Love Me

Chapter Thirty-five

Nathan

After Alyssa and I got back, I went to the kitchen to grab a snack while she went to the bedroom. Today was a good day, I'm sure she felt the same way. I can't shake the feeling that one of my bones was about to be broken when we were parasailing. Weird.

I had finished up my sandwich before I decided to take a shower. On getting to the room, I heard the shower running meaning that Alyssa was inside. I dropped down on the bed, accidentally hitting her phone down.

It buzzed as I picked it up, bringing my attention to the messages coming in. There were a bunch coming from her uncle and because her phone was unlocked, I could see all of them.

Answer your phone you slut!

I'm going to kill you!

You're just a useless entitled brat you deserve nothing!

You should have died with your parents.

Those didn't even alarm me as much as the next did.

All the beatings I've given you will be nothing compared to what I'm going to do to you if I ever see you again, wretch.

All the beatings? I wondered. Has he been hitting her? For how long? And why did she never tell me? Why didn't she keep this a secret?

I couldn't help but get angry at this. At that very moment, I heard the bathroom door shut and turned to see Alyssa looking at me curiously.

“What's wrong?” Is she really asking me that? Has she not seen the messages?

I took a while to form my question while I turned the phone so she could see what I saw. “What does he mean by 'all the beatings'?”

The panic in her eyes was obvious, she didn't want me to see this. “It's nothing, can I have my phone back, please?”

She reached for the phone put I pulled it back. I can't believe she's trying to play this off, if what I think is true then she's been going through something very serious. Why isn't she telling me the truth?

“This isn't nothing! Has he ever hit you?” She didn't answer. “Has he?” She looked down but didn't say anything. “Was he the one that put you in the hospital that time?” She still didn't say anything. My anger was reaching an explosive level and me voice rose with it. “Answer me!”

“Yes!” She let out a shaky breath. “He was.”

I didn't know what to feel after that. Of course I was angry but I also felt sort of betrayed. From the text that wasn't the first time and she never told me. I let my anger dominate as I searched for Christopher's number on her phone.

“What are you doing?” She asked. She must've guessed and gripped my arm before I could hit the dial button. “Please don't, you don't know why this will cause, please.” I felt my resolve break seeing the tears in her eyes. “I'll tell you everything, just please don't call him.”

I took the offer. If that's what it's going to take to get her to finally tell me the truth then I won't call him, no matter how bad I wanted to.

We sat on the bed. I waited as she fiddled with her fingers nervously. I knew I had to be patient with her, if she was really abused then it'll be very hard for her to talk about.

“It started a few months before I turned fourteen,” She started with a sniffle. “they would make some comments about me and I usually ignored them, I just took what they gave me. They completely ignored my fourteenth birthday but I didn't bother, then one day I came home with a friend, a guy that coincidentally Hailey had a crush on.”