Runaways

Deep Conversations

Silas's Pov:

Sean asked the question everyone's been thinking about. How did Victor get all that damage done to his chest?

"I've been getting bullied at school," Victor replied while looking down at the ground and moving his hand to cover his forehead. Was he embarrassed?

I immediately felt anger towards whoever decided to hurt this person. Even though I just met him, I felt a connection to him. I felt like he was one of my first actual friends besides Luke and North. Looking at North, I could also tell that he was furious from the way his fists clenched and then unclenched.

Owen's the one to break our angry silence.

"You're lying," Owen said.

"Wa- wh- ho- wh-" Victor spluttered.

"After you said your lie, you immediately jerked your head down and covered a part of your face. Covering your face, neck, or etc. is a sign of not wanting to answer a question or deal with whatever issue is being placed in front of you. Your feet started to shuffle and your breathing hitched. From somewhere else, no one would have heard you, but I'm right in front of you so I could hear it clearly," Owen said, while leaning forwards.

"The real question though is 'Why are you lying to us, Victor?" Owen asked while looking at him with a blank facade.

Wow, this guy was a scary person. I certainly didn't want to be on his bad side. If someone thought North was scary, they would be extremely terrified of Owen and his bad side.

Everyone was speechless at Owen's inquiring. Well, maybe everyone besides Sean. Sean looked like he already knew Victor was lying and was waiting for someone to point it out.

Victor was about to disagree, but looked at Owen's face and immediately backed down. Good idea Vic. We would never know what Owen would do next if he lied again.

"Ok, Owen's right. It's not bullying. It's self-harm." Victor said sadly.

Owen let out a sigh and leaned backwards.

"When are you going to stop lying, Victor?" he asked.

Victor looked at Owen with widened eyes.

"How do you always know when I'm lying?" Victor asked, mildly frustrated.

"It's a talent," Sean answered for Owen.

"If I ever lie to him, he always figures out. It's honestly pretty annoying," Sean said.

"So are you going to tell us the truth, Victor?" Sang asked.

Looking at her, he visibly softened and let out a sigh as if to say he was giving up on lying.

"It-it was my father," Victor said while closing his eyes and telling us his story.

"At home, I'm pressured to play for concerts everyday to keep us rich and famous. I never have fun because I'm always busy. It's always work, work, and work. If I ever told my father how I felt, he would beat me, hit me, whip me, whatever you have out there to cause me pain. He would put me down and make me think I had to play for others. A few days ago, I found out that everytime I played piano for charity fundraising, only 1% was sent to charities and the rest was for the company who runs my concerts and my family. That's how we were so rich. It turns out, this was all my father's plan. He bribed the leader of the company with some of the money from my concerts. That's when I grew to hate my father even more.

My mother wasn't as bad as my father, but that didn't mean she was perfect. She found out that my father was cheating on her and didn't file a divorce. She wanted the public to think that our family was perfect. That's when I decided to run away. I was about to leave, but then my father saw me and started to abuse me. He pushed me to the ground and started to kick me in the chest. That's how all the damage was done to it," Victor said with tears streaming down his face.