LIVING THE DREAM ✅

Eighteen: The boy's house, the backstory and Hannah

Trigger warning: slight mention of abuse

.....

"Absolutely not!" Mitchell shook her head. "You will be doing no such thing."

"It's just-"

"No."

"Please!"

"You can't possibly be thinking that I'll let you stay over at a boy's house, right?"

"It's just William," Hayley argued. "You know him. You know his brother. You can ask for his address if you want. He really means no harm."

"That doesn't change anything."

"Come on! Hannah, you tell her. William is completely harmless."

Hannah smiled awkwardly and shifted in her seat.
"I mean, Hayley is right. I'm sure William means no harm and Hayley is a big girl now, right?"

Mitchell stopped pacing and stood in the middle of Claire's living room, both of her hands on her hips.
"Why are you going there anyway?"

"To work on Theo's research project. That's all."

"Are you sure?"

"I promise," Hayley said, her lips slowly forming a pout. "If you don't believe me, I'll even take photos of the project and send them. And I'll take Fitzgerald with me too."

Claire cleared her throat. "I mean, it's only one night. Let her be."

"Arrrgh," Mitchell groaned. "Alright. You better not be lying or heavens know that I'll chain you on your bed and never let you leave."

"You're kinky," Hannah pointed an accusing finger at Mitchell as the rest of the people in Claire's living room burst into laughter

Hayley left a few hours later, leaving Mitchell with Hannah while Austin was stuck at work and Claire had to go downtown for music practice with some kids she was training.

"I still have a bad feeling about letting Hayley go," Mitchell said after some silencer. For a talker, Hannah was surprisingly quiet over the previous couple of weeks. It was worrying to say the least but she had insisted that she was okay.

"Nothing is going to happen," Hannah replied

"How do you know?"

"Well, I have known Theo and William for some time. They wouldn't let anything happen to her. Plus, you know that you can't keep her in here forever, right?"

"I sure can," Mitchell argued. "But even if I do, what is wrong with that? I'm just protecting her."

"I understand that, I really do. But that could be a problem too."

"Can it?" Mitchell's eyes narrowed. "What can you possibly know about taking care of a younger sibling? You are an only child."

"I mean, that's true but I have grown up as well. I can use my experience to justify my statement," Hannah argued back. "You see, as an only child, I got the best of my parents' love. They knew everything about me, controlled everything I did and accessed, dictated who I could and couldn't be friends with, protected me in an electric fenced house and had a driver to take me everywhere. It was all out of love, I know, but that did me no good.

"As soon as I completed university, I saw that as an opportunity to be free and do things my parents didn't let me do. I went to wild parties, learnt drinking and smoking a little and met men. Mind you, I had no experience with men at all. It was all so new and I was naive. Let's just say that it didn't end well."

Eyes wide in shock, Mitchell gasped.
"What happened?"

"I met Marcus. He was my first boyfriend and I absolutely loved him. It was my first relationship, so, you can imagine how excited I was to be with him. Plus, with no experience whatsoever, I didn't mind whatever he did because I thought that relationships were all like that. He took my money, told me that kissing other girls was okay as long as he came back to me and he yelled a lot."

"That's horrible."

"I took a broken back to leave him last month, Mitchell. He hit me with a fucking chair and broke my back," Hannah's voice lowered as she spoke, her eyes filled with unshed tears.

"But, Hannah," Mitchell paused and waited for Hannah to calm down, as she slowly rubbed her back. "You could have talked to us about everything. Why didn't you?"

"I- I just couldn't," Hannah sniffled. "You had too much on your plate with Hayley, Claire and Austin were fighting and everything was a mess."

"We could have helped you."

Another sniffle. "I know."

"I'm sorry, Hannah. I'm really sorry."

"Me too," she sniffled again. "I don't want you to think that Hayley will go through what I went through. All I'm saying is that the more you deny her something, the more she's gonna want it. That's the great law of human nature."

"The what?"

"I read from a Mark Twain novel that if you want people to want something, you make it more difficult to attain. That's the great law of human nature."

Mitchell took in a sharp breath. "I didn't see it like that."

"I'm sorry," Hannah wailed. "I'm not even saying that what you are doing is cruel. Hell, I know no shit about parenting. You probably know what's best for her and I'm bluffing-"

"I know Hannah, I know," Mitchell rubbed her back again. "Are you alright now? Is that ex still bothering you?"

"Everything is fine- alright, nothing is fine," she finally admitted. "We lived together, you see, and when we broke up, he packed up and left. I have rent to pay and a couple of loans I got for him and my job pays like shit and I can't fucking land a job in the field I studied for."

"What did you study?"

"Tourism. It's dumb, right?"

"No," Mitchell shook her head. "I envy you, Hannah. I didn't go to university, what do I know about dumb?

"And you know we will be here if you need a place to stay, right? I'll share my room with you if you want. You don't have to stay there. You spend more time here with us than at that place."

"I appreciate it, Mitchell. You are a really good person, sister and girlfriend."

Mitchell's jaw dropped. "Girlfriend?"

"What? You and Austin aren't dating yet?"