Unbroken

Chapter 1

Watching as he inched closer to me, his fist clenched at his sides, his jaw tense, I waited for what would happen next. My back hit the wall
behind me as I slowly backed away from him. This man I used to love, turned into this drunken, drug addict. His hand came back and slapped me across my cheek, causing a shriek to escape my mouth. I held my cheek as I looked up at the monster. He had a wicked smile on his face, as if he enjoyed beating me. Fear running through my entire body caused me to stiffen. This time his fist came up behind his head.

"No. No! Austin please don't" I held up my hands, tears threatening to pour out of my eyes. As I saw his arm come down I braced myself for impact, sliding down the wall and covering my body, but nothing came. Instead I heard a strong voice yell and a glass breaking. A pair of feet rushed over to me and two muscular arms engulfed me into their warm body. I opened my eyes, still looking down, scared to see who had saved me. A red flannel shirt, wide open over a white t-shirt and blue washed jeans. Kind of like the country version of superman, except his name wasn't Clark Kent. His name was Alec Bailey.

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I looked up to a pair of soft blue gray eyes looking down on me.

"Are you okay?" he asked me, his sweet Southern accent swirling around in my head. Slowly I nodded.

"How did you.. Why did you... How?" I stuttered, still shocked from the beating I had just taken. He shook his head.

"That's not important right now. You're bleeding" he pointed to my arm, where Austin had dragged a broken beer bottle across it. Alec helped me up gently, careful not to hurt me. He looked at Austin who was laying on the ground.

"You better not get up.. Or we'll have a problem" he threatened Austin. He walked me into the bathroom and started cleaning me up. Antiseptic here. Antiseptic there. Band-Aid. Advil. Once he was done playing doctor with me, he looked me dead in the eye. He fixed my hair and stroked my cheek.

"You're beautiful" he told me. Blushing, I tried to remember the last time I was told that. But those memories had been overthrown by ones of sleepless nights with a drunk dumb ass.

"Thank you" I tried to utter but my voice didn't allow it. Alec walked out of the bathroom and, guessing from what I heard, threw Austin out of the house. He walked back in and gave me a smirk.

"You deserve so much better than that guy" he simply stated. Its wonderful how such simple statements can make a girl feel so good. Walking back over to me, he sat in front of me. He just looked at me.

"Alec. How did you know?" I asked him, looking down at my hands. He sighed.

"Well. Since today is your birthday, I came to give you this..." he reached into his pocket and took out a small box, placing it in my hands. He continued.

"But then I heard yelling coming from inside and glass breaking and then I heard you. So I came in and saw him and I saw you and I reacted" he finished. Tears welling up in my eyes, I put the box down and threw my arms around him. Tears started to fall from my
eyes as he wrapped his arms around me.

"Thank you so much. I hate him. I never want to see him again... I.." i choked. Alec gave me a pat on the back.

"You can cry. I'm right here. You can cry" he whispered to me. I let all of my tears and sadness out onto Alec's shoulder. When I was done I sat back.

"Thank you Alec" i told him. Smiling, he wiped my smeared mascara from under my eyes.

"You're beautiful even when you cry" he complimented me. I looked down, blushing. Alec always had a way to make me smile when I was sad and laugh when I most needed it. And occasionally blush just for the hell of it. I looked at the box that was on the counter next to me.