Closing Time

Chapter 12

(Moral Of The Story By Ashe)

Sam's Pov

TW- Talks Of Abuse

I'm currently making dinner. Iris is coloring, sitting on the floor. Rylee is at a shoot right now. She was scared to leave Iris with me, but who wouldn't. You're leaving your kid with someone you've known for two weeks. She's been talking to me a lot more.

But at the same time she's still closed off. And I don't blame her. Whatever happened, it left a mark on her and her mindset. She doesn't leave without Iris, today is the first time Iris is staying here with me.

I'm going to be honest, it's a little nerve wracking for me because I've never been around kids a lot.
Just because my mother is a babysitter doesn't mean that I'm good at watching them. Iris though, she's not difficult. She's a very easy kid to watch, and when she likes you it makes it fun.

I edited a bunch while I was watching her, and then I let her play minecraft with Foolish in the VC. She blew up Tommy's house, but that's okay. He never needs to know.

All of the guys went home except for Skylar and Ranboo. They were here for a car show, and an auction. She's been looking for a GTO for Ranboo's dad for his birthday, and there is a really nice one down here that just needs a little work. Plus it's a cheap car, so they both drove down here and have been staying in a hotel. 

"WHY." Iris screamed out of nowhere and I looked down.

"Why what?" I asked her and she smiled up at me.

"Color bad." She held up the crayon and I laughed.

"You don't like green?"

"No."

She stood up, ditching her paper and crayons on the floor before holding her arms up. I picked her up and she laughed, trying to touch the ceiling.

"Ranboo can do that, I can't. He's taller." She tilted her head before laying in on my shoulder.

"Fanboo." She tried to speak and I smiled.

"Ranboo." I corrected.

"Wanboo."

"You know, that's close enough."

She smiled and laughed before the front door opened. I heard a tired sigh, before things started getting set down.

"Momma, wanboo is ceiling guy!"

I turned and faced Rylee who had a small smile on her face. She was drained. Even more than she has been in the past week. I set Iris down and she ran right to Rylee.

Rylee picked Iris up and Iris started going on about how she hates the color green. I finished cooking dinner and set it on the table. Iris climbed up on the chair and sat down. Rylee sitting down next to her.
She is quiet again.

Too quiet.

Once dinner was done I cleaned up everything while Rylee got Iris ready to sleep. I grabbed my phone and checked the time once I was done cleaning up. It was eight. I was really in my head for that long? The door to the guest room opened and Rylee walked out.

"Are you okay?" I asked as she grabbed a water bottle from the fridge.

"Yeah. Just tired." She mumbled quietly, leaning against the counter.

"What happened, Ry?" I let out a breath looking at her as she started to overthink.

"I was the photographer of my exes and his new girlfriend's engagement photos. Fun isn't it?" She spoke, closing her eyes.

She may not love him anymore, but it hurts her. You can tell. That man is the father of her child and he's just pretending like they don't exist.

She's better off without him and she knows that, she just doesn't want to believe that she has to be a single mother. I think she was basically already a single mother when she was with him, so I know she will do amazing.

"He's a dick and I think you know that. He doesn't deserve your tears, he doesn't deserve your sadness. He doesn't deserve anything from you except for a restraining order. I know it's not easy to move on, especially when you had hoped that he would change, but you need to."

She stayed quiet, not wanting to say anything while I spoke. But it seemed like she had something on her mind that she wanted to say.

"Rylee what exactly did he do to you that made you scared of people so much?" I asked with the same expression that I asked her weeks ago.

She picked up on it and realized that she didn't have to tell me, but she looked like she wanted to. For the first time in a week, it looks like she wanted to tell me something and that made me beyond happy. She took a sip of the water and closed it back up before closing her eyes.

"I met him in highschool. He was a good guy at first. Acted like the perfect guy, he was the perfect guy. Then something happened overnight and he just completely changed. Just like that. I didn't understand it, but I learned to get used to it. The way he treated me was like shit, and I tried leaving so many times, that was until he finally hit me." She held her eyes shut tighter, almost as if she was reliving it again.

"That became the new normal, he would hit me, and use me as his own punching bag. And I hated it but I couldn't ask for help, from anyone. Then I found out that I was pregnant and everything went to shit. He didn't hit me though. Not as much when I was pregnant. He didn't want Iris. I told my parents that I was pregnant and they kicked me out. I ended up living out of my car. I hid being pregnant from my entire highschool then once I graduated i moved to where i was living before i left him. I had Iris, Jason didn't show up for the first few months. Once he did he wanted nothing to do with her. I worked everywhere I could to make money, as he just sat on his ass and did nothing."

"He abused you?" I put it in the bluntest way possible and she hesitantly nodded.

"Mentally, and physically." She mumbled and everything started to make sense.

That's why she doesn't like men. Jason isn't even a man, he's an insecure little boy. That's exactly why she was terrified of me and the guys getting close to her or Iris. Though we would never hurt them, she didn't know that because it was normal for her, for him to do those things.

She opened her eyes and looked at the ground, with a face full of guilt.

"You didn't deserve any of that, so don't you dare think for a second that you did."

She looked up at me and let out a breath before intaking another one.

"You are not weak because of it, in fact you are so much stronger. You learned from your failures, and you're moving forward. You're pushing through your everyday life, and you're moving on. You're growing, you're getting better at dealing with new people, and men that you don't know. Rylee I may not know you a lot, but I can see how much you have grown in the past two weeks and I am so beyond proud of you."

I think we've finally hit a point where she's comfortable with me, and comfortable with talking to me.

And that's all I've wanted this past week.

1272 Words