Trigger warning: violence/child abuse (third tense and italics is the backstory, first person without italics is the present.)
excuse all the grammatical errors. enjoy💜
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"Listen to me Dwayne, everything will be fine, and I can confidently guarantee that so long as I'm able to breathe, okay?"
Jahseh heard Mrs. Brierly's voice through all corners of his head, reminding him of how he passed out in class after one of his reoccurring panic attacks, her reassuring words were the first thing he heard while he regained consciousness, she was rocking him back and forth as though he was an infant, he'd never admit it aloud, but he had never felt as safe as he did in her arms that particular day.
"You wanna talk about what happened?" She patiently asked him.
Assuming someone else offered to be a listening ear, Jahseh would've instinctively declined because he saw no use in talking about the reason behind publicly showing everyone how weak he truly was by doing something as cowardly as having a panic attack, but he had already been talking to Mrs. Brierly for over a year by then and nothing had ever gone wrong when she listened to him speak from his heart, so he fully trusted her.
"Y-yesterday my mom told me my dad was killed in jail." He audibly gulped after stuttering out the sentence.
He absolutely hated being vulnerable, but pushing his feelings under the rug only seemed to make him react irrationally in public meanwhile when he had to spew it all out as an alternative, and he couldn't help the thought of the consequences behind him telling the right things to the wrong people everytime he did so.
"I'm so sorry Jahseh." Her voice was soft and sympathetic, but also very calm and firm.
"She lied." He infromed her vaguely.
She went silent. "Who lied?"
"My mom." He answered. "My dad's in a prison somewhere in Memphis, So I asked my brother and he said she's not even listed as his relation to even be able to obtain that kinda info without my brother's mom knowing first."
"So what are we thinking?"
"That she just said it cuz she knew how much he meant to me, and she knows how much it would hurt to me hear." He mumbled, snuggling into her chest, sighing in comfort of her warmth and presence.
"Why would she do that?" She asked in disbelief, she only heard about the things his mom did from him, she hadn't physically met her yet, so she had to fully rely on my perspective, but was still very reluctant to judge her based solely off of that.
"Cuz she hates me." He admitted, she said it in his presence regulatly so it had to be the truth. "She wishes she swallowed me."
"She said that to you?" She gasped, pulling him away from her embrace to look at him intently.
