Letting It All Out (John/Elle)

"That's what I tried to tell her." John muttered.

Elle gave John a look.

"Why don't you think it was unnecessary?" She asked.

"Cause contrary to popular belief, I'm not crazy." Elle said. "This could've happened to anyone."

"You're not crazy you just need help after what happened." John said.

"No, I just need to be left alone." Elle said.

"And what'll that do?" She asked.

"I don't know." Elle shrugged. "It's just how I deal with thing, I'd rather solve something myself than admit that I need help."

"Because?"

"Because...it's how I dealt with things all my life. No one at home cared enough, so I've learned to only depend on myself." Elle said.

"Well you can always depend on me." John said.

"People always let you down." Elle said.

"I won't let you down Elle." John said.

"Everyone does." Elle said.

"I won't." John said.

Elle nodded.

"You seem hesitant to believe that." Tiffany said.

"It's happened before, it'll happen again." Elle said.

"Elle you have to trust me." John said.

"I'm having a hard time trusting anyone at the moment." Elle said.

John nodded.

"Is that because of what happened?" Tiffany asked.

"That and other things." Elle replied.

"Care to explain?" She asked.

"Not necessarily." Elle said.

"Elle you need to." John said.

"I wouldn't know where to start." Elle said.

"How about from the beginning." She said. "Tell me about your childhood."

"Mom was a drunk and a drug addict, dad was in and out of jail a lot but was there for me when he wasn't it before he died, and my stepdad was just a horrible person." Elle said.

"So, it was rough."

"That's the understatement of the year." Elle muttered.

John listened.

"So home life was..."

"Horrible, hell, and any other synonym that falls into that category." Elle said.

"And the abuse started?" She asked.

Elle gulped, looking down.

John took Elle's hand.

"Take your time Elle." Tiffany said.

"When I was about 13. One night my mom and him got into a huge argument, he was pissed as usual. I snuck out and went to the Orton's house to get away from the fighting. I came back later on that night and he was just sitting in the living room as if he was waiting for me to get back. He just grabbed me, threw me on the couch and I tried to scream, but my mom was passed out, so she didn't hear anything." Elle said as her eyes started to water.

John rubbed Elle's hand with his thumb.

"And this continued for how long?" She asked.

"On and off until I was about seventeen, I left home to go to school. It got really bad when I started to date Randy when I was about sixteen." Elle said.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"It became more frequent. I think he was just trying to stake his claim on me, he already felt like I was his since he took my...virginity." Elle said.

"And this Randy guy had no idea?" She asked.

"Nope, had no idea. He knew about everything about that, I was too ashamed." Elle said.

John sighed then put an arm around Elle.

"You don't have stay and listen to all of this." Elle said.

"I want to." John said.