Concealed

“I thought you were going to wait!” Michelle scolded her husband the following morning as she stood across from him on the back porch where they were talking privately so neither Gracie nor Ethan could hear them.

Brian sighed out, rubbing his hand over his face, “I just couldn't, Chelle. I went downstairs and found her sitting on the couch in fucking daze! If that doesn't tell us something is wrong with her, then what will? She's having nightmares, she seems almost depressed, and she flinches every damn time you come up from behind her!”

“Brian, you don't know if she really has been...sexually assaulted. There could be plenty of other reasons that would cause all of that to happen,” She said, lowering her voice.

“Maybe so,” He muttered, “But I know my daughter. Someone has hurt her, Michelle, and I need to know who in order to protect her from being hurt again.”

Brian stood by on his opinion and what he thought, and no one was going to change his mind unless there was proof that proved him otherwise. It wasn't until after he had witnessed the nightmare Gracie suffered from the other night until it dawned on him that there was a possibility that she could have been sexually abused. Of course, Brian, being the over protective dad he was, didn't want to believe it himself at first. However, that changed when he kept an eye on her all day during the Bar-B-Q the day before.

There were so many little things that he noticed about Gracie that was different, and not different because she was older. He noticed that the way she carried herself and presented herself to everybody was most definitely different. She was shyer these days, became embarrassed easily, didn't talk as much as she normally would to the people around her, and quite a few more reasons. And it all worried Brian, because he was connecting the dots to find out what was wrong, and he didn’t want the reason why she was so different and suffered from those nightmares was because she had been hurt in that way, but he couldn't forget it and let it go. He was too far deep into finding out the truth, which he wasn't sure if he was ready for.

“I told you to give her some space, Brian, and that's exactly what you should do,” Michelle told him, “You can't force her to tell you anything if she doesn't want to. She needs some time.”

Brian refrained from rolling his eyes at his wife, who at the moment was getting on his nerves, and nodded his head, “Okay. I'll give her some damn space.”

Michelle sighed softly, “Why don't you give Lindsey a call and talk to her about this?”

“I don't know, Chelle,” He licked over his bottom lip, “She might overreact.”

“Well,” She murmured, “It can't hurt.”

-x-

Gracie tossed her head back as she laughed and laughed. Ethan laughed too as he cupped some water in his hand and tossed it at her. The waves rolling in splashed against her legs as she ran towards him and flung water back at him. They were in the middle of a splashing war as they stood knee deep in the slightly cold ocean water.

Ethan ran towards her and lifted her off the ground and over his shoulder. She yelped in surprise, not expecting it. With his arm wrapped tightly around her to keep her from falling, he started to go further out into the ocean until the water reached his waist. He released his grip on her suddenly, and Gracie slid further down his back until her hands were planted onto the sand bottom beneath them before flipping her legs over as if she were doing a front flip. Her landing was a little rough but she managed.

Ethan shook his head at her when she came up from the water, “I still don't get how you can do that.”

“Johnny taught me,” She smirked at the mere memory, “I was ten, I think.”

“They always taught you the cool shit.”

Gracie rolled her eyes, “So not true. They taught you how to surf before me because they were worried I would get hurt.”

“Oh yeah,” He laughed, “I forgot about that. But I still think you're spoiled.”

She scoffed, “We both know that Lily is the most spoiled. She's the baby in the family.”

Ethan smiled, “Lily is six, Gracie. Of course she's spoiled. Do you expect anything different coming from Zacky and Gena? That kid has them wrapped around her finger.”

“True,” She nodded, “I think we were spoiled at that age too though.”

“We most definitely were,” He agreed.

Gracie breathed out and stared at the water for a few moments before saying, “Let's go get some ice cream.”

“Now that is an idea I like,” Ethan grinned.

“I thought you would,” She mused.

The two of them made their way out of the water and over to their stuff. They dried off the best they could even though they didn't have towels and pulled on their clothes. An ice cream shop was just up the block a little ways towards Main Street, so it wasn't that far of a walk, which the two were grateful for. Gracie was tired as it was; she didn't exactly feel like walking a long distance even though ice cream was definitely worth it at that point.

“What kind do you want?” Gracie murmured to Ethan.

He shrugged with a slight laugh, “I don't know. What are you getting?”

She smiled as they stood staring at all the different flavors of ice cream there were to choose from, “I'm getting the coffee ice cream with gummy bears on top.”

“Eww!” Ethan made a face.

“What? It's really good!” She laughed.

He shook his head, “Whatever. You're weird.”

She stuck her tongue out at him and slammed her balled up fist against the top of his arm. He winced and stepped away from her with a faint chuckle while telling her to keep her hands to herself. Gracie rolled her eyes and told him to get over it. The two then ordered and paid for their ice cream shortly after. Soon enough, they were headed back to the Haner house, eating their ice cream on the way.

“You want to know something?” Ethan asked her.

Gracie nodded as she chewed on a gummy bear, “Sure.”

“You've changed this year.”

“Oh God!” She exclaimed, shaking her head, “Come on, not this again!”

Ethan held up one hand in defense, “Chill, Gracie. All I'm sayin' is that something is different about you. It's not a bad thing. You just...you seem more mature these days. Well, most of the time,” He smirked.

“That's what happens to people, Ethan. You get older, you grow up, and you become more mature. Who cares?” She shrugged.

“I guess you're right,” He nodded, “But just so you know, everyone is worried about you. And I mean everyone.

Gracie sighed and tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. She knew that wasn't good. If everyone was worried about her than that meant they all knew something was wrong with her, which she really didn't want. She needed to do a better job at hiding all the sadness and depression, and put a more realistic smile on her face before the truth came out.

“I don't know why,” She murmured, licking some of the ice cream off her lips, “I'm okay. I'm not starving myself or cutting myself or anything. I've just been a little bummed lately. It's not that big of a deal.”

“Well maybe they'll get off your back soon," Ethan smiled faintly at her, "I'm sure it must suck to have everyone discussing about you and your life behind your back, and having everyone worried about you. I would fuckin' hate that to be honest.”

Gracie shrugged her shoulders, “They'll get over it eventually, and everything will go back to normal.”

“I'm sure you're right,” He nodded.

Gracie wanted to believe that they would forget about this eventually and move on, but she wasn't so sure. Her dad was a very determined man who cared about her more than anything, and she knew he would do whatever it takes to find out what was wrong with her. Plus, it didn't help that he was more than sure that someone had hurt her. It wouldn't be long before he figured the rest out, which scared her.

How was she going to hide this? How was she going to stop the nightmares that continued to haunt her and make everything worse? But most importantly, once they did figure it all out, how was she going to convince them that she isn't lying and that it really did happen? Gracie didn't know. This entire thing was becoming bigger than she could handle on her own.