A girl I've had a crush on for years was almost my kidnapper

When I was 15, I lived in the suburbs with my single mother. My father was a "deadbeat" that had never supported us, so my mother had this dream up of me becoming some sort of genius. I was a pretty smart kid and I didn't mind going along with it.<br><br>I was homeschooled by a local college student who my mother had met through a friend. She was a nice enough woman who seemed to genuinely care about me. She encouraged my intelligence and did a good job teaching me things I was interested in. <br><br>However, my mother soon started to get jealous of the attention I was getting from my teacher. She would get irritable and snippy when we came home, and she even started to make passive aggressive comments about how I should be spending more time with her and less time with "Mrs. Thompson". <br><br>One day, after a particularly bad day with Mrs. Thompson, I came home and found my mother sitting in the dark living room, chainsmoking and staring at me with this...this strange light in her eyes. She asked me where I had been and I told her the truth. She looked at me for a long time, then suddenly got up and grabbed me by my arm and dragged me up the stairs. <br><br>I was scared shitless. My room was the last one on the left at the top of the stairs, and the hallway was a dead end. Where was she planning on taking me? She dragged me down the hall and into her bedroom and slammed me against the wall. She had this look on her face that I've only ever seen in movies and it terrified me. <br><br>"Why haven't you been spending more time with me?" She screamed, her eyes wide and unblinking. "You've been with her every day, every night, every weekend! What have you been doing with her?" <br><br>I was terrified, and I don't remember much of what happened next. I think I said I was sorry, or that I would spend more time with her, or maybe I even said that I would stop seeing Mrs. Thompson. Whatever it was, she seemed to buy it and let me go. <br><br>The next day, my mother told me that she had gotten a job at the local elementary school and that she was going to be monitoring my homeschooling from now on. I thought this was strange, since I didn't think she had any experience teaching children. She didn't, but she convinced me that she would be a great teacher and I believed her. <br><br>At first, she was okay. She picked me up from school every day and spent the evening teaching me. But as the days went by, she started to get more and more agitated. She would yell at me if I didn't get my homework right, or if I didn't score 100% on my tests. <br><br>One day, after I failed a quiz, she drove us out into the middle of nowhere and started beating me. She wouldn't stop until I told her that I was sorry. I don't know what came over me, but I told her that I had cheated on all of my tests and that's why I failed. She seemed to buy it, but she still wouldn't stop hitting me. <br><br>When we finally got back home, she told me to go to bed and that she would stop being so mean in the morning. She didn't. It got worse. <br><br>The next day, after school, I was sitting in her car reading a book. I was about 20 minutes early for pick up and I was bored so I started reading. She was driving really strangely and I looked up to see that we were far from home. I thought we were just driving a different route to get home faster, but when I looked down at my book again, I saw that the words were all blurry. <br><br>I was so confused and scared. I thought she had drugged me and was going to kidnap me or something. I didn't know what to do, but I knew I had to get her attention somehow. So I screamed at the top of my lungs, "What have you fucking done to me?" <br><br>She freaked out, pulled over and hit me so hard that I lost consciousness. The next thing I remember is being in the hospital. I don't know how she got there or what happened, but I was in a panic.<br><br>My mother came to visit me and she told me that she had no idea what had happened. She said that I must have had a seizure or something, and that she took me to the hospital right away. I knew it wasn't true, but I didn't have proof. I was so scared and confused, but I knew I couldn't let her get away with it.<br><br>The next day, I woke up to my teacher standing in the room. I was so shocked to see her, but I was also so happy. I had been so confused for so long, and she was the only one who could clear it up. <br><br>"You okay, sweetie?" She asked, smiling at me. I nodded and she sat down next to me. She told me that she hadn't seen me the past few days and was getting worried. She asked me what had happened and I started to explain what my mother had been doing to me. <br><br>Then, the nurse walked in and everything changed.<br><br>"I'm so sorry," I said to my teacher. "I made it all up. She didn't do anything to me. I'm sorry." <br><br>The nurse started laughing and said "We're going to have to send you back home." And before I knew it, I was back at home, being forced to eat dinner by myself, being yelled at and screamed at and hit. <br><br>The next day, my teacher came to visit again and I was afraid. I didn't want to lie to her again, but I also didn't want to get hit. So I made another excuse up and lied to her again. <br><br>After that, she never came to visit again and I was left alone. I never told anyone what was really going on and I was forced to continue lying to her. It wasn't until I was 18 and moved out that I finally told her the truth.<br><br>When I did, she was shocked and mad at me for lying. I didn't blame her. I was ashamed. But I also couldn't believe how far I had gone just to keep from getting hit. <br><br>I never told her about the thing at the end.<br><br>I'm 23 now. And I never told her about the thing at the end.<br><br>&#x200B;