Dear Theodosia: blow us all away (philidosia)

32: Tax day!

A/N: This one's kinda short y'all, sorry. More content will be coming soon though! We're nearing the end of the story!

"Philip?"

Philip sits up in the dark and rubs his eyes sleepily. Squinting in the darkness, he makes out the shape of someone standing at the end of his bed.

"Philip?" the voice whispers again. It's Angie.

Philip gently rolls Theodosia over and tucks her back into bed then crawls to the end of the bed.

"What's wrong?" he whispers.

"I need to talk to you," she says, stepping into the moonlight coming from the window. 

The streaks of light illuminate a trail of tears on her cheeks.

Philip immediately jumps out of bed, throwing on a shirt and some slippers.

"Of course, come on, let's go to your room and I can light a fire in your fireplace."

Angie nods, sniffling, and follows Philip down the hall.

Once they make it to the door of Angie's room, she bursts into tears. Sinking onto the floor, she grips her hair with her hands and pulls on it harshly.

"Hey," Philip soothes, "It's okay." He gently removes her fingers from her hair and guides her into the bedroom, shutting the door behind him.

Angie starts to violently shake. Her hands reach for her hair, but Philip guides them down again.

"Pip," she croaks.

"Yeah?"

"Can you please leave the door open?"

Philip starts to ask why, but when he sees how badly she needs it open, he just gets up and opens it.

"Okay, whenever you're ready to talk, I'll listen."

Angie nods and scrubs at her eyes. After a few moments she looks up at Philip.

"Have you heard the rumors going around town about me?"

Philip slowly nods, not wanting to further upset her.

"But I promise you, even if what people are saying happened, happened, I know what they're saying is wrong because women should not be shamed for enjoying their bodies. Men are praised for it, so why shouldn't women be? Just know that no matter what, I support you, whether or not the rumors are true."

"It's true," Angie sobs, "but you're wrong, I wasn't enjoying my body. I let him have his way with me and now I'm a dirty disgusting whore, just like everyone is saying."

"Angelica Hamilton, that is not true," Philip says sternly. "Wait, what do you mean you let him have his way with you?"

"I made a friend the other day. Her name is Susan."

Philip nods along, but doesn't talk, not wanting to interrupt Angie.

"When we were walking home, he stopped us... he wanted to," Angie swallows hard and new tears leak out of her eyes, "he wanted to do things to Susan. I didn't know what he was trying to do. Susan was trying to protect me, she kept begging me to leave, but I didn't know what was happening," she hiccups, "until it was happening."

Philip swallows hard, afraid to hear the end of this story.

Angie takes a deep breath and continues on with the story.

"He was standing over Susan and I kept telling him to stop, but he wouldn't listen. And then he said," Angie stops, and starts again, "he said..."

She's hunched over crying now.