Stay//Poofless//discontinued

Chapter 21

Rob's POV

I think the worst has past. It's been about 3 months. The hospital said the evidence could be stored for years so that isn't a problem. I begged him to report it, but he just can't do it. Not with fresh wounds. But now the wounds aren't fresh they've been reduced to scars, and he's stronger. One step at a time though.

First, he's returning to youtube. When he first had a meltdown at my house we agreed that he needed a little break. He never intended to be gone for so long but he just couldn't do it. I stopped posting altogehter for a few weeks after what happened but I slowly began returning to my normal schedule. He's starting it out slow, a video every other day, but it's progress. With my help and the help of our friends he's going to move past this.

We sit down in front of the camera, setting everything up. He isn't jumping right back in with another Minecraft video, we're going to explain without explaining.

"Hey guys, it's Preston here." He looks happy but his voice is lacking his usual enthusiasm.

"Hey I'm here too!" I try and lighten the mood a little bit. I really think that getting invloved with his videos again will help him.

"Yeah," he lets out a half-hearted laugh, "I think I owe you guys an explanation."

"If it gets to be too much let me know, I can take over or we can put this idea on hold," I say quietly to him. He nods and then continues speaking.

"So recently a lot has been going on in my life... I know there were rumors going around, but I'm going to tell you the truth. It's true that I was dating Lachlan. It's true that I'm gay, although that's not really a surprise." He says the last part laughing a little. It really isn't much but it's a start. He hasn't been laughing very much recently.

"I heard that the moment he was born a huge rainbow appeared over the hospital!" I say laughing a little too.

"It's true, it's true... But in all seriousness, I was dating Lachlan. I thought he was an amazing guy and I really thought that we were in love. I was wrong." He looks at me, a little bit of panic in his eyes. We talked and he decided that, without revealing everything, that he was going to tell the truth about Lachlan. We weren't going to mention the rape or his struggle with self-harm.

"You've got this Preston. Here," I said holding out my hand, "whenever you get scared or nervous or you just need my support squeeze my hand. You can do this." He smiles and nods again, taking my hand. He's already squeezing it a bit.

"Lachlan was abusive, both physically and verbally. Though I regret it, I let it carry on for far too long. For months I stayed with him. Every now and then he would get angry, sometimes he was drunk, other times he was perfectly sober. Sometimes he would just yell awful things at me but I cast it aside as heat of the moment insults. Sometimes he would hit me, it could be a shove, it could be a punch or a slap. Every time he would apologize, every time he would swear it was the last time. I thought he loved me, I thought he was telling the truth." His grip on my hands tighten, his knuckles turning a bit white. He looks over to me and fear fills his eyes.

"He's not here. It's Rob. You're safe. It's Rob. Nobody's going to hurt you." Im gripping his hand with both of mine trying to get my words to sink in. He continues to stare as I speak until he releases the tension he was building up. I pull him into a hug and hold him there for a minute. He pulls away, his face is a bit red but he turns back to the camera again, hand still in mine.

"It wasn't until Halloween that I finally got out. We went to a party and... I walked in on him with another guy. There was yelling and he did swing a few punches but I ended up okay. I'm lucky to have such a great b-best friend," he says turning to me and smiling, squeezing my hand. I squeeze back and I can't help but think that if this were in any other situation it would be considered...romantic.