It's almost the end of the first semester, and Lucia invited Scarlett, Cam, and Harper over to her dorm room for pizza, chicken wings, and sodas. With finals week in only three weeks, she figured it would be the perfect time to chill out with her friends before the stressful studying weeks ahead. The friends talked of the few fun memories from elementary, middle, and high school they all had. Sooner or later, that led to talks of their traumas and everything they wanted to tell.
          Lucia's mention of her high school choir's crazy antics quickly led to talk of her toxic, abusive ex: "my ex was in that with me. I could talk on and on about how shitty of a person he is." She looked down, back on those memories of heartache with distress.
          "Wow, I'm so sorry. Go ahead girl," Harper replied.

"Alright," she started, "We met in choir class and he seemed immediately so nice and charming, if you will. We started becoming friends and practicing our songs together, then soon enough we discovered that we kinda liked each other so then we started going on dates. Meeting at each other's houses and all that. He was kind at first... until I wrote a song for him that he decided wasn't good enough for him. That's when he started abusing his power and making it hard for me to leave. I couldn't show anything I wrote to him because nothing was good enough for him, I never felt safe or protected around him anymore, and he took every chance he could to bully and manipulate me into submission. It was mostly emotional, but sometimes it got physical. And eventually," a tear rolled down her eye, "sexual. It took me a year to escape, after I graduated high school. So it hasn't been long since I last saw him. It was really difficult to break free from him."
          "I'm so glad you did, though. That took a lot of courage to speak up on, honey," Scarlett replied, placing her hand on Lucia's shoulder then rubbing her back.
          "I'm so sorry, Lucia! That sounds terrible. It sounds like you still have far to go in recovery, but we're proud of you," Cam reassured her.
          "Thanks for listening, guys," she replied, accepting hugs from everyone else. "Thanks you guys for being so supportive. One of these days, since he did turn eighteen while we were dating, I am going to hold him accountable for what he did and get my parents to help me charge him and get him arrested."
          "Good for you!!!" Harper exclaimed, cheering her on with claps. Everyone else joined in and allowed time for Lucia to dry her tears.
          Then, the group all took more bites of the pizza and wings and more sips of soda, preparing for the next person's turn to share.

Next it was Cam's turn. They took deep breaths and then asked the question, "may I share too? I have a lot I could say as well." The rest of the group nodded and encouraged Cam to share their story:
          "Okay. So, this college is really close to my house, enough for me to commute. At first I wanted to go somewhere far away from my conservative religious parents who hate that I am non-binary, bisexual, emo, a leftist, and a feminist. They forced me to come out to them on my eighteenth birthday, and they threatened to send me to conversion therapy. Luckily they didn't do that, but instead invited their church's pastor over to our house to turn that into a conversion camp for me, in our own home." They took a quick breath, also tearing up. "They made me commute to this college so they could continue to have the pastor come over and hit me in the head with a Bible."
          "Damn, kid, that's terrible," Lucia chimed in, "Are you thinking of any ways to stay safe from them and possibly not have to go home every night?"
          "I'm trying," Cam replied. "I did get a job here at the coffee shop to work some afternoon and night shifts to get home later than they go to sleep. The fear is still there, though. I'm trying to save enough money to get myself a dorm for next semester."
          "That's good. We'll help you in any way we can," Scarlett offered. "I'm so sorry." Then she gave Cam a hug. They hugged back, and it lasted for a good twenty seconds.
          Then everyone else gave them a hug. "Thanks you guys for being my family these past few weeks. Our class has really brought us together. I'm so glad to know you guys."
          "It has, Cam! We're glad to know you, too," Harper replied. Then to lighten the mood, he said with a laugh, "whose turn is it in the therapy circle now?"
          Everyone laughed, ready to hear the next person's story.

"I'll go ahead," Scarlett started, taking a deep breath in and out. "I guess everyone has a story. And I guess now we all have a place to share it without judgment." She hesitated, then finally spoke. "My parents made me do beauty pageants as a kid. Like, Toddlers-and-Tiaras style pageants. I did them from when I was three until I was nine years old."
          "That already says a lot, hun," Harper jumped in. "I've seen so much about that show and know what it's like behind the scenes. I'm so sorry already."
          Scarlett quickly laughed, then continued their story. "Thank you. But anyways, my parents were so strict with me looking so pretty and thin for those. Having too many pounds of makeup on for someone so young, high heels, uncomfortable outfits that the judges found sexy, and a lot of huge wigs on. I was used as the money maker of the family, and shamed and beaten at home if I lost or even got second place." She let a few tears fall, "And then my parents divorced. They'd take turns in having me, one week at Mom's and one at Dad's. Later in life those years of beauty pageants and policing of my body turned into anorexia."
          "Wow, that's terrible. I can't imagine how hard that must have been for you," Cam reassured her. "What were your divorced parents' views on that kind of stuff?"
          "Opposite but equally toxic," Scarlett replied. "My mom would tell me to 'just eat' and sometimes force-feed me what she cooks and always assumed I hated her cooking. My dad, though, would make me earn my meals by making me excessively do chores and exercise everything in my body out of it. He always knew how full or how empty every container of food was and always monitored it. He basically punished me for eating when I wasn't supposed to. Just to keep that perfect little pageant body."
          "So terrible, Scarlett. We honestly have been concerned about you whenever we would go out to lunch or dinner together. This does explain a lot. I'm so sorry for you. How can we help?" Harper asked sympathetically, giving her a hug.
          "Thank you guys," she replied, still crying. "You guys have already been helping a lot. Thank you guys for noticing also. I've tried therapists before but none of them were helpful." She let go to hug the others. "Being around you guys has made me feel safer, honestly. A little more freedom, y'know?"
          "Of course, Scarlett. Do you have any safe places over the holidays to stay at? I don't want you going back to either one of them," Lucia offered. "Because if not, my parents are welcoming."
          "Thanks so much, Lucia. I'll consider the offer." The four, after all hugging Scarlett, sat down again to take more sips of soda and more bites of pizza and wings. Scarlett felt safe to eat around the crew tonight.

Then it was Harper's turn. He took a deep breath in and began his sharing. "So, I've been through quite a lot. Many adoptive and foster families, and I've never even seen or met my biological parents since the day I was born. When I was ten my first adoptive family kicked me out and left me in the shelter all because I said I wanted to find my bio parents, not even implying that I hated them or didn't want to be around them."
          "Oh wow, that's terrible! Sad of them to assume that," replied Cam. "I guess now you do have a reason to hate them. Is that right?"
          "Yeah," Harper nodded. "But yeah, because every quote-on-quote family I've lived with has never really supported my interests. Only one did but even they were really strict and not great when it comes to everything else."
          "I'm so sorry," Scarlett stepped in. "How did your last 'family' handle you going to college and your mental health? I could imagine them being the kind to think of it as fake and attention-seeking."
          "Exactly," he nodded. "All my adoptive and foster parents I've had were just like that. I tried so much to seek help from every set of parents for my depression and anxiety," he teared up and sniffed, "but none of them were there for me. When I came here to college, my last set of parents just dropped me off with all my stuff and didn't bother to help. All I had to help me was an RA, who I am thankful for, but yeah. Anyways, dance, makeup, track, and marching band, what I used to enjoy, didn't make me happy anymore because I always felt so guilty for doing those things around all my unsupportive 'families.' I'm trying really hard though to get back into those things." He smiled at the friends, "and it finally seems like I have people who like me for me and will support and appreciate my efforts."
          The friends all stood up to give him hugs. "I'm glad you're learning to love your interests again," said Lucia.
          "We'll help you in any way you can," said Cam. "I don't wanna come off as rude or anything, but therapy can be helpful for that. There's some counselors on campus here for that."
          Harper smiled and nodded at that, agreeing. "Thanks, guys. I think we can all agree that everyone here needs it," he joked. Everyone laughed.
          "We sure do," said Scarlett. "And I think I've noticed something about all our venting we did."
          "Dang!" exclaimed Harper. "It's a pattern... all our venting tonight relates to the stories we wrote for Mariss's class!"

The friends looked at each other, smiling and then going in for a group hug. "That's so cool to find out," replied Cam. "It's really interesting that we did that then, and now we're telling the real ones now."
          "It is interesting. You guys are so sweet," cried Scarlett.
          The group hug lasted for another few seconds. When they let go, the group sat back down and finished up the pizza, wings, and drinks. It was already a quarter past midnight. They decided to end the night on a happy note by sharing their favorite music and dancing until one a.m, then it was finally time to head back to their own rooms. Scarlett, Harper, and Cam walked back together as Lucia stayed in her room, keeping each other safe.