back to you • lrh

15

Chapter 15:
"Are you hitting on me?"

Eloise-Anne

It's quiet after Luke leaves the house and no one dares to say a word. I am not entirely sure what to say or do. Everybody's glare is on me, wanting me to explain how he knows. How he actually knows what happened? He could've just heard it from someone, but no one would talk about it. But Luke knows more, Luke knows how vulnerable I was at that moment, and yet he decided to use it against me. As if he never cared at all, almost as if I deserved what happened.

"So y'all know about how I almost got raped, right?" I start off bluntly, explaining the story sheepishly. Michael and Ashton nod at my words. I know Michael knows the whole story, I bet he's just as flabbergasted as I am.

"No, you haven't," Calum says, clenching his jaw. He will become very mad about it, and I don't know if it will infuriate him or if he's gonna be okay with the fact that Luke's the one who saved my ass there.

"So, I was just walking, and this dude followed me. He tried to rape me." I shorten the long story. "However, I mentioned a stranger helping me out of that situation... Dickface was that stranger. That was the only time he was actually being reasonable with me, and I couldn't thank him enough." I mumble. "That's how he knows, I just never thought he would be so low to use it against me."

"Yeah, I need the detailed version sis. How'd he look, what actually happened?" Calum asks me, sitting down on the couch. "Have you even gone to the police? You know you can report this, right?"

"I am really not gonna tell you all the details, I don't want to." Calum simply nods. "I wasn't feeling too well and decided to go for a walk," I start the story. "You know how I always do that. My music was blasting, and I didn't hear a thing. I was off campus as well and like five minutes after that I felt this hand on my shoulder. I waved it off and told him to back off." I take a deep breath for every upcoming word. "I tried to take another road, but he kept on following me and I led myself into a dead alleyway. It's so stupid of me to actually do that, but I didn't even know where I was going."

"It's okay, El. Don't blame yourself." Calum says.

"So, I decided to play it off cool, as if I wasn't scared. Eventually, he held me so tightly, I couldn't move, and he.." I feel tears burning in my eyes at the memory of it. I don't even want to say what he did. I can't even remember it clearly and that's what's fucking me over the most. "I can't even quite remember what he looks like, but I know I can point him out whenever I see him. I know it's weird." I sigh loudly, but it's shaky. It's showing how much it's still

"It's okay. I just wanna throw hands at the fucker. If you ever see him, you'll call me and I'm gonna beat him up." I smile slightly, while a lost tear is rolling down on my cheek.

"Why haven't you told any of us that it was Luke?" Ashton asks. Michael looks away, turning more red. He knew about it all along, he's my best friend of course he knows. Yes, I'm close with Tammy as well, but she will never be on the same level as Mike.

"I didn't want to," I tell him. "It's not like I felt embarrassed about it, but it just feels more real every time I talk about it. I know it's real, but I don't want it to be real." A shaky breath leaves my lips. "It's fucking me over," I whisper softly. I immediately feel my arms wrapped around my body. "And I hate him, it would be such a shame to say he helped me. And we promised to not tell anyone else about what happened." I mumble into the shirt. "Guess he can't keep promises very well."

"Let's go upstairs, huh?" I look up to see his hazel eyes looking right at me.

"Just look at the door." Calum chuckles.