Well, Hey...Fancy Seeing You Here?

Chapter 10 - Comfort

Those words played over and over in my head, making me drunk with happiness! Leasha must have seen the happiness in my eyes because she piped up and said,

"We love you guys too!" Before kissing us all on the cheek.

I'm so lucky to have all these people with me, I don't even care anymore if I only met them a few days ago, they're my world. I've escaped the high school hell and it's now time to enjoy the freedom!

I pulled away from everyone and went to sit by the steering wheel and starting up the engine. Dan came over and sat beside me.  He sighed, as did I, as I stared off into the distance.

"Brooke?" He asked, turning around to look at me.

"What's up?" I replied in a chirpy tone, spinning around to face him.

"What did you mean before when you said you used to let the shit get to you? What happened back then?"

Oh my God. I can't believe he was asking me about my past, I hoped I'd forgotten it, but bringing it up again brought terror into my eyes, I almost started crying but I managed to hold back the tears.

"Well, erm. Back in primary school, I was...different, I wasn't afraid to be myself and people thought I was weird. Well, I was weird, but being so young, the kids in my school weren't aware of how what they say can hurt someone. It wasn't just things they said though. One girl used to throw things at me, making me bleed and giving me bruises, but then she'd pretend to help me so it looked like I'd hurt myself. It confused me, making me wonder why I deserved to get beaten up and then have it blamed on myself. I used to go home with letters from school saying I'd 'bumped my head' or whatever when I have skipping rope marks on my legs, arms and face, ball marks on my shoulders and any other playground equipment they could come across. I went home thinking if this is my life now, why not just end it. I tried killing myself when I was only seven years old. The girl got moved from the school when she pushed my friends head into my face, making my nose bleed."

Dan's face just dropped. He stared blankly at me, blinking but willing me to continue.

"When I went to high school, it didn't start too great either..."

"What happened?" He asked, taking my hand in his for comfort.

"Two of the boys in my tutor group started rumours about me, and people didn't understand why it got me so upset, but I started comfort eating every night when I got in from school and I gained a lot of weight quite quickly, then the fat jokes started, so I began starving myself to stop the jokes. I used to cut my legs because my mum noticed sooner or later that I wasn't eating and started checking my wrists and phoning the school on a regular basis to see if I was okay. I still have the scars on my legs now but they're faint and can pass as stretch marks. That's what I told my mum anyway, she still believes me." My heart sank and my eyes began to fill up.

I pushed the tears away. I hated crying.

Dan stood up holding his hand out for me to take it. I rose from my chair and took his hand, he immediately pulled me into a huge hug. I embraced him back, wrapping my arms around his waist and back. He then rested his chin on my head, pulled away - still with his hands on my shoulder and looked me straight in the eyes.

"No matter what, I'm always here. Don't ever feel like you have to go through any of that anymore. It's more than behind you and you have such great friends now. You and Leasha are like sisters and I'm sure she's said before she'll be here for you!" He said his eyes not leaving mine.

I immediately looked down in guilt.

"Leasha doesn't know. She's only seen the scars. She doesn't know why though. I showed them to her in year ten when I knew for good I never wanted to do it again." I felt so bad for not telling Leasha, I will one day, I'm just not sure...how.

"You always have me. No matter what. Hey come here! Let's lighten this mood, eh!? Phil, Leasha! Come here!" He yelled, grabbing their attention and were now turning and walking towards us. Dan grabbed his phone out of his pocket and set it up to camera. He set the timer and put his phone on the rails. We all huddled next to each other, me on the end next to Dan, Leasha on the other side with Phil's arm around her shoulders. We all basically had a massive group hug and took a picture.

"This looks amazing! It's going as my wallpaper, and when I get home, it's being printed out and put in our lounge!" Dan yelled, fiddling with his phone.

I sauntered back over to the steering wheel and called Phil over to drive us back to the bank.

After pulling up to the river side and getting off the boat, I considered whether telling Dan was the best idea. I mean, would he tell Phil, or Leasha? I felt so bad having not told Leasha after all these years, yet telling Dan after only a couple of days.

Brooklyn. What are you doing?

I tried taking my mind of the subject and thought about how amazing Dan's surprise party's going to be tomorrow. That reminds me, has Leasha picked out our outfits? I sneaky smile sprung to my face. Dan looked down at me, and pressed a cheeky kiss to my cheek and slung his arm around my shoulders. I cuddled into him.

Maybe telling him was the right idea.

Or is he just pitying me...

No.

Think of the party, think of the party, think of the party.