A Heart Doesn't Forget (Fanfiction)

Chapter 38: Tell me what?

Luke's P.O.V.

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I started at her in shock. She looked, terrible, to say the least. There were bags under her eyes, with seemed bloodshot and lifeless. Her lips were dry and chapped, her cheeks a sickly pale color. I hadn't noticed then how skinny she'd gotten, focusing just on her face.

"Rebecca? Are-are you okay? Is everything alright?" I asked her, still caring about her despite loathing her girlfriend.

She was still for a moment, so still I didn't know if she was even breathing, before she shook her head slowly, multiple times.

"There's a couple things I have to tell you, Luke." She said, biting her lips. I noticed then how much she must have done that, because her lips were not only chapped, but chapped as if they'd been split open several times already.

"Okay..." I said hesitantly, wanting to know what made her like this, but still wary because I didn't know what to expect.

"I...I want to start with saying, sorry." Her voice sounded dead, like it was nothing but sound. There was no emotion to her shaky words. It sounded like it was difficult for her to talk, her voice was hoarse and scratchy and I can't say I wasn't worried then.

"Sorry? Why? You didn't do- oh." I had to look away. I knew what she was talking about then. She knew, and she felt sorry. Now I wanted to just go home.

"I...I know I can't apologize for her, nor do I want to. I-" anger seeped into her words, and she stopped as if trying to contain it. "I would like to explain, if you'd let me. I know you probably don't want to talk about it but...I think you should hear this."

I thought about leaving. Going back home to my perfect boyfriend and falling asleep in his warm arms. Then, I looked at her condition, and thought it won't hurt to listen to what she has to say. That doesn't mean it has to change my mind about anything.

I nodded, "Go on." I said curtly.

"Well, I think I should start off with why...or, her reasons behind it, anyway. I don't think what she did was okay at all, and there's no excuse for doing that but...this is what she had to say, anyway.

"She had an ex boyfriend...I don't remember what his name was, but that doesn't matter. He was the cause of a lot of problems. They met when she was in high school, Senior year. He had dropped out of high school, and was around twenty by then. Anyway, they met and they started dating. Her parents found out, and they saw his piercings and tattoos and...they knew he wasn't good for her. They tried to make her break up with him, but she didn't listen, of course, and left home to be with him.

She ran away with him to a shitty place in Vegas. She started getting into more of the stuff he was into. Alcohol, drugs, smoking, stealing....sex." She hesitated a bit before saying that last word. "He um...he had a really bad childhood. She didn't know what happened, just knew that was what made him that way. He um...he was really into pain..." She said, and suddenly it made sense.

"Basically, she didn't mean to do that to you. That...her mind went back to when she was with him...and she did to you what he used to do to her. He would...make it a game, and she was scarred by it. He made her stay with him, she only got away when he got arrested for drug use. She told me that was why she started dating girls, she knew that if she wasn't with a guy nothing like that could ever happen again.

"What happened with you....she confessed she hadn't been taking her medication, for different things. She said she was happy with being with me, so she felt she didn't need them. She felt...she felt awful afterwards. She knew what she had done as soon as the alcohol had worn off. She....she was so, so guilty, she didn't tell me what happened, and played off running away as buying us a new house. I believed her when she said she got a new job so she'd be able to afford a house for us. I didn't thinking anything of it when she tossed our old phones and got a new one. I didn't know she was trying to keep you from calling me and telling me. She was sorry, but she was too afraid to tell you that and too afraid to have me find out.