Three Words

Chapter 33 - Tris

I still can't believe that one incident could turn my life completely upside down.  Even though Marcus was in jail, his shadow of misery still managed to stretch to us in Atlanta.  Constantly coming at us from different angles, till I didn't think I could take much more.

When Tobias and I changed our numbers, it greatly cut down on the number of calls we received.  Even giving Tobias and I a few days to sit down, be with each other, and let him begin to divulge some of the horrors of his childhood.  It was hard to listen to him give details of his first beating.  The way he began to shake as he spoke, almost curling in on himself, broke my heart.  But I did the only thing I knew to do, and stayed by him, listening without comment, as my fingers seemed to trace over the scars along his back.  Trying to take the pain that each scar contained.  Willing my love into each mark.

However, what neither one of us anticipated were the videos that surfaced of not only Tobias hitting his father, but also of me taking Marcus down.  This did not help the media shit storm that we had already been a part of.  My main fear when I watched the first video was that it would reveal me exposing myself to the entire world.  But thankfully, the knee length dress kept my privates, well, private. 

With video evidence of Marcus' outburst, Tobias punching him, and me subduing him, the news outlets had a field day with the information.  Often showing the video repeatedly, having guest phycologists come on, talking about whether it was a ruse or asking if Marcus was truly deranged.  The reporters were truly relentless after that, coming after not only Tobias, but me as well.  Zoe and I ended up having to stay at Caleb and Cara's, or my parent's house, trying to change it up so they wouldn't have any idea where we were.  At one point, Zoe was going to stay with Helen for a few days, while Tobias and I found a hotel an hour outside of town just so we weren't constantly having to change locations.  To give us a minute to breath in the middle of the chaos and to give Zoe a bit of normalcy. 

It helped immensely for Tobias and I, but when Zoe called in tears after the first day, upset with everything that had been going on, I knew we had to put aside our desires for peace.  I came back that night, and comforted her, giving the best explanation I could to her as to why reporters were so insistent on talking to us, and why it was a problem for Tobias and I. 

Tobias and I did speak with each other every night during that time, with him giving pieces of his childhood.  He mostly spoke of the small parts of his past that were actually happy memories.  Some were of his mother, but most of them were when he was in high school.  How his friendship with Zeke grew, and how their mother took care of him like a third son on the nights when he didn't want to go back to Marcus. 

He told me he wanted to wait to tell me about the more horrendous aspects of his childhood for when we were together.  He didn't want to have talk about something like that over the phone.  He said he craved my contact and comfort during those times.  It made it easier when I was there with him. 

When the police report finally came out to the public four weeks after the incident, the reporters tried one more push to get an interview, but gave up when they realized we weren't going to give in.  We found out that Marcus was removed from his job as a city council member due to everything that had happened at the restaurant and the story coming out about his abuse.  We would eventually have to go back to Chicago when Marcus' trial started, but the lawyer that contacted Tobias stated that it wouldn't be for a several weeks.  While I hated every minute of being harassed by reporters, I knew it needed to happen to not only give Tobias some closure, but to also get that lying asshole out of any current or future public position.

*********

"Ok.  Explain to me again what happened?" Christina has her head buried in her hands, trying not to laugh.