The Stepfather

Going Away

Maddie

When mom got married with Derek, I didn't think she would get rid of me and Conor so fast.

He was a nice guy. To her. With us, he was nice too, but only because he wanted to make her happy.

As a CEO, he had many contacts around the world. Contacts of every kind and everywhere. Including Vienna, in Austria. That's where he was gonna send us.

They only had one room left, in the boy's area. Gosh, I hated the fact that, as he said, he "managed" to put us there anyway, in the same room. That would definitely break some rules, but who cares when you pay 3x the price they charge?

Conor and I were close, but not so much. I always felt like he was insecure around me, even though he was 18 and I, 16. My IQ was too high, so in 6th grade I skipped 2 grades and became classmates with Con.

My dream was to, one day, get into MIT, and Joelle's Preparatory School (JPS) was a good step in this direction. For Conor, on the other hand, it wouldn't make such a difference, I guess. He was never an A grade student and, even if he was, he only cared about his skateboard and his drumsticks. Not being able to play along with the music would be terrible for him.

In JPS they offered musical classes, but only classical instruments.

Conor had a keyboard. I was hoping he would get involved into piano lessons there.

For me, math club, chess club, astronomy club... and ballet classes. Who said a nerd cannot dance?

During summer, before prep school, Derek put me in some really good dance classes and bought me one dozen of pointe shoes. He said that, when he visited the Bolshoi, the ballerinas told him the pointe shoes lasted for a very little amount of time. Therefore, he made a generous donation.

He bought a dozen of Gainors for me, as they soothed my feet better.

Mom said that I had beautiful arms during dance, and that she would cry if I ever got into Paris Opera Ballet, but she would also cry if I won the Nobel prize. So, afterwards, my fate was up to me. But even though I loved ballet, I couldn't kill the nerd inside of me.

Derek said he could visit Paris Opera Ballet School very often, if I ever decided to get in there. The problem is that I chose JPS over that. JPS was in Viena and, POPS was in Paris. Derek visited Paris like the Pope visited the Vatican.

It wasn't so simple.

Derek was a nice guy, really. And I, I looked a lot like mom when younger.

One day, I was in the living room of our new mansion and he came in. He was very, very drunk. He had just came back from a night out with friends. And there was definitely whiskey and cocaine.

He was not himself. And I was asleep.

He thought I was mom.

And he raped me.

Then fell unconscious over me.

I couldn't move over almost an hour until Conor found him still inside of me.

He pulled Derek to the side – so he would fall on the floor like a bag of flour – and he helped me get up. Straight to the bathroom. I has blood between my legs, because I was a virgin.

Conor bathed me and, later on, mom found Derek on the floor of the living room. She probably didn't see the chess book I was reading fallen on the floor.

2 days later, it was time to pack and go.

Derek didn't remember a thing. At least, that's what I think.

The day after, he looked at me during breakfast with his little Korean eyes and frowned his eyebrows.

"Did I bumped into you last night?"

I didn't say a thing.

"I remember seeing you. Or your mom. I remember being confused."

In fact, I was using mom's pajamas.

"Probably mom."

"Anyways. Excited about the school?

I nodded. Conor looked at me like I had just put a gun into my head.

"I'm gonna pack", I said, handing the plate of waffles to the kitchen cleaner. "Excuse me."

Mom was entering the room when I stormed out of it. I didn't pack that day.

I just cried.