-HI GUYS JUST LETTING YOU KNOW THIS CHAPTER HAS A TRIGGER WARNING FOR ABUSE (EMOTIONAL AND/OR PHYSICAL)-
Camila breathlessly moved her feet from pushup position to squat position and got up; who invented burpees? She thought this purely because she wanted to find that person and kill them. Lauren laughed as she handed Camila her water, "Babe, you only did ten," she watched Camia chug down the water, "If you wanna have good strength and stamina to complete that course, you need to be able to do at least 50 before getting that tired."
Camila practically choked on her water, "50?!" she coughed out making Lauren laugh again. She playfully hit Lauren arm, "Stop laughing at me! This is freakin' hard."
Lauren put her arm around her waist, "I know it is, come on I think that's enough for the day," she gestured towards the exit of the gym, letting Camila walk slightly in front of her, "I heard they might move the date of the physical exam to after break, they're trying a new curriculum this year. So, maybe we don't have to rush to get you in shape by Friday."
Friday was the last day of school before winter break, sometimes first year cadets have their physical exams on that day; Lauren hoped Camila wouldn't have hers because the two just realized that they hadn't really been training for it, so caught up in the being a newly official couple. Lauren would feel terrible if Camila ended up failing, she was sure that with some training, Camila could definitely pass. She just didn't know if they had enough time to get in that training as it was Sunday, so they had only four more days left to fit it all in.
When they arrived to the hall where their room was, Normani was standing in the hallway, talking to general; she dismissed herself quickly when she saw them making their way to their room. "Hey," she said, not so cheerfully, to both of them.
"What's up, Mani?" Lauren said as she opened the door letting both girls in before her.
"Uhm, I was wondering if I can talk to you Lo," Normani said, she seemed to be in some sort of distress; Camila furrowed her brows curiously, Normani quickly turned to her, "No offense, Mila, it's just-" Normani paused, not really knowing what to say, "I just need to tell Lauren something, that I think should be told one on one."
Lauren was about to protest, she didn't think there could be anything that Normani could say that would not be okay for Camila to hear; maybe, if it had to due with her family, it would confuse Camila, sure, but Lauren surely wouldn't want Camila to feel as if she was hiding something.
Camila nodded her head, "That's fine, I understand. I have to go shower anyway," she gathered her pajamas, as it was already evening.
"Camz you don-"
"Sshh," Camila put her finger on Lauren's mouth, "I think you can go a few minutes without me," she joked.
Lauren went to bite her finger which made Camila retreat it, giggling, Lauren pouted, "I don't think I can."
Normani slightly smiled at them, for the past week, the two really had been inseparable causing her to constantly have to witness these nauseating cute moments.
Camila smiled, "Well you're going to have to, sorry baby," she leaned in to give Lauren a sweet peck on the lips before turning to walk out, Lauren watched her leave with a silly grin on her face.
After the door closed, she finally turned to look at Normani, who sitting on her bed, prompting her to join. "So what's going on?" Lauren nervously asked, she had a very bad feeling about what Normani had to say.
Normani took a deep breath, trying to make sure she had a strong composure that way she could comfort Lauren after telling her the news she had.
-
Camila walked into the room to find Lauren laying on her bed, facing the wall, her back to the door; Camila closed the door, figuring she was napping when she realized Lauren was sniffing. Immediately she approached the bed asking, "Laur, are you okay?" She placed her hand on Lauren's shoulder to try and get her to turn over, "Baby, what's wrong?"
Lauren was hesitant at first when she felt Camila's hand on her shoulder, but then she gave in, turning around and pulling her down to lay with her. Camila's heart broke when she saw the redness in and around Lauren's eyes, she wrapped her arms around her and let her continue to silently cry into her. She just laid there, trying not to cry herself as Lauren's cries got increasingly harder; she had no idea what was going on, what made a seemingly strong girl like Lauren break down into this, a broken girl in her arms, but the answers had to wait as Lauren showed no signs of immediately talking.
After what seemed like about ten minutes, Lauren's crying subsided fully, Camila still rubbed her hand up and down her back soothingly as she was still confused and very worried. For the first time since she got there, Lauren looked up straight into her eyes, her now red, puffy ones meeting Camila's chocolate ones, her voice cracked a little as she commented, "You used my shampoo."
Camila smiled as she shook her head, of course, that's the first thing Lauren has to say, "Why yes I did, got a problem?"
Lauren let out a small smile, "No, it's cute that you wanna smell like me. But, I miss your old shampoo, it smelled fruity."
"Well, I can alternate," Camila changed her position slightly as they both sat up, their legs still tangled on each other, "Or you can just wear mine if you like it so much."
Lauren scrunched up her nose, "Ew, no, fruity isn't my style. It's yours though, it adds to the cutesy thing."
Camila never even knew she had a cutesy thing until Lauren came in her life; she would imagine her friends back home would laugh if she even suggested that she could be 'cutesy'. Nevertheless, she enjoyed this apparent trait of hers because Lauren did.
They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, their positions now being that both were sitting with their backs on the wall side, until Lauren sighed, "I think it's story time."
Lauren reached out to grab Camila's hand, she brought it up to her lips and kissed it then began, with their hands still intertwined.
"I was three years old when I was put into foster care, my mom was drug addict, my father practically nonexistent. My mom would still visit me from time to time, say that she was going to get back on track and then take care of me, it never happened. At the age of seven, she stopped visiting and because of that, I became to throw tantrums and act out, making me go from foster parent to foster parent. The most permanent foster parent I had," Lauren paused to gulp, looking down as she thought about him, "H-his name was Mr. Woolf. Jack Woolf. I was put into his care when I was 10 and stayed there till I was thirteen."
Camila nodded as sign that she was keeping up, she rubbed the thumb that locked with Lauren hand, along the side of it, absently comforting her.
"Mr. Woolf, he was a fucking asshole. He made my life hell, he-he," Lauren choked up on her words, her body always felt like shutting down when Lauren wanted to express something pertaining to Jack.
Camila grew more concerned, but she let Lauren take a moment to calm down before asking, "Lauren, what did he do to you?"
-
Jack continued to grab all of the contents of the fridge and stuffed them into the garbage bag; furious, all of his round face was red, his dark brown eyes looking as if they were going to pop out of the sockets, his muscles visible in his unfortunately tight white button shirt that also showed his beer belly. Matthew, Lauren's older foster sibling, watched frightened as he held told both Lauren and Josh to stay behind, in the hallway to the kitchen where they hiding, while he walked inside the kitchen. Lauren and Chris were both only ten and twelve, respectively, at fifteen years old, he was the oldest and felt responsible to take the beating; he also had dealt with Jack the longest, out of the three foster kids, he had been under Jack's care for about three years now. Young Lauren had only been there for a week, this was the first time she was being exposed to what happens when Jack comes home. For a while, she was under the impression that Matt was her new foster dad.
"Mr. Woolf," trepidation obvious in Matt's voice as he made his way around the counter, he cleared his throat as he fearlessly demanded, "Stop! Stop throwing away our food! Can't you see we're all fucking starving already?"
Jack, who hadn't looked up as Matt was talking, immediately did to slap him, hard across the face with his backhand, the impact too much for Matt, he lost his balance, wobbling slightly as he held his face while crying in pain. "Don't you fucking curse at me, son," he growled as he fixed his big gold ring on his middle finger, it had turned slightly when he slapped Matt, "Where are the other rejects?"
Matt gulped, "Whatever you have to say, just say to me."
Jack laughed bitterly as he called out in a childish voice, "Kids! Daddy's home," then his voice turned sinister, "Get into the kitchen now."
Matt immediately yelled after, "No! Don't come out!" This time earning him a punch, he was more prepared and tried to fight back, but after getting slapped and now punched with all that force, he felt light headed, Jack gave him another punch to the gut that caused him to collapse on the floor.
Lauren watched the scene with Chris in horror, their small heads peeking from behind the kitchen wall, Chris held her mouth when her heard her start crying, "Shh, it's going to be okay," he whispered, trying to comfort her but his own eyes were getting teary.
"Oh kiddies," Jack called out, "Don't make me come and get you."
Chris wiped away his own tears, he was trying to brave but he was scared, really scared, in the year he had been here he had never had to face Jack without Matt; he had never seen Matt be knocked unconscious like this, "We have to go out there, I promise, I won't let him hurt you okay?"
Lauren nodded, both of them intertwined their hands as they walked in the kitchen, Lauren hiding slightly behind Chris. "Ah, there you are, look at how cute you look, like brother and sister," he laughed as he tied up the garbage that was now filled with every food item that was in their house, "We're just one big happy family."
Chris gritted through his teeth, "Of course,"
"Of course, what?" Jack challenged, narrowing his eyes.
"Of course, Mr. Woolf."
"Ah such a good boy," he patted his head, he was now close enough for Lauren to smell the alcohol that his body reeked of, "Unfortunately, someone has been a bad rugrat, and forgot to clean the kitchen. Now who's responsibility was it to clean the kitchen?"
Lauren eyes widened, she was not told of any chores to do, she looked at Chris questionably. Chris didn't look at her, he and Matt both decided that it was unfair for Lauren to do the overwhelming amount of chores that were given every week as it was just her first week, but cleaning kitchen was indeed on the list as Lauren's. "It was mine, Mr. Woolf," Chris courageously said.
"Well, Chris, how is anyone suppose to eat or cook when the kitchen is a mess?" Jack rhetorically asked, he had a conniving smile on his face that made Lauren tremble, "No one will get food until you show me that you deserve food," his bearded smile widened, showing his yellow teeth, as he tapped Chris on his nose, "Simple."
Chris gulped, feeling anger start to rise within him, "No," he said as Jack turned around.
"No?" Jack returned, looking at Chris in a disbelief.
"You've taken away our tv and last week you took our bed, but you can't take our food. We need food, Matt is right, we barely get enough food already because you only allow us to have a certain amount."
Jack groaned as he grasped onto his wrist, "I think it's time we show Lauren here what happens to rejects that talk back."
Lauren gulped as she watched Chris take off his shirt and Jack his belt, Chris not making eye contact with Lauren. Chris put his hands on the counter, trying hard to hold back tears, as Jack proceeded to whip his belt directly onto Chris' back, Chris shut his eyes tight making no sound. After the first hit, Lauren cried out in horror, tears rolling down her face as she shook her head, wanting to yell at Jack to stop but couldn't. She was scared, horrified, and all she could do was watch in fear that he would do the same to her if she spoke.
Jack's whips were consistent and at times seemed to be getting harder, Lauren vividly remembers the mad look on his face, the parted lips that were slightly curved up and his big, dark eyes that were practically popping out of the sockets; Chris' demeanor was also alarming to Lauren, the way he shut his eyes tight and didn't make any sound, the only sign of his torture was when a single tear slipped out of his shut eyes. It was alarming because Lauren knew that his high resilience to the pain could be caused by him being accustomed to this punishment.
By the time Jack was finally satisfied with his punishment, Chris couldn't move, he simply slouched against the kitchen counter unable to gather enough energy to move in any way. Lauren's teary eyes looked at his back, there was a string of long, horizontal bruises; her view of it was disrupted when Jack crouched down, his eyes level with hers. Lauren's heart thudded in her chest in fear as his hand raised, but was relieved when his hand only wiped her tears, "Such a good little girl," he said with a smile, his yellow teeth showing, "Such a pretty one to," his hand now caressing her cheek, "Pack your bag boys," he said to Matt and Chris who were both slowly starting to recover, but still in immense pain, his eyes never leaving Lauren's, "I think it's time I get more nice, pretty girls like this one here."
-
Camila felt sick, she couldn't believe the story Lauren had just told her, she held her close in a tight embrace, not wanting to let go, ever. "I camph breaf," Lauren muffled, her face buried in Camila's shoulder, she slightly pushed Camila out of the embrace so she could catch her breath.
"Sorry," Camila replied, flushing a bit then she sighed as she thought again about what Lauren had just told her, "What happened after? He just got rid of the boys?"
Lauren nodded, her eyes were now starting to clear up, though the flashbacks were not a great help, Camila was; Lauren found it easy to talk about her past with Camila's encouraging eyes on her, opening up to someone has never felt more effortless. She explained, "He had connections with someone in the child services system, I forgot, I think it was his brother or something. So, it was real easy for him to get both Matt and Chris reassigned, but apparently it wasn't as easy for him to get another young girl. I was alone, with him, for almost a year before he announced to me that he finally found a 'reject worthy of living with us'."
Camila's eyes went wide, "You were with him alone for a year?" Lauren bit her lip as she looked down, clearly she was trying to skim past that part but Camila wasn't having it; that sentence alarmed her, she couldn't even imagine what Lauren in that amount of time that it was just her and him, actually she was starting to get ideas, "He would-he would punish you too right? Like the way you just described?"
Lauren nodded, still looking down, "Sometimes worse," she mumbled.
Lauren then started to get angry as she got more flashbacks, "He would start by just depriving me of everything, all my life consisted of was chores, he homeschooled me, well he didn't really teach me, he gave me books so I could teach myself, and forbid me from going outside unless it was with him. At first it wasn't too bad, so what that I would go a day or two without eating or a week without a bed for something like not properly folding his clothes, but the punishments then started to get to the physical beatings and honestly, after a while, I didn't even know which one was worse. Every punishment was the same to me and as time went on, punishments were unavoidable because he was never pleased."
Camila gulped, she knew what she wanted to ask next, "Did he, you know, sexually abuse?"
Lauren shook her head but then thought about it, "He would come in bed with me, but he never touched me, I don't know. All I know is he kept saying he wanted someone younger," anger then started to reappear in Lauren's features, "That's why he managed to get Grace under his guardianship."
Camila started to understand, putting the pieces together, "She was your new foster sibling after the year alone?"
Lauren nodded and then tears started to resurface, "She was o-only four," Lauren her hands as she began to cry harder now, Camila immediately returning her arm back around her, she wasn't expecting Lauren to return back to this state; in between cries Lauren said in anger, "It's all my fault, I shouldn't have ever left her. She needed me."
Camila realized all they had talked about was only scraping the surface of what's behind Lauren's current distressed state; there was so much more she hadn't been told, so much more that has yet to come.