The Next Morning
Justin's Point of View
I happily walk down the hallway to Nia's apartment.
I'm so happy that we're finally something and can't wait to treat her the way she deserves to be treated.
I knock on the door.
Michelle opens the door.
"Morning Michelle, is Nia here?"
"Morning, she's still sleeping. Would you like to come in?"
I walk inside and see Lily playing with dolls while watching the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
She turns her head and when she sees me her eyes light up. She starts crawling over to me.
"Hey princess." I pick her up. "I missed you, did you miss me?"
She smiles at me and I kiss her cheek.
"She loves you Justin." Michelle says watching Lily and I.
"Well I love her." I say in a baby voice and tickle her making her giggle.
I sit down on the couch and Lily sits on my lap.
"So, if you don't mind me asking, how did last night go? I haven't spoken to Nia yet."
"Good, she had some doubts though. That it wouldn't end well but I can assure her that would never happen." I watch Lily play with my fingers. "She did find it hard to talk about past though, I didn't push it, but just for future is there anything I should know?"
"Oh, um. Thats just a difficult topic for her. When she was-"
"Morning." Nia says coming into the room.
I snap my head up towards her.
"Good morning." I say. "How'd you sleep?"
"Okay, how are you?"
I noticed how she changed that topic from her, something she does often.
"I'm good."
"So do you want to do anything today?"
"We could just chill?"
"Sounds great."
"Well I'll leave you two to it, I have to go meet up with some friends." Michelle says getting up.
"Bye Michelle." I say as she heads out the door.
Lily decides she wants to get off my lap so I put her on the floor.
"Do you want anything?" Nia asks nodding towards the kitchen.
"To know if you're actually okay."
"Jus-"
"Look, I'm not asking in order to make you uncomfortable or anything but I can tell that something is wrong. You've never really talked about anything about your life since before Lily. I can tell there's things that you have to put up with yourself and I don't want you to have to go through it alone."
She looks as if she's deciding something.
"I don't want to put anything on you."
"You wouldn't be."
I take her hand and stroke it soothingly.
She sighs deeply and keeps her eyes on the ground.
"M-my dad. When I was young. He u-use to abuse me, physically, mentally a-and s-sexually. We had-d to stay with him b-because my mom couldn't get a job. O-one day he just left and left my mom and I to struggle. We were able to get back on our feet and move to New York. I went to school, I had friends, everything was fine. U-until it wasn't. When I was 15, a male teacher r-raped me. The school found out and everyone called me a s-slut, a-a whore. One day I had enough and tried to k-kill myself. My m-mom found me in the bathroom, a had drunk a bottle of c-cleaning spray. I was hospitalised. Once I was out, she tried to get me therapists but nothing helped. I shut her out. I shut everyone out. I developed so many mental health issues, some I still struggle with. Depression, anxiety, insomnia, PTSD and a-anorexia. As soon as I could I moved out of my moms old apartment into my own. I found a guy, Liam. He made me feel special, worthy. B-but he only told me the things I wanted to hear after he had sex with me. One night, I ended up pregnant. That changed everything. I-I called my mom and she took me back to her house. S-she helped me get better an it helped. But I'm still not perfect." She looks at me with tears streaming down her cheeks. "I understand if thats too much for you to handle." She sighs.
"N-no. It's not. Thats tragic, I actually have no words. But I'm not going to leave just because of this, if anything this is more of a reason to stay."
I notice she's holding back so much more than tears.
I open my arms.
"Let it out."
She immediately lets out a massive yelp and holds onto me tight.
She buries her head in my neck, I feel her warm tears across my skin.
I can't take it anymore, I start to sob.
Nia is the sweetest person ever, how could people treat her like this?
No more. She's never, ever, going to have to go through and pain like this again.
We both stay holding onto each other tight for what would've been maybe half an hour or so then she gets exhausted and falls asleep, I keep her close to my chest.