Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 49669 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 248(@200wpm)___ 199(@250wpm)___ 166(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49669 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 248(@200wpm)___ 199(@250wpm)___ 166(@300wpm)
I opened my mouth to protest, but Christopher cut me off by saying, “Please Rush, I just need to get this out, okay?”
It went against my nature to let anyone, let alone the man I was losing my heart to, suffer through something on their own, but I knew Christopher was right. He wasn’t looking for platitudes about how he’d done the best he could. He just needed to purge all the ugliness inside of him.
“Okay,” I responded.
“One day, Ricky came and picked me up from school. I usually stayed in the library after classes were done and studied until Uncle Micah and Rory came to get me. Uncle Micah had told me to never leave the school without him and to never go home alone. Ricky didn’t give me any choice in the matter. He just grabbed my arm and pulled me to his car. I didn’t understand what was happening until Ricky led me to my bedroom, the one I shared with Micah and Rory. He told me to sit down on the bed, and then this guy, Barry, came in. Barry… Barry was one of the regulars who… who hurt Uncle Micah.”
I could feel the rage simmering through my veins, but I tamped it down. I already knew from King that Christopher had ultimately escaped the assault, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t been traumatized.
“After Barry paid Ricky and Ricky left, Barry sat on the bed next to me and began to touch me… and himself. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t do anything. Even when Barry talked about Uncle Micah and the sick things he did to him, I didn’t do anything because I was so fucking scared,” Christopher explained. His voice had dropped considerably, so it was hard to hear him, but his body language spoke volumes. He was hunched over like he was trying to fold his body in on itself to make himself as small a target as he could.
“He was going to fuck me up against the wall. I can still feel the coldness of it against my cheek. I can still smell him as he held me there and told me I was going to be his special boy. I didn’t move, not even when he released me so he could drop his pants. I could have pushed him and made a run for it, but I didn’t. I didn’t tell him to stop, I didn’t struggle when he began unbuttoning my jeans. I’m not sure I even cried. I just accepted it. When Uncle Micah showed up, he tore Barry away from me and told me to take Rory and run. I didn’t once think about staying behind to help him fight off Barry or Ricky. I ran. I just ran.”
“What do you think would have happened to your sister if you hadn’t run?” I asked.
Christopher merely shrugged.
“King told me what happened when he went after you and your sister that night. He said you found a spot to hide where he had no way of reaching you and that you kept your body between him and Rory the whole time.”
There was still no real response from Christopher, and I knew anything else I said would just fall on deaf ears. Christopher had developed his narrative a long time ago, and no amount of me telling him he’d done exactly the right thing was going to change that.
At least not today.
Over time? Maybe.
“Uncle Micah saved me that night, and four years ago, you did the same thing,” Christopher said. He finally looked at me. “My very own knight in shining armor,” he said, though the words were hollow. He dropped his eyes to Pip again. “I didn’t fight that night either. Not when the guys grabbed us and not when the one took me into that room. Gio, he tried to take them all on. Maybe if I’d helped… but surprise, surprise, I was too scared… again.”
“I saw the tail end of that fight, Christopher. You guys were outnumbered and outmatched. And you did fight. I saw you try to go for that fire alarm. You used your head to try and find a way out of the situation. Just like you used your head when you hid from King in a spot where you knew he wouldn’t be able to reach you.”
Christopher didn’t respond. I let out a sigh because I’d done exactly what I’d told myself I wouldn’t. “I’m sorry,” I said, daring to reach across the island to briefly touch Christopher’s forearm. The fact that he didn’t pull away from me was something at least.
“I was so grateful for you that night, Rush. So grateful,” Christopher said softly. He looked at me, and I could see tears pooling in his eyes. He angrily dashed at what was clearly an unwanted show of emotion. He dropped his eyes again and added, “But I knew I wouldn’t be lucky enough to get a third time.”