Bringing Back Hallie

Bringing Back Hallie: Chapter Eighteen

His lips tug upward in a very brief smile, but still a smile nonetheless. He then goes quiet for a moment, preparing himself to finish the story. And then he opens his mouth and continues, "After that fight, my mom went out drinking with a friend from work. She was stressed and upset and just needed a night of fun. She ended up...she...she was in a car accident. Her friend was drunk when they drove back from the bar and...she ended up wrapping the car around a tree. She survived, but my mom...my mom didn't. I was eleven when I had to move in with my dad. He wasn't a parent to me. He was an absolute wreck when my mom died, always blamed himself. He was just so...so fucking angry all of the time, you know? And I was the only one..." 

It's then that I get where this story is going. Where it's been going since he started talking. I made a guess a while back, a very dramatic guess definitely, but it turns out that it was true. Ethan was abused as a child. He really was. My beautiful golden boy boyfriend had to endure abuse from his father after he had just lost his mother. He had to go through something that I would not wish on my worst enemy.  

I feel a big, fat tear escape from the confines of my eye, it slowly trailing down my cheek, leaving a cold trail in its wake. I know that this is not the time to cry, that I need to be strong and be there for Ethan and tell him all of these encouraging things to help him. But right now, I'm just too heartbroken over the fact that he even had to go through such a hard childhood. That he had to be beaten by his father.  

Ethan doesn't continue on with his story, he just tightens his arms around my waist and says, "But I'm fine now, Hallie. My life is so good right now, I don't even think about it anymore." 

I shake my head, feeling so completely terrible with myself. I say, "Don't comfort me, Ethan...I'm not the one who needs it." 

"Then you crying was just a figment of my imagination?" he teases lightly, probably trying to put a lighter tone on the whole conversation. What I really don't understand, though, is how he can. How can he be so nonchalant right now? How can he act like he wasn't beaten as a kid? 

"How can you...how can you even...?" I just don't understand how he isn't so torn up about this. I mean, when he was talking about his mom's death he was almost in tears. But now...now he's trying to make a joke to make me feel better about his dad beating him? 

It's all so fucked up. 

"Baby," he says softly, placing his hands on the sides of my face and gently rubbing the smooth skin of my cheek with his rough fingertips. "It's over and done with...I've had enough time to cope. Sure I hate my dad and never plan on speaking to him, but my life is really good right now. I don't want to spend the good times I have still hung up on my past." 

Biting down on my lower lip to keep from crying, I reach up and run my thumb underneath his lip, not really knowing what to say or how to react. He's so mature, so wholly good that I'm not sure how to speak to him right now. He always knows exactly what to say, how to react, how to make me feel better. He's so good to me that I just don't understand how he finds me good enough to be with like this. How can he treat me so well when I'm nowhere near as amazing as he is?  

So even though my self-respect has been shot a bit, seeing as how I know I wouldn't handle such a situation so well like he does, I just tell my gorgeous boyfriend wholeheartedly, "You're an amazing person, Ethan Crest." 

He smiles at his, before leaning in and caressing my lips with his own, a sweet and tender kiss that we both definitely needed. When he pulls away from me, he rests his forehead against mine and says, "I'm really not. But I'm glad you think..." 

"PDA infraction!" my dad barks, the sudden oncoming of his loud voice into the quietness of the room startling the shit out of me. I literally jump in Ethan's lap in surprise, embarrassing myself and probably Ethan as well.