Shane
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I couldn't believe she was going to tell me what happened. I couldn't believe she trusted me enough to allow me in to her personal life. But she did and now I was sitting across from her on the wooden planks of her tree house the Alabama sunset surrounding us. But I wasn't looking at the orange and red of the sky I was looking right into her ocean blue eyes as she began to tell her story.
"My mom had me when she was 15, my dad was 18 a senior in high school and once he left for college he wanted nothing to do with me or my mom, so I've never known my dad." she started, I wondered what this had to do with her and Colins relationship but I'm sure it would all tie in.
"My grandmother let me and mom live with her until she was 18 after that she was gone. She went to college for two years and then my grandma passed. I was 5, my mom inherited this house and the money my grandma had left which wasn't a lot but I guess it was enough for her so she quit school and we moved in here." I nodded my head so far everything made sense even if it wasn't the most stable situation for a young toddler, but I guess when your that little you don't know any different.
"Anyways soon enough the money ran out and my mom started working as a secretary at a law firm where she still works today and what I call the revolving door of boyfriends started. Some of them were great, the treated me like their own daughter helped with homework one of them even built this tree house for me, but others of them were not so great."
she told me hesitantly, almost like she was warning me of what was to come with the tone of her voice. She looked down at the floor and I couldn't see her beautiful Blue eyes anymore, her blonde hair fell in front of her face. I could tell she was nervous and uncomfortable. Seeing that made me feel guilty in a way.
"Hey you don't have to tell me Elli, I don't want to make you upset." I told her fighting the urge to brush her hair away from her soft features. Luckily for me, I didn't have to she looked up and had a renewed strength.
"No I want to tell you this." she affirmed, I felt comfort knowing she was okay with telling me this, that she trusted me.
"I'll get back to my mothers boyfriends in a second, but Colin. Colin and I are obviously neighbors but we used to be friends arguably even best friends. He would come over here we would hang out in the treehouse or we would swim at his house. You know kids stuff, and then we got to 8th grade and things changed. Colin was on the football team and we grew apart a bit, but we still hung out sometimes and I still trusted him, with what was going on at home. As my neighbor he heard and saw the men my mom had coming in here, the good and the bad and he was there for me when things sucked. Like I said until 8th grade."
Elli took a pause and a deep breath. Even though I was sitting across from her I could feel her anxiety raidiate off of her. But I didn't dare say or do anything this was her story and I was going to let her tell it.
"My mom had this boyfriend and he was horrible, he abused my mother, they fought a lot and he groomed me. He would come in my room at night and talk to me about sexual things he would rest his hand on my thigh and we would talk and then he would kiss me on the cheek and he would leave. I never told her, I knew she wouldn't believe me and I knew it would cause fights so I kept quiet. Until the night, he came in as normal and we talked but then he tried to take my shirt off. I managed to push him off of me then ran downstairs. I had to tell her, I wasn't going to get raped and I knew he was going to rape me."
She got choked up a bit and I couldn't take it. I scooched around to sit next to her instead of across from her both of us leaning against the wooden wall of the treehouse our shoulders brushing against each other. I felt that if I was sitting next to her it would maybe give her some kind of comfort and strength, I sure hoped it did.
"I burst into her bedroom and told her what happened, what he was going to do and I was 13 so I very well knew what I was talking about. He told her it wasn't true and she took his side. He tried to rape me and she didn't believe me. In fact he punished me for lying to her and I definitely was punished he beat me senseless. So bad I couldn't breathe and my mom had to take me to the hospital. I had a cracked rib a black eye, the whole left side of my face was swollen so bad and I was just covered in bruises. I was so beat up I didn't go to school for a week."
I looked at her and tried to imagine what she would look like with a battered face and I couldn't. Or rather it hurt me to think that way. Sure she was abrasive at first but now that I had gotten to know her, Ellianna was the sweetest, kindest human being she didn't deserve to be hurt like that, ever. No one did.
"Rumors started flying around school on what had happened, the whole thing ended up on the news it turns out my mom's boyfriend was a registered sex offender, and he ended up in jail for the whole thing. But the news just said the bare minimum, I ended up in the hospital and a sex offender was caught. So kids came up with there own the theory. Colin being curious and my neighbor came over that week and I told him everything that happened. He was my friend, he knew what I had gone through in the past. So I told him, thinking finally someone would believe my story and tell me it was gonna be okay."
She looked at me, desperate, like she was hoping I would believe her, of course I did, how could you not believe her she was so genuine when she spoke. "Did he believe you?" I asked, hoping for the best but knowing and fearing the worst.
"Nope, he didn't in fact he tried to tell me it was somehow my fault, that I was probably leading him on in some way, which is ridiculous he was a sex offender Shane, a sex offender." she turned to me and told me firmly emphasizing her words like she had to convince me which she didn't.
"And to make things worse, that's what he told kids at school, that I was some 13-year-old slut leading on a sex offender. For the rest of the year I had guys in middle school cat call me in the hall, slap my ass and hit on me because they thought I would do it with just about anyone. Then I had to come home to my mother who to this day hates me because I ruined her relationship and then at night I still couldn't escape it because I had nightmares about it, I still do to this day."
I couldn't imagine not being able to escape your trauma like that to have it follow you everywhere. Sure I had trauma too but I knew I could go on the football field and escape it for a few hours or go home and sleep and itd be gone, Elli didn't have that luxury.
"After that I didn't talk to Colin anymore and he didn't dare speak to me, no one at school did, except for Miranda who believed everything I went through and I am so grateful for her. So yeah that's my story, I'm sure you've heard the rumors so wether you believe it or not is up to you. I understand if you don't most people don't and that's fine."
She got choked up again and a couple tears fell down her cheeks, how could you not believe her, she was so vulnerable and honest, and Colin was an asshole for what be did I was going to make sure he knew that later, but for now I turned my attention to the girl next to me, I felt the Instinct to make sure she knew it wasn't her fault and it was gonna be okay, It was my job to make it okay. And silently to myself I made a vow, I was never going to let anyone make her feel this way ever again.
