“Oh, God. I’m sorry. I just had an awful nightmare,” she murmured. “Greg.” She began to cry again, and Nick immediately moved onto the bed to comfort her. “Nick, I hate guys,” she sobbed.
“I can’t believe someone would be that cruel to a human being,” Nick said, more to himself than to her.
“Dad was worse, Nick. He was much worse,” Lauren choked. “I don’t know why Mom put up with him. Always drinking, screaming…never mind. You don’t want to hear about my problems.”
“If you want to talk, go ahead. I’m a good listener,” Nick encouraged.
“Are you sure?” He nodded, and she took a deep breath. “My dad was an alcoholic. He wasn’t when Mom married him, of course, but he started right after I was born. He would drink maybe…two nights a week, at first, and he wasn’t physically violent. He would yell, but it was just big talk, you know? It got a little worse, and Mom had Jess, thinking that maybe he’d straighten up if there were a new baby in the house. A kid solves every relationship problem, right? Well, it obviously just got worse.” A tear began rolling down her cheek, but Nick brushed it away and motioned for her to continue. “When I was four or so, it got physical. Mom was the classic battered wife. She just hid it and pretended everything was normal. He hit me three times, and he hit Jess twice, and he was always putting us down, calling us worthless, swearing at us. It was unbearable. When I was five, he met some woman at a bar, and he just packed his bags and left. That was that. Of course, we were always afraid he’d come back. He never did. A year later, we got a message from the police saying he’d been killed in a drunk driving accident. It was his fault, of course, but no one in the other car was hurt. I remember thinking, ‘This is it. It’s all over.’” She tried to keep talking, but her body was shaking too much, a mix of fear, anger, and sadness, and she could not find her voice.
Nick wrapped one arm comfortingly around her shoulder and, with his free hand, reached for hers. “I’m so sorry, Lauren. I had no idea,” he murmured, shock-stricken.
Finally, she calmed down enough to continue. “My mom’s uncle died shortly after that, and we inherited a lot of money. Mom had gotten a college education, but of course, Dad never allowed her to work. She got a good job, and since then, we’ve been doing really well, financially. We inherited our beach house from her uncle, and we come down here every summer. Right now, Mom’s in Europe. She’ll be back at the end of this month.”
Even though she had told him everything about her father, Nick was still wondering about Justin. As though she could read his mind, she dove into that story. “Then there was Justin. When I was a senior in high school, I decided that maybe men weren’t all bad when Justin asked me out. He was the quarterback of the football team, very cute, every girl’s dream. He chose me over all the perky blonde cheerleaders with long legs and big boobs. That said it all right there. I said yes. Justin was great…for a while. He always asked about my day, remembered my birthday and all our cute little anniversary things, like one month since our first date, a week since our first kiss, that stuff. He struck me as a really sweet guy. After about two months, though, it just went downhill.” Nick looked at her, wanting some detail.
“Well, at first, it was just little things, like how I could stand to lose a few pounds. Then things got worse, and it was, ‘No, you can’t wear that. You look like a slut!’ Eventually, he turned into my dad, and called me worthless, trashy, and countless dirty names. He never physically hurt me, but the emotional stuff was so much worse. I don’t know why I stayed with him for as long as I did. I guess it was because I thought all relationships were supposed to be like that. Finally, Jess noticed, and she made me break up with him. Afterwards, he called for weeks, begging to have me back. Luckily, Jess had made me realize he didn’t deserve me. After about two months, he gave up, when he figured out he could have those perky blonde cheerleaders with long legs and big boobs.”
Her cheeks remained dry through talking about Justin, but Nick still held her in his arms. “I don’t know what to say,” he whispered.
“You don’t have to say anything,” Lauren replied. “Just listening helps-” She stopped, realizing she was complimenting him, but continued anyway. “Just listening helps a lot… Maybe you’re different.”
“I hope so. I would never, ever hurt a girl intentionally. I try not to hurt anyone intentionally,” Nick said.
Lauren closed her eyes, still leaning against his shoulder. Before either one knew it, she was asleep. Carefully, Nick laid her down on the bed and covered her up before resuming his post in the chair. After that episode, he wasn’t about to leave her side. He had gone into this friendship only because of nosiness, not caring about her, but now that he knew, he was actually concerned. In truth, Lauren was a really sweet person who was just hard to get close to, and he didn’t blame her after what she’d been through.