Strings Attached

Chapter Twenty-Three

"Because I just want to show it to you," he explained.

I smiled. Teddy smiled and crossed the curtain of the waterfall casually. I raised one of my eyebrows and did the same, and it was then that I noticed that there was a small cave behind the waterfall.

"Wow," I said as I entered.

Teddy smiled. "It's beautiful, right?"

I nodded as I saw how different the waterfall looked from inside. It was as though we were in a parallel universe.

It was as though Teddy had discovered a whole new world where everything was the opposite.

We were standing behind the curtains of the waterfall, and it was very beautiful. I had never seen something as magical as that place.

"Do you think your mom knows about this?" he asked.

I smiled. "She probably does."

"Why do you think she didn't tell us?" he asked.

"Maybe she wanted us to find it on our own," I said.

Teddy smirked. "That makes sense."

Teddy sighed and sat down on a small rock. He motioned for me to sit down on a rock next to his.

I obeyed, and soon we were both sitting next to each other, breathing the same air.

I could hear the water as it hit the rocks, and it was a beautiful sound.

Teddy turned to see the cave's ceiling. "Imagine how many people have come here," he said. "How many different stories this cave holds."

I smiled. "They must be a lot," I said.

"You'd bet they must," he said.

"One of them would be my parents' story," I said, sighing. "Just another proof that not all stories have a happy ending."

Teddy smiled sadly. "At least your parents used to love each other," he said. "My father never loved my mother or me. Especially me."

"Maybe he loved you, Teddy, but he made mistakes. Maybe he... maybe he hit you because he thought he would teach you lessons that way..." I muttered.

I knew it was a very stupid thing to say. I knew I should have never tried to justify his father's actions, but I simply hated to see how hurt Teddy looked whenever he mentioned his father.

Teddy gritted his teeth. "That son of a bitch never loved me," he whispered.

I lowered my face. "Teddy..."

Teddy's eyes filled with tears. "He took everything away from me, Chris," he said, his voice breaking. "Everything!"

I bit my bottom lip. "You don't need to talk about him if you don't want to," I muttered.

"No," he whispered. "I know I don't have to, but I want to. I'm tired of keeping it a secret..."

Teddy took my hand and squeezed it tightly, as if looking for strength. He lowered his face and shook his head sadly.

"When I was five years old, my father and my mom started fighting. My dad had always been indifferent to us. He let us know that if he had not gotten my mom pregnant, he would've never married.

"I knew he didn't love us, but I never thought he hated us so much until he started hitting my mother and me. Mom started doing drugs, and there was no one left to protect me from him. Every night, I would see her passed out on the couch, and my dad would get so angry that there was no food ready for him that he would start beating the crap out of me."