I awoke the next morning to the smell of bacon. Sitting up I saw Ada cooking in her kitchen. "Morning D" she smiled.

I chuckled at the nickname many have given me. "Morning Ada. Have a good sleep?" I asked, kinda feeling bad having woken her up trying to put her in her bed.

She laughed, "Yeah, it was good to sleep in the bed instead of the bad couch!" she answered, shaking the pan the bacon was on. I laughed at her comment. The couch was bad, I thought as I noticed my back was hurting. "Want breakfast?"

"Yeah, definitely!" I exclaimed. I needed food so my brain would start working, so we could do that song. "Also do you have stuff to make a coffee? Sorry to intrude but I always have a coffee in the morning or else I can't do anything,"

She chuckled, "So your one of those people," We both chuckled to that comment. "Anyway yeah, I have some stuff. You like Folger's?"

I nodded, that happened to be my favorite coffee brand. She had the classic roast which was literally my favorite flavor. She didn't have a coffee machine so I did what I usually do and use the microwave. I set it for two minutes and waited for the ding. "Do you usually have coffee?"

She shook her head. "I'm not one who needs it. As soon as I'm awake I'm good to go in the morning. I like the taste of it though. The only time I ever drink coffee is when I'm upset since I'm tired, like when my boyfriend broke up with me a two years ago." She explained. I was shocked she was going over a break-up.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," I said with sympathy.

"It's fine really, he was a prick really, two-faced is the perfect description. He was scared to talk shit about me to me since he knew I didn't take that shit, but once he was with his friends he went off. He called me a whore, a slut, a cheater, and an abuser. The funniest part was the that he called me a slut, cheater, and whore because I was helping a kid in my class with a project. He was a nice kid just had a hard time with keeping up. Apparently, he never had time since he was always helping his father which had explained his sleepiness in class. Anyway rumors went around and that happened. He said I was abusive because I didn't let him hit me when he did I kicked his ass."

I was silent taking in my newly acquired information on Ada. I finally spoke up, "What about that kid? If you don't mind me asking."

"Funny story about him was the fact that he turned out to be just as bad. I went out with him senior year and he broke my heart." She said with tears in her eyes.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, I mean I know that stuff is hard to talk about," I said feeling extremely bad for making her remember the pain.

She sniffled and wiped away her tears as she finished her cooking, "It's fine really, I actually need to vent, although you speak of this to anyone I'll kill ya" She said chuckling. Not even a second past when I heard the microwave ding. I grabbed the coffee mug filled with water out of the microwave and placed it on the counter waiting for her to continue her story, as I made my coffee. After a nervous chuckle, she continued, "Anyway he was amazing at first. Nice, polite, and just all around a good kid. Then he changed a few weeks in. He became obsessed with my body. He had kept texting me saying he wanted nudes. When I refused he became angry. He had come over my house when my parents were out and pinned me down when my guard down. He was stronger than me and I was shocked. He was slowly taking off my clothes. He nearly raped me."

I had tears in my eyes and she was on the verge of breaking down. I gave her a hug to try to comfort her but she pushed me away, scared. Her face showed she was terrified, soon she calmed down and hugged me, crying. "It's okay Ada, just take a moment and cry into my shoulder," I said patting her back, trying my best to comfort her. I had just noticed that she was slightly taller than me. It wasn't a good time to notice but still, it was annoying to know.

After a while, she was able to calm down even more and I let go of her. She leaned on the counter and continued her story. "I had no idea a guy who seemed so amazing was that bad, he was only wanting sex in the end. Anyway, he pulled down his pants somehow and had his erected dick ready to penetrate me. My opportunity arose as he was getting his hand on my leg since his grip loosened just a bit on my arms. I took my opening and broke free of his grasp punching him in the face, doing so loosened his grip on my legs as I was able to kick him in the balls. When he fell I went on top of him and just continued to beat him. His face started to bleed and I had blood on my fists, face, and upper body. When I calmed down after a load of punches and him crying in pain I grabbed my spear and threatened him to leave. When he left I sat there on my floor, naked, bawling my eyes out. I was so scared on the what ifs. It leads to my hatred and distrust to men, in general, for a while anyway." She said shivering in fear.

I patted her shoulder, I felt so bad. I never would have guessed something like that would have happened, "I'm so sorry. That must be a real tough situation to have been in and to keep to yourself for so long," I said sympathetically. It must've been tough on her. I couldn't ever imagine holding that in.

Breakfast had a bit of a different vibe. After a bit the mood lifted and we were joking with one another. She was laughing a bunch, but not all of them seemed genuine. I decided to bring that up. "You alright Ada? You still seem different. Like your masking yourself,"

"That easy to read? Ugh, I'm usually good at acting, but yeah I'm not the greatest still," she responded, I guess telling me what happened to her wasn't really planned. "I mean I just told you a really personal story when I'm usually kept to myself. Not even my parents know about that. It's just weird that I was able to tell a person who I've known for a day before I was able to even tell my family," she explained.

I understood where she had been coming from since I'm the same way. I keep my problems to myself. I knew she wasn't happy that I noticed her act and her mask. I felt like I needed to do something. It seems trust was a big problem so I thought about it for a bit and decided I needed to even the playing field. "How about I tell you a personal story about me so we one the same field?" She nodded signaling me to continue, I was on the right track, I think. "I'll tell you the most painful memory of my past. Since there's two equally as bad I'll go with the one that affected me the most. It was the start of fifth grade. It was a rainy day, My sister, brother, mother, and I was at home waiting for Dad so we could eat. Well, we hadn't known it was gonna be the last day we saw him. My dad came home intoxicated from alcohol. You could smell it from the other side of the house. As soon as I saw him, I knew it wasn't gonna be a good night. He walked right next to me and grabbed the plate I had and threw it across the room. The only sound heard was the plate smashing. He proceeded to grab more and more plates. One by one they smashed, while he did this we all remained frozen, in fear. Who could blame us? He was the strongest and at that moment not our father, just the spitting image of danger."

She nodded, "What happened, next?"

I was tearing up remembering the pain. "He looked straight at me, 'Hey! You see the cabinets! Not clean, there are dishes in the sink, and the counter isn't clean!' The problem was that the cabinets were clean, and as for the dishes and counter, mom had just cooked so they, of course, they weren't clean. I told him I was sorry and got up. As soon as I did I regretted it as he walked to me and backhanded me. I was a ten-year-old crybaby and so I did just that. I should'vee kept the tears in though since the situation only grew worse as he grabbed the broom and smashed the glass door leading to the basement. He then walked back to me and when mom stepped in front of him he wacked her with the broom. He looked at me. 'Stand up pussy! Stand the fuck up!' I did as I was told and he immediately dragged me to the broken glass door and threw me down the stairs, that the broken glass laid on. When I fell to the bottom I whaled, feeling every last cut. My arms, my legs, my chest, and back were just bleeding from the cuts. 'Shut your fucking mouth pussy! Failure of a son! You'll never be a man!' He proceeded to beat the rest of my-" I couldn't continue. I needed a minute to regain my composure.

Suddenly I felt arms wrap around me. Ada was hugging me, giving me comfort. "Just take your time Dominic, continue when your ready,"

After a few moments of hugging, I calmed and was able to continue the story. "He proceeded to beat them while I was down there, slowly getting up. Stalling so he wouldn't kill me. When I made it back up he was beating up my mother and my brother who was five at the time was upstairs, my sister was on the ground crying. Dad heard me and turned around, 'Back for more bitch? Wanna act like a tough guy? Or you gonna keep on crying?' I had enough of seeing him beat my family. I told him to stop. 'What? What!? You think your tough bitch! I'll teach ya!' he said as he went into the drawer and grabbed a knife. I ran to a corner and was trapped. If I ran left I ran toward him and that was death, if I ran right he'd probably shift his focus on my mom or my sister. So I stood in that corner, staring at my knife-wielding father in terror. As he grew closer my heart beated faster. Suddenly he had the knife at... my throat. He started screaming, 'I swear to god step up to me again you little bitch! Test me pussy! Test me! Test me and I swear to god I'll end your life right here, right now!' I only stood there staring at him since I couldn't see the knife, I was mortified, I was sure I was gonna die that night. Then we suddenly heard the door close and we saw mom was gone. He threw the knife at the wall and screamed. He didn't bother to chase her, only go upstairs to his room. After he got back downstairs and grabbed his keys and left. None of us knew it until the day after that he rammed straight into a gas station, killing himself and five other people that night." I finished crying, it was a tough memory that I wasn't able to forget, sadly. The memory stuck as if it was hammered into my head.

"I'm... really sorry to hear that happened to you. If you don't mind what happened to the rest of your family?" She asked, sympathetic and worried. I wasn't expecting those emotions from how she acted yesterday.

"Well... my siblings are fine but as for mom... she died a few months ago. After the whole thing with Dad, she went south. She went to drugs and died of an overdose. It was right before my graduation. My siblings live with my asshole of an aunt. It's a tough move on, but it'll be okay. I'm just happy to say we ended off on good terms," I explained. She seemed to kind of wince at the mention of my mother. Again with the mother, it was pretty clear that something had to have happened. "Your family?"

"My current family adopted me when I was ten. My real parents died when I was seven. A murder was the cause. Both were stabbed to death protecting me in the end. Dad had thirty-eight stab wounds before he was gone while Mom survived twenty-four. I witnessed my mother get stabbed and I was too scared and too weak to help. I feel like I was the cause of her death,"

"Oh... I'm really sorry to hear that. And sorry for making you tell that," I responded, feeling awful. I should not have asked since I knew it was something sad. "Just no it wasn't your fault. Things happen, sadly sometimes people are tested in a fucked up way. Some fail the test, and the strong like you pass. By surviving. Sometimes I still blame myself for both my parents' deaths too. It's a tough feeling to deal with but we need to teach ourselves to deal with that pain and figure out that what caused that pain wasn't our fault. That takes time, but the best are able to do it," I said, trying my best to be both inspiring and optimistic.

She nodded and smiled, "Thanks Dom, I needed that,"

I smiled back, surprised that worked, "Don't thank me, Ada, I'm just pointing out the truth,"

We were silent for a while just staring, everywhere. The situation had grown awkward quite fast. "Anyway getting past the whole depressing atmosphere I suggest that we play a game for a couple hours, then get to the project," she said, immediately obliterating the awkwardness.

I nodded, liking the idea. She got up and grabbed her plate, I followed grabbing my plate and mug and put it in the sink. She walked to her room and pulled out her desk chair. She turned on her TV and what appeared to be an Xbox Seven-Twenty. She grabbed two controllers and handed one two me. "I'll face ya in Rocket League 78!"

No one is probably reading this but I'll see all you beautiful people in the next chapter!