Innocent

Chapter 8

I could hear my parents arguing from my room. Dad was yelling nasty things about James and then dragging my name into it, wondering how he is supposed to protect me if I keep disobeying him about going out alone. Mom thought they were being too hard on me, but Dad said they weren’t.

I grabbed my iPod and cranked up the volume on it to drown out their argument, deafening my ears with All Time Low’s song Time Bomb. I lay down on my bed, forcing myself to forget everything that has happened today. It wasn’t easy because I kept replaying the whole image in my head when he climbed on top of me. Tears flowed down my face as I lay there, not even wanting to move at all. I did it last time when it all happened. I just lay in my bed not wanting to move. I wouldn’t even talk to anyone or eat. For a week I did it and only came out to use the bathroom. I wouldn’t even come out when the police wanted to talk to me so they could fill out a report on what happened. I just didn’t want to be reminded of it.

I eventually fell asleep, falling into endless nightmares of what happened in the car. I woke up crying over it and the worst part was I couldn’t tell my parents what happen this afternoon. I missed the days when I was younger, and if I ever woke up in the middle of the night from a nightmare, Mom or Dad would comfort me and assure me that everything will be fine and I could go back to sleep. But since the night it all happened, the comforting they used to give me as a kid wasn’t there anymore. Maybe it was, but I couldn’t feel it. To me they didn’t understand me or what I had gone through. They thought they knew but truthfully they didn’t. The only person who could really comfort me was James.

Mom knocked on my door a few times to check on me, but I just ignore her. I didn’t feel like speaking to anyone in my family.

I lay there on my side, staring at the red digital numbers of my clock. It was five minutes after midnight. I tried to get back to sleep but I couldn’t sleep at all. I was afraid to close my eyes because I knew the nightmares will grab a hold of me. The battery on my iPod was flat and I felt as my mind was going insane without the music filling my ears.

A soft knock came from my window. I turned to it to see James standing there. I leaped out of bed and opened the window, helping him inside. As soon as he was inside, I wrapped him into a hug, glad to have him here. He moaned when I hugged him.

“Please be careful when you hug me, Ellie,” he told me.

I pulled away from him and went to turn on my bedroom light. As soon as I turned to face him, I gasped. He had dried blood on his lip, nose and his forehead, as well as a bruise forming around his eye.

“Oh my gosh, what did he do to you?” I asked.

“He belted me for letting you go.” He lifted off his shirt, revealing a huge purple bruise on his chest.

“James, you need to go to the hospital.”

He shook his head. “No. They would want to know who did it. Dad would tell them that I raped you again.”

James had a point and I couldn’t bear to watch him to be taken away again.

“Come in the bathroom with me.” I grabbed his hand. “I will fix you up.”

“What about your parents and brother?”

“They are asleep. Don’t worry. They won’t ever know that you were here.”

I quietly opened my bedroom door and scanned around. Everything was silent and dark. Taking James’ hand, I led him to the bathroom that was across from my room. I switched on the light and then locked the door. I opened up the medical cabinet and searched for something to clean up James’ cuts.