Shattered

Frank picked Evie up and sat her on the kitchen counter. "Wait here." He said and went and got the first aid kit. He brought it back and gently took Evie's hand in his own, standing in front of where she sat. He looked over the cut on her hand. "You got a bit of glass in there." He said and got a pair of tweezers out of the kit.

Evie's breathing had gone back to normal and now she was just quiet while Frank worked on trying to get the glass out of her hand. Her panic attack was over and now she just felt numb and exposed. Exposed because she had only been here a few hours and already Frank had seen her fall apart. She knew he would tell his parents she was crazy and they should send her back. Or he could use his knowledge of the glass incident to blackmail her. But most likely she would be taken back to the group home.

But he did seem so kind, it was concerning. Was he trying to build up her trust so he could abuse her with it later or was this just what he was really like? Could he really be the type of person who would hold and comfort a complete stranger who had just broken his familys property? And then fish glass out of her wounds?

"There, all done." Frank said putting a bandaid over the cut and looked up at her with a gentle smile.

"Thank you." Evie whispered and got down from the counter.

Frank and Evie cleaned up the glass together. He tried to do it himself but it seemed to make her too uncomfortable that she wasn't allowed to help so he let her. That seemed to make her feel better. Frank had no idea what he had just witnessed. And now the girl was barely speaking. What kind of kid had his mom brought home?

Evie let the last of the glass slide into the trash. Frank thought that was the end of it but Evie insisted on taking the trash all the way outside and replacing the bag inside. He let her do it. Who was he to stop her? Even though he knew what she was doing was completely unnecessary.

Once Evie had finished hiding the 'evidence' of her accident, Frank could see she had visibly relaxed. He on the other hand was still feeling strange about the whole encounter. Would the slightest thing set her off? What had those people done to her? He was curious to know what would make her act that way but he dare not ask her. If her previous foster parents or sibblings had beaten her then she probably didn't want her new foster sibbling asking about it. The more he thought about it, the more he realised that was probably why she was so scared of him.

He thought he'd take her mind off things and give them more opportunities to get to know each other. He never expected to be doing this with the newcomer. He thought he would be avoiding her. "Do you want to go back upstairs? We can watch a movie in my room?"

Evie looked back at him and found herself surprised that she actually wanted to do just that and that the idea didn't even scare her like it should have.

As they made their way upstairs Frank stopped and walked into Evie's room. She followed. "What's up? I thought we were going to your room?"

"You gotta wear pyjamas to have a movie night." He said and smiled innocently at her.

She offered him a crooked smile. "I have sweatpants?"

"Sweatpants work." Frank smiled and made a mental note to tell him mom to get her pyjamas on her next shopping trip. Evie went through her drawers to get her sweats and Frank looked around the room, cringing at how girly his mother had made it. "We need to redecorate this room. Too many frilly things. Nobody is this girly."

Evie laughed, thinking to herself how ridiculous it would be to be bothered by a little over the top decorations. Sure it was overly feminine, but it was lovelier than any room she'd had that she could remember. "I don't mind it. It's such a huge room though, I don't even know what to do with all the space." She let out a sweet little laugh that made Frank smile.

"It's really just an average sized room." Frank said.

"My room at my last foster home was a closet." Evie smiled at him.

Frank chuckled softly, amused that she was lightening up enough to joke around. "Oh really? Your last room was that small huh?"

"No my last room was literally a closet." She responded lightly as if that wasn't entirely fucked up.

The smile disappeared from Frank's face and he turned away from her so she wouldn't see how quickly his mood changed. They made her sleep in a fucking closet he thought. He tried to hide his disgust. "Well, I guess you won't mind this room afterall... Let's go watch this movie huh?"

Evie slipped into the bathroom to change into her sweats, then went to Frank's room, and for once she wasn't afraid.

***

"Almost everything you have is horror." Evie said, going through his collection of movies.

Frank scoffed. "Only because horror is the best."

Frank let Evie pick the movie. She picked Dawn of the Dead and Frank put it on. The both sat reclined on opposite sides of Frank's bed, keeping a good distance between the two of them. Enough for both to be comfortable with. And still, Evie wasn't scared. Maybe Frank was the real deal, she thought to herself. Just a nice guy. Nothing else. There wasn't even one moment where she thought he would try anything. She had to remind herself not to let her guard down too far, in case she was proven wrong. She had trusted before and it didn't end well.

Frank couldn't help but laugh a couple of times as Evie hid her face during the 'scary parts' that Frank didn't even find scary at all. Eventually, without either of them noticing, Evie fell asleep on Frank's bed. Frank realised when the movie finished and he went to ask her what she thought, although she was barely able to watch any of it since she had kept hiding her face.

He didn't think he should wake her just yet and took the opportunity to really look at her. He beautiful wavy hair, her delicate soft skin, the way her neck became her chest and her chest became her breasts. Then he noticed what looked like an old bruise that was nearly cleared up, right on her collarbone. It gave him an idea. He realised that this would be his chance to look for other markings and Evie would be none the wiser. If her former carers were as bad as he suspected, he wanted to know.

He deliberately scanned his eyes over her whole body to see if she carried any marks on her skin that indicated physical abuse. There were a few more very faint old bruises here and there but that could have meant anything. Frank didn't want to jump to conclusions. For all he knew she could have gotten into a fight at the group home. He looked further. Just a couple of small scars from cuts that could have happened any number of ways that didn't include abuse. He looked on.

Then he found what he was looking for. Evie's shirt had ridden up just enough that he could see her hips and the bottom of her abdomen. Several small perfectly round scars marked the visible skin there. The scar tissue was distinctly that of burns. And Frank knew what he was looking at. And now he knew it was worse than his suspicions had been. These were cigarette burns. Some sick fuck had burnt this lovely, sweet, fragile creature with fucking cigarettes.

Frank wanted to break something. He didn't want to know anymore. It all made sense now. If someone had repeatedly put cigarettes out on him, he would probably have a panic attack over a broken glass too.

He couldn't help himself. He had to know if it went any further than that. He went to very carefully lift her shirt further, just enough to see if the scars continued higher up but Evie started waking before he got the chance.

Evie's eyes opened and she looked around nervously, disoriented, then up at Frank. She yawned and said "Oops. Guess I missed the ending of that delightful movie."

Frank faked a laugh. He couldn't genuinely laugh after what he had seen, and she had no idea he had seen it at all.

A voice then called up from downstairs. It was his mom. "Frank? Evie? Can you come down please?"

Notes

Ok so there is the second chapter. Please comment tell me what you would like to see happen. Or what you think should happen.