I'm Not That Girl

Questioning

I'm not that girl

A Caxi story

Chapter 7

I open my eyes and see everyone standing round my bed; Vilu, Fran, Naty, Andres, Diego, Pablo, Angie and even Ludmila. But one face that makes me happy is Maxi's. He has a bandage round his hand with a bandage on his nose and a stitched up scar on the left side of his face-I remember he tried to beat up Broudey. He's here and he cares about me, he beat up my abusive boyfriend risking his own safety.

"Cami! You're okay!" Fran almost cries,

"Oh Cami I was so worried about you!" Vilu cries too.

I couldn't focus on them though-all I could focus on was Maxi smiling at me. He looked so cute with his broken face and his baseball cap with a smile always planted on his face and his dark curly hair peeping out from under his hat. And his eyes too-they are the perfect hazel shade and his eyebrows aren't too thick or too thin. Everything about him is perfect.

I'm at the hospital, it's nothing serious though.The doctor says I'll be out by tomorrow. I didn't have major surgery just a few cracked ribs that were repaired fairly quickly. I also have a head bandage but no brain damage which is great. No broken bones, just a lot of bruising and swelling to my face that should be gone in a couple weeks. But Maxi had to have plastic surgery to his face it was that bad. He's luckily alright now-he had a broken nose and his jaw had to be put back into place, pretty gruesome. He was dismissed though a day after his surgery.

A couple hours later after everyone's seen me and spoken to me, a police officer walks into my room accompanied by my mom.
"Miss. Tores, nice to see you're awake."

"Camila honey," says my mom,"Don't worry, this officer just wants to ask you a few questions about what happened. It's alright."

I nod at her and then look over at the policeman. "So can you describe to me what happened when Broudey did what he did?"

I look over to my mom and she gives me a reassuring nod. "Okay, well I was running away from the studio-my school-and I wanted be be alone but then Broudey followed me and it's not the first time something like this has happened. I yelled at him that I wanted to be alone but he ignored me and then he started to kiss me, on my neck and was holding my hips in a really awkward way for me. I tried to push him away from me but he's stronger than me, I fought him as much as I could but he started to hit me. First he slapped me across the face then he punched my stomach so I fell to the ground, I was in as much pain as it was but then he started kicking me. Really kicking me-it was like I was some football and he kept doing it and doing it."

He nods occasionally and writes some notes down,"and that's when your friend, Maxi is it? Showed up?"
"Yes."

"Right. I have everything I need, thank you very much." The police officer says as he gets up and leaves the room.

Once he leaves I take one look at my mom and start to cry,"I'm sorry mom. I-I-I never knew it would be this bad."
She rushes over to me and starts comforting me,"it's alright honey, I knew what you were going through, you did everything you could. Don't worry, cry and you'll feel better it's okay I promise."

***
The next week I'm back at the studio, I hate seeing everybody look at me like I'm some kind of freak. I need to walk with crutches as my ankle was twisted and my leg still is a little funny to walk on. But I'll be okay. We've been called into an assembly by Pablo, but when we are seated in there out of the corner of my eye I see the same police officer that questioned me in hospital.

Broduey. He's been charged with assult. He's been deported back to Brazil. I. I don't know what just happened. But it's possibly the best news I've been given. I'm so happy! No more Broudey. He's gone. No more abuse! No more fear, I can live my life without the fear of getting abused or hurt anymore. This is the greatest day of my life.