In Love With A Warbler

Chapter 14 : Starting to fix Jeff's problems

Chapter 14

Later...

Jeff POV

"Jeff."

Alex touched me, and I flinched.

"Hey. It's just me."

I sighed in relief.

"Nick went to go study with his friends David and Trent. I was just wondering if you wanted to talk about what happened earlier."

"Alex, you can't tell!"

"I won't tell. I just want to know what happened."

"You have to promise me you won't tell! I'll get in so much trouble."

"Ok, I promise."

Alex sat down on the end of my bed, facing me.

"It was just a flashback."

"About what?"

"About... what my dad did to me."

"What did he do?"

"He hit me, but I totally deserved it."

"Why? What did you do?"

"Nothing. It was my fault, and I deserved it, ok?"

"Jeff, what did you do to deserve it?"

"Nothing! I was bad, ok? I didn't obey, and I deserved it. Please stop."

"Jeff. Please tell me what happened. I can help you."

"I just don't want to get hit again!" I said, starting to cry.

"Jeff, if you tell me, I can help protect you, ok?"

"I'm n-not s-supposed to t-tell!"

"Jeff, come on. You trust me, don't you?"

"I-I'm t-trying t-to!"

Alex took my hands in hers.

"Please tell me what happened."

I pulled away from her, and laid down. I can't do this.

Alex sighed, and stared down at me. I stopped crying, and just laid there, feeling miserable. I can't get the words out. I'm too scared.

"A-are you m-mad at m-me?" I asked as another tear fell down my cheeks.

"No... Tell me when you're ready."

Alex got up, and sat on her own bed. I wanted to tell her so badly. I wanted to just be able to tell someone. I didn't care who. It was so hard to have to be the only one to know all this. But if I tell, my dad will kill me.

I rolled over, and pulled the covers over my head.

Later...

Alex POV

"No. He won't tell me. I don't think he's ready. He's too scared, and we have to earn more of his trust," I told Nick while we ate dinner.

"How?" Nick asked.

"I don't know. But while we work on that, we should work on his other problems too. Like his eating disorder. He barely eats because his dad tells him he's too fat. And he believes it. And he barely drinks so he won't have to pee during school, since he mostly got bullied in the bathrooms. So we need to get him to eat and drink more. So... He's not having cereal tonight."

"What's he having?"

"What we're having. Turkey and mashed potatoes. And we can bring him something more exciting than water to encourage him to drink more. Like chocolate milk."

"Alright..."

After Nick and I finished dinner, we brought Jeff his. He was really reluctant to eat at first, but we got him to. And all that food made him thirsty, so he drank his whole chocolate milk. Nick went down and got him a second one from the cafeteria, but Jeff didn't want to drink it. We explained to him how it was important to drink enough throughout the day, otherwise you could get dehydrated. Honestly, he's probably been dehydrated since he started cutting back on his liquids, however long ago that was. And it's not healthy for him.

We got him to drink the chocolate milk. But I could tell he wasn't happy about it. His body probably was though. It was finally getting the calories it needed.

Jeff took a shower, and while he was in there, Nick and I decided to talk.

"So what should we do exactly?" Nick asked.

"Here's what I think... We need to earn a little bit more of his trust so he'll tell us everything. But since he gets no affection or comfort from his dad, he's trying to get it from us. He wants to feel loved, and he wants attention. So that's working in our favor. But I think we still need to watch him closely. I don't want him to cut without us knowing. And I think we need to make sure he eats. He is a very skinny boy, and he's not very strong. If his dad is abusing him, he'll have no strength to fight back. We need to make sure he eats. A lot."

"It seems simple enough."

"Yeah, well I hope it goes smoothly. Oh, and we need to keep him calm. I think he has anxiety, and I think he's really stressed out. And he has nightmares. We have to try to catch him before he starts panicking, and calm him down. I don't know if he gets panic attacks, but one way or another, he gets himself all worked up. And we need to work on figuring out how to help him control that."

"Ok... How much research have you been doing?"

"A lot. I have everything written down in my notebook. I have a list of things Jeff has and the symptoms of each thing. I'm pretty sure I've got it narrowed down. It might not be perfect, but it's close."

The bathroom door opened, and Jeff walked out in his pjs. I motioned for him to come over, so he did. And I hugged him. 

"How's your back feeling?"

"Better," he mumbled into my shoulder.

"Can I see it?"

"Yeah..."

We pulled away from the hug, and he turned around. I lifted up the bottom of his shirt so I could see his back. The bruises were fading nicely. 

"You're almost better."

"Yeah."

"You ready for bed?"

"Mhmmm..."

I helped Jeff get settled into bed, and then we all said our goodnights. I shut off the lamp next to my bed, and fell asleep.