29. Safe Haven
twenty-nine
safe haven
Sitting at the desk in my room, I worked on my homework with the flashlight.
Footsteps sounded in the hallway, and I scrambled to put my stuff away, but I was too slow.
He came up behind me, pushing me hard against the desk.
I could feel him hard against my back as my hip bones dug into the wood of the furniture.
“Thought I wouldn’t get you this time, didn’t you?
” He said, kissing my ear. I tried as hard as I could to pull away from him, but my step-dad was twice my size.
Eventually he shoved me down onto the bed.
The mattress sat on the floor, covered in only a grey blanket.
I tried to yell, but he covered my mouth with his, shoving his tongue in my throat.
Fighting beneath him, I was able to shove him away. My mom caught me by my arms in the hallway. “What the fuck are you doing?” She yelled up at me.
“He won’t stop touching me. He keeps coming in there at night, Mom. Make him stop!” I pushed her toward my room as my stepdad stumbled out into the hallway.
Turning back to me, my mom shoved me toward the bathroom. “Get in there and shut the fuck up. You’re talking nonsense.” She slammed the door and locked it.
There was whispered conversation in the hallway as I backed away from the door. My mom was consoling her new husband. Apologizing to him, saying that I was a nuisance and she had been trying to get rid of me for 16 years. No surprise there.
Sitting on the living room floor, my thoughts drifted to being at Dexter’s house. Hanging out with him and Aunt Sylvie. Going swimming and watching movies. It was always easier over there. I never worried about not eating dinner. There was plenty of food.
I snuck in late those nights too, or just slept over at Dex’s. He couldn’t mess with me if I wasn’t in my room.
Reaching up to open the door, I said a silent thank you when the knob turned easily.
She had unlocked it before going to sleep.
A duffle bag sat in the corner of my room.
I filled it with as much as I could. My clothes, school stuff, blanket, toothbrush, deodorant, and the essentials fit perfectly.
Closing the door, I walked down the hallway and out into the night toward Dexter’s house.
By the time I got to Dexter’s, it was really late. All of the lights in the house were off. Waking him or Aunt Sylvie up was the last thing I wanted to do. Walking around the side of the house, I curled up on one of the lounge chairs by the pool and fell asleep.
Aunt Sylvie woke me up the next morning by shaking my shoulder. “Wyatt, wake up.” She stood over me, wrapped in a robe, holding a cigarette. “What the hell are you doing, kid? Why aren’t you inside?” She slid the door open and called inside, “Dexter!”
“Sorry, I just didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
Dexter slid the door open and looked at me, confused. “Bunny? What are you doing here?” He stepped outside, and I tried to hold back tears, but they started falling, and he sat down next to me. Aunt Sylvie pulled a chair up to sit across from us.
Through my sobs, I told them about how my step-dad had been coming into my room at night since he moved in.
All the things he had been doing to me and that my mom just wouldn’t hear me when I told her.
That she was locking me in the bathroom.
Aunt Sylvie either didn’t believe me or didn’t want to.
Dexter knew everything that happened with my dad.
As soon as I mentioned the bathroom, he put his hand on my thigh.
They both offered comforting touches. Aunt Sylvie passed me a cigarette at one point, which I graciously accepted.
When I couldn’t talk about it all anymore, she stood. “I’m going to go make me some coffee.” She patted my back as she walked inside. “Stay here as long as you need to, Wyatt.”
Dexter squeezed me into his side a little tighter. Reaching over, he pinched the cigarette from my fingers and took a long drag.