Our destiny

First steps

In the following days Ellie moved into my house completely. It was a very fast decision but I'm happy with it. The first two days went by very well. Today we are at the police station to report Justin there. I know Ellie is nervous about that and I get it. It must be very hard to be reminded of that and tell the story again.

She has also been calling a lot of people lately. I think the other girls at the show are planning something. I like how they stick together and all support her. Normally I would have been at training today but I didn't go so I could be with Ellie. I know she needs me today.

"What did they say?" I ask as she comes out of the bedroom just finishing another call.

"All the girls quit their jobs and are standing against Justin together. They all want to report the stalking and controlling as well. I hear he also touched some of them inappropriate at training." She says.

"But he never touched you?" I need to know that for sure.

"No. Not at training." She shakes her head and comes over at me.

"He is so disgusting." I mumble. I get so angry when I think about him.

"I'm scared of going to the police." She says as she hugs me. She does these random hugs a lot lately and I love it. It's so sweet somehow.

"Why?" I lift my hand to stroke through her hair.

"What if they won't believe me?"

"They will. You will have so many people supporting you and also reporting him. You are not alone with this. We are all here to support you." I say to calm her down.

"What are you doing tomorrow afternoon?" She asks me.

"Nothing. Why?"

"Because I promised you to make my mistake up to you and I planned something to take you to." She says. I think it's cute how she wants to make this up but she should not worry about that now.

Later we go to the police. We need to wait for a good while before we are even taken into the office. I see how nervous Ellie is the entire time. She looks around in the room and only looks over at me for a second. Her knee is bouncing up and down on the ground until I lay my hand on her knee. She holds on to my arm pretty tight. I get that she is nervous but there isn't anything that I can do to help her.
We finally get taken into the office of luckily a female police officer. I move my chair close to Ellie's but I don't take her hand. I want her to decide whether she wants to hold my hand or not.

First she gets asked a few other questions and then she has to tell what happened. She stays quiet for a moment. I know this is hard for her. I look over at her and see how she is struggling to bring out a word.

"I'm here, Ellie. You can hold my hand if you need to." I whisper at her to make her more relaxed. I just want her to know that she isn't alone with all this. She reaches her hand over at me and holds my hand. Her fingers tightly wrap around mine and she takes a deep breath. Then she starts to tell the story. It hurts so much to hear it all again. I get so angry at Justin and disappointed in myself. Ellie leaves out the part where she called me multiple times and I didn't pick up. She probably doesn't want the police to blame me but I do. I blame myself and I don't think I will ever be able to forgive myself for that. If I would have just picked up that stupid phone we wouldn't be here right now.

I'm surprised by how good Ellie tells the entire story. I feel her squeezing my hand a few times but she doesn't cry or anything. The police officer writes down a few things.

"Justin Walker was the name right?" She asks. Ellie just nods. She types something in her computer and I take that moment to look over at Ellie.

"Are you okay?" I quietly ask her.