To Skin A Lamb

13

CHARITY

"I'm taking the girls out for their well child check up. Justin is at basketball practice. Troy is here if you need anything. We shouldn't be too long." I faintly heard her say while I was taking a nap on the couch. I had to be hallucinating and my poor tired body didn't have enough strength to get up.

I was only able to sleep during the day because Troy would sneak into my room almost every night.

Get up! Get up! My conscience mercilessly begged me. It was trying to tell me that something bad was going to happen. But I laid there like an idiot. Too tired to care.

I should have cared.

Troy came over and sat next to me on the couch. My senses woke up and popped up like a kernel in a pot.

I was too late and I couldn't escape him.

That was the worst of the times he took advantage of me.

That day he recorded me, took pictures, and his friends came in to have their way with me.

So imagine the bile that threatened to come up when I saw his face. A face that I have actively worked to never see again. A face that I had protected my sisters from. A face that I wished would drop off the planet.

I didn't realize I was still holding on to Pheebs until she leaned over and asked, "Are you okay?"

I didn't answer. I just blinked back tears of disbelief.

How didn't I know he was a donor? I knew that he and my aunt had money, but I didn't think they had that kind of cash.

"Charity." Phoebe's voice was a little more stern. "Char, you're hurting my arm."

My grip never loosened. I continued shaking.

Vini leaned in from the other side, "Are you okay?"

I was shaking like something was wrong with me. I didn't even realize I wasn't breathing correctly until Vini mentioned it. "Hey, I think you're having an anxiety attack. Why don't we go-"

Without thought or hesitation, I stood to my feet and left the table. He was still talking so maybe I wasn't as obvious as I thought. I started to leave, I don't care where. Don't know where Vini went.

I was aimlessly wandering around this large villa. A villa that he probably has connections with. Suddenly, I felt like all of the workers were staring at me. They could have been staring at me because I was visibly having some kind of attack. But my paranoid brain fed me lies instead of facts.

I stumbled until I found the bathroom and I quickly ran into it. I bit my bottom lip to halt the sob that was about to release, but my chin betrayed and started to tremble.

I walked up to the sink and splashed my face with water. I did this a couple of times until I realized that it wasn't going to help me in the slightest.

My stomach did a backflip and I ran to one of the bathroom stalls. I immediately started throwing up.

I threw up every single ounce of fluid in my body. I'm pretty sure I emptied every part of my stomach in the toilet. The duodenum, the jejunum, the ileocecal valve eroded, every single part of it.

I finally started to holler and sob. Because there was no way my summer would be clouded with him.

His hands.

Another wave of nausea fled my system. I threw up again.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck." I whispered to myself. What the absolute fuck. Did he know I was doing this? Did mama tell Aunt Jessa and did Aunt Jessa tell him? Was the only reason I got invited was because of him?