I stopped crying, but couldn't get my breathing under control.

"Here, I want you to tell me five things you see," I look up to see Jaleah in the bathroom with me.

Confusingly and in between sobs, I say, "you, the wall, mirror, stall, and sink."

I'm still breathing heavy and fast and my hands are shaky.

"Good, now touch four things."

I slowly touch the wall, sink, stall, and mirror.

"Now, what are three things you can hear?"

"People, my heartbeat, a toilet flush," I take deep breaths, because I feel like I'm about to past out.

I lean on the wall, to support myself.

"Two things you smell?"

"Soda, and urine."

She lets out a small laugh, "and one thing you taste?"

"Mint," I say.

My breathing is normalizing and I'm not shaking. I look up at Jaleah, and slowly wipe away my tears. I'm glad I put on waterproof mascara, and foundation.

"Where'd you learn that?" I asked surprised it worked, while pulling myself together.

"You pick up on a few things after a while," she says nervously.

I looked at her eyes and notice tears welling up. The more I studied her face the more I realized her cheek was swollen. I quickly look away.

Could she have an abusive family?

I quickly push the thoughts away and hug her. She froze. Only for a few seconds. But she froze. I freeze a lot, my face gets swollen, I jump at little things.

Omg.

Before I could think, I open my big mouth, "Are you being abused?"

I curse at myself for being stupid. I look up at her and tears are falling from her eyes. She's clearly shocked.

"H-how did y-you kn-ow?," She quietly whispers in between sobs.

I pull her into me and wrap my arms around her carefully. We move beside the stalls so nobody can see us.

"Shh," I whisper over and over again to calm her down. I use my thumb to rub soothing circles on her back.

Tears build up in my eyes making me blink them away. It's sad how many people get abused and can't get any help. When I finally get Jaleah to calm down, she moves across to me so we're face to face.

"Are you?" She asks me with the most gentle eyes I've ever seen.

I hesitate at first thinking of any outcomes that will come from but decide to tell her anyways.

"Yeah," I say slowly.

I told my head down and move my hair to show her the cut I got from the beer bottle. She looks at it and a single year rolls down her cheek I wipe it away.

She lifts up her shirt revealing her dark skin, covered in scars and bruises. I freeze at the sight. She has a main one that goes from one end of her stomach to the other and smaller ones surrounding it.

I close my eyes and take deep breaths.

"How long?" I ask.

"Fifteen years, since I was born."

"Ten years, since I was 4," I tell her a minute later.

"It just got to this point this year," she says referring to her stomach.

I'm five years behind. Great. The worst is yet to come.

*****

I learned a lot about Jaleah. Both her parents abuse her and her brother. They threatened her the same way my father does me. She get the worse of it. She's never been sexually abused, and when I told her she started crying so much I was sure she was going to run out of tears.

I Austin peaked in the bathroom a lot and whispered my name. I didn't answer, and I was out of view. I didn't want to face him. I invited Jaleah to come with me to Austin's house today, she agreed.

Her parents know she won't run, so they let her go places.

*****

"Aww aren't you just getting more adorable?" I say picking up chance and kissing his scrunched up face.

Austin was really cool about letting Jaleah come over. I told him that my dad had company over and I couldn't bring her over there.

Jaleah pets him carefully and Austin goes into his kitchen and makes nachos.

For the first time, I sit at the table. Austin made 3 whole pans of nachos. One for each of us. I sit in the middle, Austin takes my right and Jaleah takes the left.

"Adilynne you never changed your hoodie," Austin says looking at my hoodie stained with soda.

"Oops," I said smiling at him.

I still can't believe that my dumb self stood in front of the bottle, waiting for a reaction somehow thinking it wouldn't get all over me. I swear, sometimes I'm just so slow.

Austin's leans over to me, and pecks me on the lips.

"Guys I'm trying to eat," Jaleah's says pretending to be disgusted.

We all laugh and I pick up a nacho, putting it in my mouth.

*****

Jaleah left around five, leaving Austin, Chance and I. I texted my dad and told him I would be staying with a friend tonight. He never replied so I'm guessing he's asleep.

Austin and I are sitting on his living room floor across from each other. His living room floor his wooden. Our legs are open, making our feet touch. Chance is in the middle.

"Come to me!" I say putting my hands out on the ground.

"No do not go to her!" Austin demands as Chance is a few inches away from reaching me.

Just as Chance is about to reach me first Austin hits the floor and pulls out a bottle of milk from his back pocket. Chance turns around and immediately runs to him falling a few times.

"Now that's just cheating," I say making a sad face.

I walk to the fridge and grab the last water bottle from the shelf. I drink all of it in seconds. I realize that it burns going down and turn around holding it in my hand.

Austin is walking up to me with Chance in his arms. He has drops when he sees me.

"Adilynne! That's not water," he snatches the bottle from me and turns it around revealing tape with 'vodka' written in it in permanent black ink.

I start getting dizzy and realize that I'm now drunk. Austin laughs at me as I have trouble walking to the couch.

"Next time it would help to read a label," he says putting Chance in his cage then coming over to help me.