Dormies |E.C|

|19 - All That Matters|

|Harper|

It'd been about a week since I'd made a police report. During the initial phone call, I explained everything Jason had done to me in detail. It was hard reliving that night so many times in a couple of days, but I had to in order to get help. I got called into the station the day after that and Ethan was right by my side.

I got asked a bunch of questions and I had to be evaluated. I was so uncomfortable when they were asking me things; some of the questions made me feel like I was the one to blame for what happened. When I finally got out of that room, I was nearly having an anxiety attack. After the interrogation was over, a lady that was trained to talk to sexual assault victims came to speak with me. She made me feel less overwhelmed and helped me calm down.

By the end of the ordeal, I'd made up my mind. I pressed charges on Jason. Our school was notified and he was suspended indefinitely. In the end, I did feel better about going to the police. I had hope that something would be done to prevent him from violating somebody else.

_

I was curled up in bed with Ethan. He was rubbing my arm ever so slightly while we watched The Office. My head was pressed against his chest and every time he chuckled the vibrations made me smile. I had been so uncomfortable and tense the entire time we were broken up, but I was finally content and relaxed.

Sometimes I'd still get paranoid about Jason. Even though he was suspended, I feared I'd run into him and that he'd try to make me pay for turning him in. I told Ethan how I felt and he'd been walking me to all of my classes, even if his were across campus. I felt like a burden; he had to rush to the majority of his lectures and I could tell he was stressed.

I snuggled into him deeper and gripped his shirt.

"You ok, baby?" he asked.

"Yeah," I mumbled, "Just... thinking."

He shifted his body so that we were at eye level with one another, "Thinking about what?"

I sighed, "Everything... I feel like such a burden on you."

"A burden?" he asked incredulously, "You're not a burden. Why do you think you are?"

"You're always worried about me, but I'm worried about you. I know when you're stressed out."

"Of course I'm worried about you. How can I not be after all that's gone down? Don't worry about me, I'm fine."

"Ethan..."

"Harper."

I just sighed and buried my head under his chin, "You need to be worrying about you."

|Ethan|

There was no way I could just "worry about me." She had been through way too fucking much for me to worry about myself. Sure, I had to zoom on my board to get to classes on time, but that was a small price to pay for her to feel safe. How she felt was all that mattered to me.

I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to upset her and say that I'd be fine once she was. That'd just lead her to pretend she was okay so I wouldn't worry. I sighed and pulled her closer.

"I'm sorry. I just don't-" Harper's phone ringing at the end of the bed cut me off. We both sat up and she grabbed it.

"It's the police station," Harper informed me. I paused our show and she answered the phone. "Hello?" She grabbed my hand and I squeezed it gently. "This is she... Yes..." My heart was starting to race, but I wasn't focused on that. I watched her intently as she continued listening to whoever was on the other end. "O-okay... Thanks... Goodbye."

She squeezed my hand harder and hung up the phone, her facial expression becoming sullen. The devastation in her watering eyes told me everything I needed to know... She dropped her phone and her tears fell. I pulled her into my arms and tried my hardest not to cry along with her.

"They said they can't prosecute," she cried, "Not enough evidence."

I wanted to rage and head straight up to the police station. They'd asked her a plethora of uncomfortable questions, made her feel like the incident was her fault, and nearly gave her a panic attack. All of that and there wasn't enough evidence? It was bullshit and there was nothing more to it. I was livid, but anger wasn't going to change anything— it'd just stress her out even more.

"I'm so sorry, baby," I whispered as I rocked her slowly, "I'm so sorry... The system is fucking garbage."

"W-what if he tries to come after me now?" she sobbed into my shoulder.

I pulled away to cup her face in my hands, "I'm not gonna let him get anywhere fucking near you, okay?" She nodded and buried her head under my chin. I laid back with her in my arms and rubbed her back until her sobs turned into snores.

_

Harper and I spent the next day at home. I watched movies with her, made her favorite things to eat, and played her favorite songs on my speaker. She was still pretty down, but I hoped my surprise would help with that.

We were curled up on the couch and Harper was asleep when I got the text from Alyssa I'd been waiting on. I sent her a reply and rubbed Harper's arm gently to wake her. She stirred a bit but stayed asleep. I got another text from Alyssa and sighed.

"Harper," I spoke a little bit above a whisper, "Baby, wake up." She just grumbled and snuggled into me more. "If you wake up you'll get food..."

"I'm awake," She sprung up quickly, "Where's the food?"

"I'll be right back," She nodded and rubbed her eyes. I got up and slipped on my slides before making my way to the first floor of our complex.

|Harper|

I was still a bit groggy from my nap, and I wanted to sleep, but was I gonna turn down food? Hell no. I sat on the couch and waited on Ethan to come back. He hadn't taken his keys or anything, so I got confused. He'd taken his phone, and I was getting ready to text him until I heard him come back through the door.

"Where'd you just- Donny?" There he was, standing in front of Ethan and Alyssa. He was fucking home! "Donny!" I got up and jumped into his arms.

"Hey, Harpie," He shook me side-to-side a bit and set me back onto my feet. He had this somber look, mixed with a tint of anger. I knew what that expression had to do with. I'd had Alyssa and Ethan tell him what happened to me; it was too hard for me to. He pulled me back in for a tighter hug, "I'm sorry I wasn't fucking here."

I hugged him tighter, "I don't wanna talk about it..." And I really didn't. I knew it'd get brought up again when I saw him because of how crazy protective he was, but I wanted to forget. For the time being, I was gonna enjoy his company. "I'm just glad you're here now, okay?"

He pulled away slightly and nodded his head, "Heard you were hungry. We brought pizza." Alyssa held two boxes of pizza up from behind Adonis and Ethan smiled. Fuck, I loved them all so much.

The rest of that day was spent eating pizza, playing video games, and catching up with Donny. I felt like things were slowly gonna go back to normal.

⁂

A/N: Thanks for all the birthday wishes yesterday! 🖤