I noticed Chloe staring at me and I raised my eyebrows at her. What’s going on?
“I need to double check the list of meal requests for our VIP guests that are arriving later this week.”
I gave her a curious look. “Oh, okay, follow me.”
We went into my office so that I could get that information for her and as I opened my file cabinet to get the folders, she put her hand on my arm to stop me before I pulled them out.
"I didn't really want to go over anything else Laney, you seem a little bit frazzled so I just wanted to make sure that you're okay. Is something going on? Do you have a hot date tonight that you’re worried about?” There was a bit of teasing behind her words, but I could see that she was concerned.
I gave her a little smirk. "Hardly."
Guys were actually the last thing on my mind these days and I hadn't dated someone in almost a year. My focus was on my career. I was sure that the right relationship would come along later on so, for the time being, I was all about work.
Chloe knew me better than anyone else and I wasn't surprised that she was able to pick up on the fact that I’d had a rough start to my day. I looked at her and took a deep breath.
“I had the dream again.”
I could see the worry in her eyes as she gently squeezed my hand.
“Oh Laney, I’m sorry you had to deal with that again. But don’t let it get to you because he’s locked away for a long time.” She put her arm around me and gave me a hug. “He can’t hurt you again.” Chloe was the only person, besides my parents, who knew what had happened to me.
Chapter Two – Flashback
When I was a junior in high school, I met Brian who was also a junior and I thought he was really cute and sweet so my crush on him was instant. I saw him in the halls all the time and we had a few classes together but we didn’t actually get to know each other until the last week of school our junior year. I fell in love with him almost immediately and I wanted to be with him every waking hour of every day. We were inseparable the summer before our senior year and I started imagining how he would propose to me, what kind of house we would live in and what our kids would look like. I was head over heels in love and I had never felt happier. My parents thought it was puppy love and they didn’t have a problem with him because he was always so polite whenever he came over to our house.
Brian treated me like a queen for the first three months of our relationship and then something in him changed our senior year. He became much more possessive of me and he would get really jealous whenever another guy looked at me. Guys looked at me all the time because I had big boobs and I had a pretty face. I found myself having to constantly reassure him that nothing was going on with any other guy and that he was the only guy that I wanted to be with. That would placate him for a while but then something would happen to set him off again.
I remember the first time he hit me we were in his car and I was so shocked that I didn’t know what to say. He accused me of flirting with my lab partner Matt earlier that day in school. I told him that we were just talking about our project that was due the next week and nothing was going on with him, but Brian didn’t want to hear it. His eyes glazed over and I remember seeing a vein pop out on his forehead as his face turned beet red before he slapped me across the face.
“Don’t lie to me, Elena!”
My hands flew up to my face as he raised his hand to me again and hit me on the side of my head. I couldn’t believe what had just happened and I immediately started crying uncontrollably. The guy that I loved who I thought loved me back had just hit me. I knew that this was wrong and that I should end things with him immediately, but he started crying and apologizing for hitting me. He told me that it would never happen again as he kissed me gently all over my face. I could see the remorse and his eyes so, like a fool, I forgave him and I never told anyone what happened. I told myself that if it ever happened again I was going to break up with him. I put make up on my face to cover the bruises, pulled my hair over my eyes and wore big sunglasses for a week until the swelling went down. My parents thought that I was going through a phase where I thought I was the coolest thing around and that’s why I was wearing my sunglasses all the time. My mom made a little teasing comment about it asking me if I thought I was the next big superstar, but she never dug deeper because I was able to hide the bruising so well.
Brian was really nice to me for the next couple of weeks, bringing me a rose every day and he kept promising me that nothing like that would ever happen again, and I believed him. Three weeks after the first incident he hit me again when a waiter at a restaurant flirted with me. Brian accused me of flirting with him and when we were in his car he slapped me as soon as he closed the door. Again, he immediately apologized and told me that he loved me and he wanted to kill himself for hurting me. He begged me not to leave him and promised that he would never do it again. He said he really meant it this time. I decided to forgive him again because I loved him and I couldn’t see that I was stuck in a cycle of abuse.
For the next couple of months, things were going perfectly with us, he had mellowed and stopped the possessive behavior (the fact that I tried to avoid guys when he was around helped, I’m sure), I bought a gorgeous dress for prom and we were the golden couple at school. A month before prom he saw me laughing in the hall with a couple of guys as I was getting ready to leave and he went ballistic. He held it together in front of everyone but I could tell that he was pissed when he came over to me and told me that he needed to talk with me in private. We walked outside and I could feel a huge pit in my stomach as I braced myself for what he was going to say.
He pushed me into his car and peeled away so fast that the squealing tires caused a lot of heads to turn. We pulled into the last row of the crowded mall parking lot where no one would see us, and he turned furious eyes toward me and just started screaming at me.
“I bet you liked having those guys fawn all over you, didn’t you? You looked like a slut begging to be f**ked, and you wanted that didn’t you, Elena? Did you sleep with them? Did you? Answer me!”
I was terrified to say anything when he was like this, but I knew that I had to say something to make him calm down. I reached out and gently touched his cheek, trying to calm his concerns.