Chapter 8 - My Story

I get down on the floor next to Bruno and lean against the front of the chair. He sits there just waiting for me to start my story.
         “My real name is Raina Hussar, my mom’s real name is Jane Hussar. My dad isn’t in the picture anymore.. not since we left New Jersey. I’m from New Jersey, I was born in New Hampshire but my mom and dad moved us over to New Jersey. My dad’s name is Bobby Henson.”  It hurts to even speak his name. “He was lawyer, my mom was a doctor. She still is, it’s just she works when she isn’t with you. Which has gotten harder since you never leave her alone.”
Bruno looks at me and I look away, “You really hate the fact I’m dating her.. and not you.” I nod my head and stare at my hands.
         “It doesn’t matter..” I look at him strongly. “Do you want me to stop telling you the story?” I ask him.
         “No!”
         “Anyways.. We were a normal family.. for the part that I knew of. When I was older mom called me in to talk to her and she told me she was going to divorce my dad at the time. I was all up for it, I mean I was still pretty young so I didn’t really understand to much. By the end of the conversation my mom was ready to call a lawyer, but thing was my dad had been listening in on the whole conversation. He came in when we were finished and he hit her...” I put my hand on my cheek. “When she looked back at him she ran from him and held onto me and ran out of the room. She accidentally fell and I landed on my arm funny and I started crying. I hear her yelling for me to hide, and I tried to get up and eventually I did as I saw my mom being pulled up from the floor by my dad. I ran away to the stairs where there was this wall and I hid there. I heard my dad yelling at her. I had never heard such awful yelling.”

“I heard another slap. I didn’t know where it was this time. I sat there listening to her being hit, them yelling, and by the end I heard her sobbing. Finally he came out and he called for me. When I didn’t answer he kept asking for me to come out and instead he found me on the stairs crying. He told me, ‘Your mom is fine. We are fine. But your arm! What happened my little princess?’ That’s what he used to call me. His little Princess.” I feel a tear running down my cheek. “We went to the doctor and I had pulled something. Later on in the years when my mom would be alone with me while she took me to school she would tell me these plans of escaping.. she would actually use that word, escape. Finally.. just this past January we were at our house and my dad wasn’t home and we had everything packed and ready to go. We were just about to leave when my dad came in.. he was wasted. Like I had never seen him like this before.” My hands start shaking and Bruno takes hold of them both.

“My mom and I got close to each other and he started asking questions. My mom finally couldn’t hold it in, ‘I hate you.. she hates you. We are leaving.. move.’. I remember those words so clearly. He was drunk and he walked towards us slowly and grabbed both of our hands.. so I hit him and he let go. We ran around him and towards the door when a huge bang.. it was so loud, we screamed and looked back. My dad he had a gun.. I don’t even remember having a gun in the house. He walked to me and pointed it at chest. ‘You’re leaving? Let’s go for a trip then..’ he said and my mom nodded her head and he took a hold of my hair..” I begin crying and I bury my face in his shirt and sob.

         “You don’t have to go on..” He said to me as he stroked my hair.

I shook my head and looked back at him. “He pushed me into the seat next to him and my mom sat in the back. He was obviously the driver and he started the car and he was drunk so he couldn’t drive. But he was! And there were cars everywhere! They were.. h-honking and the lights.. they were s-so b-bright.” I remember them.. only them they were coming at us so fast...”And then.. he just passes out.. right while he was driving! We were swerving around and my mom tried to get a hold of the wheel, when the next thing I saw was a huge car of teenagers coming at us, and we crashed. I just remember the police sirens, and then the hospital lights. When I finally woke up in June... JUNE! I had gone into a comma.. When I woke up I remember my mom crying and hugging me, calling the doctors in. They took all these tests and I had to stay in for another month and half...”
         “Your dad?” asks Bruno.
         “My dad was put in jail, and my mom went to tell him about me, and he said he would come after us. So my mom had to change our scene. Names, appearances.. that’s why I had black hair. This is more like my natural color.” He smiles at my hair. “The man.. Dunkins.. he recognized me because he was one of my dad’s employees. We didn’t expect anyone to come down here! I mean.. this city is pretty small.”
         “You kept all of that a secret?” I nod my head.
         “What? Did you expect to me to go up during assembly and exclaim it to the world?” I slap him on the side of his and he chuckles. I wipe some of the tears away from my eyes and kiss him.
         “You know you can’t say anything. If my mom finds out about any of this I’m screwed.” Bruno nods his head puts his pinkie finger up to my face, and I take hold of it with mine and we kiss.
         “I’m sorry.. again. I didn’t know that was the whole thing. I thought it was just something small.. or yeah.” I chuckle at him. “So you don’t remember anything during those months?”
         “No but my mom told me nothing eventful aside from the divorce was going on. So I guess I didn’t miss much then.” Bruno stands up and pulls me up with him. He takes me over to the elevator and when the doors close he opens up that little square that apparently stops the elevator from moving and he pushes me up against the elevator wall and kisses me. I kiss him back and his hands are hard against my waist and my hands are on his pecks as he kisses me down my neck and then...