Let the Games Begin // Dodge Mason

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚ Chapter Twelve ˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

   TW: Abuse is mentioned in this chapter.

  "Hey mom," I shouted, Walking out of my room.

     "Yeah?" She asked.

     "Can I borrow the car for today?" I asked. 

     "Sure, what for?" 

     "I'm going to meet up with Dodge," I explain. 

     "Okay honey, tell him I said hi!" 

     "Okay mom, thank you!" I said, grabbing the keys and making my way out.

    I parked the car and made my way up to the fence; I was just in time as I saw Dodge get on the horse. I watched as the gate lifted and the horse tried to throw him off, he lasted a decent amount of time before sliding off the horse.

     "Hell of a ride!" An older man yelled. Dodge sent the man a wave before looking around- his eyes stopped on mine as we smiled at each other. I waited as Dodge made his way out of the fence and over towards me.

      "That was amazing." I smiled at him, pulling him in for a hug.

     "I didn't think you'd actually come," He shook his head- leading us down the path to his car as he popped the trunk.

    "Why wouldn't I?" 

     "I don't know, I guess I haven't had too many people show up for me before." He shrugged, putting his bags in the trunk.

     "Well, I'll always show up for you." I rub his arm. 

     "You know, Dayna used to compete too." He nodded.

     "Really?" 

     "Yeah, she used to win." 

     "Yeah, best barrel racer in the state- could've been in the country." He explained.

     "If you don't mind me asking, what happened to Dayna?" 

     "Hurricane Harvey, she was trying to get to higher ground when a surge swept a car and pinned her up against a bank." He explained. 

     "Oh, Dodge I'm sorry." I pulled him into a hug. 

      "Do you like the cowboy getup?" He joked.

      I pulled away from the hug and looked him up and down, taking in his outfit.

      "My sexy yeehaw boyfriend," I laughed.

      "Don't say yeehaw every again." He laughed.

     Dodge and I sat on a trailer full of hay farther away from the farm.

     "What happened to your dad?" I asked.

     "Dad was a rodeo champion, he was one of the best in the circuit, actually. Mom would always say that 'for dad, the rodeo was like going to church'. Well... They split up, when Dayna and I were in grade school. And uh- you know he'd-he'd be around for a few weeks or months at a time and then gone, I didn't know where he went until he'd pop back up at the house with a new trophy. Mom, you know, she um... she knew about the other women, but... the trophies were with us, so that meant that his heart was with us." He explained. 

    "It was the first day of second grade, I had just moved here with my mom and dad that summer so I didn't really know anyone. Until Natalie and Heather ran over to me and asked if they could give me a tattoo- it was a sticker but, it made me feel like I finally belonged somewhere." I confessed.

     "What happened to your dad?" He asked me.

     "Well, I looked up to my dad my whole life. My mom and him would argue a lot but I never thought much of it, I didn't realize he was abusing her till the fifth grade. They'd think I was asleep, but I could hear everything- the fighting, um, how loud the sound was when he hit her and how loud it was when she fell to the floor." Dodge stared at me.

     "By the seventh grade, it was a lot worse- he'd hit her right in front of me, make me clean up her bloody nose. But by that point he'd started doing it to me to, if I talked back, said something he didn't approve of- he'd slap me right across the face. In eighth grade I'd become a pro at hiding the bruises with my makeup. It wasn't till freshman year that someone found out and by that point I had burses all over my body from him. Natalie snuck over to my house once without telling me, she was fighting with her dad- I walked into my room and she saw the bruise across my eye. She told her dad, and my dad was taken in, my mom and I had to testify against him. My mom filed for a divorce at the same time- he got out of jail probably six months ago and moved out of Carp, haven't seen him since." I explained. 

     "Lil," He said softly- he had tears in his eyes. 

     "I'm so sorry," He pulled me into a hug, rubbing my back- I heard his sniffles. 

     "But," I added, pulling away from the hug.

     "If you have one friend, you're not invisible anymore- you don't have to hide." 

     A/N: This chapter is a bit deeper as we learn the background of Lilia. But on another note, I started re-reading and annotating the Dear Evan Hansen book!!