Nine Muses, Nine Bruises

Revelations and Explanations

Elise ran towards Aisling, raising her hand in a fist. Diana and I grabbed her just before she punched Aisling in the face.

'What the hell happened?' Elise sobbed, struggling to get free. 'What did you do?'

Aisling started to cry too. 'El, I swear, I didn't do anything, I would never -'

'LIAR!' Elise screamed. 'You're lying! Just stay away from me!' she ran to her room.

Aisling broke down in tears. 'Why am I such a bitch? I'm so upset with myself. I'm ashamed.'

I hugged her. 'Ais, it's not your fault. I heard everything, I knew something was up. You didn't do anything wrong. I'll explain it to Elise. She's just upset because she lost her boyfriend. She's in shock.'

'HOW DO YOU THINK I FEEL?' Aisling wailed. 'She hates me now! She thinks I made him cheat, but I didn't. I didn't do anything and she's still angry. It's not fair.'

The others looked confused. 'I'll explain later' I mouthed. 'Somebody get this girl some Nutella'.

I took a deep breath and walked down the corridor to Elise's room. I knocked gently on the door. 'El?' I whispered. 'Can I come in?'.

I took her silence as a 'yes' and opened the door slowly.

'It's not what you think' I said quickly. 'I'll tell you everything I know, but first I need you to tell me something'.

She looked up and waited for my question.

'Was Thomas... a good boyfriend?' I asked hesitantly.

'He was.' she started. 'But then... something changed. He started to get mean. He made fun of me all the time, put me down, said I'd never amount to anything'.

I was shocked. She had managed to stay so cheerful even when Thomas was bullying her. 'Did he ever hurt you? You know, physically?'

She didn't meet my gaze. 'Once.' she replied reluctantly. 'Only once. He hit me when I confronted him and said he was turning in to a jerk. He said he was the best I'd ever get and I didn't deserve him. Then he slapped me.'

I gasped. 'Elise, why didn't you dump him? Why didn't you tell someone? That's not okay! He could have -'

'Because I loved him, okay?' Elise's eyes filled with tears again. 'I still loved him, despite everything. I can't change that.'

I hugged her. 'Aw, El. What are we gonna do? You can't go back to him.'

'He wouldn't take me' she laughed bitterly. 'Don't worry, I'm too scared to do something something stupid like that. We're through. And it's all Aisling's fault.'

'No, Elise, you have to listen. Ais didn't do anything. She couldn't help starting to like him, just like you can't help still loving him after all the bad things he did. What matters is, she respected your relationship and accepted that they couldn't be together. She turned him down for you, because she didn't want him to hurt you. She did the right thing'.

Elise looked surprised. 'Really?'

I nodded. 'She liked him a lot, but when he heard the way he was ready to discard you, she didn't want anything to do with him. It may indirectly be her fault that Thomas dumped you, since he started to like her, but from what you've told me, she did you a favour. Life's too short to surround yourself with people who bring you down. Carpe diem, YOLO and all that. You have eight great friends, and don't ever, ever forget that'.

I hugged her again. 'It will get better' I assured her, and I walked down the hall to explain everything to the others. It was going to be a long day.