Joe looked up from playing with Demi's hair when there was a knock on the door. It soon opened revealing a middle-aged man, he was dressed in a black suit which looked expensive, he wore glasses on the end of his nose. He had a kind face as he gave Joe a soft smile. Demi kissed Joe's cheek gently before standing up.
"Come in, I was just leaving." Demi encouraged, she could tell Joe was nervous about the situation, nerves were probably more of the reason why he didn't want to speak to him in the first place. She leaned down pecking Joe's lips gently before she left the room after promising to be back in a couple of hours. She knew his parents would be around by then or his sisters to see how he was doing. The man entered the room a little more sitting down on the chair.
"My name is Tom, I was sent here to talk to you?" Joe nodded his head gently. "What do you want to talk about?" Joe sighed shrugging his shoulders.
"I know what everyone wants me to talk about, my step dad or who was my step dad but I don't know if I'm ready for that yet." Joe admitted his eyes landing on the bed sheets.
"Sometimes if you force yourself to talk about the situation it helps on the long term." Tom stated Joe not moving his eyes.
"I-I've just been through so much with him, I kinda wanna just keep it bottled up and pretend like none of it even happened."
"That would not be good on your mind, I'm not asking you to tell me anything but it will help you get through this. You seem to have loads of support though." Joe cracked a small smile.
"Yeah I do, I have three sisters so." Joe chuckled slightly.
"What was it like growing up with three sisters?"
"Challenging," Joe laughed a little bit. "They're all older as well but they always looked after me even if they were quite a lot older than I was."
"When did Gary come into your life?" Tom inquired.
"My parents divorced when I was six and I think mom started dating Gary when I was about eight. They were married by my tenth birthday. We got on in the start but one day when I was twelve he just started ordering me around and when I refused h-he..." Joe begun letting the tears fall down his cheeks. "He beat me up for the first time." Joe could see Tom noting things down as he spoke, he didn't know if he liked the idea of him sharing any of this with anyone else.
"How did that make you feel?"
"Terrified, I-I threatened to tell my mom what he had done but he just threatened back," Joe felt the tears fall fast down his cheeks that little bit harder. "I-I can't talk about it anymore."
"That's okay, I think you were brave for saying what you did. Well done." Joe thought he would feel better for getting it off his chest. He just felt worse. He felt him pat his back gently as he continued to cry not wanting to but he had to let it out.
Denise entered the room just after Tom had left. It was hard for her to see how her son was feeling. He only started crying harder when he saw her.
"Oh Joe." She cooed going over giving him a hug. He cried into her shoulder. She knew how much her son had been through and it was finally getting on top of him, he just needed to let it all out. She sat on the edge of his bed stroking his hair gently.
"T-Thank you." Joe stammered taking the tissue from her once he had pulled away calming down a little bit wiping his eyes and nose.
"I'll always be here if you need a shoulder to cry on," Denise stated kissing his forehead gently Joe cracking a small smile as he fell back on the bed still exhausted. "How do you feel physically?" She questioned as she laid her hand on his leg.
"Fine." Joe mumbled, he just needed something to cheer him up.
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