EGO & VENGEANCE

Chapter 14

Mateo

It's been over a week since Kelani's been to class, or even on campus. I was able to get her number from my dad a couple days ago, but I haven't been able to bring myself to text her... I feel guilty for keeping all that bullshit about Alaiyah away from her.

I wasn't at school when the rumours about Alaiyah being assaulted came about, it was 2018. I went out of state to Adelaide for some more special skills training for over a month, I wasn't in touch with anyone, including Alaiyah.

And I endured a lot of shit during that period of the special skills training in Adelaide. It was a special type of martial arts and pain tolerance training... I had done pain tolerance training before with the mafias assassination unit, but this training was different. And it fucked me up- but it also made me stronger than I ever thought I could be.

So I don't know if I should hate the people who put me in there, or thank them.

By the time I came back home to Sydney, the rumours were heard everywhere.

I remember when I first heard about them. Kids were whispering about it at school, mentioning her name. Someone mentioned that she went to Roxy high, our highschool, but she had graduated the previous year, 2017, which was the same year I formally met her.

Sometimes I feel like I had seen her around at school previously, but I thought it was just in my head. I didn't know she went to my highschool, the topic never came up.

When I had found out about the rumours and everything after coming back, I tried contacting her to ask her if it was true. I wanted to be there for her, I wanted to comfort her and I needed to make sure she was okay.

She didn't get back to me. And to top it off she stopped coming over to the house, that's when I assumed she and Justin had broken up. And they did.

Then there was a rumour that Elias had something to do with the alleged assault and I just remember being so enraged and confused.

Our friend group had suspected him. It caused a messy falling out. I had confronted him, asking if he actually did something to her. He just kept denying it, and saying that she had made up a lie for attention, that she was an attention seeker and a shit stirrer.

I hooked him. Straight across the jaw. Because the shit that he was saying about Alaiyah felt as if someone was slowly carving a knife into my stomach. It made me feel sick that people thought of Alaiyah that way. I knew her. She was far from what the people who didn't believe that she'd been raped, made her out to be.

I kept calling her. Calling her. Calling her. I remember feeling so anxious just to be there for her. I wanted her to tell me what happened to I could help her, protect her.

Eventually I saw her wandering at the park near Justin's house. We used to casually meet there just to laugh. Nothing but laughter.

I ran to her, after not seeing her for months, I looked into her eyes. They were different. Dark. Exhausted.

"It's just a rumour, Mateo"

She'd say that- each time I asked her what happened while I was gone, and who did it to her- she'd say that.

I didn't believe her. Something was different.

I hugged her- and she didn't hug back. She just let me embrace her, but it's like she didn't accept it.

"Im sorry. Im so sorry Mateo, i gotta go"

She said, and I remember that stiff breathing and croaks in her throat as she said that in my ear as I held her so close. So tight. I didn't want to let her go, it sounded like she was saying goodbye.