I'm a Walking Travesty (Adopted by Tony Perry)

Chapter 10

I get home from school feeling violated. "Rachel, where did you disappear to?" "I just felt overwhelmed and hid in one of the closets all day." I hope they believe me. I go inside and up to my room quickly.

"Leah, I'm gonna take a shower." "Alright." I take my clothes into the bathroom with me, not really caring what clothes I was wearing. I go in and turn up the water on hot. I wash my hair just because I'm in here and then I scrub my body hard. I get out and change. I feel my arms to make sure the flannel completely covers them.

I go back to my room and take out a piece of paper. I begin writing out my emotions. I hear the door open and close downstairs so I put away this paper and pull out my other music theory paper. I realize I can't read it to continue and I bite my lip, annoyed. I go to Leah's room. "Can you help me? I'm working on music theory and I need someone to type up the song so I can locate the different parts of it."

She nods. Then I realize something. "Holy shit, I just saw you nod!" I can see now everything is just extremely blurry. I blink a few times and it clears up. I go to my room and get my glasses, not feeling like actually trying to find my contacts. Everything is clear. I hug her. "I can see." Leah squeals.

Vic comes running upstairs and I immediately hug him. "Vic, I can see again." He hugs me. "That is amazing. When did that happen?" "Just a few minutes ago. I was trying to get Leah to type up a song for me but I guess I don't need that now." I hug her and go back to my room. I work on the songs.

Both of them are finished and I put them back in my folder. I go on Instagram. I make a new post. "Hey guys! I want you guys to know that you can get through anything. I have gone through a lot, most of which I don't want to make public but one thing I will is the struggle I have had for the past few months.

Some of you may remember a month and a half ago I made a post about how I was in an accident in a mosh pit and I was injured but everything I would recover from. In that accident, I became temporarily blind due to the head trauma. For about two weeks I was completely blind. There was a lot I had to adjust but I found my way.

My dad and uncles did have to make sure everything stayed off the floor though so I didn't trip on anything. I went from being completely blind to being still legally blind. I could only really see the shadows of things. I had to keep all of my adjustments which was hard, especially with the start of school.

Today, I got home and I was talking to my cousin. I noticed I could see her nod. My vision is back to how it was before the accident. Things might not always end up the way you plan but persevere. Make any adjustments you need to but always keep trying. Even if my sight hadn't came back I would've got through it. You can always get through things just never back down from a challenge."

I post it and then text my bandmates and Dad's band. "My vision's back. I love you all." I make sure my door is closed before looking at my arms a little. They were bleeding because of how hard I was scrubbing them. I still feel dirty and unclean. I go into my bathroom and cut my arms nearly 20 times in total.

I cover them up again and go to my text with Alex. "Can I tell you something without you telling Tony?" "It depends what it is but I want you to tell me anyways." "Something happened at school today and I relapsed. I'm sorry." "What happened at school?" "I don't want to talk about it especially over text. Can I sleepover tonight?"

"Of course. Ask your dad and text me when you are coming." "Okay." I text Dad. "Can I please stay at Alex's tonight? He asked me if I wanted to." "Sure. When are you heading over there?" "Now if you don't mind." "Alright. Be safe. I love you and I'll see you tomorrow."

I text Alex back. "I'm heading over now. I'll be there as soon as I can by bus schedules." "I'll come down and pick you up." "Okay." He arrives about 30 minutes later. I get in the car with him and we begin heading to his house.

We arrive and go in. I see Jack and give him a light smile. "What happened at school today?" I shake my head. I can't talk about it, I don't even want to think about it. I pull out my phone and begin typing.

"I accidentally ran into someone. He said 'Watch where you are going, fag.' Then, he pulled me into a closet of some sort. He began beating me up. He stopped kicking me and my ribs felt like they were on fire. He pulled off my shirt and then he kicked me in the head. He put something over my mouth and nose. I got dizzy and then passed out. I woke up in the closet, undressed and in a lot of pain. School was pretty much over. Alex, I feel so dirty and used."

He hugs me. "Tony needs to know that. I won't tell him tonight if you don't want me to but I will tomorrow. Did you already take a shower and/or change?" I nod. "Can I please see your arms?" I take off my flannel revealing my cut up arms. He begins cleaning them and then seems to realize. "Can you see again?" I nod. He hugs me and finishes wrapping up my arms.

"'Lex, can I ride one of your horses?" He smiles. "Sure." "Do you have an ACE bandage?" He hands it to me and I wrap my knee in it. "Have you ridden before?" I nod. "Have you ridden English?" I nod once again. "I've pretty much only have ridden English." "Have you ridden a lot?" "It depends on your definition but I would say so. I was working on cantering when I stopped taking lessons."

He nods and leads me out. "I just realized you're wearing riding boots." I smile a little. "They're my favorite shoes by far." He leads me over to the horse stalls. "This is Theo and this is Stormy. You can choose which one you want to ride. Stormy is a lot crazier because he's younger but he is more likely to listen to keep on going the speed you want whereas Theo is calmer but he needs more encouragement to keep going."

I go over to Stormy. "I'll take Stormy. The main thing I learned during lessons is that I can't get a horse to move much if they don't want to." He nods.