A Nerd Hurts a Bully

22

I quickly went to my car and got my wallet. I needed to be with my friends. I can't tell anyone what happened. "Hey guys! I'm back!" I said. "Okay, let's shop now!" Zach said.

We actually had a lot of fun. I forgot about the bad things in life, honestly. We went to a lot of stores, tried on silly hats and glasses. We had a lot of food like milkshakes and pigs in a blanket. It was super fun. Now, we had to go home.

"Bye!" I said while dropping Zach off. "Bye, Manuel! Stay safe!" He said. I smiled. I went back to my house and went inside my room. My mom and her boyfriend weren't back until like 20 minutes later. When they came back, I could hear all the gross things they were doing. I tried to sleep, and luckily it worked.

Despite all the food we had at the mall, I was still a bit hungry. I went to the kitchen to see if there was anything to eat. I looked in the freezer to see if there was anything good. Luckily, there was ice cream. I got a bowl of ice cream and went to the couch to watch TV.

This man in a robe came out of my mom's room. I got scared for a moment because I thought he was my dad. "Hi." I said. It looks like I startled the guy. "Oh, geez buddy. You scared me. Hey. Uh- I'm your mother's boyfriend. Wait, that isn't a way to introduce myself. My name is Lucas. You can call me Luke if you want." He said. He looked so scared and wanted to impress me somehow. "Hi, Luke. My name is Manuel." I said. "Hi Manuel. What are you doing awake?" Luke asked.

"Nothing, just watching TV and eating ice cream. What about you?" I asked. "I was going to actually use the bathroom and then go back to sleep. But if you want I could..." Luke said. "Sure." I said.

Luke made it really awkward. He's one of those awkward but nice boyfriends that are dating a mom and is trying to impress the child, if you get what I mean. "Hey, uh- I heard a lot about you." Luke said. I froze. "Is that so? What did you hear?" I asked. "I heard about your dad raping you and your self harm. Uh- I can relate a bit. Not trying to trigger you or anything." Luke said. Relate? He can relate to getting raped? I met a lot of people who have been raped now.

"Relate to me how?" I asked. Luke spaced out. "Uh hello? How do you relate to me?" I asked. "Oh! I'm sorry uh- I relate to you about the self harm and the rape a bit. But hey, my friends didn't listen to my story. What makes me think you would?" Luke laughed. "I could listen, if you want." I said. Luke went quiet. "Oh uh- yeah sure! Just tell me when you feel uncomfortable so I can stop." Luke said.

"So ummm. Geez I don't know where to start off. My dad was abusive towards me, my mom, and my older brother. My brother's name is Logan. We were not poor. My father was a real estate agent and a well known person in my town. My mother was a hairdresser and a yoga instructor." Luke said while sighing.

"Everyone thought we were a "perfect" family. Nobody knew what was going on inside the perfect, big house. My brother Logan would try to distract me from noise when my father and mother were fighting. Things always ended up messy. My dad would hit my mom with a pan or something similar." Luke said.

"I remember he was drunk once. One of the worst nights of my life. He managed to hurt all of us. He came inside the house busting the door open. My mom, Logan, and me were all sitting in the living room. My father came closer to us. He pushed my mom to the ground and punched her in the stomach. Then, he looked over at me. He said to save the best for last, meaning my older brother was the last one. He punched me and scratched me on my back." Luke said. I was really listening.

"Now for my older brother, my father didn't do what he was going to do in front of me and my mom. He said that he was going to save him for later. He forced my mom to make him dinner and forced me to go fold his clothes and take his work bag upstairs." Luke said.