Angel (Damiano David & Victoria De Angelis)

Chapter 11

A week later, nothing had really changed. Lucinda was still making mean comments whenever she could, telling him to man up and be someone she could be proud of. He tried not to show it to her but in the evening, when Victoria was alone with him and he was able to let out all of his emotions, it became very clear how hard it hit him to not be believed by his own mother. The hate was still continuing and she kinda got the impression that it got worse and worse. All kinds of pictures were circulating through the internet...pictures of his scars which the "fans" had taken during the concert...videos of him crying and panicking after Carla had said what she had said and most of all, horrible, horrible edits of him being raped. Things like that really made her lose faith in people. Why was it so hard to accept that men could suffer too?

That morning, he had actually managed to eat by himself which had made her incredibly proud. That day, they had to go to the next bigger city to buy some food and stuff they needed...needless to say, they were all a bit nervous. The car ride was already tense...Damiano was wearing a hoodie and sunglasses in hopes of not being recognized, though of course, that would be very unlikely to happen. "It's gonna be okay. I promise. If anything happens, I'm here...", she tried to calm him down a bit as he seemed extremely uneasy. "I know...but going out there...possibly meeting people who know us...I mean fans...it scares the shit out of me.", he squeezed her hand, obviously looking for support. "I know it does, Angel...it scares me too...but we can't avoid that forever", being scared was clearly an understatement. Honestly, she was almost as scared as he was but she didn't show it. What scared her so much was for one, what meeting people would do to his mental health and also, how she herself would react. When it came to Damiano being hurt, she couldn't really control herself. In situations like that, she kinda blacked out, reacting without thinking about the consequences.

Soon enough, they arrived in the small town. Once they had gotten out of the car, she offered her hand to Damiano. He grabbed it and intertwined their fingers with no hesitation. He was looking around anxiously at first but then lowered his head in order to get as little attention as possible. The streets were pretty empty and while they got some weird looks flashed at them, nothing major happened. When they were inside the huge supermarket though, the weird looks turned into clearly disgusted ones and even though he was still just staring at the ground, he could probably feel it because he started tensing up. She was nervous as well, still caressing his hand though to make sure that he would be alright: "It's okay, Angel...just keep breathing, okay?", she soothed very quietly when she realized that his behavior was now kinda panicky. That didn't help much though because just a few minutes later, while they were trying to find the others again, they were stopped by some "fans".

"Can we take a picture together?", they seemed quite nice but after looking at Damiano, she knew taking pictures wasn
t a good idea, so she politely declined:" I'm really really sorry but I don't think that will work out...I can-", she was cut off mid sentence by the black haired girl of the group:" What's wrong with you, Damiano? Why are you still trying to convince people that you were raped?" He was looking up at her: "I...I was...I'm not lying." Now the blonde girl started talking:" Show me your scars...I want to see them...", she demanded and he tensed up at least ten times more. Victoria spoke up immediately:" Stop it. Back off. This is not something you can ask people to do. Have some decency and walk away before you'll regret it." She had to fight herself really hard in order to stay calm and not just physically and verbally attack them without thinking about it. "Maybe I could "rape" you too. Nobody will ever believe a guy like you. I could literally shove something up your ass and fuck you with it until you bleed out and nobody would give a shit because rape is something that happens to women...not men. I've always wanted to have sex with you anyway...so, why not be the dominant one?", the tall brown haired girl was smirking the entire time while she was speaking but before Victoria could say anything, the girl who had requested to see his scars just tore the sleeves of his hoodie off, revealing all of them. It had happened so fast, Victoria hadn't even been able to properly realize what had happened. Now, she was raging, harshly pushing the girl backwards against a shelf, pinning her down: "That was a huge mistake.", she growled and put her hand around her throat, choking her: "You ever come close to him again, I will kill you. And I don't give a shit if I have to go to prison for that but...", she looked at all of them: "If any of you touch him, message him, talk to him or even come near him ever again, I am not gonna let it slide. I will literally come and murder you because somebody who treats a human – especially someone with depression – like this, deserves to rot in fucking hell forever. The world is better off without people like you, do you understand?" All of them looked quite frightened now, so they just nodded, staying quiet. "Good. Now leave before I change my mind and just smash you skull right here because right now, I am so fucking close to doing that."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hey :)

So, what do you think of those "fans"? Did Victoria overreact or was her reaction understandable? Will her actions have consequences? And how is that incident going to affect Damiano? Let me know in the comments :)

Thanks for reading.

- Thalia