Life Changing Experiences
Chapter 7
Chapter 7
I lay in my bed, curled up. It’s storming outside and heavily too. I can’t sleep when it storms. Especially with thunder and lightning. Truthfully, they scare me. If word like that got out, I’d be the laughing stock of the school. Which wouldn’t help me in this particular situation. I close my eyes tight as lightning strikes and I hear a loud boom. The constant stream of rain pitter-patter hitting on my window is relentless and keeps me awake. But… oh no… I hear a door open and then slam hard. He is home. I hope he doesn’t come into my room. I hear a muffled voice, but it’s obviously shouting.
“ANGELA!” it says loudly. My eyes threaten to fill with tears and I hide my head under my blanket, praying that I don’t hear anything horrible. I hear a timid, soft muffled voice respond.
“Y-yes sir?”
“WHERE THE FUCK WAS RACHEL TONIGHT?” the deep, booming voice responds. My walls ricochet from the sound. I pray my hardest that he doesn’t come in here. I pray also for my sister. But I don’t have the courage to go out and face him and defend her. I clutch the last thing my mother gave to me before she left. A teddy bear. I got it when I was six, and I’ve always treasured it. It always helps keep me calm during a storm or when he is screaming.
“She went out to her friend’s house, sir.”
“WHICH FRIEND?”
“I-I don’t know. She didn’t tell me anything else, sir.” Angela was brave, but I could tell she feared him as much as anyone who knew him on a day-to-day basis would. I heard his loud footfalls on each step, and each one coming toward my room. I clutch my mother’s last precious gift while under the blankets. The stomping stopped in front of my door. I held my breath, hoping and praying. But to no use. The door opened, and I could feel his presence right beside me. My eyes were closed tight by some mean of twisted reality that this is a dream, and I’d wake up any second.
I felt the blanket being ripped off me, and he shook me violently. I opened my eyes, only slightly, trying to not look at him.
“Where you were?” he expressed, his face near mine and his voice dark and menacing. The smell of alcohol lingered into my nostrils.
“At Garfield’s house, sir.”
“Who the hell is Garfield?”
“A new friend of mine, sir.”
“YOU DIDN’T CALL! YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO CALL WHEN YOU GO OUT!” he forced me to my feet, and led me to the door. “For your punishment: don’t come back in this house for 24 hours!” he screamed, opened the door and pushed me out. I fell on the concrete, my hands scraping, and the precious gift falling a few feet ahead of me. I felt something hard hit my back. I looked back and it was my shoes. I was soaking wet at this point and the door to the house closed with a loud slam. I put my shoes on and picked up my only happy memory left of my mother, and started walking towards the only place I could think of where I could find comfort for the night. My eyes filled with tears and I didn’t bother stopping them as they flowed freely down my already soaked cheeks.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Only took an hour and a half of walking in 2 degree Celsius weather while rain hitting me non-stop to get to the one place where I hoped I could find hospitality for at least tonight. Garfield seems very understanding… although… am I ready to share with him what is very important? I’m going to have to, because he’ll probably question me. He seems concerned about me, which is nice. Someone actually shows me some compassion in my life. I entered the building. There was no Kory, or anyone, for that matter at the front desk. So I just walked up the stairs to his room.
After climbing the 15 flights of stairs, I gulped feeling a little nervous about intruding at 2:00 AM in the morning… but what else am I going to do? Kitty and Tara are no longer my friends, so I wouldn’t be able to go there. Besides, they don’t even know about my father’s sadistic rules. No one does. And I guess I’m really willing to tell Garfield if he needs to know. I knocked on the door and took a step back, holding the almost ruined bear in my hand. It’s a rare bear. They could only be bought in, ironically, Africa. I heard quiet footsteps on the other side of the door. It opened and revealed a disheveled Garfield in boxers and a t-shirt. His eyes widened when he saw me.
“R-Rachel? Is that you? What happened?” he asked concerned. “Come in.” I stepped in his apartment and removed my shoes and socks. He went to the bathroom and brought me a towel. “You’re soaking wet! Did you walk here?”
“Yes,” my voice said, cracking from all the crying I’ve done. I shivered, realizing just how cold I really am.
“Look, how about you go take a shower and I’ll put on the kettle for a hot tea and some hot food. You like steak?” I managed a small smile at his suggestion.
“Steak at 2:00 AM? Sounds great.” I walked over to the bathroom and removed the rest of my clothes. I climbed into the shower and let the hot water wash away all my troubles. It felt so great right now to take a shower. After I was finished washing myself, I got out and noticed that there was some extra clothes in here. He didn’t come in… when I… I put that thought out of my head, and started drying myself off with a new towel. The aroma of steak filled my nostrils. It smelled very good.
“How do you like your steak?” He called.
“Well done.”
“Me too! It’ll be a while, but I’m sure you could use one.” I smiled while putting on the over-sized jeans, t-shirt and socks. Thankfully there was a belt so my pants wouldn’t be falling off my ass. I exited and saw two cups of steaming hot tea at the table. Then I realized something was missing.
“Where is it?” I asked alarmed.
“Where’s what?”
“That… that bear you saw me with.”
“Don’t worry Rachel, he’s right here.” He moved out of the way and I saw the bear sitting on the counter, pointed towards his direction. “Sorry if I startled you. I was just looking at it. It… looks kind of familiar.” I nodded to him and he passed it to me. I sat at the table, taking a small sip of my tea. It was perfect, just the way I liked it. “You look funny in that shirt.”
“Garfield, this is not the time,” I said half-threateningly.
“Sorry, sorry!” He spent the next 30 minutes preparing the steak, marinating it, cooking it to perfection. He pulled out two plates and brought them over. He handed me silverware, but he dropped it and took hold of my right hand, turning it. Oh no, I forgot about that…
“You’re bleeding!” I pulled my hand away sharply, causing pain to surge through it.
“It’s nothing. I can live with it,” I insisted, folding my hands in my lap. He shook his head disapprovingly, and got out a med kit.
“Let me see your hands,” he said gently. Cautiously, I brought them over the table. He opened the med kit and got out a white cloth. He put a dab of yellow liquid on it. “This will sting a bit, but it’ll stop it from getting infected. Okay?” I nodded. He took my hand again, and slowly started wiping over the surface of it, being very gentle. He was lying. It didn’t sting at all… it was actually relaxing. He took my other hand and did the same to it. He got another cloth and wiped my hands clean of the blood. Finally, he got out bandages and wrapped them up. I looked at him, and he smiled back at me.
“Thank you, Gar. It feels much better,” I said.
“Heheh…”
“What?”
“You called me Gar.” I raised my eyebrow and looked at him.
“So what’s your point?”
“You never have before.”
“Well I wouldn’t get used to it.”
“Don’t worry. Now enough talk. Eat,” he insisted. I smiled slightly at the beautiful looking steak. I cut off a piece and tasted it. It tasted a little odd, but still good nonetheless.
“This is good,” I said after swallowing the steak and started to eat more.
“Thank you. It’s tofu,” he said casually while eating his steak. I almost choked, but took some tea to wash it down.
“Excuse me?”
“What? There’s nothing wrong with it, is there?”
“Well, I guess not… but why tofu?”
“Oh, guess I’ve never told you, but I’m a vegetarian.” My eyes widened at this interesting revelation.
“Really? How come you never told me before?”
“Must of slipped my mind, sorry.”
“Don’t worry. It is still very good steak.” He smiled broadly at this compliment, probably proud of his own cooking skill.
“It’s nice when you can cook for someone and have them tell you it’s good. I always cook for myself, and you know what they say: everyone is their own worse critic. So for the longest time, I’ve always thought it tasted horrible. I was nervous while cooking it and giving it to you because I’d thought you would hate it. But not anymore.” He said. I knew Garfield was intelligent now, and that was pretty deep. I smiled and nodded my consent while finishing off my steak. “You eat fast.”
“Well, I’m a girl that enjoys her food. Any problems with that?”
“Not at all! I think it’s pretty cool, actually.” He was halfway finished with his steak.
“I guess so…”
“So, Rachel… how come you were soaking when you got here?” he asked, voice full of concern. I gulped, knowing that this question was going to show up eventually.
“It… it’s a long story. And very personal.”
“You can trust me, I promise…” he said this oh so gently. I looked into his big, pleading eyes. I sighed.
“Yes, you showed me hospitality, of which I’ll never be able to thank you enough. I guess… you do deserve to know.” I looked at him seriously, and he was just as serious. “Okay… well, the man who calls himself my father, he kicked me out in the middle of the night. Why? Because I didn’t call him when we got here after school. I completely forgot about it. I scraped my hands when he pushed me out of the house on the concrete.” I clutched the bear with my arms crossed over my chest hard, as I fought tears back.
“What! Rachel, have you ever called child support?”
“They do nothing to help. I’ve called them seven times in total… maybe eight. But they do nothing. They say without any proof, they can’t help at all. Since when does child support need proof?” my voice was rising slightly as I spoke. I was getting upset again.
“Rachel, please calm down. I’m so sorry this happened,” he said and I felt a pressure on my shoulder. I looked up and saw his eyes looking deep into mine, and arm outstretched with hand on my shoulder. I breathed deeply for a few minutes before he spoke up. “What else does he do?”
“Nothing… he doesn’t hit me, but he pushes me a lot. Every time I’m at home, all he does is yell at me. When I’m not there, he probably gets drunk and yells at Angela all the time,” I said, tears now falling out of my eyes for the umpteenth time tonight… he got up and wrapped his arms around me while I cried on his shoulder. I heard his soothing voice in my ear.
“Shh, Rachel. You… you won’t have to go back there again. You can stay here, and we’ll find a way to beat him,” my sobbing stopped briefly. I steadied my breathing.
“W-we?”
“Yes. I’ll help you no matter what. How come you never told me before?”
“I was scared.”
“Don’t be. Did he threaten you?”
“Yes. He said he’d kill me if I ever told anyone.”
“Don’t worry. He’ll never know.” Despite his comforting words, I couldn’t help but cry again. The emotional stress was too much. I rarely cry, so that probably explains it… I’m letting out everything. And thank the Heavens Garfield is here to support me with that. If he didn’t, I don’t know what I’d do. And, in that moment, as we still shared our embrace, I saw Garfield in a new light. I finally realized… I’m falling for Garfield Logan.
I lay in my bed, curled up. It’s storming outside and heavily too. I can’t sleep when it storms. Especially with thunder and lightning. Truthfully, they scare me. If word like that got out, I’d be the laughing stock of the school. Which wouldn’t help me in this particular situation. I close my eyes tight as lightning strikes and I hear a loud boom. The constant stream of rain pitter-patter hitting on my window is relentless and keeps me awake. But… oh no… I hear a door open and then slam hard. He is home. I hope he doesn’t come into my room. I hear a muffled voice, but it’s obviously shouting.
“ANGELA!” it says loudly. My eyes threaten to fill with tears and I hide my head under my blanket, praying that I don’t hear anything horrible. I hear a timid, soft muffled voice respond.
“Y-yes sir?”
“WHERE THE FUCK WAS RACHEL TONIGHT?” the deep, booming voice responds. My walls ricochet from the sound. I pray my hardest that he doesn’t come in here. I pray also for my sister. But I don’t have the courage to go out and face him and defend her. I clutch the last thing my mother gave to me before she left. A teddy bear. I got it when I was six, and I’ve always treasured it. It always helps keep me calm during a storm or when he is screaming.
“She went out to her friend’s house, sir.”
“WHICH FRIEND?”
“I-I don’t know. She didn’t tell me anything else, sir.” Angela was brave, but I could tell she feared him as much as anyone who knew him on a day-to-day basis would. I heard his loud footfalls on each step, and each one coming toward my room. I clutch my mother’s last precious gift while under the blankets. The stomping stopped in front of my door. I held my breath, hoping and praying. But to no use. The door opened, and I could feel his presence right beside me. My eyes were closed tight by some mean of twisted reality that this is a dream, and I’d wake up any second.
I felt the blanket being ripped off me, and he shook me violently. I opened my eyes, only slightly, trying to not look at him.
“Where you were?” he expressed, his face near mine and his voice dark and menacing. The smell of alcohol lingered into my nostrils.
“At Garfield’s house, sir.”
“Who the hell is Garfield?”
“A new friend of mine, sir.”
“YOU DIDN’T CALL! YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO CALL WHEN YOU GO OUT!” he forced me to my feet, and led me to the door. “For your punishment: don’t come back in this house for 24 hours!” he screamed, opened the door and pushed me out. I fell on the concrete, my hands scraping, and the precious gift falling a few feet ahead of me. I felt something hard hit my back. I looked back and it was my shoes. I was soaking wet at this point and the door to the house closed with a loud slam. I put my shoes on and picked up my only happy memory left of my mother, and started walking towards the only place I could think of where I could find comfort for the night. My eyes filled with tears and I didn’t bother stopping them as they flowed freely down my already soaked cheeks.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Only took an hour and a half of walking in 2 degree Celsius weather while rain hitting me non-stop to get to the one place where I hoped I could find hospitality for at least tonight. Garfield seems very understanding… although… am I ready to share with him what is very important? I’m going to have to, because he’ll probably question me. He seems concerned about me, which is nice. Someone actually shows me some compassion in my life. I entered the building. There was no Kory, or anyone, for that matter at the front desk. So I just walked up the stairs to his room.
After climbing the 15 flights of stairs, I gulped feeling a little nervous about intruding at 2:00 AM in the morning… but what else am I going to do? Kitty and Tara are no longer my friends, so I wouldn’t be able to go there. Besides, they don’t even know about my father’s sadistic rules. No one does. And I guess I’m really willing to tell Garfield if he needs to know. I knocked on the door and took a step back, holding the almost ruined bear in my hand. It’s a rare bear. They could only be bought in, ironically, Africa. I heard quiet footsteps on the other side of the door. It opened and revealed a disheveled Garfield in boxers and a t-shirt. His eyes widened when he saw me.
“R-Rachel? Is that you? What happened?” he asked concerned. “Come in.” I stepped in his apartment and removed my shoes and socks. He went to the bathroom and brought me a towel. “You’re soaking wet! Did you walk here?”
“Yes,” my voice said, cracking from all the crying I’ve done. I shivered, realizing just how cold I really am.
“Look, how about you go take a shower and I’ll put on the kettle for a hot tea and some hot food. You like steak?” I managed a small smile at his suggestion.
“Steak at 2:00 AM? Sounds great.” I walked over to the bathroom and removed the rest of my clothes. I climbed into the shower and let the hot water wash away all my troubles. It felt so great right now to take a shower. After I was finished washing myself, I got out and noticed that there was some extra clothes in here. He didn’t come in… when I… I put that thought out of my head, and started drying myself off with a new towel. The aroma of steak filled my nostrils. It smelled very good.
“How do you like your steak?” He called.
“Well done.”
“Me too! It’ll be a while, but I’m sure you could use one.” I smiled while putting on the over-sized jeans, t-shirt and socks. Thankfully there was a belt so my pants wouldn’t be falling off my ass. I exited and saw two cups of steaming hot tea at the table. Then I realized something was missing.
“Where is it?” I asked alarmed.
“Where’s what?”
“That… that bear you saw me with.”
“Don’t worry Rachel, he’s right here.” He moved out of the way and I saw the bear sitting on the counter, pointed towards his direction. “Sorry if I startled you. I was just looking at it. It… looks kind of familiar.” I nodded to him and he passed it to me. I sat at the table, taking a small sip of my tea. It was perfect, just the way I liked it. “You look funny in that shirt.”
“Garfield, this is not the time,” I said half-threateningly.
“Sorry, sorry!” He spent the next 30 minutes preparing the steak, marinating it, cooking it to perfection. He pulled out two plates and brought them over. He handed me silverware, but he dropped it and took hold of my right hand, turning it. Oh no, I forgot about that…
“You’re bleeding!” I pulled my hand away sharply, causing pain to surge through it.
“It’s nothing. I can live with it,” I insisted, folding my hands in my lap. He shook his head disapprovingly, and got out a med kit.
“Let me see your hands,” he said gently. Cautiously, I brought them over the table. He opened the med kit and got out a white cloth. He put a dab of yellow liquid on it. “This will sting a bit, but it’ll stop it from getting infected. Okay?” I nodded. He took my hand again, and slowly started wiping over the surface of it, being very gentle. He was lying. It didn’t sting at all… it was actually relaxing. He took my other hand and did the same to it. He got another cloth and wiped my hands clean of the blood. Finally, he got out bandages and wrapped them up. I looked at him, and he smiled back at me.
“Thank you, Gar. It feels much better,” I said.
“Heheh…”
“What?”
“You called me Gar.” I raised my eyebrow and looked at him.
“So what’s your point?”
“You never have before.”
“Well I wouldn’t get used to it.”
“Don’t worry. Now enough talk. Eat,” he insisted. I smiled slightly at the beautiful looking steak. I cut off a piece and tasted it. It tasted a little odd, but still good nonetheless.
“This is good,” I said after swallowing the steak and started to eat more.
“Thank you. It’s tofu,” he said casually while eating his steak. I almost choked, but took some tea to wash it down.
“Excuse me?”
“What? There’s nothing wrong with it, is there?”
“Well, I guess not… but why tofu?”
“Oh, guess I’ve never told you, but I’m a vegetarian.” My eyes widened at this interesting revelation.
“Really? How come you never told me before?”
“Must of slipped my mind, sorry.”
“Don’t worry. It is still very good steak.” He smiled broadly at this compliment, probably proud of his own cooking skill.
“It’s nice when you can cook for someone and have them tell you it’s good. I always cook for myself, and you know what they say: everyone is their own worse critic. So for the longest time, I’ve always thought it tasted horrible. I was nervous while cooking it and giving it to you because I’d thought you would hate it. But not anymore.” He said. I knew Garfield was intelligent now, and that was pretty deep. I smiled and nodded my consent while finishing off my steak. “You eat fast.”
“Well, I’m a girl that enjoys her food. Any problems with that?”
“Not at all! I think it’s pretty cool, actually.” He was halfway finished with his steak.
“I guess so…”
“So, Rachel… how come you were soaking when you got here?” he asked, voice full of concern. I gulped, knowing that this question was going to show up eventually.
“It… it’s a long story. And very personal.”
“You can trust me, I promise…” he said this oh so gently. I looked into his big, pleading eyes. I sighed.
“Yes, you showed me hospitality, of which I’ll never be able to thank you enough. I guess… you do deserve to know.” I looked at him seriously, and he was just as serious. “Okay… well, the man who calls himself my father, he kicked me out in the middle of the night. Why? Because I didn’t call him when we got here after school. I completely forgot about it. I scraped my hands when he pushed me out of the house on the concrete.” I clutched the bear with my arms crossed over my chest hard, as I fought tears back.
“What! Rachel, have you ever called child support?”
“They do nothing to help. I’ve called them seven times in total… maybe eight. But they do nothing. They say without any proof, they can’t help at all. Since when does child support need proof?” my voice was rising slightly as I spoke. I was getting upset again.
“Rachel, please calm down. I’m so sorry this happened,” he said and I felt a pressure on my shoulder. I looked up and saw his eyes looking deep into mine, and arm outstretched with hand on my shoulder. I breathed deeply for a few minutes before he spoke up. “What else does he do?”
“Nothing… he doesn’t hit me, but he pushes me a lot. Every time I’m at home, all he does is yell at me. When I’m not there, he probably gets drunk and yells at Angela all the time,” I said, tears now falling out of my eyes for the umpteenth time tonight… he got up and wrapped his arms around me while I cried on his shoulder. I heard his soothing voice in my ear.
“Shh, Rachel. You… you won’t have to go back there again. You can stay here, and we’ll find a way to beat him,” my sobbing stopped briefly. I steadied my breathing.
“W-we?”
“Yes. I’ll help you no matter what. How come you never told me before?”
“I was scared.”
“Don’t be. Did he threaten you?”
“Yes. He said he’d kill me if I ever told anyone.”
“Don’t worry. He’ll never know.” Despite his comforting words, I couldn’t help but cry again. The emotional stress was too much. I rarely cry, so that probably explains it… I’m letting out everything. And thank the Heavens Garfield is here to support me with that. If he didn’t, I don’t know what I’d do. And, in that moment, as we still shared our embrace, I saw Garfield in a new light. I finally realized… I’m falling for Garfield Logan.