Bandaged & Damaged {BoyxBoy & FIN & EDITING}

chapter thirty-one

Circled around were Miles, Nixon, Junior, Kiel, Pierce, and I. We watched the video a couple of times but after a while, Junior shook his head and looked away. I kept watching. The look on Dario's face pains me. He looked tired but I wouldn't give up a fight. He was clearly ordering us to not find them, knowing that we would get hurt. I didn't know if I wanted to hit him or hug him for being a caring idiot. I wasn't surprised to see that Kiel had no emotion but I was concerned that he was bottling it inside.

"You've changed."

"Yeah, well, when a lot of shit happens to you, you don't know yourself anymore."

Nixon was shaking with anger. His hands were fists and the tips of his ears were red and the vein on his forehead and neck popped. It seemed like the only people that were concentrating were Miles, Pierce and me.

"Did you guys see anything?" Miles asked once the video ended.

Pierce and gave my phone back. "No, nothing. We've never been there."

"Don't you guys have like tracking devices?"

Nixon narrowed his eyes. "We tell each other where we go and we usually go with another person."

"Where did they go before they were kidnapped?" I asked. Nixon and Pierce glanced at each other before Pierce's jaw clenched and looked away.

"I can't tell you, I promised them," Pierce said confidently.

Miles scoffed. "Are you serious? Easton has them and you don't want to tell us where they went before they were kidnapped? We don't have time for secrets."

Nixon hostile demeanor melted a bit and he bit his lip nervously. Miles took the words out of my mouth. It doesn't matter about keeping the promise, it's about getting them back here safe and sound.

"Where did they go before they were kidnapped?" I repeated, a bit harshly this time.

Nixon and Pierce stayed quiet and I was close to leaving them until Junior answered. "They went to go find Easton," he mumbled.

"What the hell?" I screamed. "Why would they do that?"

"Because we couldn't let that bastard get away for what he did to you," Nixon snapped, his nervousness disappearing. Everything was going so good. I may have a nightmare about him and my mind was playing tricks on me but it was better than having him around the campus. It was almost a relief that I knew every time I had to go to my dorm, he wasn't there and instead was Miles. I guess it was too good to be true to move on.

"Do you see the problem here? Why didn't you let it go? Now he has Asher and Dario because of this dumb ass mission you guys made!"

"Did you let it go, huh? Did you see that Easton was only hurting you because he saw you as your play thing, huh?" Nixon spat.

"I very well saw that Easton only saw me as his punching bag the moment he punched me," I hissed. His eyes softened but I wasn't done. "When he slapped me, when he and his friends put tape on my mouth and tossed me like I'm some damn football, when they took turns beating me, when Easton threatened me that he will more than beat me if I ever left, when he choked me, when he forced me to sleep in the same bed with him, to sleep with a monster. So yes, I saw the signs but I wished I saw the signs sooner."

Letting out a breath I was holding, they all looked at me with pity and sorrow eyes. Nixon had his head bowed and Pierce and Miles looked away when I looked at them. Junior was the only one who looked at me and Kiel had a blank expression on his face but his jaw was clenched. It was the first time I described the beatings to someone and it felt like a weight off my shoulders but at the same time, it suffocated me, knowing that someone was capable of hurting someone, physically, mentally, and emotionally. I wasn't telling them to make them feel bad for me or to make a point. I was telling them because I trusted them and they may not know everything, that was all they were getting.