I'll be the Brightest, You'll See

"Kiera, if you screw my hair up I'll kill you." I warned her, looking at her through the mirror.

"I've been doing my friends hair for the past 2 years, I know what I'm doing." She tried to reassure me.

I watched her apply the bleach to my hair, it smelled horrible. "You look funny." Oli giggled from the kitchen table, I flipped him off which made him laugh even more.

"You're gonna look like you again." Kiera grinned so much, I really missed her.

"I hope so, I've missed being me." I mumbled to myself, staring into the mirror.

"So how did last night go?" Kiera asked as she finished applying the bleach in my hair.

"Awkward for the most part." I sighed, looking at myself in the mirror.

"Did you speak to Vic?" She asked.

"A little but like I said, awkward." I shrugged.

"Do you want to talk to him?" Oli asked, I looked at him in the mirror and sighed.

"I guess." I said softly. "No, I don't know." I shook my head in confusion.

"Stop moving your head." Kiera told me.

"I dunno, I feel like I have to explain stuff to him and he did say something kinda weird to me last night." I explained to them.

"What did he say?" Oli asked.

"He said that me breaking up with him wasn't the worst thing that happened to him that summer." I furrowed my eyebrows.

Kiera looked away and excused herself. I looked at Oli and he just shrugged. After about 20 minutes Kiera came back. "Time to wash it off." She told me. I washed the bleach off and my hair was completely blonde. When I walked back into the kitchen with my hair dried and platinum blonde, Kiera and Oli looked at me with confusion on their face.

"What?" I asked them with a bewildered look on my face.

"You look like Daenerys from Game of Thrones." Oli pointed out, I raised an eyebrow.

"What's that?" I was still really confused.

"Oh yeah, I forget how long you've been away from the outside world." Oli laughed. "It's a really popular TV show." He explained to me.

"Oh, cool." I nodded and sat down again. Kiera got to work on the rest of my hair.

When she was finished I was amazed at home amazing it looked. "Wow, it's like time travel." Kiera said proudly, flicking parts of my hair out of my face.

"I look like me again." I said with amazement. Kiera still had a strange look on her face. "Kiera what's wrong?" I asked. She looked at me and then at her feet.

"Nothing, why?" She retaliated.

"You've been super shifty ever since I mentioned Vic." I sighed, crossing my arms over my chest.

"I haven't." She shook her head.

"You have though." Oli butted in, I gave him a thankful look.

"Okay fine. What you said about Vic, I do know what he was talking about." She said softly, her face frowning.

"What do you mean?" I asked raising my eyebrows.

"After you went back to the hospital, Vic went home obviously. Dad found out he was back and went to speak to him. Things got a little out of hand and dad... Kinda beat him up." Kiera said closing her eyes. I felt my stomach churn.

"What?!?" I asked with anger beginning to boil in my veins.

"I don't know what happened but he left Vic pretty broken, I think he broke his arm and had two black eyes." Kiera looked so sad telling me this.

"This is outrageous. Why the Hell did dad do that? Did Vic press charges?" I asked.

"Not that I know of." Kiera sighed.

I got up and began to leave the room. "Where are you going?" Oli questioned me.

"I'm going to get answers." I said softly, Oli nodded and I walked out of the kitchen and out of the house altogether.

I walked across the street, my mind racing. Why did my dad do that? Was he really that angry at Vic? It wasn't his fault! I knocked on the door and strangely Vic answered, it felt like I was 17 again, for the millionth time. "Hi." He said softly, not really showing any sort of emotion.

"What did my dad do to you?" I asked, sadness covering my face.

His features softened and he let me in. I followed him up the stairs and into his bed room. It didn't change much over the years. He motioned for me to sit on the bed. "Your dad beat the living crap out of me." He turned to me. I felt my heart breaking.

"Why?" I asked shaking my head.

Vic couldn't look me in the eyes. "He thought it was all my fault and told me if I didn't stay away from you that I'd pay for it." He told me, pacing in front of me.

"What did you do?" I frowned.

"What I always done back then, I was a cocky little shit who thought he could take on anyone." He snapped. I jumped backwards a little.

"Oh, what actually happened though?" I asked.

"I got back from the motel after you left me and he was at my house. My parents weren't home so he was just waiting outside. I was really confused because he hates me." He began to explain. "I spoke to him for about 2 minutes and then he threatened me. He didn't know where you were because we had just broken up. He thought I was hiding you and didn't believe me when I told him you left to go back to the hospital." Vic pulled his beanie hat off and fixed it. "He got really angry and then just started laying into me. I didn't know what to do. I felt so broken already that I just kinda took it." He shrugged. I looked up at him with a sad look on my face.

"I'm so sorry that happened." I mumbled, I honestly didn't know what to say.

"Can I just ask you one thing Scarlett?" He turned to look at me.

"Yeah." I nodded.

"Why did you do it? Why the sudden change in heart." He asked, looking down at me.

"Honestly?" I said. "My therapist blackmailed me again." I told him.

He groaned loudly and put his hands in his face. "So you had sex with him and then broke up with me because of him?" He said with frustration.

"I'm sorry." I mumbled, picking the threads on my jeans. "He got what was coming to him though." I told him, he looked at me to encourage me to continue. "I don't really wanna talk about it to be honest." I felt my face flush red.

"Just tell me." He said rolling his eyes with an attitude.

"He raped me." I swallowed down the lump in my throat. It was the first time I ever said it out loud. I refused to talk about it at all to anyone. I was also way too scared to look at Vic's face right now, fearing the look of pity. I could feel the tears beginning to stream down my face. Vic knelt in front of me and suddenly wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into his chest. I've never missed anything this much in my whole life.

"It's okay." He said soothingly. I couldn't do anything but cry.

After an hour of me crying, sobbing and listening to Vic tell me it was okay, I finally calmed down. He sat next to me on his bed. "I'm sorry." I mumbled, completely embarrassed by my reaction.

"Can you tell me what happened now?" He asked softly.

I was hesitant to telling him but I've said too much already. "About a month after I went back he kept on making me do things for him until one day I said no, so he y'know, forced it." I felt so embarrassed and exposed.

Vic grabbed my hand and squeezed it. "If I knew, I would've kicked the shit out of him." He told me. I looked at him and laughed a little, wiping a few tears away.

"He got caught, he's in jail now." I shrugged. Vic nodded and looked at the floor, that's when I realised we were still holding hands.

"I'm glad he's being punished for his actions. He's a disgusting human being." Vic furrowed his eyebrows.

"I'm sorry, I put you through so much." I shook my head, letting go of his hand and rubbing my hands over my face.

"I would be lying if I said it wasn't stressful and hard at times but honestly it was worth it." He said softly. I looked at him and smiled. This doesn't mean we are gonna get back together or are even friends again but it's a start, and that's all I can ask for.

Notes

Drama llama ding dong