Shattered

Even though Frank had just seen the scars on Evie's lower abdomen, he had to pretend to be cheerful so Evie wouldn't think something was wrong and be scared to go downstairs to Linda. Evie followed him downstairs with only a little hesitation. She stayed closely behind him, hoping Frank would try to defend her if there were any confrontation.

It wasn't what she expected. Linda seemed extremely happy to see them coming down the stairs together. Linda noticed how closely Evie stayed to Frank.

"You two getting along well?" Linda asked.

"Yeah of course." Frank said. "What did you need?"

"Well I wanted to make sure you could give Evie a ride to school tomorrow. You wont be driving your friends will you?"

Frank frowned. "Of course I can give her a ride. Ray's car got fixed so Gerard and Mikey will ride with him." Evie said nothing. She was kind of relieved that she wouldn't be squashed into a car with the others, who she knew even less than she knew her new foster family.

"That's great. So Evie, how are you settling in?" Linda asked with a big friendly smile on her face.

"Um" Evie began and looked at Frank. "Really great. Thank you. Frank's shown me where everything is."

"He's a good boy my Frank." She said, then changed her tone a little. "I'm sorry Evie, would you mind giving Frank and I a moment alone? I have to talk to him privately about something."

Evie went upstairs to her room, leaving Frank and his mother to talk alone.

Linda watched Evie to make sure she was completely out of hearing range then lowered her voice to speak with her son. "Frank, I need to talk to you about Evie, but you have to promise me you will keep all information to yourself. Evie can't know that you know."

Frank looked at his mother like she was a bit crazy. "Top secret information hey?"

His mother sighed. "Frank, I'm being very serious right now. I need you to be mature. This is extremely serious. It's about Evie's past. I'm not even allowed to be telling you this, since you aren't her foster parent."

Frank's expression went serious and he spoke quietly. "Is this about her being abused?" He asked bluntly.

Linda looked shocked. "You know about that? Did she tell you?"

"Of course she didn't tell me. I've known her for less than a day. I can just tell from how she acts."

Linda nodded in understanding. "Yes that's what I was going to talk to you about. There's certain information about her past that I was only informed about once I took guardianship of her. It's privileged information and its only provided on a need to know basis."

The seriousness with which his mom spoke made Frank uneasy. There was a moment of silence and Frank's face looked nervous. "How bad is it?"

"Bad." His mother said simply. "I don't want to go into the whole story Frank, but you need to know that Evie is afraid of men. They had wanted her to go to a home with no males living there, but there just wasn't anywhere like that available for a girl of her age. There were.... some issues with some of her previous foster fathers and a brother."

Just as Frank had suspected, but the way his mother spoke made him believe there was more to the story than she was letting on. He'd almost worked it out. If he'd let his mind wander, her would work it out. But he didn't want to know, so he blocked the thoughts. "I know they hurt her. I've seen scars on her from cigarette burns."

Linda tilted her head and spoke softly. "You're smart Frank. I think you know there's more to the story than a few cigarette burns."

Frank cast his eyes away and breathed deeply as his stomach twisted. "I'm going back upstairs now Mom."

"Frank..." Linda began, trying to get Frank to stay so they could keep talking. He'd only heard a fraction of what she wanted to tell him and it seemed obvious to her that he wasn't interested in hearing another word.

***

Upstairs Evie was in her room with the door open. All Frank wanted to do since the moment he first saw her was be around her and learn about this beautiful creature. Now he just wanted to be away from her. He just didn't want to look at her and imagine all the possible ways she had been hurt. He didn't think less of her for it, it just depressed him. So he only glanced through the open door of her room, making a flash of emotionless eye-contact, not even saying goodnight as walked past. He just went into his room and shut the door.

***

The next morning Frank and Evie got ready for school. Evie felt a strange sense of hostility from Frank and no matter how slight, it terrified her. She thought he hated her. That he must have told his mother last night about her breakdown and that when she got home from school, she would be being sent back to the group home.

Everything had seemed fine last night. Frank was so warm and gentle towards her. She didn't get the slightest idea that he would change like this. She tried to speak to him a couple of times, but he was rather short, direct in the way he spoke to her.

The awkwardness was getting the better of her. She'd only been there overnight and he already hated her now, she thought. She wondered how badly he hated her and what she had done to upset him. Would he hit her? He didn't seem violent.

She finished packing her backpack when Frank came to her door and spoke to her with no tone or expression on his face. "You ready? I have to drive you to school remember?"

Evie responded quickly. "Yes I'm ready."

She followed Frank downstairs and Linda wished them a good day. They went out to Frank's car and Frank opened her door for her before getting in on the driver's side. That was strange, she thought.

The car ride was filled with tension until she couldn't take it anymore. Every time she tried to begin a conversation, he would answer bluntly.

"Frank?" She began softly. "Did I do something wrong?"

Frank sighed as if he'd been holding onto his breath the whole car ride. He pulled over on the side of the road and looked at her with understanding in his eyes. "No Evie, you didn't do anything wrong."

"But you're sending me back right?" She whispered, her voice shaky.

Frank took her hand in his and noticed how she flinched but let him continue holding it. "Nobody is sending you anywhere. I'm sorry. I know I'm being cold but it's all me, you've done nothing wrong sweetheart, ok?"

"Is everything ok Frank?"

Frank put his head down. He waited a little while before speaking, debating whether or not he should. "Did someone hurt you Evie?" He knew the answer, but he couldn't let her know that.

Evies eyes widened and almost instantly watered. She was shocked by his question. Frank looked into her eyes. She didn't answer. She couldn't speak.

"Someone from your past? Did they?" Frank asked again.

Another moment of silence and then in a very quiet whisper she replied, "Yes."

"Have a lot of people hurt you?" He pressed.

Evie was quiet for a few seconds longer. Her expression implied to Frank that she was ashamed. She was going to respond but she couldn't find her voice to reply to him. She simply nodded yes.

Frank took a moment before asking. "Do you want to tell me how they hurt you? What they did to you?"

Evie noticed that he asked if she wanted to tell him what they did. No. She did not want to tell him. Not at all. In fact she didn't even want to tell a therapist. She hadn't wanted to tell the police.

"Is it ok if I don't?"

Frank sighed. "Yeah that is absolutely fine Evie. I'm not going to make you talk about something you don't want to." Frank then considered his words, pausing to look into her eyes and tell her something simple, that was filled with hidden meaning. "I'm not going to make you do anything you don't want to."

Evie nodded silently. She understood his meaning very well.

Notes