Louis returns with the tea, head no longer spinning, thoughts less erratic. He hands one of the cups to Harry with a sad smile. “Sorry about that. Do you want me to go on?”
Harry sips from the warm mug and places it carefully on the nightstand. “Yes.”
Louis sits back down on the bed next to Harry and curls himself into his side, careful not to spill his hot drink on him. Having found no other way to say it while he was in the kitchen, he jumps right in. “After I got the tattoo, my step dad only became rougher and more punishing. The little prep he had given me before, became nonexistent. He ripped me open so many times that I started prepping myself in the shower. One night, I wasn’t expecting him. I hadn’t prepped myself that night because my mom was due home early, and he had never risked doing anything before unless she was working a night shift.”
Louis pauses, hands shaking as he remembers, and takes a drink of his tea before placing it next to Harry’s. Taking a deep shuddering breath, he continues, “He came into my room, ripped my pants off, and shoved his dick in me dry. I felt like my arse was being split in two. I screamed, and he just laughed. Just as he was about to come, I head butted him. I didn’t even feel the pain when he jerked out of my body. Nothing registered. It was fight or flight, and I was done running away. I picked up my baseball bat from the end of my bed and swung as hard as I could manage. He went down hard, but he wasn’t knocked out. Before he could get up, I slammed the bat down onto his dick.”
Louis trembles, and Harry cuddles him close. “It’s okay, baby.”
“No. It’s not okay, Haz. I wanted to rip his dick off and feed it to him. I settled for another swing to his groin and one to his face, until he slumped over, unmoving on the floor. My mom got home an hour later, and he was still unconscious on the floor of my room. When she found out what he had been doing, she cried. I never want to hear that kind of sorrow and anguish coming from someone ever again. It haunts me still today. After she got herself together, she called the authorities. I had to go in for tests to back up my claim. Fuck,” Louis harshly exhales but doesn’t stop. “It was so invasive, so painful, that I threw up everywhere. I cried the entire time. When they were finally done poking around on my arse, they told my mom that from the injuries to my rectum, they believed I had been abused repeatedly for a while, most likely several months or more.”
“What happened to your step dad?” Harry asks, anger licking at the edges of his tone.
Louis laughs lightly, but there’s no humor to the sound. “They put him away. He’s actually due to get out soon, but he won’t be able to hurt anyone again. I severed several nerves in his penis, damaged the blood vessels, and broke his pelvis. The last report we received shows that he is unable to attain an erection and urinating is extremely painful. The brain damage he sustained from me hitting him in the head has given him the mental capacity of a two year old. When he gets out, he will require a caregiver with him twenty-four hours a day.”
Louis chances a glance at Harry’s face, afraid of the revulsion he will see there. All he finds is a brow furrowed in concentration. “Keep going,” Harry encourages.
“About two months after everything happened with my step dad, I sold the app I had developed. I figured it was the least I could do for my mom and siblings. I didn’t tell her about the money I had made, I just added a little bit to her account here and there or padded the grocery money every couple of weeks. My mom was still working, and I was still watching the kids when I wasn’t at school. Then my mom got sick and was out of work for a while, and the money I had made selling the app was depleting fast. I started throwing all my spare time into developing new apps. I sold them as fast as I could finish them, and I made sure my mom had the best care available. I wasn’t sleeping. I was only just surviving. My mom finally got better, but I didn’t stop. Before I had even turned 16, I had made and sold over a hundred apps since that first one.”
