Chapter 18:
Burt was sitting in an armchair as well as his mom. Puck and Kurt were sitting on the couch close to each other. Kurt had quickly explained the situation to Burt and they were now waiting for Puck to start telling what happened. But the words were blocked somewhere in his throat.
"Do you want me to tell them ?" Kurt asked gently. Puck shook his head, it was too hard of a thing to say, Kurt had already helped him a lot. Kurt took his hand to show him that he was there. It gave Puck the strength to start his story.
"The first day I was in juvie there was this guy M...Max who wanted to see me. He wanted to see everyone that just entered juvie. Everyone considered him as the boss there. My cell mate led me to him and the guy told me he liked me. In juvie that meant that I'd be spared, I wouldn't be beaten up because he had hold on everything. My cell mate was beaten up everyday. He told me that I was lucky, that Max didn't like a lot of guys. But then I understood why he was sparing me, he wanted me to come and see him that night. I thought he wanted talk to me, I went there and he... he"
As words did not want to leave his throat Kurt squeezed his hand. " he asked to do him something, I told him I wouldn't and he cut my torso with a blade. After that he obliged me to do that stuff. He called me in his cell several times, each time I came, he cut my torso because he liked to see scars on me."
Puck found the strength to lift his shirt to show his scars. He knew he would have to show them again.
His mother lifted her hands to her mouth when she saw them. Burt didn't move but there was sympathy in his eyes. He then sat again.
"Once, he called me to his cell and he was angry, I didn't fight anymore since it only aroused him. But it made him angrier and he hurt me again but then he didn't want the same thing as before. I fought, I didn't want it, but there were three other guys in there. Then he …" Kurt squeezed his hand again, Puck looked at him and Kurt smiled to comfort him. But this time the words didn't come out.
" I can say it if you don't want to." Kurt offered sincerely.
"I just... I can't go back there I'd rather die than see him again."
"You're not going back there Noah, we'll do everything for you not to go back there."
"Kurt's right son there's no way we let you go back there." Burt stated as determined as his son.
"You need to tell this to the police officers." His mom said. There were tears on her cheeks. " I'm so sorry son." Puck was still squeezing Kurt's hand hard not to run away from this place.
"You should both rest a little before talking to the cops." Burt said. " I'm taking you back home Kurt." Puck squeezed Kurt's hand even more. Kurt shook his head.
"No dad I'm staying with Puck I can't leave him alone now." Kurt said.
"He won't be alone don't worry he'll be with me" Puck's mom said. Kurt looked at Puck but he shook his head.
" I want Kurt to stay I can't … I can't get through this without him."
"Okay, stay here Kurt. While you're sleeping we'll tell the police officers you're back." They both nodded and headed upstairs.
When they got to Puck's room, he released his tension and burst out crying. Kurt hugged him and let him cry all the tears he had.
"You've been really brave Noah." Kurt told him softly.
" I couldn't say it... I … words didn't want to come out of my throat." Puck said.
"They understood, you didn't have to say the words." Kurt reassured him. "Come on lay down." Kurt told him leading him to his bed. They laid down and Kurt wrapped his arms around him. Puck fell asleep feeling almost good.
When he woke up Kurt was still there his chest against Puck's back, Puck turned his head to see that he was awoken as well.
"Hey there." He said smiling. "Had a nice sleep ?" Puck nodded.
"Thanks to you." Kurt blushed a little.
"The cops are downstairs, if you feel ready to talk to them they're waiting for you."
"You won't let me down right ?" Puck inquired.
"Even if you wanted to get rid of me you couldn't." He said smiling. Puck smiled a little before standing up.
He walked to the door, took a deep breath before heading downstairs. When he got in the living room his mom and Burt were talking to two police officers. They turned to him when they heard their footstep in the stairs.
"Had a nice sleep ?" Burt asked softly. They both nodded. "These are the police officers who will take your statement." Burt explained pointing at the two cops in front of him. Puck nodded again unable to say a word.
"You don't need to be scared boy, we just want you to tell us what happened to you. We're here to help you."
"If you really wanted to help him you wouldn't have sent him to juvie in the first place." Kurt told them with venom in his voice.
"It's the law young boy, he broke it he got punished." One of the cop said.
"And by punished you mean sent to a place where he lived hell everyday and no one ever did anything to help him ?" Kurt was outraged, Puck had never seen him like that.
"It's okay Kurt." Puck tried to calm his friend down.
"No it's not okay ! It's far from being okay ! You've been raped three times and this guy comes here and says he's here to help you ! It's far too late for that, your life has already been ruined." Kurt shouted.
No one said a thing after that statement. No one knew the details of what happened. Puck's mom burst into tears, Burt became pale and even the police officers looked embarrassed.
"You feel bad now don't you ? You know what ? It's nothing compared to how Noah felt since he got in juvie. It's nothing compared to what he lived there. It's nothing compared to all the nightmares he makes every night reliving what happened. Nothing you can do can erase that, but just so you know, if you try to throw him back to juvie you'll have to throw me there as well." Kurt was all red of anger, he had stepped in front of the police officer who had first talked and stood there as if offering himself to be arrested.
"No one will be arrested today. We just want Noah to tell us his story and if it's true he'll be free and the criminal will be condemned more years."
"If it's true ? You mean you don't believe what he said ?" Kurt lifted Puck's shirt suddenly. "You think he did that to himself and on purpose ? Go to hell !"
"Kurt come here." Burt said, motioning his son to come in the kitchen with him.
" I'm not going anywhere, I'm staying with Noah. I won't leave him alone while those people won't believe him when he'll tell them the worst part of his life." Kurt said grabbing Puck's arm.
Puck was so grateful to him. Kurt was really fighting for him, was doing everything he could to prevent him from going back to juvie.
"Thanks Kurt." Puck told his friend. Kurt seemed to calm down at Puck's words. They went to sit down on the couch while everyone waited for Puck to talk. One of the policemen put a recorder on the table and switched it on.
"When you want boy." The cop told Puck.
Puck started the story but this time he gave all the details, even more than when he had told it to Kurt. He knew that the more he told the cops, the more would Max get. And the guy deserved so much to stay in jail for the rest of his shitty life. So Puck said everything. He told them what Max told while he was raping him. Told them what he threatened to do him if he complained to anyone. He told them how tenderly the guy spoke to him. He also told them what he did to his cell mate when he had learned that he tried to treat his scars. He explained how he had learned that Max payed some guys to hurt him during the day to discover new surprise scars on the evening. At last he even told them how grateful he had felt at the beginning when he had seen that he wouldn't be beaten up by other people, but how he wanted to kill himself at the end because he couldn't stand it anymore.
He grabbed Kurt hand at the last statement because Kurt was the one to prevent him from doing so. Even if they weren't friends at all, if Kurt had not existed, hadn't shown him that you could be brave face to anything, Puck would be dead right now. He would have either killed himself in juvie or done it after it, not being able to handle the memories of what he had endured. He didn't know if Kurt was aware of that fact. He resolved himself to tell him later for him to know how grateful he was. When he looked around the room everyone's face was pale, his mother was crying and Kurt had tears on his cheeks.