Some Scars Never Fade

Chapter Thirty (EE)

*Chris’s Point of View*

After picking Jacob up from school, we all went back to Nathan’s place and the boys decided to play Halo 3.

Jacob had picked it out when we were at Wal-Mart yesterday.

I went to sit on the couch but Dylan took my hand and led me to his bed room.

I sat on his bed, curious, as he closed his door.

We sat in silence.

“What is it Dylan?” I asked, worried by his grave, saddened expression.

“I need to talk to you,” he told me, sitting beside me.

“Tell me,” I told him, waiting anxiously.

“I talked to Seth,” he said, looking down, “He told me everything. About your guilt over your mom, Roary, your dad, the cutting- everything.”

“Ah,” I said, looking down.

“That’s where the nightmares come from when you have them isn’t it? From your dad and Roary? And me?” he asked.

I nodded.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked. I could tell this is what hurt him the worst.

“I didn’t want you to worry, didn’t want it to effect you too,” I answered.

“It did,” he murmured.

He pulled up my shirt and traced his fingers over the scars I’d left.

Pulling up his sleeve, he showed me the faint marks of scars left in his skin, resting on his fore-arm.

“I don’t understand,” I said, “You… You cut because of me?”

Dylan didn’t answer.

I brushed my fingers over the marks, dumbfounded. I’d tried so hard to keep from hurting him, and I’d only hurt him worse.

“I’m sorry,” I told him, “So sorry.”

Tears formed in my eyes and he wrapped his arms around me.

“Shhh, no, don’t apologize. It was my choice- my fault, Chris,” he told me, stroking my hair while the tears flooded all my senses.

I shook my head in his chest.

The tears didn’t seem to have an end.

“We’re going to do something about your dad- he won’t ever hurt you again,” he told me, “And neither will Roary.”

The tears soaked his shirt, but I couldn’t stop them. Where did they come from? Mom’s death? Dad’s pain? Dylan’s pain? My emotional stress? I didn’t care- I was just happy that Dylan was here for me to cry on.

“You’re going to be fine Chris,” he told me quietly, hugging me tight.

All I could do was nod into his chest.

*Dylan’s Point of View*

She fell asleep after she’d cried herself out.

I laid her back in my bed and watched her tearstained face relax into the peace of sleep.

“You’ll be fine, Chris,” I told her, kissing her forehead, “I promise.”

Lifting myself off the bed, I went to the living room and beckoned to Seth.

He came over instantly.

“Did you talk to her?” he asked.

I nodded. “She cried herself to sleep,” I told him, “We have to talk to Kevin about her dad- I’m not letting her go back there until he’s gone.”

Seth nodded and pulled out his cell phone, dialing Kevin’s number.

He didn’t answer, so Seth left a message telling him to call back when he could and that it was important.

“So,” Seth hung up his phone and looked at me, “What now?”

“We wait,” I told him simply.

That’s all we could do.