All American Boy Next Door ✔️

29. Isolated

Noah’s POV

THREE
YEARS
AGO

I began to wake up with a pounding headache. I mumbled incoherently to myself. My eyes opened and I was met with huge blinding lights. I started panicking when a thick feeling was in my throat. After squinting my eyes, I saw it was a feeding tube. I began to thrash around violently and tried screaming. This caught the attention of my parents and the doctors.

I was sedated and the tube was removed, a huge weight being lifted off me. I coughed and was handed a cup of water. I drank it quickly, feeling the dryness leave me. I sat up but my arm felt off. I looked and saw I was wearing a cast. Not only that, but my right leg was in a cast too.

“Sweetie. Are you okay? Oh God. Petey! What happened my dear?!” My mom sobbed next to me. I wanted to hug her but my arm restricted any movement. 

“What… happened?” I asked as my throat still hurt from the tube.

“You were in an accident, son. You were out for a week.” My dad responded, trying hard not to cry in front of me. 

A week. So that’s how long I was out. My heart race picked up when I remembered Chase. I hope he doesn’t try to come back for me and expose me. The heart rate monitor began to become rapid.

“Calm down, Noah. Take deep breaths.” The doctor said. I listened to him and began breathing slowly. He can’t hurt me anymore.

I spent another week in the hospital. It was during this time when my former best friend, Carter, moved away. Losing Carter was honestly the nail in the coffin for me. I had lost my happiness, my ability to trust, my best friend, and the desire to live. There was no way I could tell my family the truth about the crash. 

How can I tell them that their son was manipulated by a rich guy to give him blowjobs and forced him to do so?

The stigma I would receive scared me. And it was worse when I went to quit my job at the motel.

Upon quitting, the old woman who co-owned the place informed me of a letter that was left for me. I grabbed it and read it. And at once, paranoia seeped in me.

The letter, to this day, is something that haunts me. In it, Chase explains that he actually enjoyed our time together. But his growth for lust became bigger when he saw just how easily he could make me do those things. In the letter, his rampage of words went on. He continued to call me worthless and a nobody. Even in his absence, he still finds ways to bring me down.

The final part of the letter is what scared me the most. He warned me that if I should ever choose to try to tell the public about what happened between us, he would use his family’s power and influence to bring my family down. He even signed his name at the bottom. Bastard signed it! He taunted me with that signature. Sure I have evidence, but it’s worthless if in the end it’ll cause more harm than good.

For a few weeks, I was horrible. I refused to go out. I refused to eat. I refused to smile. Chase’s words hurt me. And were engraved in my memory. I went to see a therapist and was diagnosed with depression. I’m sure it was worse because I sugar coated my answers. 

Carter constantly texted and called me to make sure I was okay. But slowly, he began to drift away. He settled into his own new life, and I in mine. What we once shared was now split in half. 

What’s the point of trying to hang out with people if they’ll eventually leave me and hurt me? So I did what any other person in my place would do, secluded myself. I stopped talking to people. First it was my acquaintances. And then my family. It was horrible. 

The times my mom would plead to me and tell her what was wrong when all I could do was shrug. The tears and back and forths we had. I never wanted to leave my family. I loved them and were the reason I even continued living. But when someone like Chase takes advantage of you and then threatens you, you can only worry.

Between the pills, the anxiety, the therapy, and loneliness, I pondered my reasoning to be here. The idea of death was never thought of by me before. Now, I wish death to finally find peace and sleep in eternity.

School started up and I walked down the halls in my cast. Many asked what happened and were “concerned” about my well-being. I simply ignored them, because I knew that they probably only cared to make themselves feel better.

Many of my old acquaintances noticed my shift in personality. Gone was the semi-funny semi-outgoing kid. Replacing it was a much cold and dark persona. People began to go away from me. Was it for fear of me or fear for themselves? Either way, in the span of two weeks, I was alone again.

I sat at tables and worked in groups by myself. No one wished to be with me, and I wished to be with no one.

But it got worse when Mack found my cast. And then he spread that rumor around. I was more of a social outcast. People actually believed I tried to kill myself. I didn’t. I swear on my life I didn’t. 

I didn’t feel welcomed at school. It was like I was intruding into the happy atmosphere. So I split away. I ate alone and sat at the back of the class. This of course made me the target of attacks. They were minor but its intentions were there: to make sure I was made less. 

When the football team began to get involved, it was worse. With the work of Mack, I was attacked for my shyness and my sexaulity, which they didn’t even know what I was.

I was advised by my therapist to get some fresh air. A place I never entered was the forest. Ever since I was little, the forest scared me. I feared the monsters that might inhabit them. But now I know that the monsters didn’t live in the forest. In fact, they lived near me in the form of people.

Walking into the forest, I wasn’t scared. Death no longer scared me because we were friends. I walked deeper into the woods. For once, nature made me happy. Its smell opened my lungs. I was cleansed of my sins. 

I stumbled upon a tree in the woods. This tree was thicker. I sat on one of the low-hanging branches and took a break. I bent down and touched the moss on some rocks, feeling the spongy grass under my fingers. I felt dew drops on my fingers.

Looking up at the tree, an idea came into my head. My mind quickly went to piece everything together. It all came together. This wood, this tree, this spot. 

I could have a treehouse. 

My dad agreed to work on the treehouse with a few of his friends. Once complete, it became my new home. 

I found comfort in the treehouse because I got to be away from judgemental eyes. This was my sanctuary where no one could judge me. I never allow anyone here. Everyone was too untrustworthy now. 

I did feel bad for not letting Carla have a chance to enter. But like I said, trust. She was a child but no exceptions.

Since then, it’s been like that for three years. Alone. All alone. No one to be with. My depression over time was stagnant. Chase’s words still remain. And my connection with my family had too slowly been rekindling.

I wish I could go back and never meet Chase.

------

i just want to say thank you to anyone who is still sticking around and reading! thank you so so so so so so so so much! i had no idea my story could be that interesting!

bye! i love you all!