After lesson Hannah approaches me, something seemed to be quite odd about her.
"You've been awfully quite" I raise my brows as we dig into our food. We were sat on my room floor.
"Have I?" She nervously laughs and I nod. "Just stressed, you know what with exam season coming up next month" she lies.
"What have you done?" I ask, I knew her a lot better than she thought I did.
"You're going to be mad, and I don't want to bring it all back to you but-" I instantly know what she's on about and I gulp.
"Please tell me you haven't done something stupid"
"R-remember that night" she whispers and I shudder, my body stills and my eyes instantly get watery.
I couldn't. I couldn't even think about what had happened to me without feeling weak and depressed.
"I'm sorry" she says and I close my eyes tightly.
"Just say it"
"W-well after putting you to sleep I took your dress, I didn't know what I'd do with it but I decided to take it to the police and-"
"You did what!" I scream, my eyes blazing with tears and that fear I once had pumped right through me.
"It's for your own good! You need justice and he needs to be payed!"
"You're doing it for yourself!" I stand from the floor and pace around.
"I'm doing it for us! That pig deserves to get punished"
"I don't want to relive it again! Do you know how many nights I cried, how many times I was scared to leave the house, I don't even wear fitted clothes anymore because I'm scared it's going to happen again! Dan, he's my boyfriend and I can't even- I can't even sleep with him because I feel so fucking scared"
"I'm sorry" she whispers and by now my face was puffy and drenched with tears.
The door creaks open and Dan stares between Hannah and I.
"What's.. going on?" He asks cautiously.
"Nothing" I spit and turn my face away from him.
"She knows" Hannah sighs and I instantly turn around, I look at him with shock.
"Y-you knew, you both knew and you didn't tell me!"
"I knew you'd go against it and damn it Ella! It's better we told the police otherwise I would've killed him with my bare hands!"
"I don't care! You have no idea how it feels, even talking about it now makes me feel so, so disgusting!"
"Baby" he rushes over to me, I resist his touch at first but then give in.
"Hannah can you give us a minute" he says and she gets up.
"I really am sorry El, but you have to know I did for you, I wanted justice for you" I ignore her and let out a breath when I hear the door shut.
"I can't believe this, just when I thought I'm over it" I laugh and tears stream down my face.
"Ella, I was going to tell you. I thought Hannah could keep it quiet for just a little longer. I've been meaning to give you this" I take a seat on my bed as he goes over to his and takes the letter I found a few days ago.
"What's that?" I frown, I sniff and wipe my tears as he hands me the letter.
"It's a letter asking you to attend court" he says and my fingers start to shake when I read it. "I know how this seems but Ella he's facing a lot of prison time and so is Lucy, with the dress and video footage found on Josh's phone everything shows their guilty, they just need your statement" he promises and I hesitate.
"H-how did they find the video and when?"
"Claire handed it over to me a few weeks ago, she said she found it at the party and that luckily the video was still on and before you ask it didn't get spread. I told Hannah about it because I saw how well you were doing and I didn't want to drag you down, Ella I was near to killing Lucy and Drew but Hannah stopped me and when she told me she had the dress we took it to the station straight away"
I was speechless and scared, I couldn't absorb everything that was going on and before I could even let myself cry I remembered I had work.
"Oh I have to phone Tasha" I say and he stares at me with confusion.
"Ella, you understand everything I've told you?"
"I can't miss work can I" I smile and dial up her number.
"Ella" he says firmly.
"She's not answering" I chuckle. "She never answers- always busy"
"Ella!"
"Always busy" I sob and he wraps me in his arm.
"I promise everything will be ok, everything will be fine" he kisses my forehead.
I wish I could just switch everything off.
Chapter 18
Start from the beginning
