When Different Worlds Collide ✔️

Mostly- Erik's POV

"He wasn't listening. He was taking. He was... forceful, violent, and downright abusive," Jake finally said after a moment. "Kat was stuck. No matter how disgusted she was, she had been trying to protect me and our plan..."

"He...-"

"I stopped the download and went back into the filing room. Thankfully, that gave Kat enough time to create some space," he said before I could jump to conclusions.

"She's okay?"

"I texted her, and she said that she's fine," he answered.

"But..."

"Once you give my brother access to something... He's relentless," he elaborated.

"You're worried that she won't get so lucky next time," I interpreted his thoughts. "Tell her to never be alone with him. I mean, surely, he won't try anything in front of people... Right?"

"She's not dumb, Erik. She knows that. It's just... That's her fiancé. I don't know if she'll be able to constantly maintain that rule. Especially with the way that her parents push him upon her," Jake snapped at me defensively. "I'm sorry. I just... I feel like I delivered her to the hands of something terrible. This is my fault. I should have figured something else out..."

I felt it too. In trying to help her, I think we might have made it ten times worse for her. I felt awful. I was trying to protect her, but everything felt impossible. How was I supposed to protect her when everything seemed to want to hurt her?

"Well, the only thing we can do is look through all this shit then..." I told him with a wince. "The quicker we find some dirt on her father, the quicker we can get her out of that situation."

"You're right..." Jake agreed and began shuffling through everything.

"But Jake... If your brother does anything that I know him capable of to Kat... I-I..."

"I'm right there with you," Jacob told me firmly. "If you had seen how powerless he made her feel. A-and not to mention humiliated. I mean... I just- Kat is one of the fiercest women that I have ever met, and he just shut her down. It's not uncommon in our community for the men to do that to their wives, but- I don't know, not to Kat. She is Kat. I don't know her like you know her, but she has given me permission to be myself and believe that there's better things out there. Like there's hope somewhere out there. I don't want my brother to destroy that in her."

"She's really fought a good fight to get there. You'd love her even more if you were there to see it," I told him. "She's transformed a lot, and I hate that they're trying to destroy that about her. She's precious. And the shit that they've put on her for her whole life is traumatic and daunting. Kat has put in a lot of work to work through her triggers, negative inner dialogue, and self-loathing. She's worked really hard to love herself. I'd hate for them to take that away from her."

"No," Jake said firmly. "She won't let them. We won't let them. She has to remember how powerful she is... How loving she is. She's... Kat."

Still... I couldn't help but to feel guilty. I felt guilty about what had happened to her with Matt. I felt guilty for letting her do all this for me and my family. I felt awful for everything. I needed her to understand that she really was everything. I wasn't sure if she could though when there were people around her constantly telling her the exact opposite. I wasn't there to contradict everything for her anymore.

Kat was strong, but there is only so much someone could take. I didn't know what Kat's limit was, and I sure as hell didn't want to find out. I needed to figure out how to help her, how to remind her of her worth, her strength. She was so strong and full of grace.

----

"Come on, Erik!" Chris banged on my door harshly.

I still didn't answer it. He had knocked on my door at least seven times in the last hour. I quit acknowledging him by the third time.

"Alright, I'm coming in. If you're fapping, you've got ten seconds to put that thing away!" He exclaimed. He counted all the way to ten when he finally barged into my room.

"Have I mentioned how annoying it is to share a house with you?" I commented and didn't turn away from my task.

"Have I mentioned how much I don't give a shit?" He replied. "No, I've come to drag you away. You've been hiding away up here for over two weeks now doing only God knows what. It's the weekend, Erik! Graduation is in less than a month my guy! We're about to be free!"

"And Kat is about to be tied to an abusive ego-maniac forever..." I grumbled, not even sparing my best friend a glance.

"Yes, but what exactly can we do about that?" Chris questioned.

"I'm trying to figure that out," I said harshly as I held up about the billionth financial record that I had been going through before he rudely interrupted me. "Goodbye, Chris."

"Well, have you found anything yet?"

"Obviously," I deadpanned. "That's why I'm still looking," I answered in an annoyed tone. "No. I've not found anything more than simple tax infractions that wouldn't get him any jail time, even in white-collar prison. Now go away."

"No, no, no dude. You've been locked away too long. I understand that you're trying to help your girl, but you've got to chill out. Take a break. Take a load off. Come out with me. Dasia is throwing a party. T ain't gonna be there or any of his crew. Just old friends having fun and chilling before we all graduate in a few weeks. Come with me, even if it's just for a little while."

"Go away, Chris," I demanded.

"You know as much as I know that Kat would be pissed if she saw how ragged you're running yourself. You barely even sleep anymore, Erik. Please... Just come out with me. We're all worried about you. You can't keep doing this to yourself."

"For once," Nia said from the doorway. "I'm with dumbass Chris on this one."

"Hey!" Chris exclaimed with a dirty look to my sister. "But yeah! But still... That was rude!"

"It's true. You're a dumbass," Nia said with a shrug. "Anyways, you need to get out for a bit bro. You know what they say... Fresh eyes are new eyes or whatever. Go out, have a drink, maybe even a tolk. When you come back, maybe you'll find something new.

"Chris is right, Erik. Ew that tasted awful coming out of my mouth, by the way. Kat would be so mad at you if she saw you working yourself like this. Get up, clean up, take a shower, and go out with your friends. I understand that you're upset about Kat and the predicament that she is in, but that doesn't mean you get to condemn yourself to half a life while looking over financial records that are probably all in order."

"Nia is a smartass bitch ain't she. I mean... She agreed with me.

"She also called you a dumbass so..." I snarked. "Fine. I'll go for one hour. I'm coming back home and going back to my shit after that. You don't understand the shit that the dude is capable of. If you saw, you'd be acting the same way..."