Freefall

-02-

⚠tw: mentions of rape, mentions of abuse⚠

I heard my alarm go off at eight thirty, waking me out of the comfortable, dark embrace of sleep.

And I didn't remember what had happened the night before until I stood up and felt a sharp pain in my ass, and when I looked in the mirror in my room, I saw that I had hickeys on my neck and a big, nasty bruise on my left cheek.

Thank God that full-coverage foundation and concealer exist.

I'd gone out and bought my shade match in foundation and concealer, so that when things like this happened and he'd left bruises and marks, I could easily cover them up and act like nothing happened.

And this was a shame, too, because I loved my freckles and thought they were adorable, and most of the time I had to cover my entire face with makeup or the freckles would be uneven, and most times the bruises were under my freckles.

In other words, I was pretty depressed as I was getting ready for school.

I can still feel his hands on me and I fucking hate that.

What exactly would happen if I took this to the police?

I don't have evidence.

And he might try to kill me.

But I need to get away from him.

I don't want him to hurt me again.

So that's what I decided.

Culinary could wait.

I finished getting ready, putting my mid-length (as in down to the shoulders, but not past them) ashy bleached blonde (google/safari the hex code #DCD0BA, it's R220 G208 B186) hair in my signature style; it was tying the top half of my hair all back into a tiny bun, then leaving the rest down.

(a/n: can you tell this is my favorite hairstyle? Kiran's favorite hairstyle is the exact same thing just in a ponytail instead of a bun, and I always have my hair with the ponytail too😭)

After I was ready, I drove to the local police station.

I took a deep breath, about to step out of my car.

You got this.

***

"How the fuck did you manage that?"

"The school apparently has a security camera in my hallway that's right in front of my dorm room door, and it saw him choking me after I opened the door for him," I explained to Ethan, laughing.

"Damn, props to you for being that brave," Ethan said, smiling genuinely. "Thank you."

**

I was in the middle of archery when I realized that I still hadn't looked at the text message that I'd gotten right as Lucas had arrived.

So after archery, as I was heading back to my dorm, I opened it.

+61 2XX XXX XXX

Hello?
I just decided to text a random number lol
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Okay lol
How do you know you're not texting some crusty old man?

Am I?
Wait, woah, what country has the +1 on the number?

It's the USA
Which one's +61?

My pronouns are U/S/A
*eagle screech*
Sorry I had to do that
It's Australia btw