Precious Virtue ✓

Chapter 15: His Soft Touch

Precious Virtue

Chapter XV: His Soft Touch

[Adrien's POV]

"How has everything been since I last saw you?" Harley asked, crossing her leg over the other as she sat in her desk chair, giving me her full attention. I sat across from her on the couch, fiddling with my hands on my lap.

"Uhm...it was quite eventful, I would say," I released a heavy breath, "I went to my first college party, and it didn't really go the way I had planned it to."

"Why is that?"

I told her all about the party, about the truth or dare game, how Luka was dared to kiss me, and how it triggered me to have a panic attack in the bathroom afterwards. I told her about when I went home, Luka came by my dorm and apologized, admitted his feelings for me, and now, we were dating. It's been about a week now since all that happened, and I could say I was doing better. I was still feeling a bit nervous about dating Luka, but otherwise, we kissed and held hands whenever we hung out now, and we hung out often like we usually do. I also did enjoy the affection he gave me, he was always soft and gentle with his touches and kisses.

"That really does seem like an eventful evening," Harley commented, "why do you think you had been triggered by the kiss?"

"It just brought back memories from high school, when Carter forced himself on me at a party and everything fell apart afterwards. Luka kissing me in front of everyone, it felt like it was happening to me again."

"Understandable. The two situations are very similar to one another," Harley nodded, smiling softly, "the outcomes of both seem vastly different though, don't you think?"

I paused, biting my lip, "yeah. With Carter, everyone turned against me. My friends, Preston, and even the whole school. But that didn't happen this time with Luka. No one hated me, or laughed at me."

Harley hummed, "right. Karsten was there to help you through your panic attack. Luka also sought you out to apologize for the dare and communicate to you his feelings. Your friends didn't leave you, and not one hated you. And it's good to compare these situations because even though the party provoked a bad memory, it doesn't always mean that every party you go to or something similar is going to end in a bad outcome. This time, you weren't alone. You had support from your friends, and Luka came to you and talked to you to sort everything out."

"Yeah, I'm really grateful, for Karsten especially. I opened up to him some more about my trauma after that night and now I just feel a lot closer to him," I said, "like I can tell him anything."

"Which is awesome. We always need friends like that in our life, people we can go to for help," Harley nodded, "now, to switch gears, if you're okay with it, I thought we could talk about your childhood some more this session. Perhaps about your father? You told me briefly about him in the last session, and how he had been emotionally abusive to you and to your mother before your mom decided to leave him. Would you be okay with talking more about the relationship you had with him?"

"Yeah, that's fine," I said.

I couldn't remember much of my relationship with my dad. After all, I was only five years old when my mom packed up our bags and took me out of that household. But the things I did remember about him weren't good things. Most of the time, he neglected me, and ignored my existence completely, but sometimes he would snap.

If I did anything to upset him, he would yell at me and call me names. My mom would intervene and snap right back at him. She never let him talk down at me for very long and was always quick to defend me and direct the anger to herself instead, and I wish I could have done something to help her, but I was only a child. There wasn't much I could do. All I could do was listen as he yelled at her, whether I was in the same room as them or not. He called her names; called her stupid, said she was a horrible girlfriend and mother, and other degrading names I'd rather not get into.