Learning to Love

Chapter 4

I get to Johns house and it's about two o'clock in the afternoon, I have shorts and a sweatshirt on. His son Ray answers the door and he can see that something bad happened to me. My legs are covered in blood. Ray calls for his dad and John comes out of the living room,he stops dead in his steps when he sees me. He asks what happened to me and I tell him two guys raped me. He tells Ray to grab the keys, he picks up a blanket and wraps me in it, then scoops me up and we head off to the hospital in the car. John doesn't bother to call my family because he knows they don't care. We get to the hospital, John tells Ray to stay in the waiting room. John stays outside my room while I undress and put a hospital gown on. I have to get a rape kit done, I ask the nurse for John to come in, they allow it. John tells me that he sent Ray home to get me some of his sisters clothes. They take pictures of my bruises and swab my open cuts for DNA along with my mouth. The nurse does a pelvic exam, John is instructed to talk to me so I stay calm. Once the nurse is done Ray brings me some clothes to change into. I go into the bathroom to change and the nurse is there when I come out, she hands me some pills that will prevent STD's and pregnancy. We wait about 15 minutes for my discharge papers then leave. John says he isn't letting me go home tonight, he wants me to stay with them, I don't know why but I don't argue.

Once we get back to the house John and I go into the sunroom and sit down. I spilled my guts about Josh and Nate raping me. I started to cry, John got off the couch and grabbed a blanket. He wrapped the blanket around me, sat down next to me, and simply just hugged me till my tears stopped rolling down my face. After I was done crying John asked about all my bruises and burns came from, I guarantee that my heart stopped for a few seconds. I realized that he needed to know, the abuse was getting so bad some nights Jared could have possibly killed me. I told him my step dad used me as a punching bad when I was younger then later on started sexually abusing me. After about six of it just being him Jared's buddies joined in. I'm seventeen that bastard has been abusing me for a very long time now. By the time his friends joined in I already had my c-cup boobs and was getting my period every month. John asked if we used protection, my head dropped and I shook it "no".

John told me that by law he has to call the police, I don't object because I finally found my ticket out of there. I knew what this meant, I'd live in foster care for a year. The cops arrested my stepdad for sexual and physical abuse of a minor and my mom for prostitution and endangerment of a child. The officer said my parents would never get out of jail, since I'm not eighteen yet I have to go to foster care since I have no living realities to stay with. John says that him and his family are willing to adopt me for the rest of my life. I stared at him in shock, he said I always wanted another girl and I finally found her. I had to pack everything I wanted to keep with me since I wouldn't be aloud to come back and the house would probably be sold. So I packed up all my stuff, walked out the front door and never looked back. I finally knew that I would have a loving supportive family.

It has been almost a month since I started my new life. My parents have been in jail for about a month as well. I now live with my adopted family aka my youth pastor's family. There's John, his wife Lexi, son Ray who is nineteen, and a daughter name Olivia who is twenty-three and also engaged. My siblings are both in college so I only see them on weekends or holidays. So I'm basically an only child, but I'm use to that since my real mom never had any other kids. I have one more year of high school then I start college in the fall. I'm still in the process of adjusting to my new life, after all wouldn't it be weird to live with your youth pastor and call him dad. My teachers know what happened to me, so now I have to spend an hour with our school counselor everyday.

On the bright side of that I get to spend some of my day with the life skills kids. I love hanging out with all the kids in that class because their all just so excepting of everyone that they meet. There's this one girl named Sara who is normally very shy, but when I'm there she talks to me the whole time and we take turns doing each others hair. Sam is a really cool guy that is in that class as well, the best part about Sam is that he loves to color. So I decided one day that I would bring in a ton of brand new crayons and coloring books for us to color in. His face lit up like a Christmas tree when he saw them and immediately wanted to color. Maddie is another cool girl in the life skills class. She loves to dance and build with her blocks. Maddie and I spent all day one day building this tower, that eventually got knocked down but it was still a ton of fun! Every Wednesday John comes in and hangs out with the group then goes to the cafeteria during lunch to talk with other students. He told me one day how much he loves seeing me smile and laugh when I'm with these kids. Then there is this kid named Blake, he loves to sit and draw portraits of me. I have to sit perfectly still so he can get every single detail just right. Once he finishes one of his drawings he signs them, then gives them to me. I hang all of his drawings up on my bedroom wall to remind me that there are people in this world that do make me happy. All the kids love to draw so I hang up all their pictures in my room, its like having an art museum as your wallpaper, which looks amazing in fact.