you're real - a nicholas chavez story

02 explanation

i fall down, wincing in pain i instinctively hold the cut that is now on my head

"you lying cheating bitch!" matt screams, laying another punch into my ribs

balling my eyes out, i drag myself away from him, pleading for him him to stop.

matt grabs a fistful of my hair, he rises his fist, lunging toward my face

—

throwing myself up on the bed, drenching in sweat, and tears escaping my eyes.
another nightmare.

i take some deep breaths, reaching for my phone, 7:30am, i pull myself out of bed towards the bathroom to wet my face and calm down before i walk downstairs.

-

"hey" i stand at the bottom of the stairs, cooper looks up at me from the bench, he walked around, hugging me.

"you hungry?" he asked, "um, no, i could go for coffee though"

as right on cue, Nicholas walked through the door, "morning, here is your coffee coop, and i wasn't to sure what you liked so i just got you a cappuccino, cooper has sugar in the pantry if you need it" he smiled at me, handing me a coffee, "thankyou" i said back to him.

i made way to the couch, plumping down onto the soft cushions, cooper sat down next me with caution, "uh, i can leave so you two can talk-" nickolas started before i cut him off.

"it's alright, you'll find out eventually"
he slowly made is way to sit on the single seat across me.

"em before you start, i want you to know, that you can be here as long as you want, this is now your home just as much as it is mine okay"

i smiled at cooper, even at 28 years old he is still looking out for me.

"i love you coop"
"i love you to loser"

i took a sip of my coffee,
"okay, ah, so basically, uh, i recorded a new song, a guy reached out, a smaller artist, he wrote a song and asked if i could sing the female part, which i agreed, im having writers block so i thought it would good for my fans as well as helping someone out. anyway, it was a love song, and when i got home and told matt, he well, kind of lost it."

i sighed, taking a sip of my coffee, "it started off as a normal argument like always, then he slapped me, which wasn't surprising at the time, it wasn't the first time"

cooper looked angry and shocked, i never told him, he had his suspicions but i would always tell him how amazing matt treated me. which was a complete lie, i felt embarrassed

"i decided to fight back and not let him push me around, which was a mistake, he punched me in the face, knocking me down, he got on top of me, punched me in the ribs, when he got off, he started yelling at me again, i trying to drag myself away, but he grabbed my hair, dragged me to the bathroom and locked me in it.
i knew that if he came back, it wouldn't be good, so i climbed out of the window and got on a bus, and here i am"

i looked up at cooper, he was red in the face, i didn't realise a tear had rolled down my cheek.

"we need to go to the police" cooper said.

"no we don't, i want to start over, not go through a trial, i'm going to focus on my music and me and surround myself with good people" i smiled at cooper, he just held me hand tightly.

"shit, Emily i- im so fucking sorry you had to go through that"

i looked over at nickolas. "it's okay nickolas, i'm sorry i just kinda dumped that on you the first time im actually meeting you"

"please call me nick, the only people who call me nicholas are my overbearing parents, and it's completely fine, but know that you now gained a new friend"

i smiled at him, our attention was suddenly caught by Coopers phone dinging,

Cooper looked at it then towards Nick,
"that's our cue" he looked at me, "we gotta go for a meeting, i'll bring dinner home, will you be okay here?" he asked me

"yeah of course i will be, i might go shopping or something, you know, buy some clothes and essentials to live" he chuckled, giving me a way to long of a hug before leaving.

.