The Art of Letting Go

Ch. 3

"What's coming is better than what's gone"

He grabbed me by my hair throwing me back onto my bed. "You fat slut. Stop resisting. You clearly want this. That's why you wore that dress today."

It was Easter. I was 15. It was a sundress.

His lips connected with my neck, his disgusting mouth roaming my body. He was wrong. I didn't want this. He took off my pajamas. I didn't want this. He raped me. I didn't want this. He threatened to kill my mom and 12 year old sister if I told anyone. I didn't want this. He did it almost every night after that. I didn't want this. Some nights were worse than others. I didn't want this. I felt his hands on me again. This time shaking me by my arms. I heard a stranger's voice.

"Oakley, Oakley! Oakley!" I snapped awake breathing heavily fearing it was him again. How'd he get here? Did he break in? Is Oliver in danger because of me? This thought was the one that caused me to burst out in tears.

"It's Oliver ok? Please calm down, I just want to help you." Finally I realized it was Oliver and not my Father, immediately engulfing him in a hug. Hesitantly he put his arms around me, pulling me into his lap.

In an attempt to calm down, I looked around his room. He had dark blue curtains that matched his bedspread. In front of his bed was a white dresser, and above it a TV. "Can we watch TV?" I mumbled into his chest.

"Of course princess. Do you want me to get you a glass of water?" He responded.

"No but thank you."

"Thank you for what?"

"Letting me stay here."

"Anytime. What should we watch?" As he asked this I slowly turned around in his lap, now facing the TV where he already had netflix pulled up.

"Can we watch The Office?"

He clicked on it, "Yeah baby. Lay down I'm gonna go get ready for my morning run." This made my head shoot up as he tried to pull himself out from under me.

"Wait. Can I come?" By now he was sifting through his dresser drawers looking for a tshirt.

"No, Mom said you need to rest." I watched as he changed into a shirt and walked back over to me, carrying a light purple hoodie in his hand, "Here, you can change into my hoodie. I'm leaving so you change in here or if you'd like a shower you can use my bathroom," He kissed me on my forehead before handing me the hoodie, "If you need help with anything, Ethan is in the next room over so I'll text you his number or you can just shout."

Oliver walked down the room closing the door behind him, as I searched for my phone. I found it on the charger on his side bed and after scrolling through instagram for awhile I tried to get up to take a shower. Keyword tried. The bruises on my legs were starting to form even more, most of them being a dark shade of purple. I grasped the side of the bed frame as I fell to the floor, accidentally crying out in pain.

Within seconds Ethan had shown up in the doorway, "Hey what happened? Did Oliver not tell you to ask me for help?"

"No he did. Sorry." I told him as he picked me up, taking me into the bathroom and sitting me on the counter. "Where are you going?" I asked as he left the room.

"Just to get you a towel! I'll be back!" He called. I sat on the counter just playing with my hands until he came back. "Ok, here's your towel, I'll leave your phone on the counter along with your clothes, and Oliver just texted me saying he'll be home in around 5 minutes so he'll be in his room." I just nodded as he walked out, closing the door behind him.

I stripped down, and after much struggle, I was finally able to take my shower. After getting out I quickly brushed my hair and put on Oliver's hoodie that dropped down to my mid thigh. I realized he hadn't given me any shorts and as I turned to face the mirror, his words came back to me.

You need to lose some weight.

Stop eating so much.

If you don't lose some weight I'll have to start screwing your sister instead.

I hadn't even noticed I was crying until I heard a knock on the door. I quickly wiped my tears away before calling out, "Yeah?"

"You ok in there?" Oliver asked.

I opened the door before replying, "Yeah. What's up?"

"You look cute." This brought a blush to my cheeks. He picked me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist. "You're really light Oakley." He told me.

"I'm not." I mumbled. By the way he tensed he definitely heard me, but he chose not to comment on it.

He took me into the kitchen, but instead of sitting me at the bar, he carried me over to where the coffee machine was and set me down beside it. "Hey!" I said with a smile appearing on my face.

He simply started his coffee before standing in between my legs and pulling me closer into another hug. "What do you want for breakfast Oakley?" He asked, nuzzling his face into my neck.

I felt so safe around him. In his arms. I never wanted to leave. But I had to respond. "Not hungry." I told him hoping he'd stay there.

To my disappointment he pulled away to look at me better, "You haven't eaten since yesterday morning. Please eat something." He said searching my eyes for an answer. For some reason this pissed me off.

"I said no." I fired back attempting to move around him, but failing miserably.

"Oakley stop, please just eat something." He said blocking me from jumping off the counter.

"I said no!" I yelled at him. He took a deep breath before stepping back.

"I'm sorry princess. Please don't be mad."

"I'm sorry too." I told him trying to move closer to him. He picked me up again and we both just stayed at peace for a while.

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"Hey I have some friends coming over." Oliver told me walking into his room and flopping onto his bed.

I started giggling as he scooted over to me and wrapped his arms around my waist, resting his head on my stomach. "Who all is coming?" I asked him while looking at my phone.

"Just my friend Axel and his girlfriend Michelle. You'll like them."

"Oh I was just gonna go and sit in the living room so you could spend time with them. I mean they're your friends not mine, I don't want to intrude." I rambled on.

"You're not, I just want you to meet them. Oh and I washed your sweatpants from yesterday. Just put them on before Axel gets here." He told me laughing.

"Why? You afraid he's gonna steal me?" I giggled.

"No," he said, suddenly turning serious, "I just don't want you to feel violated. You seem to not feel very comfortable around men in general, and your dad, but we'll talk later about that."

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Authors Note: It took me (I kid you not) 5 hours to write this because I kept switching between my youtube and google docs tab because I was watching a youtube video of someone criticizing someone on twitter, and while it was mostly talking, I kept looking at the tweets even tho they were being read LMAO