Can't Be Afraid Anymore

Chapter Seventeen

Matts P.O.V.

I kissed her and she was kissing me back. She depended the kiss, and I was surprised, but then she pulled away. "I can't, I just can't." She says closing her eyes and turns away from me.

"Hey, I'm not wanting anything I just want you to talk to me. To let me in." I say grabbing her head. She opens her eyes, she was still trying not to cry. "You can cry, it's fine," I say, she collapses into me. I picked her up and set her down on the couch. She curls up into me. "Shh, it's ok, let it out," I say running my hand through her messed up ponytail. She needs to let it out if she ever wants to move past it. 

"Sorry about breaking down." She says wiping her eyes.

"We all need a break, you don't have to apologize," I say looking down at her.

"I'm not used to breaking down in front of someone." She says looking up at me.

"Well, I'm glad I was here." She just smiles a little. "Hey, would you tell me from the start of what happened?" I ask.

She looks away and then turns back to me, she gives me a slight nod. "I won't be able to make it through and theres going to be a lot more crying." She says as if it's a warning. 

"That's fine, crying isn't a bad thing." He says brushing her hair away from her face. 

"So I went to school like every other day, but J-he came and asked me out. I said yes because he seemed nice and he was cute." She says but when she said cute she closed her eyes a little. "So we started dating and everything was fine. Then he wanted me to come to his place and not tell anyone. I thought it'd be this cool thing, but he had a group of people and they took me. I don't remember much of where I was, but it was cold and I never went outside. I wanted to go home, but he said that I had to stay there..." She pauses and takes a few breaths. "After a while, I started to try to get out, but then he started to hurt me mentally and physically. I tried so much not to make him mad but he found ways that made me feel bad about myself." She was having trouble saying it. "After a while, he wasn't just hurting me physically, he started to kiss me even though I told him not to." She says tears running down her cheeks. 

"You don't have to say everything if you don't want to," I say imagining how hard it must be for her. She sat up a little looks at me.

"After a while, there was a routine and then he had friends that would come over and help him with things and they would hurt me if I didn't do as they said. Finally, after being there for 6 months I got out. My foster parents didn't want to pay for the medical bills so I went back into foster care. Then I was in the hospital for a while and he found me. He hurt me way more and did things he didn't do before because I left..." She stops talking and grabs her shaking hands putting them together. "Then it was back to before. I was there for a long time before I was found again, but before the cops found him he was yelling at me and kicking me because I called the cops. Before he knocked me out with the flashlight I saw cop car lights and was relieved that I'd get some break. He was put in prison but then I found out he escaped and now I'm even more scared that he'll find me and do what he did last time." She explains, now she was shaking as if her body and mind weren't the same. 

"Shh. He won't hurt you again." I say grabbing her pulling her further into my lap.

"Y-you don't know that." She says still crying.

"Yes, because I won't let him hurt you." After I said that she leans against me and falls to sleep. It was noon when she woke up again.

"We missed school." She says still laying on me.

"Oh well, we needed a break," I say looking outside.

"Can we just stay here and watch movies?" She asks looking up at me.