Forever - Christian Yelich

Along The Lines.

TW - sexual assault, domestic violence. Longer update since the details will be needed later. 

Brooklyn~

"Brooklyn, thank you for meeting with me on such short notice. How are you and how is Spring Training going for you?" Brittany, my attorney, asks me as we sit over a Zoom call instead of me going back to Milwaukee just yet. 

"Thank you for meeting with me. Right now, I'm just a little in shock. I never thought it would get to this point. As for Spring Training, it's been great. I really enjoy being out here in Arizona and love working for the Brewers."

"Well, that's good to hear. Should we just get started right away?" she asks and I nod and take a drink of my coffee. I took the day off so we can do this in one day and get all of the information to her and let us get a trial date after we get back to Milwaukee.

"Okay, so, I'm going to need you to be as detailed as you possibly can. The more details the better. If you need to take a break at any time, please, let me know and we can stop. I don't want you to rush through this. I want to tell you this now, but I hear you, I see you, and I believe you. Your parents gave me your old phones to look through as well, just to let you know. So when did you and Liam Johnson meet?"

"February 2017. We were in the same friend group in college. Our friends went to a Milwaukee Bucks game just to go out and be college students. We kind of just hit it off after that. We kept in touch and in late April, early May we started dating," I watch as Christian comes out of our room and heads to the kitchen. He gives me a small smile but stays silent. 

"And when did things start to change during your relationship?"

"About a year after we were together. He just became angry all the time. Like, get mad at little things. For example, if I wasn't at his place at the time I said I was going to be, he would get mad because I was five minutes late. It was more verbal abuse than anything. I don't remember any time where he actually left a mark on me. But, anything you find on my old phones, please use it," I say taking a deep breath in.

"Can you recall any other time where he was violent, verbal, or physical?" she asks and I think about it. "I mean it was always like what I just explained. One time I was out late studying for a mid-term that was in a few days. I guess he didn't know where I was, which isn't true since he always had my location, so he went to my apartment and didn't find me, because I was at the library on campus with some of the people in my major and program. He then proceeded to call me multiple times asking where I was, telling me I needed to get back to his place, and if I didn't I would've regretted it. I didn't want to be stupid and not go because I didn't know what would've happened if I didn't. So I went back to his place and it turned into a full-on screaming match. Him yelling at me because I didn't tell him where I was, and him assuming I was out with another guy," I hear a scoff from across the room and look up at Christian shaking his head while looking at his phone. 

"Whenever I would try to explain anything to him regarding why I was late or anything small and minuscule like that, he would try to make me look bad. Saying things like, 'You didn't tell me where you were,' or 'I thought something bad was going to happen to you,' when in reality, I was safe. Safer than being at his place."

"Now when you said that it turned into constantly fighting with him, what would it be about?"

"Well, for starters, me being late, that's a big one that never went away. Anytime I didn't feel like doing anything, like going out, he would say things like 'you're lazy,' 'get up,' 'go have some fun,' when I knew if I did we would come back to his place and he would be completely wasted. Him being wasted only meant that the fighting would get worse. That's when it would become more violent. Him grabbing ahold of my wrists and not letting go until I did what he wanted."