Ups! Gambar ini tidak mengikuti Pedoman Konten kami. Untuk melanjutkan publikasi, hapuslah gambar ini atau unggah gambar lain.
ALL I DO. { irl }
nick and camille put the pieces together very quickly. they suddenly understood that their father must be mean or abusive or something along those fucked up lines. but all chris felt was anger. he only met rayne a few months ago. but somewhere along the way, he's become incredibly protective over the child. and seeing her tremble in fear like this made his blood boil.
"get the hell out of my house." nick said, but the man ignored him and walked into the living room.
he snatched rayne out of camille's arms, causing rayne to cry out and thrash around. camille glared and him and went to stand up, but chris put his arm out in front of her. he stood up from the couch and made sure camille stayed seated.
"you have no fucking right to march in here and kidnap that child." chris says, trying to keep his voice level. he knows that if the man knew how pissed he was, his anger could be used against him.
"kidnap?" rayne's father mimicked in disbelief. "this is my daughter. you're the one with a scared little girl hiding in your house. i'm simply a concerned father looking for my missing children."
"what the fuck is your problem? she doesn't want to be with you!" chris pointed out, his voice raising slightly. "she's trying to get out of your arms. i can tell that she doesn't feel safe with you. she's just a fucking kid, let her go!"
the look on the man's face was absolutely sadistic. his entire demeanor was calm despite the chaotic situation. and the more angry chris got, the wide the man's smile grew and the tighter his grip on rayne became.
while chris was blinded by rage, nick was trying to put together the puzzle.
the man was limping and there was a knot forming on his head. rayne was clearly afraid of him and his injuries look recent. nick suddenly remembers the frantic and terrified look on niola's face when she and matt first got here. but more than anything else, he recalls the way matt was rushing to take niola to his room.
which means matt knew that all of this was going on.
while in the bathroom, niola hears her father's voice shouting angrily at someone in the living room. her entire body stiffens at the sound. but matt isn't paying attention to anything except for niola. he's staring at her and ignoring the sound of his brother arguing with some random man.
but he definitely notices the way niola freezes out of nowhere. her entire face drops into a frown and her eyes widen in fear.
"hey," he says, softly cupping her cheek with his hand, "what's wrong?"
"can you-" she pauses, her breath quickening. her voice is shaking and her eyes are darting all over the place. "do you hear him? my dad?"
matt – now fully engulfed in an unreasonable amount of rage and concern – storms out of the bathroom and starts walking down the hall. there's no way that her father came to his fucking house and started arguing with his brothers. especially after what he did to rayne and niola.
matt remembers the sight of niola's burn mark and he becomes even angrier. and not only did he hurt his own daughters, but he also hit miss posey across the face for trying to protect them.
just as matt is about to enter the living room and absolutely destroy that man, he glances back down the hall through the bathroom door – that he left open. he then sees niola sitting on the closed toilet seat. her face is in her hands and her entire body is trembling as though her worst nightmare were coming true.
matt looks back forward and realizes that even though he'd be yelling at her dad out of love and protection over niola, it would make him just as bad as her father – taking out his frustrations through screaming and fighting.
matt wants to go down the hall and beat the shit out of that guy, but he loves niola too much to leave her in this state.
he turns around and walks back into the bathroom. she hears him enter the room and recognizes the footsteps to be matt's. if it were anyone else, she would have shot up and wiped away her tears to hide her feelings. but it's matt.
he crouches down on the floor in front of her, taking her face into his hands and making her look him in the eye.
"i love you, okay?" he says. "and you need to remember that he can't control you anymore, nia. you have friends and family by your side now. you're not alone."
something about those last three words makes her feel less afraid.
matt's right. she's not that little girl anymore – who would cower in the corner when her parents fought. what she needs isn't to hide in the bathroom and wait for everything to calm down, she needs to go help rayne. she needs to make sure that her baby sister doesn't take her place in that dark corner.
"you're right." niola agrees. "i need to stand up for myself."
she leans forward and places a quick kiss on matt's lips. then she stands up from the toilet seat and walks out of the bathroom and into the living room with matt's hand tightly gripped in hers.
.∘◦❀◦∘. a/n : there's a bit of symbolism to explain 🤭🤭
in the last line, the bathroom represents the dark corner from her past. and the corner symbolizes the fear of her father and the death of her childhood.
when i said "she needs to make sure that her baby sister doesn't take her place in that dark corner."i meant that niola wants to preserve rayne's innocence and childhood for as long as possible so she doesn't become consumed by her fears the way niola did.
when she walked out of the bathroom, she was walking way from her fears. and when she walked into the living room, she was entering an unknown territory that has always scared her. and the fact that she's holding matt's hand just shows that she's only able to do this with him by her side. ◦∘.❀.∘◦
