BREAKTHROUGH (Love's Not Easy Series Book 2) (17 page)

Chapter Eighteen

The day of the fall ball was here. The group of friends had been busy with school, helping with the Fall Ball, and moving Mia and Skylar into their new home in a very safe neighborhood near the church.  Aiden was able to work out a land contract deal, so that her rent would go toward purchasing the home.

Aimee was standing in the ball room, admiring the large crowd that had come out to make a stand against alcohol abuse.  She and the others were anxiously awaiting the arrival of their old roommate, Josiah.  He called to tell them he was on his way with the others from the Starting Over clinic.  He sounded so good on the phone.

Mark opened the ball with a word of prayer to God, then the first group Seven Times Around played their set.  Josiah was sitting with his friends, just as though nothing happen in the spring and he still lived in the flat.  He informed them he and the others had a curfew they had to meet, even with a counselor with them.  So, James had his mom rearrange the program.

When the band set was over, Tessa came to the mic.  “Thank you guys, that was awesome.  I love hearing praise songs.  We need to make a couple of changes in the program.  Our speakers from the alcohol treatment program need to go shortly, in order to meet curfew, and we do not want to get them in trouble.  So here to introduce the first speaker is two of his best friends and former roommates, Aimee and Piper, with his cousin, Colin.”

Piper spoke first, about watching a lifelong friend become an alcoholic.  She mentioned how she watched him spiral down a path of the destruction, all the while, knowing she could not cure him on her own. Colin spoke on the effect of watching his cousin slowly fade away to alcohol.  He mentioned how he made the entire family feel lost and hopeless. He talked about how scared he was sometimes, that maybe Josiah had drank one too many, causing him to have alcohol poisoning.

Aimee stood at the mic to take her turn to speak about Josiah.  “A year ago, God put me in a flat with a group of college students I knew nothing about, with exception of Piper.  God turned that flat into my family.  A family I have grown to love and respect. I came to accept them and their flaws rather quickly.

In the short nine months I knew Josiah, I watched him slowly drift farther and farther into this huge black hole we call alcoholism.  He was very moody, withdrawn, and hard to communicate with.  In fact, he was the hardest roommate to get close to.  That caused me to pray harder for him.  I knew he was struggling and using alcohol to hide from the pain caused by the struggles.  There was no way to rationalize things with him; so, along with my Christian friends, we prayed for Josiah to be healed every day.  I still pray for you every day, because I know your battle is not won just yet.  So, I want to bring Josiah to the front, so he can share his battle with you.”

Josiah stood up to the mic to speak. “I want to thank my family and friends.  If it had not been for their love and prayers, I would not be standing here today.”

As he shared his story of his hard childhood and his grandmother blaming him for his mother’s death to the large crowd of strangers, he showed so much courage and grace. When he spoke about how very few people realize that, even at the young age of eighteen or nineteen, a person could feel so trapped, hopeless, useless, and lonely that they start abusing alcohol.

“Drinking was never about having fun for me.  It was a way I made myself not care about the hard things in life.  It took me realizing how unreliable my word was to my friends, for me to realize that I had a problem.”

Josiah sighed.  “It takes the Love of God, my family, the staff at Starting Over, and my friends to give me the strength to recover from the alcohol abuse.  I want to thank you all for coming here tonight and supporting our fight against alcohol abuse.  Alcoholism changes us into a person that we are nothing like.  It has a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde effect on people.  Alcoholism is an illness that slowly kills people every day.  It is not just the person who is abusing that suffers.  It is our families and friends as well. I encourage you to pray for us, our families, friends, and Starting Over; every day is a battle we fight to stay sober.  Pray that we can help educate others about the dangers of alcoholism.”

The next speaker was a fifty five year old gentlemen from Starting Over.  He talked about how alcoholism cost him his home, his job, and, most important, his family. Then, the counselor came to the mic and gave a brief history of Starting Over.  He said they receive a unique year-long treatment plan that includes studying God’s word.  The clinic offers alternative coping strategies, so that when a client is ready to leave, they have the tools and support they need to continue on the road of recovery.

The last speaker was a gentleman who was now a counselor for Starting Over.  He first went to Starting Over ten years ago as a client.  He spoke about how the battle to fight alcoholism never ends.  It is a day to day battle.  He talked about how he had drank on and off for thirty years. He said he had tried many of the other alcohol treatment plans, but it took Starting Over’s faith based treatment to work.  The key to his recovery was, and always will be, God.

Over dinner, Josiah talked to his friends about his plans for the future.  He was beginning his studies to become an alcohol abuse counselor.  He wanted to help the teenage kids who struggled with problems so bad they think they need to turn to alcohol.  He felt it was important for someone to educate the kids of today about the dangers of alcohol and other substance abuse issues.

Once everyone had dinner and said good bye to Josiah, One Step Closer started playing some slow songs.  Aiden lead Aimee to the dance floor and the two danced to every slow song.  When she was in his arms, all was right with the world.  No one was having any issues right now.

Aimee took a break from dancing when One Step Closer started playing their gospel songs. She needed to go to the lady’s powder room and remind herself she could not date Aiden right now. She had the over alarming feeling someone was following her.  She tried to shake the feeling, but was having no luck.  She started walking faster toward the powder room.  Just as she opened the door to enter the powder room she felt a hand on her shoulder, then she was jerked backwards.

LJ came out of nowhere.  He held one of her arms behind her back and was holding her by the hair with his other hand.  She could smell alcohol on his breath as he spoke loudly into her left ear.  “Don’t scream, just walk.”  He demanded, as he roughly shoved her forward.

Aimee has never been one who likes to be told what to do.  She immediately started squirming to get loose and yelling for help.  She was trying to do some of the self-defense moves she learned in the class she took with Lexi and Piper.

He opened a door and yanked her in using her hair.  She heard a large thump as her head hit the wall.  “Will you ever learn to listen?”  He yelled at her.

“No, and definitely not to you, so move out of my way and let me out.”

He put his hands around her throat as he shoved her against the wall.  Aimee used one of her moves from self-defense classes.  She took her finger and poked his eyes, causing him to release her neck and grab his eyes.  She quickly kicked him in the middle and ran for the door.

She had her hand on the door knob ready to turn it, when he grabbed her legs and yanked her down to the floor.  She tried to get away, but he had the upper hand.  He flipped her over and sat on her holding her arms with his hands.

“Aimee, I didn’t want it to go down like this.  Things could have gone a lot different, if you would have just listened to me.”

“Let me up!  NOW!”  Aimee was still trying to free an arm.

“Shut up and listen for once in your life.  Aimee, I have a year invested in you.  I have been more patient with you than anyone I have ever met.  You owe me this.”

“I don’t owe you anything.  Now, let me go.”

“You can go when I get what I came here for.”  His smile sent chills down her spine, as he kneeled his head to her face and began kissing her neck and mouth hard.  She did the only defense she could think of.  When he broke the kiss, she spit in his face.

He jumped back and let loose of one of her hands, she started hitting him where ever she could reach.  This was her first mistake, because he pulled a knife out of his pocket.  “You shouldn’t fight me, Aimee.”  She stared at the knife for a second.

She had to get out of here.  “LJ, just let me go please.”  She was crying, begging him to release her.  He only laughed at her.  He moved his head to her ears and whispered to her.  “Hold still and this won’t hurt.” She took her free hand and scratched his face.

Mistake number two.  He took the knife and stabbed her in the leg.  She screamed loud because of the pain.  He slapped her face for that one.  Then he took the knife and cut off a piece of her dress.  He took the piece of cloth and tied her hands together.

Next, he took of his belt and started tearing her dress from the waist down.  Aimee was trapped.  She was unable to defend herself.  She just started yelling for help over and over praying somebody would hear her and come to her rescue.  LJ was furious, he started yelling for her to shut up and slammed her head on the floor.  Aimee was as terrified as the room went dark and she was unable to hear or feel nothing.  Her last thought was, where is my Prince?

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Aiden was beginning to worry; he should have walked her to the powder room.  She had been gone for ten minutes.  He started looking around, maybe she was talking with one of the girls.  He spotted Piper and Lexi walking in the room with Jaxson and James.

“Hey guys, have you seen Aimee?”

“No, why?”  Asked Piper.

“She said she was going to the powder room.”

“How long ago?”  James ask.

“About ten minutes ago.”

“Aiden, there is probably a line.”  Lexi shook her head.

“I don’t know. I have a bad feeling, can you go see for me?”

“Go see what?”  Colin joined them.

“If Aimee is still in the powder room.”  Aiden explained his bad feelings while the guys waited for the girls to come out of the powder room.

“Aimee is not in there and the attendant said she never was.”  Piper looked worried now.

“Aimee went down the hall with LJ Edward about ten minutes ago.”

They all turned to see Leo (from the Aimee and Aiden’s study group).

Aiden looked horrified.  “What do you mean she was with LJ?”

“I just caught a glance.  He was holding her arm and they went down this hall.”

They took off running down the hall, checking all the doors as they went down. They heard a horrifying scream coming from the last door on the right, then everything went silent.  James called his parents to get help and meet them as they ran down the hall.

They could hear Aimee begging him to let her go. The door was locked and no one knew how to pick locks. The guys were trying to figure a way to get in the locked door, when they heard Aimee screaming for help, then they heard LJ telling her to shut up. They heard a series of thumps and then silence. Out of a pure rush of adrenaline, the guys broke the door down.

When they ran in the room, the sight was sickening. LJ was sitting on Aimee, tearing at the layers on her dress.  She had been knocked out on the floor, helpless, with a pool of blood on the left side of the floor.  Aiden was still running on adrenalin as he ran straight for LJ, knocking him off of Aimee.

Aiden started hitting LJ over and over until his brother, Donovan, and James pulled Aiden off of LJ, while Jaxson and Colin grabbed LJ and pinned him to the wall.

“Aiden, you are better than this.  Calm down.  Aimee needs you to be calm.”  James was trying to bring him back to reality.

Donovan looked his younger brother in the face.  “That piece of crap is not worth this.”

Aiden looked over at Aimee and tugged for the guys to let him go. He sat in the floor beside her.  “Aimee, oh Aimee.  I am so sorry.” He started crying like a baby.

“Aiden.  Aiden.”  She coughed and whispered as she looked over at him and smiled.