chapter 9 - fallout

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height

A/n: this chapter will contain a scene of sexual harassment/assault. If you are uncomfortable with these topics, you can skip this chapter altogether. If you want to skip JUST the descriptions of what happened, then skip to the "***".
—————————————————————

Talia:

Carter's arm forcefully pins my body against the wall, leaving me with almost no mobility. His lips turn upwards to form an evil grin that makes me want to shrink.

"Hello, Talia," Carter whispers into my ear, sending disgusting hot air down my neck. My heart thumps loudly in my chest and genuine fear snakes around my mind. I feel trapped and helpless.

"Y-you're," I stammer, finding it difficult to breathe with Carter's arm pressing against my lungs. This only makes his smile grow. "You're hurting me, Carter."

"So? Don't you think you deserve that?"

My breath catches in my throat and I feel my eyes rimming with tears. No matter how hard I try not to cry, a single drop slides down my burning cheek. Why is he doing this? I desperately ask myself. Maybe I should be asking him that question instead. If only I could form the words.

Carter lifts his head back and laughs. Never in my life have I heard a sound that makes me want to retract into my body as much as his laugh just did. When we dated, that sound would have made me smile or laugh as well; but now, all I feel is scared. Suddenly, his mood dangerously changes.

"Don't cry, Lia," Carter states violently, spreading his breath across my face. "You have been ignoring me for too long now and it's starting to piss me off."

After saying this, he forces his knee against my leg to further pin me on the wall, displaying just how much power he holds. He wants me to know that I'm weak and helpless, and honestly, I'm starting to believe it myself.

I close my eyes and bite my quivering lip to try and regain control of my emotions. I feel myself growing weaker, which is exactly what he wants.

"Stop, Carter. Please," I beg, something I never thought I would have to do.

He rolls his eyes at this. "You need to understand that we are meant to be together. I've had enough of your bullshit," he asserts.

Why is he doing this to me? I repeat in my head, desperately searching for a real answer.

"Oh come on, Talia," Carter says, aggressively wiping away another tear that escapes from my eye. "Don't be a bitch, now. You know I can't resist you."

As I struggle to move, Carter leans down and attacks my neck with his lips. Unlike the sparkling sensation that I once felt when we dated, all I feel is a burning, stinging, and suffering assault on my body.

"Help!" I try to shout. Instead, my voice releases as a whimper since his arm has been pressing against my lungs for too long of a time. Carter's left hand slams onto my mouth to stifle my cries even further.

I feel like I'm drowning.

"You have acted like a bitch for too long," my abuser terrifyingly whispers into my ear.

There's no way to avoid this. I'm not in control. I want control.

My tears continue to flow down my cheeks as Carter's right hand traces up my leg and to the hem of my dress. His fingers continues to slide underneath my dress, until he gropes and squeezes my thigh with his whole hand. I try to fight him off of my body, but all of his weight is pushed up against me. I need help.

"You shouldn't wear something like this, Lia. It makes me horn—"

All of the sudden, he pulls away from me. Or rather, someone pulls him away from me.

My eyes open and I find Carter being pushed hard against the opposite wall, which he hits with a loud thump and falls on the ground, groaning.

I'm still standing paralyzed with a gaping mouth when Grayson turns around and stares at me, eyes blazing. He watches another tear fall from my face and onto the ground. Grayson's jaw clenches tightly and his hand forms a fist at his waist, ready to swing. He quickly turns back around to glare at Carter, pure rage radiating from his body.

"Get the fuck out of here, Carter, or I swear to God you will never walk again," he says through clenched teeth.

Carter instantly stands up and he begins to step away, but his eyes remain glaring back at Grayson.

"You've always had a problem with us being together, didn't you?" Carter asks Grayson, pointing between himself and me. My mind wanders for a second to think about what he means by this. Why would Grayson have a problem back then?

I stay close to the wall and feel too afraid to move, still shocked by all of the events from the past five minutes. I'm entirely useless in this situation.

My savior stays silent.

Carter rolls his eyes when he learns Grayson won't answer his question. He instead turns his body to face me again and points an accusing finger, causing me to flinch. "You will always be a fucking bitc—"

Grayson's fist finally flies though the air and makes direct contact with the side of Carter's face, sending him stumbling backwards. He cups his injured face and runs away from the scene, leaving behind an angry Grayson and a mentally damaged girl. What a pair.

Grayson turns back around and cautiously walks towards me until he is few feet away. I only notice his movements from my peripheral vision, as my eyes remain fixated on the ground, still flowing with tears.

When I make eye contact with him, his face is filled with a sadness that I could have never imagined from him. All I expect him to say is are you okay? However, Grayson surprises me and whispers gently, "What can I do to help you, Talia?"

At this I sob, feeling completely overwhelmed by what just occurred in this hallway.

"I—I," I begin to stammer, hyperventilating slightly after finding it difficult to breathe. "I need to get out of this dress!" I shout in exasperation.

Grayson's shoulders tighten, and for a second, neither of us move. He just continues to stare at me. Not with pity, but with understanding; as if he too were remembering what just occurred.

"Please," I finally whisper. "I can't be in this dress anymore."

He nods once solemnly and reaches out his undamaged hand for me to hold. My own hand stretches to take Grayson's, but my limb noticeably shakes, causing him to look away with a tensed body. Once our hands are entwined, Grayson silently leads me down the hallway, where we turn the corner to the boys' locker room.

"I have some extra clothes in here," he states while looking down at me with soft eyes. "No one else should be in here."

His warm and comforting hand lets go of mine as we step into the locker room. At his locker, Grayson hands me a pair of sweatpants and a gym shirt, both of which are way too large for my body.

As I reach for the clothes, I begin crying again. Like I said before, I feel so overwhelmed. Many questions revolve around my head, and the answers are no where to be found. So, I just cry. I am infinitely pathetic.

"I'm sorry," I breathe out, vigorously wiping away the tears that escape my eyes. I hate crying.

Grayson's familiar hand extends to my face, where he uses the pad of his thumb to help wipe away my tears. It takes everything to not lean into him.

"You have nothing to be sorry for," he whispers. Grayson pauses for a moment and just stares at me, tilting his head slightly. "You can change in one of the stalls. I'll wait outside."

He walks away without another word, and I step into one of the stalls nearest to me. Then, I rip off this now horrifying dress.

***

After throwing the red dress in the garbage, I reunite with Grayson outside, wearing his overly large clothes. I rolled his sweatpants at the waist to lift the pant legs off of the ground, and tucked in the front of the blue basketball shirt so it doesn't hang like a dress. I'm not short compared to most girls, but when standing next to Grayson, there is an obvious height difference.

By now, my tears have stopped, but my eyes remain noticeably red and my cheeks contain a bucket load of pink and puffiness. It's as if my face is screaming, "Look at me! Look at me! I just cried my eyes out!"

I walk next to Grayson, who is leaning against the wall just staring at the floor in silence. I wish I knew what he was thinking about, I think to myself. His facial expressions always confuse me, never giving anything away.

Grayson's head lifts up and he shifts his weight, placing his hands in his short's pockets.

"Are you feeling better?" he asks, scrunching his eyebrows together and examining me closely.

"Yeah, thanks for the clothes," I state while looking up at him, fiddling with my fingers and picking at the skin around my nails.

Grayson shakes his head. "It's not a problem."

We both stand quietly, not knowing what to do now. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before, and I never thought it would. But here I am now, finding it difficult to speak. I wonder if this is normal for other girls who have gone through similar experiences. I somehow hate myself for belonging to that group, even though it wasn't my fault. I feel like a statistic, now.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Grayson finally asks to break the silence. That is a question I am too afraid to answer.

I shake my head and take a deep breath in through my nose to resettle the tears that are threatening to break. "I don't think I'm ready, yet. The memory feels too fresh."

Grayson's bruised fist clenches and unclenches, rethinking the incident.

"Can you give me a ride home, though?" I ask him quietly. "I don't want to drive home when my mind feels messed up."

"Yes, of course," Grayson says, not wasting a moment to reply. "Let's go."

I silently wish Grayson will give me his hand to hold again, but his remain stuffed in his pockets, hidden from me. I want you to hold me, I think, looking up at him. I would never dare to say those words aloud, however.

We slowly make our way to the gym lobby, which now only holds a few people. Maybe I was gone for longer than I thought.

Grayson holds the door open for me and the fresh air hits me like a slap to the face. I take a deep breath in and I feel my mind beginning to clear. When I look over at Grayson, I notice the air having nearly the same effect on him as he closes his eyes and his chest slowly rises and falls. I think we both feel more relaxed.

Then, my moment of bliss is suddenly interrupted.

"Talia!" I hear Cassie shout from a few feet away.

This is not good. Everything about my appearance with Grayson will scream bad with Cas. She originally warned me to steer clear from him and his reputation; but here I am, standing dangerously close to the accused.

I turn my puffy, red eyes to Cassie and watch her face immediately go blank. We stare at each other in silence for a few moments, until my best friend whips her head and points an accusing finger at Grayson.

"What the fuck did you do to her?" Cassie shouts.

My eyes widen at her loud remark and I open my mouth to justify the current situation, but Grayson speaks first.

"You think I did this?" He questions with a hint of annoyance, narrowing his eyes at her.

It's a stand off for the record books.

"I certainly wouldn't put it past you, Grayson," Cas states coldly while crossing her arms.

Both of their body languages scream pissed off.

"Cassie, stop," I interject. "He didn't hurt me, okay?"

Cassie rolls her eyes at me and scoffs. "Really, Lia? Because your tear stained face and the hickey on your neck says otherwise."

What did she just say? 

I stare at the ground and reach a slightly shaking hand to the spot on my neck where the memory of Carter's assault remains. Is there really a spot there?

My eyes involuntarily lift up to Grayson's, which are looking down into mine. His mouth slants downwards into a frown in confirmation to what Cassie just stated. My mouth hangs open and I intake a sharp breath of air. Oh, my God.

"Lia, you seriously didn't know?" I hear her say over the loud ringing in my ears. "How could you be so careless after I warned you about this in the first place?"

I feel my heart threatening to burst out of my chest when Cassie places the blame on me. What did she just say? I find myself questioning again.

"You have no fucking idea what you are talking about," Grayson sneers, sending icy glares towards Cas, which makes her eyes widen in shock.

More tears threaten to fall from my eyes and my throat feels like it's closing. This is the worst night ever, and I don't know how much more I can take. I stand frozen in place and try to take deep breaths to steady myself, but nothing seems to be going right. Everything is happening too fast, too wrong.

Grayson notices my distress and steps in between Cassie and I. A twinge of anger remains present when he leans forward until he is face to face with me. "Let me take you home now, Talia."

"Please," I sigh, feeling exhausted.

Without turning around, he softly reclaims my hand and begins to lead me away from this mess. Why are his hands always so warm and comforting?

"You're being an idiot for walking away with him, Lia!" Cassie shouts from behind me, halting the momentary relief I felt with Grayson.

I turn around one final time to glance at Cassie. Her hands are angrily crossed over her chest and she shakes her head in disbelief, scoffing. In my mind, flashbacks appear of the fight between Cas and I. Both of these instances had the same ending, with Cassie accusing me of being something I'm not, and me feeling upset and hurt. I just wish Cassie would try to be more understanding and not jump to conclusions.

I feel Grayson squeeze my hand gently and give it a tug, which pulls me out of my mind numbing thoughts.

Once we reach the safety of his secluded car, I allow my emotions to collide harshly against me. So I cry. And I cry. And I cry.

———————————————————————

:( . I'm sorry for making this chapter extremely sad and upsetting, but I promise good things are to come. Stay tuned <3

Qotd: what is your favorite love song?


You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net