"Ok Jaden, what I'm about to tell you is classified information " He nods in affirmation but I continue.
"As in you cannot tell another soul about this."
"I understand Haven, you can trust me," he smiles reassuringly at me and I feel my resolve slipping away as calmly and surely as the clouds after a heavy rain. I was ready to open up.
I trusted Jaden.
"Okay," I begin.
"A while before I moved here there was an incident...involving my father." I quickly glance at Jaden then continue.
"I don't remember what happened but it was really bad...my dad is in jail now." I try to gauge his reaction but he doesn't show any emotion so I just barrel on.
"So I've been seeing a therapist ever since to try and remember what happened." Jaden finally speaks up.
"I don't understand, how can you just not remember something that happened to you?"
"The doctor said that apparently the situation was too much for my brain to handle then. So it just suppressed the memory in order to protect me..." I was suddenly feeling tired and dizzy as I tried to think back to that day. Something was coming back to me and suddenly everything goes black.
Light slowly starts to seep into my vision and I recognize my old house and I start to remember:
"Hey sweetheart....is your mom home," my dad gets out of a dark van with front windows tinted almost to the point of complete darkness and back windows covered by black garbage bags. I've never seen this vehicle before. He comes towards me looking pretty cautious.
I'm confused I don't think I'm supposed to be with him today.
"Um dad, what're you doing here?"
"Is your mom home?" He asks me again.
"Yea she's inside." I say unsurely.
All of a sudden my dad grabs me and pulls me towards the van. As I open my mouth and scream my mom comes out the front door while my dad throws me into the back of the car. I hear my mom call out:
"Luther! What're you doing here, bring her back!" She runs towards the van but it's too late and my dad is already pulling away from the curb looking warily around and out the windows.
As my eyes adjust to the darkness of the van I see that there's another figure in the back with me...one of my uncles I'm pretty sure. He smiles at me.
"Hey sweetheart, long time no see," then proceeds to gag me.
My eyes open with a start, breaking me sharply out of my flashback. I feel sick for a second but it quickly passes. Leaving only a sense of paranoia behind.
"Haven, Haven wake up," I sit up abruptly at the sound of Jaden's worried voice and immediately regret it and lie back down as my head is pounding like no tomorrow.
I look into Jaden's relieved eyes.
"Are u alright?" He looks intently into my eyes, trying to look for any signs of distress.
"Yea, I-I just remembered something...I think from that d-day," I stutter out.
Jaden immediately helps me up again.
"I think you should tell your mom and your therapist this." He says thoughtfully.
I frowned, "You don't wanna hear about it?" I ask.
"Oh no, no of course I do I just feel like it might exhaust you to tell the story over and over again and you'd want to say it all at once." He seems unsure now and I can't help but smile at how thoughtful he actually is.
"Yea, that's true...that's thoughtful of you." I reassure him.
We decide to go to school even though we've missed the whole of first period and will probably have missed half of 2nd by the time we get there. I remember to text my mom before we get there.
Me: Mom, we need to talk, I think I remembered something...from the day with dad.
Mom: Really! That's big news I'll meet you at your new therapist's office after school to discuss this. I'm so happy you're already making progress. I knew moving here would be good for you.
Me: Yea, I agree. I'll see you after school.
I turn off my phone as we pull up to the school and we head inside together. Jaden walks me to my next class. When we reach the classroom he gives me a final reassuring smile and a quick hug before jogging to his class which happened to beon the same , I sigh deeply to myself and walk into the classroom. Just as I take my seat the bell rings and class begin.
~~~
The final bell rings and as soon as I exit my classroom two minutes later I can already pick out Jaden's tall, muscular frame leaning on the wall across from me. I walk up to him and we start to head out to the parking lot but we bump into Gabriella on the way.
"Oh my gosh Haven I haven't seen you in forever!" She exclaims.
Then she sees Jaden a little bit to my right and not so subtly does an eyebrow dance. I giggle a little and smack her arm lightly.
"A lot happened this weekend and I stayed over at Jaden's house." I explain.
Her eyes widen and my mouth drops into an o form as I realize what it sounded like. I feel heat rush to my cheeks because Jaden is now chuckling which further escalates the embarrassment so of course I rush to correct her.
"No no it's not what it sounds like. There was an issue during my date with Isaiah and this one saved me." I send a quick grateful look at Jaden.
"I'll call you tonight to explain everything but right now we have somewhere to be. Tell Selena and Ashley I say hi. See you later." We wave goodbye and Jaden and I get on our way to meet my new therapist and my mom.
We go out to the parking lot and into Jaden's car then speed off to the address on the business card my mom gave me.
We pull up to a brownstone building with ivy running beautifully up one side and glass windows on either side of the cobblestone stairs that lead up to the door of the building. Jaden parks the car and I spot my mom's car already parked.
We walk up and into the building. As we enter we see a receptionist's desk and the secretary smiles and waves us into the big office. When we walk in I see a pretty lady with chestnut curls highlighted with blonde streaks typing away on her laptop sitting on a beautiful desk. My mom sat across from her in one of four surrounding chairs patiently. When we walk in both women smile at us and we take our seats.
It's ShowTime.
A/N I hope you guys like this chapter. Make sure to vote and comment <3