Beautiful Scars

Forgiving Ignorance

Once Louis had left the kitchen, Eleanor had gone to Ally and drawn her arms around her. Ally had barely responded to the embrace at all, besides a tiny bend to her head, resting it on Eleanor's shoulder. Eleanor had then taken the frightened girl to the couch which is where Louis found them, sitting arm in arm, talking in hushed voices. Both girls looked up as he entered the room.

"Louis." Eleanor was the first one to speak. Sometimes, he believed she knew him better than anyone. This was one of those times. With one look at his face, Eleanor was on her feet. "I'll be in the bedroom," she announced. On her way out of the room, she paused to place a gentle hand on Louis' arm. He relaxed immediately, having not even realized how tense he was.

Once they were alone, Louis took a seat next to Ally on the couch. She looked up at him with those big brown eyes and his body chilled. How could someone hurt this girl? Ally, who had never had anything but a smile on her face even after what happened, who took care of him so gently, who did nothing to deserve the abuse she had suffered. In that moment, he hated Trey and Kaleb more than he had ever hated a human before.

"What did he want?" Ally put forth her best effort at sounding calm, collected or even snarky, but her voice sounded weak even to her own ears. She could hear the raw fear inside her desperate to know why she had heard the man of her nightmares on the other side of the phone line.

"He wanted to apologize." Nothing about Ally's expression changed and he knew the words held the same emptiness that he had thought. "Which I know does not mean much, but he wanted you to know that he was and he will never regret anything so much in his life."

Ally drew her feet up to her chest and leaned against the arm of the couch.

Louis wanted to put his arms around her and hold her tight, but he was not sure how she would respond to the contact. Even though he had just met her, he felt a fierce protectiveness over her. There are certain unbreakable bonds that are formed when two people go through ordeals such as they had together. But the fact is, he had just met her. He really did not know much about Ally Baston besides the few details she had given last night. He did not know the best way to comfort her or what words would cause her to break. Because of this, he was forced to act completely on instinct.

"Ally," he said slowly, warmly, and her eyes flicked back up to his face. "It is going to be okay, you know. Now, it's all up to you." She nodded, dropping and crossing her legs and sitting up straighter. "He also said that he would not blame us if we went to the police."

At this, her eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"And, maybe we should. I know last night I said not to, but that was stupid and I'm sorry I said that. What they did, what could have happened..." Louis winced, wishing he had let Ally call the police last night as she had wanted. She would be in better hands than his. "I can call right now. You don't have to be involved at all if you don't want to." Louis was planning it all in his head. He would call the police and explain what happened, leaving out Ally's identity, saying he did not know her and she ran off after the incident. If it would help her, if it could in some way heal what happened last night at least partially, then it was the right thing to do. Suddenly, Ally spoke, cutting off his thoughts abruptly.

"What are you saying? We can't!" Ally was leaning forward, her eyes lit with a fire that he had not seen since the night before when she screamed at Kaleb and Trey about masturbation.

"Can't?" Louis was confused. "Can't what?"

"Can't turn them into the police. Can't ruin their lives!" Ally's voice was not raised, but full of energy.

"Ally." And now Louis did reach across and place his hands on her shoulder, trying to figure out where she was coming from. "What they did was a crime, a terrible felony. In a way, it would be right for us to turn them in. They should not get away with this. If it will help-" Ally cut him off, something Louis noticed she did a lot, and yet he found himself more amused than annoyed by it.