traumatized minds, luke hemmings

aiden dalefeld.

Aiden Dalefeld was the best thing in her life at this very moment.

"Come on," Aiden hummed as himself and Charlie walked through his luscious house toward his kitchen, which only made her eyes widen a lot more. "I'll get my cook to make something. I know you're hungry."

"How?" Charlie asked, watching his back.

"Your stomach rumbles very loud, Lotte." Aiden chuckled as they sat down at the kitchen island. "Tell me what happened, sweetheart."

Charlie brought her hands together and began playing with one of her rings.

"Luke has been going out. A lot recently." Charlie said. "I don't really mind it. He's still there. It's just... he brings all of these girls home and I can hear his bedroom. He's grilling me about homework 24/7, Luke goes out at like... 9 pm and comes back at 4:30 in the morning. Everything is just— my god,"

Her hand flew to her chest as the stress began to overflow on top of her. Aiden went into action, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Deep breaths, Lotte, you're okay." He whispered. "It's okay. You're going to be fine."

Finally, after a moment, she closed her eyes and felt her breathing come back to normal.

Her chest was on fire though. It felt like someone sprayed gasoline all over her lungs, lit a match and threw it on them. She took deep breaths—not being able to take shallow ones.

"Don't get me wrong, though," She quickly said. "I fucking love Luke. He's my dad. I've even started addressing myself to doctors at his hospital as 'Luke Hemmings' daughter' and I've loved it." She inhaled.

"And seeing him say that I wasn't his daughter, to a girl he didn't even know, drunk— I don't even know what to think. I think my heart broke into two." She looked down at her hands. "To think I thought he considered me his daughter— his own. Just to hear him say that?"

Charlie felt tears threaten to overflow her eyes as she inhaled a shaky breath.

"It just... hurts to realize you aren't as.. Important to someone you thought you meant the world too, you know?" Charlie choked out, meeting Aiden's eyes.

Aiden's heart broke into two.

Charlotte had already been through so much.

Firstly, her mother was abusive. Letting any guy have their way with her young daughter, causing trauma for her daughter. Being ripped away from her home at a young age— watching the missing reports of her on the news at her so-called father's office. Being forced to change her name in a way. Not being wanted by her so-called dad.

Along with moving into her drug addicts' uncle's house, losing everything she'd ever found comfort in. Seeing your father again out of the blue. Being chased by your uncle—being hurt by your uncle.

Now she didn't think she was wanted by the man who she'd spend so long with?

And now it was nearly Christmas?

It was too much for her to deal with. She was only 16.

"Honey," Aiden whispered, bringing her into a hug. "I think you should talk to Luke. Face to face. Tell him everything you are feeling, okay? Don't hold back. Recite everything you said to me. While his behavior is not okay, he does seem like he really, really cares about you."

Charlie pulled away and wiped her tears with her palms and nodded. "I care about him. He's my dad."

"Everyone has a tough start to parenthood. Again, his behavior isn't okay, but rough patches are going to happen, Lotte. I don't want to see you get hurt constantly. Trust the process."