Chapter 8

“Order 114! Katherine?!” the cashier read out.

“That’s us” I said to Paige, and we got up and walked up to get our pizza. We colin silence.

It was all coming back. I could not shake it off. My hands started shaking, I could not control it. My hands always shake when I am nervous, or scared, but it gets worse when these images start flashing before me, like they were now. I held on tighter to the pizza I had in one hand. But, my free hand just kept shaking

Just then, Paige reached over and took my free hand in hers and gave it a reassuring squeeze. I looked up and glanced at her, she just smiled at me and held on to my hand.

Normally, I would be very uncomfortable with the contact, but surprisingly enough I wasn’t. In fact, it felt good. It felt reassuring. It felt right. I could not explain it but it just felt right.

We walked hand in hand in silence till we got to the house. At the front door, I eased my hand out of hers, and rang the doorbell.

About five seconds later, the door opened and Kaden sighed “Finally, I thought you guys will never get here. Geez, I am starving.” He said and grabbed the pizza box from my hand and walked into the living room.

We followed him, and Paige put down her box on the table. Almost immediately, everyone started to dig in. I grabbed some bottles of soda from the fridge and handed everyone a bottle. Paige again brushed her fingers against the back of my palm when I handed her a bottle, and Asher held my gaze a little longer than normal when I handed him his.

Soon, both boxes of pizza was polished off. Kaden helped me clear the table, and soon everyone just settled down to watch a little TV. We all decided to watch the movie “Six Underground”. Well, after a lot of debate.

Somehow, I found myself seated between Asher and Paige, and soon I felt Paige’s hand slip into mine. Normally, I would have withdrawn my hand, but I didn’t. The movie dragged on.

We all sat in the living room, our attentions on the screen. Midway through the movie, Paige put her head on my shoulder, and I just let her. It felt good, it really did.

We all watched the movie till the credits started rolling. Then, Kaden yawned and stood up to stretch and announced that he was going to bed.

Asher followed after saying goodnight and winking at me, which made me laugh. Ian followed closely behind Asher, then Katy dragged Haley who already seemed to be nodding off upstairs.

Then, it was just me, and of course Paige. We just sat holding hands with her head on my shoulder for a while.

I keep telling myself that I should be my hands should be shaking by now from the contact, and that I should have pulled away. But, strangely enough I did not want to. I absolutely did not want to. “I like this. I really do” I thought to myself.

We sat there for another twenty something minutes before out of the blue, I blurted out, “I was abused by my friend’s older brother.”

I don’t know why I told her the truth, I have never told anyone, not my parents, not Katlyn, and not even Kaden whom I communicated a lot better with than every other person. I don’t know why, but I just felt like this was a safe space. I felt like she was someone I could confide in, someone I could trust.

“Oh God no!” she exclaimed. She raised her head and let go of my hand to pull me into an embrace, a really comforting embrace. I couldn’t believe that I willingly let someone who isn’t family embrace me or that I actually liked it. In fact, I even relaxed and savored the feeling.

“Hey, I’m sorry you had to go through that. So sorry” she said in the most soothing tone I had ever heard, patting my back and smoothing my hair down my back. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s all going to be fine. I’m here for you” she said when she noticed that I was close to tears.

“I am not crying, I never cry.” I said. “It was back in high school, he had been making crude comments about how much I had grown, and he would always give me these weird looks. I ignored it all at first, but it got too much and I had to tell my friend Lisa. But, she didn’t believe me, she said I was lying, she thought I was trying to hook up with her brother because he was a college senior. She called me a liar and even stopped talking to me.” I paused to clear my throat, because I was all choked up with pent-up emotions.

“After a while, we put everything behind us. Well, I did, I never mentioned anything about her brother again, although he never stopped making the overly sexual comments and even touching me inappropriately. Then one month, Lisa invited me for a sleepover. Sleepovers have always been our thing, we used to have sleepovers all the time, and whenever we had a sleepover, he was never there. But, this time, he was there.” I said. Paige just kept holding me and rubbing my back comfortingly.

“We played games, made hot chocolate with marshmallows, ate pizza, braided each other’s hair, and finally it was time for bed. Lisa fell asleep first, and I just laid on the bed watching Tiktok videos on my phone. Just then, I heard the doorbell ring.”