Not Like Before

Chapter 14

Trigger Warning

I don't know what this is other than it's important to the storyline

I'll be honest I winged it

don't disregard the trigger warning

Laura's POV

Vince is a great guy. We've only been texting for a few hours since I got home from the cafe, but I've learned he has a great sense of humor.

He asked me if I wanted to hang out over call, because it didn't seem right to him to do it over text, which I just thought was nice.

Sure things didn't click with Vince like they did with other people, but he's a really good person and I could see us being together. I don't know for how long, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Right now we're sitting in my room, talking about all the crazy stuff that went down during freshman year. It took nearly an hour of convincing my dad to let Vince even come in my room, but somehow he relented.

"Wait a minute you got shot?" Vince asked, clearly shocked. Most of what I said was pretty shocking to him, but this one was the most by far.

I sighed and nodded.

"And apparently the guy who did it is out of jail already. Despite you know, being a child rapist." I spat angrily. The justice system is the most screwed up thing I've ever seen.

"Wait he didn't...hurt you any other way did he?" Vince asked.

I shook my head.

"He uh...he hurt Chandler." I mumbled quietly.

Vince just nods, taking in what I just revealed to him. I sigh heavily and lean on the headboard of my bed.

I know it wasn't really my business to tell him that, I just felt like I should've given him some sort of explanation. Especially since everyone else already knows.

"Sorry. I know I probably shouldn't have mentioned that." I apologize.

"It's fine, I won't say anything. I know what that kind of thing does to someone." He says.

"You do?" I ask hesitantly. He sighs deeply.

"You sure you wanna know?" He asked in a more serious tone.

"Only if you wanna tell me." I answer. He sighs again and adjusts himself to where he's facing me.

"When I was six years old, I started getting molested by my uncle. He continued doing it until I was nine, and then one day he uh...he raped me. That's the day I finally decided to tell someone." He told me.

"That's terrible. I'm so sorry that happened to you Vince." I whispered.

"Thank you... after that I had a lot of anger towards him, but...I was too small to do anything about it. To him at least. That's when I started getting into a lot of fights and stuff, taking out my anger on other kids... it was the only thing that made me feel like I had some sort of control."

I was surprised to say the least. How many people have been through this?

"How do you feel about what happened now?" I find myself asking.

Vince shrugged.

"You're never really the same after something like that. The feeling that everything has been taken from you never goes away. The anger doesn't go away, but I've found better ways to deal with it. And some days are better than others you know? Like some days I don't think about it at all but sometimes it's all I can think about." He explained.