Well, at least my ribs weren’t broken. Just bruised. The doctor was really nice. Even though he obviously didn’t believe my falling story, he never questioned me. After I was all bandaged up, I walked out to the waiting room, where Nick was waiting for me. As we made our way back to his car, he turned to me:
“Do you need me to take you home?” I thought about this: I had nowhere to go besides the hotel and that was the last place that I wanted to go, knowing that Rob was probably there. A tear slipped down my cheek:
“I don’t have anywhere to go.” Nick looked at me, sympathetically:
“If you feel comfortable, you can stay with me. I’m a nice, normal guy. By the way, why don’t you want to go home?” I stared out the window of the car:
“Because I don’t live here. I’m on vacation with some….” My voice trailed off. I swallowed hard:
“Some friends.”
“Well, do you want me to take you back to your hotel? Where are you staying?” I started crying again:
“I can’t go there. Oh god! What the hell am I going to do? I just want to go home!” I sobbed the rest of the way to Nick’s house. He had no idea what to say, so he didn’t try to calm me down.
When we reached his house, he gave me a pair of shorts and a tee shirt to wear and then he made me some soup and we sat at his kitchen table in total silence. Finally, Nick broke it:
“So do you want to call your friends?” I shook my head quickly:
“No. They’re probably all asleep now.”
“Look Katelin. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. But I want to help you and the only way I can do that is if I know the whole story.” Tears started to form in my eyes again:
“You can’t help me. No one can.” Nick looked me, his eyes filled with concern:
“I can help you. I want to help you. You just have to let me. Please tell me who did this to you.” I sighed, closing my eyes:
“My boyfriend…” I began. Then, for some reason, I began defending Rob, telling Nick about how much he loves me and how sorry he was. Nick shook his head:
“There’s no excuse for him, Katelin.” My eyes got wide:
“Just shut up! You don’t even know him. You don’t even know me. You have no idea about my life.” And with that, I jumped up, ran into the other room, and threw myself on the couch. Nick sat at the kitchen table for a few minutes, dumbfounded, and then followed me into the living room.
I was sobbing face first into the pillow when I felt Nick sit down next to me and lightly touch my shoulder.
‘Why is he doing all of this? He doesn’t even know me. Why am I letting him help me? He’s just some strange guy.’
I know it seems really retarded that I was in this stranger’s house and I was about to tell him my deepest secrets when I had only known him for a few hours. But, for some odd reason, I felt as if I could totally trust him.
My sobs finally let up as Nick lightly rubbed my back. I lifted my head up and giggled a little bit:
“Oh, look what I did to your pillow.” Nick carefully helped me to sit up:
“Don’t worry about it.” He brushed some of my hair out of my eyes:
“Katelin, please let me help you. Just tell me everything.” I bit my lip and then began my story. I told Nick everything. From when I met Rob all the way up to the moment that Nick approached me on the beach.
The tears fell throughout my entire story. By the time I was finished, Nick’s face was as pale as a sheet. That only made me cry harder. I don’t think he knew what to do or say. I don’t blame him. It’s not everyday that you wind up in the situation that he did. But, he did the right thing: Nick wordlessly held his arms out to me and I collapsed into them. He just held me while I cried myself to sleep.