Walt E. Disney High

Chapter 23

MEG

"I don't know. I mean, Simba is cute, but not my type," Vidia, one of my best friends was saying. I was sitting with her in the quiet cafe, with Elsa as the only other customer. I knew Phil was going to bust me for taking a break for a while, but I felt like I never got to talk to Vidia anymore. We were practically the same person; our favorite color is purple, we both have dark, slightly colored hair, we both love to wear black, and  both speak the same language: sarcasm.

I nodded absently, and took a sip of the coffee I had made her. It wasn't that good. My mind wasn't on coffee this morning. Only two nights ago, I had taken Hercules to the concert. He tried to kiss me. I ran away.

"Earth to Meg!" Vidia shouted, snapping in front of my eyes. "Jesus, you look like a zombie. What's wrong?"

I shook my head, blinking. "Sorry," I said, setting down her mug. "Um, nothing. I'm good."

Vidia suddenly turned serious. "Is it your dad again?" she asked quietly, leaning close to me. I grimaced. I hadn't thought of my adoptive father in weeks, which had been blissful. But I pulled out my phone to find out that he had called me 78 times in the last three weeks. I had his notifications on silent. He owned this big company called The Underworld, which sold everything online from houseplants to backpacks to sex toys -- anything you could imagine. He was always wanting me to do stupid favors for him to get him more customers, somewhat unfairly. I was tired of it.

"No, but thanks for bringing him up," I replied bitterly, stashing my phone back in my pocket.

"Wow, sorry. It's not like he wouldn't have come up sooner or later. So who shit in your cereal?" Vidia said sharply, crossing her legs away from me. I knew she wasn't really mad, though. We always acted like this with each other.

"Hercules Olympus," I revealed to her, rolling my eyes and not meeting hers.

"Ooh, do tell!" She uncrossed her legs.

I sighed, not really wanting to go over the situation in detail. "I took him to that Catfish Club concert --"

"The one you blew me off for, right," she interrupted, giving me a glare and nodding. I smiled a bit, punching her arm. She tried not to grin.

"Yes, that one. Yeah, it was fun, but then afterwards he tried to kiss me," I told her in a low voice, glancing over at Elsa, who was taking notes silently, her earbuds in.

Vidia gave me a blank stare. "So?" she asked eventually. "You've been on, like, three dates with him already, right? So that's fine!"

I shook my head. The coffee between us had grown cold. "I haven't kissed anyone since..."

Vidia knew what I was talking about. Staying as light as possible, she said, "Don't be silly, you kissed Merida when we were playing Spin the Bottle at game night."

I looked at her, annoyed. "You know that doesn't even count. It wasn't romantic, we both knew that. Hercules is different. He's an actual...option. Just like you-know-who was."

Vidia sighed again, placing a hand on my arm. "Meg, that was two years ago. Now you know I'm not telling you to get over it, I would never do that. What... what Adam did to you was horrible, and I know you're still scared. But maybe hiding away all your life, maybe that is going to make you even more scared? Maybe you should give Hercules a chance, he may surprise you. Get your mind off of it."

I sighed. "But what if he hurts me too?" I asked quietly, ashamedly. I was never weak like this. Especially over guys.

(TRIGGER WARNING!! RAPE AND ABUSE. please skip over if you need until you see this part end!)