Chapter 2
367 Words
‘Julia!’
Julia jumps up at the loud angry voice of her father. She looks up at him with fear in her eyes. Then suddenly she sees the anger in het dad’s eyes disappear and it’s replaced with concern. In that moment Julia realizes she forgot her sunglasses and Marc can see het black eye. There is no time to come up with a good story now. No wonder he’s not angry anymore.
‘Talk to me honey,’ Marc says. He takes a seat on the stairs. He signals Julia to take a seat next to him.
As Julia sits down, she contemplates on telling her dad the truth. This has been going on for way too long already. She has been hiding it all this time. Her clothes always covered the bruises, but this time it was her face and she wasn’t able to hide it.
Julia zoned out thinking about telling the truth. It is when Marc puts a hand on her knee, that she comes out of het thoughts.
‘I’m sorry, dad.’
‘What for?’
‘That I came home late. I should’ve called, but I forgot the time.’
‘Honey, that’s not what I’m worried about. I’m more concerned about your black eye.’
‘It was an accident, it was my own fault,’ Julia lies.
‘Are you sure? I want you to be safe. If there is something going on. I want you to be able to tell me.’
‘I know, dad. I know,’ Julia says as she rests her head on her dad’s shoulder. She feels tears in her eyes. She can’t tell him. After all that happened, she can’t put him through that again. She and Marc just sit there on the stairs in silence for a couple of minutes. Julia thinks about what happened five years ago.
‘Juul?’
Julia looks up. ‘Yeah?’
‘What happened?’
Julia looks at him confused.
‘How did you get the black eye?’
- Writer
