Sophie
Evangeline sprints to her room and locks the door. Luke storms after her with rage in his eyes. I chase after them to try and keep him from scaring her more. He pounds on the door and yells at her to open it. The fear in her eyes when she realized we saw the bruises broke my heart. It shattered, crumbled, disintegrated, what ever you want to call it, it's gone. Took all my heart heart away.
I can hear her sobbing through the door and saying something over and over again. I make it out as 'You weren't supposed to know.' Which kills me on the inside even more.
I stand behind Luke shaking from fear as I try to decide if I want to bother him or not. I make up my mind that him being mad at her and scaring her more is to much for her to handle and I can take what he gives, she can't. I don't give a rats ass if he hits me, yells at me, screams at me, chokes me, whatever. Her being alright is more important than anything to me. I've been through it once I can go through it again.
I go up to him and set my shaking hand on his arm. He shakes me off and goes back to pounding on the door.
"Luke." I say quietly
"Open this damn door!" He bellows
"Luke, please." I say more confidently
"This isn't helping. You are only scaring her more. Please, let me handle this, please." I beg, stepping between him and the door to block his path. I set my trembling hands on his heaving chest and beg him with my eyes. His face softens as he looks at me and he lets out a deep and angry breath. He storms away to across the hall and he punches the wall forcefully causing me to jump. I knock softly on the door so I don't scare her more.
"Evangeline, it's Sophie. Can I come in please?" I ask
"N-No." she sobs
"Sweetheart, I know you're scared, but I'm not going to hurt you, I promise. Please, can I come in?" I beg
"N-No." she says again
"Honey, I know what you're thinking. You don't think I do, but I do." I tell her through the door
"No you don't." She protest
I rest my head on the door and place one hand beside my head with the other on the doorknob.
"Yes I do, sweetheart. I know a lot more about this than you think." I say truthfully
"Y-You're scared. You think that if you tell someone then the people who care about you will get angry at you. We aren't angry at you sweetie. You're thinking that it's okay! Because you are the only one getting hurt, but it's not. You feel like you are protecting people because instead of them hurting someone else they are hurting you. You don't want other people getting hurt too, but letting yourself be hurt by someone isn't okay. This isn't okay, Evangeline." I say into the door, trying to hold back my emotions as bad memories flow through my mind.
"You're scared because you are thinking if you tell someone then the person who is doing this to you is going to get in trouble, a-and they are going to get really mad at you and hurt you worse than they ever have. Honey, I promise with everything I have if you tell me that no one will ever hurt you again." I say my voice cracks as I talk, but I manage to keep myself from crying. I can feel Luke's eyes on me from behind, but I can't look at him.
"Please." I whisper "I don't want you to go through what I did." I whimper. A tear rolls down my cheek and falls to the floor.
"I just want to talk, sweetheart." I say desperately
I hear a few small sniffles and the shuffling of feet. I can sense her on the other side of the door and picture her small shivering body right across from mine.
"Only talk?" She ask
"Yes! Yes, sweetheart I only want to talk." I say getting more excited because she might let me in.
"Just you?" She ask. I look to Luke who shoots me an angry glare. He wants to be in there, but it's only going to make her scared because of how upset he is.
I close my eyes and turn back to the door.
"Yes honey, just me." I say reluctantly. Luke is going to be pissed with me, but I can take it. Her trusting me is more important than my safety. I don't know if Luke would ever hit me, but it's a risk I have to take.
"Don't come in until I say so." She sniffles. I hear the faint click of the lock and her scurrying away to somewhere in her room.
"O-Okay." She whispers. I barge in and shut the door behind me so she doesn't have to tell me. I don't see her anywhere, but Nugget lays on her bed.
"Evangeline," I say "Where are you, baby?" I ask
I don't get a response from her.
I turn to Nugget he looks at me and swooshes his tail back and forth across her bed.
"Where's Evangeline?" I ask him. He perks up and trots to the chair in the corner. I walk over to it a peer over it. She's curled into herself, rocking back and forth with her Ellie grasped tightly in her fist. Tears stream steadily down her face and her body shakes with each shaky breath she takes. I extend my hand around the corner of the chair to her and waits for her to realize I'm there.
"Honey, I'm not going to hurt you." I say softly when she jumps away from my hand.
"You're mad at me." She whimpers
"No baby, I'm not. I just want to help you." I say and mean every word of it. "Come on, lets sit on your bed and talk." I suggest
She reaches out slowly and takes my hand in hers. I help her up and guide her through the open space between the chair and the wall and to her bed. I pull her into a hug and kiss the top he her head as she tries to stop crying.
"Who did this to you?" I ask
She looks down to her stuffie and doesn't answer.
"I won't let them ever hurt you again, but you need to tell me who did this to you." I tell her
"C-Colin." She whispers
"Colin White? From the fair?" I question. She gives a small nod.
I never liked that kid. Even though he's a good soccer player he was a stuck up brat. His parents gave him everything he ever wanted, even going as far as to try and pay off his teachers so he could get better grades in order to play soccer. I of course declined the money and gave him the grade he deserved. Lets just say the parents don't particularly like me because of it. It's not my fault the kid blows off his work because he feels like he is entitled to everything. Learn to parent, don't let your kid walk all over you and everyone else.
"What did he say to you at the fair yesterday?" I ask
She lets out a small sniffle and wipes her puffy eyes.
"H-He said I was lucky he didn't throw me in the potty thing because I bumped into him." She says. My blood boils, but I don't let it show for her sake.
"He doesn't like me much." She mumbles
"Why not?" I ask. She shrugs
"I don't know, I was always nice to him, and I did what he said to do, but he always got mad and hit me. His kicks hurt." She says
"I'm so sorry, sweetheart." I tell her
"It's not your fault. It's mine." She mumbles
"No it's not. You didn't do anything wrong. He's a bad kid, and he's not going to hurt you ever again." I assure her "How long has he been hurting you?" I ask
"He didn't start hitting me until two years ago. Before that he just said mean things to me or would embarrass me." She explains
"Luke's mad at me." She says sadly causing more tears to fall
"Oh sweetie, he only cares about you. It makes us upset that someone was hurting you and we didn't know. We could have stopped him if you would have told us." I tell her
"I didn't want this to happen." She says
A knock on the door rings throughout her room and she hugs her knees to her chest as an attempt to hide her body more.
"Kitten, I'm sorry. Can I please come in?" Luke ask much more calm now.
"I promise I won't let any one hurt you ever again." I tell her. She nods and I get up to open the door.
"Don't scare her." I say firmly to him before I let him in. He gets a guilty look and nods at my request. We sit back down on her bed with her and are silent for a few minutes. Luke gently sets a hand on her shoulder and she tenses up. It takes her a second before she relaxes again.
"Can I see what he did?" I ask
She shakes her head no again. "You're gonna get mad at me again." She says
"No I'm not." I tell her. She sighs and uncoils her arms from her knees. She raises up her shirt tail slowly to reveal her stomach, sides, and back all covered with deep purple bruises. I gasp as my eyes roam over the damage done to her body. Most of her skin is filled with bruises. Only small spots are her actual skin tone. Luke sets his jaw tight and tries to keep his anger from overflowing. She holds her shirt under her breast to keep herself unexposed. I push up her shirt even more to see her back is just as bad as her front and sides. A very nasty one is in between her shoulder blades which I have no doubt that it's painful. All of it has to hurt. Now I know why I could sometimes catch her flinching when we would tickle her. This also explains why she didn't want a swim suit. She knew we would find out if she wore a bathing suit. My heart rips in two as I remember what it's like to wake up with fresh bruises. Every move you make hurts, but you have to put on a brave face so no one would find out.
I bring my hand slowly to her side, but she moves away when my fingers brush lightly against one of the dark marks.
"Noo." She whines
Luke gets up, leaves the room, and comes back with a cream of some kind. He sits back down beside her and puts some on his fingers.
"This will help them go away." He says before tenderly starting to spread it on her skin. I help with her other side. She occasionally winces because we press down too hard by accident.
"I'm taking you out of this school." Luke says void of all emotion.
"But, where will I go?" She ask sadly
"The school across town." He says
"Luke, you need to think about this." I tell him
"Think about what, Sophie?" He snaps at me "I'm done with this. Someone is abusing her and she just had paint dumped on her. She doesn't deserve this." He explains angrily to me
"I don't want to go a new school." Evangeline protest meekly
"Luke, just listen to me." I start "I'm against this just as much as you are. I hate that this happened to her but we can't change that. We can keep it from happening again though. If she goes to another school do you really think the bullying is going to get better? It might, but we don't know that. For all we know it could get worse." I say trying to change his mind
"We can stop it here. At least if she is here with us then we can know what's going on and have a much better chance of ending it. If she goes to a new school then she has to start all over again. She's doing amazing in her classes and moving her to a different school could mess that up for her." I explain. He sighs and I know I've won.
"Fine, but you have to tell us if anything ever happens to you again." He says sternly to her. She looks down in shame to her lap. I see a tear fall and my spirits are crushed.
"Are you mad at me?" She whispers to us.
"No baby, we would never be mad at you for this. It's not your fault." I tell her
She looks to Luke for his answer and she sighs. He pulls her into a soft side hug and rubs her arm gently.
"No, I'm not mad at you. I wish you would have told me instead of finding out like this, but I'm not mad at you. I am however one hundred miles passed pissed at whoever did this to you." He says
"He didn't do anything else to you, right?" I ask
She shakes her head no.
"If he did then you can tell us and he will getin trouble for that too. We aren't going to be mad if you tell us, but I will be if I find out later that he did something else to you." Luke says to her
"H-He grabbed my bottom and chest sometimes." She admitted hesitantly
I see the rage in Luke's eyes and instantly go silent. I don't know how he's going to react if I try to calm him down. In the past it's not worked out well for me with trying to calm an angry man down.
She avoids his gaze but leans over into his lap. I watch as she cries silently in his lap. I rub the back of her hand that isn't holding Ellie to comfort her. We sit in silence for a while because none of us know what to say, but no one needs to say anything.
**********
Hello my lovelies. So what do you think happened to Sophie? Also, I'm changing Evangeline's age to fourteen and turning fifteen on her birthday. I'm doing this because it's easier for my to keep up with the math and I don't feel like going back to the chapter that says her birth year and changing it back a year. So she is now fourteen and the math is correct. Hope everyone has fun reading, and keep reading to find out what happens next!
-Good bye my lovelies