furniture that he owns, with a grimace on his face while having this conversation.

"So... how long have you been there?"

"Since seven o' clock," she answered with a smile on her face. She wondered if he could hear the smile.

"Was... was... was he better than me?" Kali heard him ask. At this point, she wanted to laugh, but she didn't.

"No" she lied. "I pretty much just lied there, like I usually do." She heard Ryan give a smug chortle at hearing that bit of information.

"Good. Did he make you cum?" he asked.

'Yes, plenty of times. And I am hoping that he can give me a few more, once I get off the phone with you, you fucking pansy-pink wearing-jack ass.' Her thought made her giggle a little. "No" she said, after taking a few seconds to calm down. "No. I can't cum. You know that."

'I used to believe that was true.'

"Okay... do you have plans with him for tomorrow?"

"No. He has tons of things to do tomorrow and he's going to be busy on Sunday, of course and then he's going home on Sunday night," Kali informed him.

"My, my, don't you have his itinerary mapped out?" Ryan said to her, with his voice sounding agitated. Of course, Kali found the whole thing gleeful. "You do realize that he is going home to his fiancee, right?"

"Of course, I know that, Ryan" Kali said to him, with her voice maintaining a level of even-keeled. "How could I not forget about Mary-Anne? I've been seeing her face all over my television screen, talking about not sinning, but winning. I like that that she is talking to the kids about making the correct choices in their lives. I just wish a certain somebody would've thought about his choices in sharing his reluctant-blackmailed-sex slaves, so he wouldn't be throwing hissy-fits over the phone—

"WATCH WHAT YOU SAY TO ME!!!" was the statement that was shouted from the other line. Ryan's voice no longer held the fancy, feminine lilt, but now possessed an angry baritone that was natural. "If I was you, I would be careful as to what you say to me. In case you've forgotten, my Kali, I can make your life into a living Hell. Your ass is better off being my cum-stained whore than some side-street, ghetto trash that is turning tricks. After all, it is your destiny, isn't it?" he warned.

'Low blow, asshole' her mind growled.

With tears forming at the rim of her eyes and with anger running through her veins, Kali said, in an even tone of voice, "I've forgotten and I am sorry," through clenched teeth.

There was a chuckle from Ryan's end of the phone call. "Well, that's better," he said with his voice now saturated with that feminine lilt again. "I don't want you to forget your place. Because I have no problem reminding you, once again. Now, with that being said, I want to see you tomorrow, after you're done with that big Neanderthal of course. And I want you cleaned, of course."

"Yes, I will be clean," Kali informed him.

"Are you going to work tomorrow?"

"Yes, sir" she said to him while she stared at the sleeping form that slept in the bed.

"Okay, so Santos will be picking you up from your place of business and I expect you to be here by 6 PM sharp."

"Yes."

"Kali, have a good day today and I'll see you tonight," said Ryan. She could hear the smugness in his voice. At that moment, she wished that she could slap the smirk off of his imagined face.

"You too," she murmured.

Then she heard the call disconnect. Kali turned her phone off and tossed it onto the desk's top. It landed with a loud 'clang' upon impact. Mindlessly and wordlessly, she made her way into the bathroom. She did a brief search for the switch of the light source, she found it and turned the light on. A bright light flooded the room. She blinked a few times in order to adjust. Kali used the sink to wash her face and her hands. Just by talking to Ryan over the phone, Kali felt dirty. After she dried her face off with a hand towel, she put the towel on the sink's counter. She glanced in the mirror and saw Truck's reflection. She yelped and jumped from fright.

"Sorry," he said to her. He walked into the bathroom and stood behind her nude form. His hands went to her hips and then applied a light caress to her back. Kali noticed that he was still naked himself; when she felt his erect cock's head graze her back.

"It's alright, you just gave me a bit of a fright," she said to him with a hint of a laugh. She glanced down at the counter. Inside of her head, she thought about her conversation with Ryan.

"Kali, are you really alright?" Kali's eyes lifted from the counter top and gone back to the mirror, where she stared at Truck's reflection. She saw in his eyes a source of genuine worry. 'Is he worried about me?' she thought.

"Yeah, baby, I am all right. Actually, I will be all right. How's that?" she said to him, with a smile on her face. In response, he pulled her into his arms and held her in a tight embrace. He planted a kiss on her right shoulder. The act of affection did go unnoticed by her. She felt her heart swell with emotion and even a swelling taken place in her lower lips. 'What the hell is going on with me?'

"That sounds better," he told her. They stood there silently for a minute, before Truck spoke again. "Baby, I want you know that I would never do anything to hurt you."

"Mmm-hmm," she groaned, feeling mistrustful of that declaration.

"No, I mean that, Kali. I'm not like Ryan. I'm not like that asshole."

Kali saw, in her reflection that her facial expression morphed into one of pleasant surprise, when she heard Truck refer to a good friend of his as an 'asshole'. From what she remembers, Truck and Ryan were the best of friends during their years of high school.