Chapter 139: The Broken Boy in the Woods
Liam’s POV
As I lay on the thin prison mattress, staring at the concrete ceiling through my one good eye, the events of the shower replayed in my mind like a broken record. The humiliation, the pain, the way those men had looked at me with such contempt, it all felt sickeningly familiar.
This has happened before.
The thought hit me like a punch to the gut, and suddenly I wasn’t in this cell anymore. I was fifteen again, standing in the woods behind Jefferson High School, my heart hammering with nervous excitement as I waited for Rebecca Patrick to show up for our "date."
God, I had been so naive. So stupidly, desperately hopeful.
I closed my eyes, and the memories came flooding back with clarity. The way I’d spent my lunch money on a small bouquet of daisies from the gas station.
How I’d practiced what I was going to say to her in the mirror for hours, trying to make my voice sound deeper, more confident. The way my hands had trembled as I’d combed my hair for the tenth time that morning.
Rebecca had been everything I wasn’t, popular, beautiful, effortlessly cool. She was the head cheerleader, dating Jeffrey Thompson, the star of the basketball team. And somehow, impossibly, she’d been paying attention to me.
"You’re so smart, Liam," she’d say, sliding into the seat next to me in Chemistry class. "Could you help me with this problem? I’m just terrible at math."
I’d been so flattered, so eager to help. Every time she smiled at me, every time she laughed at one of my awkward jokes, I’d felt like maybe—just maybe—someone like her could see something worthwhile in someone like me.
The other kids at school had made it clear what they thought of me. "Nerd." "Freak." "Four-eyes." Jeffrey and his friends had made a sport of knocking my books out of my hands, shoving me into lockers, making sure I knew exactly where I stood in the social hierarchy.