I'm Fine

Chapter 3

LeRoy raises his hand, ready to hit me again, only to be interrupted by the doorbell. He sighs and walks out of my room. I sit down on my bed, letting out a sigh of relief. I hear talking in the living room, recognizing the voice. Owen is talking to LeRoy. The talking stops, but I hear a door shut and walking in the hall. Owen walks to my door and leans against the door frame.
"Do you want to come over to my house for dinner? My mom said you could," He looks around the room, as if he is making sure everything is in place. I nod and stand up. All of a sudden Owen grabs my arms. He studies them. I forgot about the blood... The reason LeRoy was going to hit me, even though they were because of him... Owen looks up at me with sad eyes, lets go of my arms, and walks out of my room. I let a couple tears roll down my cheeks, and I sit back down. About a minute later, he comes back with paper towels, gauze, and self-adhering wrap. He cleans up my arms and wraps them up while neither one of us says anything. Once they are wrapped, he hands me a hoodie from my coat rack. I put it on and we walk out of my room. He takes the wrap and rest of the gauze back to the medicine cabinet.
I follow him outside and out to the car. I instantly relax when I sit down in the car. Owen still hasn't said a word to me; he just drives. I stare out of the window, just watching my surroundings. Tears threaten to spill, but I try not to let them.
"Why'd you do it?" Owen's voice cracks.
"I was getting tired of dealing with LeRoy. I thought maybe it would help," I don't even turn to look at him. I look down at my arms, they are still covered. We pull into his driveway and he turns toward me.
"Carter, hurting yourself isn't going to help at all. Nothing is. I know that he has done some terrible things to you, but hurting yourself is just letting him win. You're letting him get to your head," he reaches over and puts his hand on my shoulder. I nod and wipe away the tears that I let fall. We get out of the car and head toward the house. Before I walk in, I make sure I don't have any tears on my face. We walk in and the smell of food hits me.
"I'm in the kitchen dears. Make yourselves comfortable, it'll be a little bit," she says from the other room.
"Mom, Carter and I are going to go upstairs and play videogames," Owen states as he makes his way to the stairs.
"Okay dear, I'll call you down when dinner is ready." I walk up the stairs following Owen to his room. He lays down on his bed, and I sit down in the chair across the room. I still haven't said a word since the car. He sits up and looks at me.
"Carter, come here," I look up at him, not moving, but he gives me the look that says 'now'. I get up and walk over to him. He pats the bed, motioning for me to sit down, which I do.
"You need to talk to someone about everything that is going on. You can't just let it keep happening," he looks at me waiting for me to say something.
"Who am I supposed to talk to?" I whisper, not looking at him. He reaches over into his bedside stand and pulls out a piece of paper. The note that LeRoy wrote.
"I thought you threw that away," I say as I take it from him.
"No, because I'm tired of watching you get hurt by him. I want him gone. I don't want him in your life anymore. He needs to pay for what he's done to you," he takes the note back, not sure what I'm going to do with it.
"No one is going to believe me. I'm just a teenager and I know nothing. That is what every adult thinks, I guarantee. The police would probably think that I wrote this note myself just to get away from him," I shake my head, "no one is going to believe me."
"So get him to say what he's done to you and record it or something. There's got to be a way to get him out of your life," he folds the note up and places it back in the drawer. I shake my head.
"I honestly don't think there is any way to get him out of my life. I'm not eighteen, so I can't just leave," I lay back on the bed. Thinking about being stuck with him for ten more months scares me. I think about all of the bad things that could happen in the span of ten months and hot tears sting my eyes. I cover my face with my hands and let out a small sob. I feel the bed move and I feel two arms wrap around me. Owen pulls me into him, my head on his chest, and he just sits there, letting my tears stain his shirt.
I lay there and let him hold me until I start thinking about how Selena would feel about this. I try to move, but he doesn't let me.
"Owen, Selena wouldn't like this and you know that," I put my hand on his chest to try to push away from him.
"We don't have to worry about Selena anymore; I broke up with her today. She said some not so nice things and I was tired of her talking crap when she doesn't even know the situations. I told her I was done and made her get out of my car," he loosens his arms and I pull back and look at him with sad eyes.
"It's because of me, isn't it?" I get up off of the bed and walk to the other side of the room. "You left her because she said something about me. It's all because of me.." I start tearing up again. "I'm not good for anything in anyone's life anymore. All I do is ruin them.." Owen gets out of his bed and walks over to me, turning me toward him.
"Hey, you didn't ruin anyone's life. She said what she did, and I wasn't going to listen to it because you're my best friend, and I'm not going to let someone talk about you like that. I don't even know why I stayed with her. She said so many mean things about people and I don't know why I let her." He pulls me into him again. I let him hold me as long as possible. He will never know how much he has helped me through everything that I've went through. His touch has always comforted me, and that's how I figured out that I loved him. Everytime he would hug me, I would get butterflies. For now though, I need to push those feelings away. I need to concentrate on getting away from LeRoy.
"I guess now would be a good time to tell you that Selena hit me after school wouldn't it?" I look up at him. He looks down.
"Are you serious?" He asks, sounding a little mad. I nod. He shakes his head, rolls his eyes and hugs me close again.
"Guys! Supper is done!" Mrs. Moore yells from downstairs. Owen pulls away from me.
"Are you okay?" he asks and I nod my head. He nods as well and we head downstairs. We sit at the table where the food is already placed.
"Thank you for inviting me over," I say with a smile. 'It's nice to get away from that place once in awhile.' I think to myself. Or so I thought.
"What do you mean sweetie? Has something been going on at home?" she looks confused and I look at Owen, terrified. I didn't mean for that to slip. Owen looks at me and gives me the eyes that say, 'You know you can trust her. It'll be okay.' I swallow, nervous to tell her.
"Um.." I look down and poke my food with my fork, "ever since my mo...om died, my step-dad has been abusing me," my voice cracks in the middle when I talk about my mom. "LeRoy has blamed me for the accident all these years." I look up to see Mrs. Moore with her hand over her mouth. Mr. Moore had just walked into the room and looks at me with a shocked face. My secret is finally out. Mrs. Moore stands up and walks around the table toward me. I stand up as well, knowing she is going to hug me.
"We are going to get you out of that house. Do you have any proof? Anything we could take to the cops?" she says while hugging me.
"I have a note that he wrote, threatening her. That's really all we have though. Will that be enough?" Owen stands up, ready to go get the note.
"I don't know, but we can try. Go get it and bring it here," she says and Owen runs upstairs. I sit back down and put my head in my hands. Owen comes back down within two minutes and hands the note to his mom and dad. They read it, the terror clear on their faces.
"We have to take this to the police. Now, before he tries anything else," Mrs. Moore says as she folds the note and grabs her jacket. I look over at Owen and he just nods toward his mom. I follow them, wondering how this is going to work.

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We get to the police station, and I hesitate to get out of the car. Mr. Moore opens my door and Owen helps me out. Mr. and Mrs. Moore walk in front of us. When we reach the inside the receptionist asks what she can do for us.
"We need to speak with Aaron Smith. He is still here, correct?" Mr. Moore asks.
"Andrew, is everything alright?" Officer Smith walk out of one of the rooms.
"No, Aaron. We need some help," Mrs. Moore hands him the note.
Officer Smith looks over at me. "Are you Carter?" I nod. He furrows his brows, "Okay, so the first step we have to take is getting your statement. I want to help you, but I need to know everything that has ever happened. Can you do that for me?" I nod, "Okay, I'll be right back. I need to get a pen and some paper," he walks back into his office and I turn around and hug Owen, letting all of the tears of relief spill as thunder rumbles outside. It's all going to be over after this. I'm finally going to be free.

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