THE GIRL AFTER

C H A P T E R 7

"'It was a mistake,' you said. But the cruel thing was, it felt like the mistake was mine, for trusting you."

- David Levithan, The Lover's Dictionary

I was sitting on the floor of my bedroom, staring out the window. I could hear the noise from downstairs; laughter and video games. Bentley had invited the entire basketball team for a team bonding party at our house.

    I hadn't left my bedroom since I was sent there that morning. Every footstep that made its way up the stairs caused my heart to start beating rapidly at the thought of it being Cameron or my mom, who was still very much mad at me.

             "Athena, can I come in?" My dad was at the door, knocking twice. It was his signature knock. He didn't want to seem too impatient so he would only ever knock twice.

              "I guess," my voice was raspy from yelling and then not talking afterwards. THe moment he opened the door, I could see the look in his eyes; disappointment. He sat down on my bed, not noticing the blood that was still there.

    "What is going on with you? You aren't acting like my daughter. I don't even know who you are anymore."

    "I'm your daughter! I'm sorry that I can't be the perfect girl anymore! I'm just so tired, dad. I'm so tired of pretending to be the girl everyone wants me to be when I'm not." Tears spilled from my eyes as I looked into my dad's eyes, the man who gave me life, and I saw nothing. There was no emotion in them. He didn't care. I wasn't the perfect daughter anymore, so he gave up caring about me.

"You are not my daughter anymore, Athena. You're a stranger. When you are finally able to stop this mess and become my daughter, let me know." He didn't wait for me to reply, he just walked out the door. I didn't bother to stop the tears as I sobbed into my hands.

"Athena?" Percy's voice came from the doorway and I lifted my head to look at him. His eyebrows were drawn in confusion and his eyes were full of worry. "What's wrong?" He rushed over to me, pulling me against his chest. He just held me. He didn't bother to ask again, just held me as I cried.

"I'm sorry," I muttered as the tears came to an end. I had ended up making a wet patch on his t-shirt.

    "It's fine, Athena. Are you going to tell me what's wrong?" I shook my head. Even if he had been there for me before, I still couldn't bring myself to fully trust him. "Should I get someone? Maybe your brother?" I shook my head once more. I didn't want to see the disappointment in my brother's eyes like I did my father's. I didn't think I could handle it.

"Maybe this will help?" Before I could move away, he crashed his lips onto mine. I put my hands on his chest to push him off, but he continued on, grabbing my wrists so I couldn't move them. "Stop moving."

    "Stop." I kept trying to push him away, but nothing worked. No matter what I tried, he kept holding onto my wrists and he put his knees on my legs, exactly like Cameron did.

    The second his lips moved from mine and attached themselves onto my neck, I opened my mouth to scream. I was too late though, as he held my wrists in one hand and covered my mouth with the other.

    Tears streamed down my face as I looked into his eyes. They looked like Cameron's did that night. There was no emotion in them. There was no regret as the door opened and Conner Matthews walked into the room. He didn't appear to be scared as Conner saw what happened, but instead, seemed smug.

"Looks like you started without me." Evil was in Conner's eyes as he walked towards us. I tried to plead with my eyes, just praying that they wouldn't hurt me like Cameron did, but God wasn't on my side.

    Percy held down my wrists and legs as Conner slowly moved down the sweatpants that had once been covering me. Their hands roamed my entire body, and as they lifted my shirt, the door finally opened.

    "What the fuck?!" At the door was Holden Matthews, Conner's twin brother. I sent a silent thank you to God before allowing hope to spread through my entire being. "Get off of her! What the fuck do you think you're doing?" He stormed over to them and grabbed them, throwing them off of me. I didn't think about the fact that the bottom part of me was exposed to him, but instead allowed myself to hug myself to him.

    He didn't say anything to me, he just held me as he glared at the two other boys. Their eyes, even though they had been caught, still held no emotion. "You two better not have been doing what I think you were doing because if you were, you're dead!" His voice was deadly as he spoke to Conner and Percy. Holden was a kind person, and he had never so much as raised his voice at someone else, so hearing him speak to the two others with that kind of hatred sparked hope that he wouldn't be like them.

    "Calm down, bro. It's not that big of a deal. She shouldn't have been so desperate for someone to notice her." I flinched at Conner's words. I knew I hadn't had a boyfriend my entire life, but that didn't mean I was desperate. Did it?

    "Calm down? Desperate? Do you even hear yourselves? Do you not understand what you were just doing? You were raping her! You were forcing yourselves on her! What the hell was going through your minds? Are you both that retarded that you cant begin to interpret the fact that what you did is wrong on so many levels?"

    As he began to loosen his arms, I pulled back on my sweatpants so I wouldn't be exposed anymore. Conner and Percy were standing in front of us as Cameron walked into the room. I whimpered, stepping back into Holden's embrace. It was the first time Cameron had been in my room since the night and seeing him in the doorway brought back the memories again.

    "What's going on? Why are you yelling?" His eyes drifted over to meet mine before looking back at Holden.

    "These retarded idiots were forcing themselves onto Athena." Cameron's gaze met mine once again, and for the first time since that night, I saw emotion in them; sympathy.

    For the first time, I finally felt like I could tell everyone about Cameron, but I should've known I wouldn't be able to.