Hey guys!
So I know its been ages since I last updated and I'm really, really, really sorry but guess what- here is chapter 14, woo! I didn't even realise how long it had been since I uploaded chapter 13, so again sorrrryyy!! <3
Anyway, like always sorry for any mistakes
Love cassie x0x0
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LUKE’S POV
I watch Hadley as she sucks in two deep breaths trying to collect herself and her thoughts. I pick up one of her hands and rub gentle circles in her palm trying to calm her down and she closes her eyes before diving into her story.
“Ben was one of Tyla’s best friends, despite the two year age gap. He used to come to our house all the time from when I was about 11. I never used to see him as anymore than a friend, another brother almost, but then as I started getting older Ben started to talk to me more and we became closer. I thought it was a little weird at first but soon the whole brotherly and sisterly connection was gone and we were getting along differently to before. I was new to this kind of thing, I didn’t know what I was doing and I certainly didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I thought it was a little harmless flirting, all fun and games but what Ben was planning was the complete opposite to harmless fun and games. Tyla tried to warn me, he didn’t think I should be doing anything with a guy four years older than me, but like I said, I saw no harm in what was happening. Anyway we talked more, got even closer and before I knew it he had asked me to be his girlfriend.
Everything was great in the beginning. He was so sweet and caring and it seemed like he understood our age gap as well, like he really respected my innocence. If you asked me everything was perfect and all my friends thought so too, well except Tyla. He kept warning me, but me being naïve and stupid thought he was jealous because I stole his best friend. After Ben and I had been dating for three months was when everything started going wrong. He became a little more aggressive and his temper was shortening. He would yell at me because apparently I was teasing him, I didn’t want to have sex with him but I was acting and dressing like an attention-seeking slut. Those were his words. From there his temper got worse until he staring to physically push me around. I know I should have stopped everything there, but I was scared. Scared of what he would do to me and ashamed of being told I told you so by my brother. Weeks of being pushed around turned into months and his violence reached a new level. He never actually hit or kicked me until then. Once he broke my wrist by grabbing my arm and slamming it into the corner of a wall but I had to pretend that I had fallen and broken it trying to catch myself.
My parents and brother started getting suspicious, especially when the bruising became visible. Someone even called family services thinking it was my parents that were abusing me. One afternoon I went to my friends house to study for a maths exam and Ben saw me coming out of his house that night. Ben was furious. He was convinced that I was cheating on him and when I tried to defend myself he slapped me across the face harder than ever before. He called me a dirty, lying, cheating whore. He said that I was filthy and cheap.
I thought that would have been the end of it but it wasn’t. He then dragged me by my hair down the street into an alley. He hit, punched, kicked, spat and threw me around like a rag doll and then said that if I wouldn’t willingly have sex him, he’d make me. Most girls dream of their first time being special and romantic with the boy of their dreams, but my first time was anything but that. It was my worst nightmare.
The physical injuries I got from that night took months to recover, but mentally I don’t think I will ever completely recover.”
Silence rings through the room before Hadley lets out another weaker breath, like she’s tired out just from thinking about it. There’s another silence in the room and I fight my brain for something to say.
“Hadley, I-I’m so sorry…” I say trailing off. “Luke what do you have to be sorry about?” She asks quietly, almost soothingly. “I don’t know. To be honest I have no idea what I’m supposed to say to that. I had no idea what you went through. So I guess I’m sorry for assuming that your life was pretty perfect, because from what I just heard it was so far from perfection. I know this apology isn’t going to mean much but I truly am sorry for that.” “Luke, you have nothing to apologise for. Everyone makes assumptions it’s fine.” “Hadley I understand you’re trying to stay strong and whatnot but it’s not fine. Nothing that happened is fine. Just for one moment try showing your true emotions. Let it all out because sometimes the only way to move on is to accept what happened.” “I have accepted what happened Luke. There is nothing more for me to accept. There is no way for me to entirely move on because last time I let my emotions show it didn’t turn out too great at all, did it?”
I feel the bed shift and look to see Hadley is lying back down, silent sobs shaking her fragile body and I know there is nothing more I can say, so I lie down next to her and gently wrap my arm around her.
