Thunder

This was it. Rian, Alex, and Abigail were on their way to the trial to determine if Abigail’s father was guilty or not, and to see if Abigail was willing to press charges against the man.

When Abigail had to go into the police station and give her statement, she did, indeed, have to show her bruises. The police officers did eye her cuts suspiciously, but hadn’t said anything about it. Luckily, the only severe cut she had during the time was the suicide attempt on her arm. She had lived with Alex for about a week before they had finally told her the trial date. And now here it was. Before she could even process anything, here she was.

Abigail tried going through everything that had happened to her in only two weeks. So much had changed and she didn’t know if she could handle it.

She had trusted someone – two people, counting Rian. She had let her walls down to someone she never expected to even care. Someone – two people – had finally saved her from being beaten by her father. She was beginning to make friends. She got her first kiss. She fell in love.

Alex Gaskarth was her boyfriend.

While she ran through the thoughts in her mind, she felt Rian’s truck lurch forward, and Alex squeeze her hand reassuringly. “Hey, it’s going to be okay. I promise,” Alex smiled, resting his forehead against hers. “No matter what, just remember that I love you and we’re going to get through this together,” he whispered to the girl, placing his lips lightly on hers.

Abigail smiled into the kiss, breaking apart to respond. “I love you, too.”

“Not that I don’t approve of this whole relationship you guys have going on, but get a fucking room,” Rian teased the couple, pulling his keys out of the ignition, then his expression turning serious. “Are you ready?”

Biting her lip nervously, Abigail nodded. “As ready as I’ll ever be,” she said, sighing heavily and unbuckling her seatbelt.

As Rian got out the opposite door of Alex and Abigail, Alex slid out of the truck and laced his fingers between his girlfriend’s and slung the car door shut. “You’ve got this. There’s no way he can be innocent.”

Abigail didn’t respond, just as Rian had rounded the truck. “C’mon,” Rian said, gesturing his head towards the courthouse.

This was it, Abigail thought. Everything seemed so real now. She had numbed everything for so long; she never knew what it was like to really be afraid.

——-

Abigail was shaking and she knew everyone else could see it. By the looks on Rian and Alex’s face, from where they were sitting in the pews of the courtroom, they were just as nervous as she was.

“Abigail,” the girl’s father’s lawyer, who was questioning the teenager, said in a very intimidating voice. “You said in your statement that your father, John Speed, abused you emotionally and physically. Will you give us a few examples of situations in which this occurred?”

Clearing her throat and shifting uncomfortably in her seat, Abigail tried to pinpoint a certain story she could tell. Another thing about Abigail – she hated being asked questions. “Well,” she began awkwardly. “There were times when he would shove me down the stairs, hold my wrist so tight that he would cut off the circulation of blood, throw my head against the wall, punch me, slap me, anything of the sorts,” Abigail tried her best to sound as official as she could. “Then afterwards, he would tell me… these cruel things,” she said, biting her lip, staring at Alex and Rian for some sort of comfort. “He had often told me that he wished I was dead. Or that I was lucky he didn’t kill me right there. He would tell me I was fat, ugly, anything that he knew would literally kill my self-esteem.”

Abigail braced herself for the next few words that were about to leave her mouth. “The words he said and to the extent he used the pushed me way beyond my limit. His words and threats would get to me so bad, that I would start hurting myself…”

Breathing in deeply, fixing her gaze on Alex to make herself ready to reveal her secret to a room full of strangers “The things he told me made me want to and try to kill myself. It had pushed me to having an eating disorder. And… and… He knew about it, too. The night that my… friend Alex and Rian were at my house and Alex called the police… one of the things he said was, ‘Do the guys you fuck know you don’t eat, too?’”

The lawyer cut the fragile girl off, trying not to break his serious manner, despite how much pain he felt for the girl in front of him. “What did he mean by the ‘guys you…’ the guys you have sex with?” he queried.

“I… I was raped a few years back,” Abigail admitted, seeing a few eyes widen. The last thing she wanted to do was reveal her secrets to strangers, but she had to. She wanted to be as far away as possible from her father as she could. That meant telling a few secrets. “When I tried to tell my father, he told me that I was making up an excuse for being a whore.”

The lawyer nodded, “Continue with the rest of your side, please.”

“That night the police put him into custody, he saw the large, deep cut on my arm that I’m sure a lot of the officers saw when they were looking at my bruises. He started calling me a freak and saying that I didn’t have problems. I just wanted people to feel sorry for me,” Abigail’s breath began getting shaky as she did her absolute best to keep the tears in.

“Why did your father never seek professional help for you, Abigail?” the lawyer questioned, raising a thin eyebrow at the girl in the stand.

“My father never got me professional help for me, because he didn’t want to admit he was the reason why I am the way I am,” Abigail shrugged as if the answer was obvious.

The lawyer blinked a few times, speechless at Abigail’s blunt response. “Thank you, Mrs. Speed. You may leave the stand now,” the lawyer finally said before taking his own seat next to the brunette’s father.

Abigail’s lawyer – that Isobel had paid for, despite Abigail’s protest – stood up and called up John Speed to the stand.

As Abigail made her way to her seat, her father was making his way up to the stand. Avoiding all eye contact with the man who had broken her, Abigail looked over at Alex and Rian, who both shot her friendly smiles.

Abigail took her seat as her lawyer began questioning her father. “Mr. Speed, there are allegations that you have been physically and emotionally abusing your daughter, Abigail Speed. Is there any way you can defend yourself?” the lawyer, who had earlier said her name was Christina Richardson, asked John, cocking her hip to the side a bit.

“I don’t know why anyone would think that. I think that my daughter is clearly mentally ill, so she may have made up the scenarios she had earlier said in her head and convinced herself they really happened,” the man said matter-of-factly, without one inch of guilt in his tone. “She hasn’t really been… all there… since her mother’s death a few years ago.”

Abigail’s, Rian’s, and Alex’s mouth fell agape. Was this man really going to boldface lie to an entire courtroom, after he swore under oath?

Christina narrowed her eyes at the man in front of her. She knew he was bullshitting everything, but she needed something that would make it obvious to everyone else. “How do you explain the bruises found throughout your daughter’s body?”

John hesitated for a minute or two, as he was trying to search his mind for some sort of logical excuse for the bruises. “I do admit that I caused those. I only did that as a form of discipline, though. The girl needed something to teach her to behave herself.”

Christina smirked briefly – she was finally getting somewhere. “Do you admit to having gone too far with this ‘discipline’?” the woman asked, running a hand through her red hair.

The man looked at his daughter, than at the two familiar young men who were sitting in the pews, and then the lawyer. “I admit I went too far a few times. She deserved it, though. She needed to learn her place, so I taught her,” the man said carelessly.

“Do you also admit to telling your daughter things that you know good and well would ruin her? Then not taking her into some kind of treatment when you knew she was reaching mental instability?”

“Well, I, uh… I didn’t think she was really that unstable…” the man trailed off. “I did know she was sick in the head, though. She just wanted people feeling sorry for her!”

Shooting John the fakest smile she could, Christina turned her attention to the judge who was before her. “I rest my case, your honor.”

The judge hit his gavel on his large table, as Christina returned to her seat next to Abigail. “I call a recess for the courtroom while the jury goes to discuss the verdict,” the large judge spoke, as Abigail stood up to go see her friends.

——-

As the three friends were walking around the outside of the courthouse, Abigail seemed weary. “Do you think I did okay?” she finally asked her friends.

“Of course you did, baby,” Alex smiled, looking down at his girlfriend. “Your lawyer did a good ass job at defending you. Even your dad’s own lawyer couldn’t find any faults or misleads in your story!”

“Seriously, Abigail, you killed it in there!” Rian said, draping his arm around his new friend’s shoulders.

“Thanks, guys,” the girl smiled sheepishly. Abigail did appreciate the support from her friends, but she still couldn’t but feel a little paranoid about the whole situation.

“No problem,” Alex smiled down at the girl, intertwining their fingers together and giving her hand a squeeze. “Really, though, Abigail, don’t worry about this. You’re going to be fine.”

“Alex is right,” Rian agreed with his best friend, taking his arm off of Abigail. “There’s no way in Hell your dad could be innocent.”

Abigail didn’t respond. She knew this was a 50/50 thing. Her father could be found guilty, but there was also a chance he would be found innocent. A part of her knew it was unlikely but the other part feared the worst, just like she had learned to expect from her past.

The three friends had walked a bit of ways before they had decided to walk back towards the courthouse. When Alex realized how quiet Abigail was being, he nudged her side a bit. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Abigail mumbled, trying to divert her attention to something else. She knew Alex wasn’t going to except her answer, but she didn’t want to talk about how scared she was. If her father was innocent, she’d end up right back in that Hellhole and it’d be twice as bad.

“Abigail…” Alex began, almost forgetting that Rian was walking with them, who would occasionally glance at the pair every now and then.

“It’s nothing, Alex,” Abigail repeated herself, rolling her blue eyes slightly. She knew Alex did it because he cared, but she didn’t want to talk about it.

“Okay,” was all the eighteen year old said in response.

Abigail knew she’d hurt his feelings by being rude to him, but she had so much on her mind at that moment, she wasn’t sure how to apologize.

Before she could rack up an apology in her brain, Rian, Alex, and she had finally made their way back to the courthouse. Standing still on the steps, taking everything in again, Abigail let out a deep breath. “This is it.”

Alex stood next to his girlfriend, draping his skinny arm around her bony shoulders. “This is what it comes down to. Just remember what I said, Abigail. No matter what happens in this courthouse, I love you, okay?”

Biting her lip nervously, Abigail nodded. “I love you, too. So much,” she smiled weakly, looking over at Rian.

“For me, just remember that no matter what happens in the next few minutes, I’ll always be here for you. You’ve grown on me,” Rian chuckled, rubbing Abigail’s shoulder lightly. “Hell, even Jack likes you. You still need to meet Zack, though.”

Abigail couldn’t help but smile. She was finally able to make friends. Maybe things were beginning to get better.

“Come on,” Alex finally said, as the three teenagers all walked up the large staircase leading into the courthouse.

When they finally reached the courtroom that their trial was in, Alex lightly kissed Abigail’s forehead, whispered an “I love you”, and let go of her hand reluctantly. Rian, on the other hand, hugged the girl tight and whispered a “good luck” as she went to take her seat next to her lawyer.

The judge’s voice echoed through the room as he began stating the verdict. “The jury finds John Speed…”

The next few minutes all went by in a blur for Abigail. Everything suddenly seemed so surreal. She thought she was dreaming at first, but when she replayed the scene in her head over and over – it was all so real.

“The jury finds John Speed guilty for child abuse.”