The Air Bubble - Part II of II.

WARNING: This story contains triggers which may not be advisable to some readers.

This chapter of 'The Air Bubble' is the second and final instalment of this short fiction offering, if you have not read part one already, please do read that by clicking the image below first.

*****

The house was quiet, not a sound emanating through the darkness. Laura's mum had finally turned in for the night after accepting that her husband was obviously not returning anytime soon. He had done it too many times before and had simply lost count, she thought over the many times he had done this, storming out following a blazing argument. For all the wrong reasons too, Gill put up with it, learning to sleep because he always returned. Without fail he would head to the local public house for more than a little round of tipples, then after finally being kicked out of there he would roam the darkened streets feeling sorry for himself, find a bench where he would collapse into a few hours of slumber, then more often than not he would be woken by the sounds of a police officer attempting to rouse him to move him on. Mostly by that point, he would have sobered somewhat, so he would have walked on rather sheepishly, narrowly escaping being arrested for being drunk and disorderly by the officer who simply wanted a quiet night without the paperwork, and eventually would find his way home, falling up the three stone steps to the front door.

Gill would eventually know that he had returned home, as she'd be unceremoniously woken by the noise Barry would make as he fell up those steps stumbling to find his key (creating a tremendous hullabaloo whilst he attempted to locate the key in the door barrel.) She would then get dressed, get a quick wash, and make her way downstairs to discover that he had tripped over the soft hallway rug, having then fallen back to sleep, snoring loudly. Gill knew this too well by now, so she understood that her retiring to bed after he had stormed out like an aggressive and sullen teenager was the better course of option for her. However, when he eventually did return, she understood well enough that getting dressed was safer for her, as Barry's behavior when she made attempts to stir him was alarming and abusive in terms of him trying to force himself upon her (she had become sadly accustomed to his unwelcome advances he would make toward her.)

*****

Laura on the other hand was not having much luck with getting sleep, what sleep she did get was fitful at best. Images of her dad storming out did nothing to quash her already messed up mind, what with her younger brother and her difficulties when at school. It was simply far too much for a teenager of her age to ever have to go through. Laura's mind was awash with fear and upset but, anger too that her mum hardly ever noticed any of what she was going through since the day that her younger brother became ill. Pure exhaustion in the end fell upon her and her eyes closed, but restful sleep was not on the agenda for her. Her sleep filled with nightmares and trepidation of her existence, what was her point of living, after all, nobody loved her, even her boyfriend had dumped her recently. She squirmed uncomfortably as her mind continued to play havoc with memories of how her ex-boyfriend had so badly treated her before the split. Feeling unable to even tell anyone of what he had attempted to do with her behind the sports hall that evening weighed heavily upon her still. She had eventually summoned up enough courage within her to tell her mum about it but had little luck in doing so, as her mum remained too preoccupied with what the hospital had been saying to her regarding her youngest.

Sure, Laura herself was scared, worried, and anxious when her mum told her what had been discussed but, her own recent assault by her ex, forced all of that into the background for her mum right now.

But not for Laura. No.

She could not even bring herself to talk to the police about it, which was why she had wanted so desperately to confide in her mother, but she would not or could not spend the time to listen to her daughter about any of it. She felt so completely alone in the world right now. The teachers at her school were not approachable either. They would not believe her anyway, and just label her as a trouble causer, an attention-seeker, or worse. Laura was far too entrenched in grief to even try. After all, the boy was a so-called star pupil at Eldenmead High School, a whizz on both the basketball team and in the classroom; he had led the school into the area school sporting championships over the past two years and, academically he was consistently achieving high grades in all subjects. Putting both of these areas together gave Paul a good stature with the teaching staff there, something which Laura understood all too well that try as she might want to raise the issue of what he did to her with the head of the school, she imagined that the news may well not be taken seriously enough there, creating more trouble and alienation for here in giving her a bad name in it all. At least she had hoped that her mum might have listened at least; but no it did not happen.

Paul who had been dating her for a little more than a month had grown bored with her as Laura simply wanted a good close boyfriend with everything in her life being in such a mess at the time. But just before they had split, it had been Paul that had grown bored with the relationship the way it had been up until then. Laura had been wanting someone who could be there for her, someone to hold, to cling onto, someone warm who would accept her need for as many cuddles as she needed, even share caring, living kisses. The relationship helped her to feel loved, even wanted, something which homelife couldn't offer her at a time in her young life when it was most needed. But Paul had got bored, he wanted more, frustrated by kisses and cuddles, he wanted the whole nine yards, and he didn't care who's feelings he hurt by doing what he had done. He ignorantly felt that nobody would ever believe Laura should she ever report him for his disgusting act he had set out to inflict.

They had both decided that after school they would get together again, as Laura had wanted so much to see him and feel his warm embrace, wanting to feel special if only just for a short time, before she had to return home to get on with her schoolwork, so Paul had arranged to meet up with her again after his basketball practice later that evening at the back of the school sports hall. She had excitedly gone home straight after school ended that day to change into her tight blue jeans, pink t-shirt, and a soft wooly pastel blue cardigan. Paul was already outside the hall at the rear of the school complex waiting for her arrival. Nobody else was around having left earlier, so the two of them were completely alone together.

As she smiled warmly at him, Paul reached out to her and pulled her close to him to kiss her softly upon her lips. Laura after a minute or so of embracing him and feeling loved by his welcome affection, gently pulled away from him ever so slightly as she wanted to tell him how she was feeling, and just how much she appreciated his warm and caring nature afforded to her, but he tightened his grip on her almost frail arms. "Hey ow Paul that hurts, let go, I need to talk to you for a bit."

Paul's voice instantly changed from his usual friendly low tones to an almost sharp and gruff, annoyed tone. "Damn it Laura, I do not want to talk, I want you right now, naked and on the grass, right here, right now, I am tired of waiting for you to let go of your bloody prudish ways!"

Before she could even try to tell him to pack in messing around with her, as she needed to chat with him and for him simply to listen, he had placed a foot behind her legs and tightly kicked the back of her legs, unbalancing her so as she fell down onto the dry grass below.

"Stop it Paul, I want to go home now, I don't want this, you know I don't!" Laura had started crying and tears were beginning to stream down her cheeks, as he threw himself on top of her with his right hand grabbing at her arms and his left finding its way to her jeans buttons to open them. Laura tried to shout out for help but Paul shouted angrily at her, "shouting won't get anyone to help as everyone has left, it's just me and you now." He started yanking at her jeans to uncover her legs but just when Laura resigned herself that this was it, that her so-called boyfriend had every intention of raping her, a light came on in the sports hall office. Paul saw the bright light from the un-curtained window mouthing 'damn it' to himself and hurriedly climbing off her bedraggled half uncovered body, leaving her crying uncontrollably on the ground, as he hot-paced it across the field to get out of the school grounds. He could make up what he wanted if she ever opened her mouth to anyone, after all, he was the star in the teacher's eyes, a top performer, nobody was ever going to believe her story, a messed up girl with family issues and failing grades in most of her school subjects.

The next day, he had made up whatever tale he wanted to in school, after all, Laura wasn't even in school that day. He had gone around school telling the other kids that he had dumped her last night because she was boring and would never do anything with him other than talk. Whilst it was certainly true that he had soon found a new girl to add to his repertoire of familiarity whilst at the school, no one knew the truth about what had really happened and why him and Laura were no longer an item. After all, he believed most of the girls were easy to hitch up with, his personality out on the basket ball court made him pretty much a hot catch.

However, Laura's air bubble had finally, well and truly popped forever.

****

Something had awoken her from her rest, as that was all it amounted to tonight. Try as she might, sleep just wasn't on the menu tonight. She had woken in a state of panic, bolt upright in bed and sweating profusely from the endless rerun of what had gone on between her and Paul that night, over a month ago now but, who cold she tell, her own mother showed little interest in listening to her and her dad, well, he was more interested in shouting his mouth off and getting blind drunk whenever the mood took him.

Breathing heavily and rapidly, she caught sound of a loud knock on the front door. What she imagined was her drunken father turning up at home, having either lost his keys or so drunk that he could not negotiate the key in them lock, which did not surprise her in the slightest. Best leave it to her mum, Laura simply wanted to slide down under the covers of her bed and maybe feel a little safe just for the moment at least.

Sure enough, she heard her mother cursing as she came out of her bedroom to go downstairs and open the front door to who she perfectly knew would be her drunken excuse for a husband, even angrier and far more seething than usual as it was now 04:20 in the early hours and still very much dark, she unlocked the door, swinging it inwards, hoping that her action would topple Barry, causing him to fall flat on the floor - 'that would bloody well serve him right,' she mused to herself.

At the open door, two police officers stood on the porch. "Good evening, may we come in Mrs. Tonlinson?"

Who knew what was going to happen next?

*****

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