Quarantine secret

It's been going on since 5 a.m. this morning. He has been screaming swear words at her, and she has been crying out to stop. This happens practically every day now. Screaming, crying, screeching, thumping against the wall, and sometimes I even hear glass breaking. I can't believe she keeps doing it. I can't believe she stays with that asshole.

'She', of course, has a name. Jaycee. She is the most beautiful girl I have ever seen in my life. She moved into the apartment next to mine a few months ago, and it's always been like this. Ever since Jaycee and her boyfriend moved in, I don't have a quiet moment anymore. I see her every morning when she goes downstairs to get her mail. We always say 'hi' to each other before she disappears again. It's like she's not allowed to get out of the apartment without her boyfriend because they leave the house together every day at 6 o'clock on the dot. Every day at 6, she gets into his truck and they drive off. They always come back around the middle of the night. The guy usually looks like he's been beaten up and Jaycee, she always looks like she died a little inside. I always look out my window to watch them enter the building and normally, Jaycee always looks down or buries her head in her boyfriend's embrace, but yesterday her eyes actually met mine, and I can't even describe how much pain I saw. It's like she reached out to me just with her eyes. But she was gone, out of my vision before I knew it. And I didn't hear anything after they entered their apartment. Normally, there is arguing but now, it was so silent you could hear a pin drop.

I sigh as I make a sandwich. I put it on a plate and grab my dinner to move it over to the seat by the window. It's almost 5 and I want to make sure Jaycee is okay because I didn't see her this morning. She didn't go downstairs to collect her mail, and that worries me. I look out of my apartment window that has a perfect view of the parking lot and the entrance of the building. I take a bite of my sandwich before I see Jaycee and her boyfriend exit the building and getting into that jerk's truck. She looks okay. Well, as okay as she can be in a situation like this. But then again, how can I know? I'm too afraid to talk to her and I have a feeling that what I see is only the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more to the story then what they let people see, that's for sure.

-

I look at the clock and see that it's 11.30 p.m. I run over to the window and not even two minutes later, the brown truck enters the parking lot. Jaycee and her boyfriend get out and make their way to the entrance of the building but before they do, Jaycee looks up at me, just like yesterday, but something's different. She makes a fist and places that hand in the palm of her other hand before moving them both upwards, still looking in my eyes. She also mouths something. I'm not good at lip-reading so I have no clue what she wants to tell me. They both enter the building before I open up my laptop. There must be a reason as to why she made that gesture with her hands. So, I google it.

Apparently, the hand-gesture she did means 'help me'. And now that I think about it, her lips formed those exact words too. I take a deep breath before I march right over to the apartment next to mine and knock on the door. I hear some screaming before the door opens violently. "What do you want?", he asks me angry and annoyed. "I... Uhm...", I stutter. I don't know what to say as I suddenly see a glimpse of Jaycee. I stare at her and my heart breaks at the sight of her face. Her eye is all black and it looks like she has been crying for hours. I think he notices me staring because he immediately intervenes. "There's nothing to see here. Get lost kid!", he practically screams before he slams the door shut in my face. I feel anger building up inside of me, but I'm too scared to actually do something. So, I just saunter back over to my apartment, feeling defeated. How come the most beautiful girl in the world in getting abused right before my eyes and I'm too scared to go and rescue her? Honestly, I'm not that much better than him, her boyfriend. I let out a sigh as there is a scream to be heard. It's a scream filled with pain and agony, and it clearly belongs to Jaycee. "Please just stop!", I can hear her scream. Her boyfriend just screams back some pretty horrible names at her before I hear the door of there balcony open and slam shut immediately after.

I slowly walk over to my big window, looking out over my balcony, before lifting up the curtains. It's pretty dark outside but because of the few safety lights I had installed a few months ago, I'm able to see a silhouette sitting down, knees tucked up to the chest, on the balcony next door. I quietly open the glass door, leading to my balcony, before carefully walking outside. "Hey, are you okay?", I silently ask, not wanting to attract attention from anyone but the person on the balcony next door. I can see the silhouette standing up straight and walking over to the edge of the balcony. With every step, the silhouette comes closer to me and reveals it's identity a bit more, up until the point it's fully recognizable. "Jaycee, are you alright?", I ask her once again, being able to look her in the eyes now. The safety lights of my balcony contour her face beautifully and I'm able to see tears left stranded on her cheeks. "I'm fine", she quietly whispers as she wipes some tears away, trying to hide the fact that she has been crying. "You're not fine. You think I can't hear everything that he says to you? Do you really think I can't see what's going on?", I ask her but she just looks down at the ground, closing off completely and that's the last thing I want.

I take a deep breath and calm myself down. "I'm sorry, I just can't stand the thought of what he does to you", I tell her calmly and I can see her slowly lifting her head up. "You don't know what he does to me." "I do", I say back defensively, thinking that she's defending that bastard. "No, I mean you don't know the half of it. You only assume from what you've heard but there's much more going on that you don't know about", she tells me and I'm kind of taken aback by her openness. "Do you want to tell me about it?", I ask her carefully, not wanting to force. She just briefly nods her head before she sits herself down, her feet hanging off the edge of the balcony. I follow her lead and sit down on my own, opposite her. "I don't know where to start", I can hear her whisper. "You can start by explaining why you stay with that asshole of a boyfriend. Why do you allow him to treat you like that?", I ask her, anger slowly taking over. I'm not angry at her, everything but. I just get angry of the thought that someone is seriously hurting her, the girl of my dreams. "It's more complicated than that. I can't just walk away." "Of course you can." "No really, I can't", she tells me as I can see tears building up in her eyes again. "But why not?!" "Because he saved my life!", she screams back at me but immediately regrets it. She looks behind her, afraid that she might have attracted the attention of her boyfriend, but that isn't the case. Once she's sure that her boyfriend hasn't heard her, she turns her head back around, facing me.

She breathes a sigh of relief before she speaks. "I lost both of my parents when I was only eight years old. I ended up in the foster care system and that kind of changed my life." "How so?", I ask her, encouraging her to continue. "I let myself in with the wrong crowd. As an eight-year-old kid, you just want to be liked. You want to have friends and make sure you're not alone, and a lot of kids took advantage of my vulnerability and my young age. Especially the older kids took an interest in me. They used me to do their dirty work, like picking up their drugs from their dealers or fighting their battles. They made sure that I was the one who got caught and got in trouble so no-one would suspect them. After 4 years, I was fed up with it. I hated the system and everyone in it. I started hating the world and looked down on myself more with each day. One night, I ran away. I ran as fast and as far away from that awful place as I could”, she tells me and I honestly don’t like how this story is going. “I ended up on the streets and that’s how, why and where I met Carl, my ‘boyfriend’”, she says as she makes a sign with her hands when she says the word ‘boyfriend’, putting it between brackets. “What does that mean?”, I ask repeating her hand-gesture. Even though I can fair well guess what it means, I just want to encourage her to tell me the full story. “He’s not really my boyfriend. I really thought he loved me when we met, but it quickly turned out that his intentions weren’t just innocent teenage love.”

“How did you meet?” “I was 13 years old when I met him at the skate park. That’s kind of the place all the rebels and troubled kids hung out, and it quickly became my home. Carl immediately came onto me and even though I was still young, he made me believe that what we felt for each other was true love. He’s two years older than me so I just told myself that he knew what he was talking about. And the fact that I was alone made me even more guidable. But looking back, hanging out with someone doesn’t mean you love them. I was just too naive to see that. I was desperate to have a friend, even if that meant he had some crazy illusion of love”, she says, looking down at the ground beneath us. I can see that it’s getting harder for her to talk, but I want her to finish. Not for me, but for herself.

“What happened after you met each other?” She looks back up, right into my eyes. “He introduced me to his friends. Sadly, they weren’t so much better then the people I was stuck with in foster care. For what it’s worth, they are for worse, and I’m still stuck with them.” “What does that mean?” “It means that from the day Carl introduced me, I was tied to them and there’s no way for me to get out of this mess.” “What mess?” “You ask a lot of questions”, she says and I can see the corners of her mouth slightly raising up. I let out a quiet chuckle, glad that I somehow managed to lighten the mood, before I let her answer my question. “Carl and his friends are all part of some illegal fighting circuit.” “They make you fight?” “No… Not really.” “But you’re involved in some way?”, I ask her kind of confused and actually not knowing where this is going. She nods her head. “I’m the prize… The winner of every fight gets to go to one of the secret rooms with me.” “To do what?”, I ask and I can see her looking away from my gaze when suddenly, it hits me. “Omg, they don’t … They can’t… Do they?”, I blurt out, my eyes wide open in disbelief. “Have sex with me? Yes, they do. They’re allowed to do whatever they want to do”, she tells me, still avoiding my eyes. I can’t believe this. This is sick. That bastard is just exploiting her.

“I’m so sorry. I… I don’t know what to say.” “It’s okay.” “No, it really isn’t”, I tell her but she just shrugs her shoulders. “No, Jaycee, look at me”, I tell her firmly. Her head shoots up and her beautiful blue eyes meet mine. “This is not okay! It is disgraceful, despicable, disgusting and just shortly summarized, it’s inhuman. And not to say that it’s illegal. You’re still a minor, right?” “I’m 16.” “So, you’re a minor. This is against the law and he could end up in jail for this. You just have to talk to the police.” “The police?! No, I can’t do that”, she panics. “It’s okay. You don’t have to do it alone”, I tell her sweetly, trying to grab her hand from the distance I’m sitting on. “I don’t think you are supposed to touch me. Quarantine, remember?”, she says, looking down at her hand in mine. A little smile forms on her face.

“Thank you”, she whispers. “It’s the least I can do for the girl I’ve been in love with ever since I met her.”