When you started preschool, there was one boy who had always caught your attention. His name was Tristan. People never wanted to go near him because he smelled bad, but you knew better than that, so you became his friend!

He was quiet and very shy at first, but that soon led to an extremely close friendship. Through elementary, you were young so you didn’t notice much about him, but during middle school everything changed.

It began with you noticing small cuts on his arms that he excused as cat scratches. You believed it until they became bruises all over his body, then you got worried. He mentioned falling down the stairs, an obvious lie. He mentioned his father getting upset a lot and sometimes ‘accidentally’ hitting him. BS.

You never asked, though, and as time went by they only got worse. You were now in high school. You were both 16. One day, you were walking through the halls with other friends as you noticed him, calling out for him.

“Hey, Tristan! Wait for me!” You yelled as you walked over to him, and as he turned around, your heart dropped as you saw him.

He had the darkest black eye you had ever seen on his left eye, the other one red and almost shut tight. He tried covering his neck with his hoodie, but the bruised hand marks were obvious. What the hell happened…?