"the woods are lovely,
dark and deep.
but i have promises to keep,
and miles to go before i sleep,
and miles to go before i sleep."
- robert frost
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Nita didn’t want to be here. Here being in front of Freen and Becky who decided that it was a good time to talk about her big breakdown less than a week ago.
After a day full of panic attacks and an emotional moment with her foster mom, Nita was rendered pretty useless for four days as she hid in her bed and refused to come out.
Yesterday she finally decided to rejoin the rest of the world and crawled out of her safe space. A shower, some good food, and Freen and Becky's kindness seemed to go a long way in perking up the girl, which is what brought them here.
But as mentioned before, Nita did not want to be here.
“I know this is hard,” Becky said as she slowly started the conversation. “But what happened in your last foster home wasn’t okay and we need to make sure no other kids are being put through that.”
“What’s there to say?” Nita asked, crossing her arms over her chest in defense. “Mark would take me to his shed and… you know,” Nita said, whispering the last bit. “One time I told him to stop when he looked like he was going to go too far and he shot his gun at me. That’s when the neighbours called about the noise and P'Beer took me and Emily from the home.”
“What do mean ‘too far’ Nita? How far did he go?” Freen pressed, making Nita's throat tighten when she realized she had to explain further.
“He- he touched- never, umm, never beyond that. I didn’t let him,” Nita explained as she started to squirm in her seat.
“And Emily?” Becky asked delicately.
“No!” Nita snapped out, making it clear as day that she was offended by the thought. “I never let anyone touch her!”
“We believe you. It’s okay,” Freen promised. “Just so we understand, he touched you and when he attempted to go beyond that you made him stop, right?”
“Yes,” Nita croaked out, doing her best to fight back her tears. “And then he got mad, waved that fucking gun around, and threatened to do the same to Emily. The police arrived before he could get what he wanted, though.”
“Did you tell P'Beer?” Becky asked, despite already having a good sense of what the answer was.
“She wouldn’t believe me. It’s probably too much paperwork anyways,” Nita dismissed, making Freen and Becky frown.
“That fucking system,” Becky whispered as she stood up and paced for a beat.
“We believe you, Nita,” Freen reassured as she sat on the edge of her seat and lent forward. “Thank you for telling us.”
“Do you think he was right?”
“What, baby?” Freen asked. “Who was right?”
“Mark, when he said I deserved it. Do you think he was right?” Nita asked as she allowed her leg to bounce in apprehension.
“No, he wasn’t right. You never deserved anything that happened to you,” Freen promised as she stood up and moved to sit next to the teen.
“I’m not a good person, though. I’m difficult, I talk back, I make people’s lives hard-,”
“I’m going to stop you there. You are none of those things. Those are your defense tactics but they are not what make you you. Nita, you are kind, and gentle, and when you let people in you are so loving. Just because it takes a while for people to see that doesn’t make you a bad person.”
YOU ARE READING
And Then There Was You (FreenxBecky)
Romance"There are 7 billion people in this world and then there was you. And you somehow became the most important one out of all those billions." Not my story. Converted. All credits goes to the author.
