𝐓𝐖𝐎 𝐁𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐒.

𝑩𝑹𝑼𝑰𝑺𝑬𝑺 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑹𝑬𝑮𝑹𝑬𝑻𝑺

The room was silent; the only thing heard was the sobbing of a girl.

Soft breathing.

His chest slowly rising and falling.

He squinted his eyes, his vision blurry, the pain reaching his nerves as he woke up. He panted as waking up seemed to take all the energy he had left.

A ringing in his ear was heard, his head pounding, his body painful, his heart aching, but not from the pain...but from everything else.

He felt the bed shift next to him, his vision became clearer as he kept looking around.

His breaths became heavier as he used more and more energy.

"Lance...?" Called a voice in a whisper. Lance recognized the voice and looked to his side.

"L-Linda..." he mumbled as he saw Linda sitting on a chair next to his bed, she had a big band-aid on her cheek, she also had a small one on her eyebrow.

Linda let out a shaky relieved breath, a smile appeared on her face. The tears that formed in her eyes slid down her cheeks "Your okay..." she whispered to herself "How are you feeling?" She asked.

Lance examined her face, he had a concerned look on his face "What happened to your face? Are you okay?" He asked, completely ignoring her question.

A tear rolled down her cheek, "Don't worry about me!" She quickly wiped it "How are you feeling?" She asked again softly.

Lance sighed as he looked into her beautiful light blue eyes "Linda..." he knew something happened, the last thing he saw before losing his consciousness is her almost getting hit "look," he said almost in a whisper, not having the energy to speak "The last thing i saw was you running up to me and almost getting hit." Lance said in a serious tone as he looked deep into Linda's eyes.

"Did he do that to you?" He asked. Linda couldn't hold back her tears anymore. They slowly rolled down her cheeks, wetting the cotton taped in the middle of the band-aid on her cheek.

Lance sighed defeatedly, his heart shattering. He slowly opener his arms inviting her to hug him and let it all out; Linda's eyes widen, she quickly latched herself on to Lance and sobbed. Lance hugged her immediately, his body aching by the action but he paid no attention to that.

He closed his eyes as he felt tears form. All his life, everything that he was going through, he never ever wanted Linda to get caught up in it all. He always wanted to protect her, from the truth, his life, and himself. He just wanted her to live knowing everything was okay, he wanted to shield her from the truth. But he failed. He felt like he failed her as a brother.

Linda's cries were muffled, "I'm sorry..." she cried "I couldn't do a thing." She felt defeated and useless. She grew up watching Lance getting hurt, she never called it abuse mainly because she always thought it was just a fight; it was always just a fight...right? That's what she always thought, but what happened made it all crack.

Linda knew he was suffering but could never do a thing. Talking to her father, talking to Lance, trying to stop it never worked. All this time, she saw him getting more and more hurt, and she couldn't do a thing. And even now...Even now, she couldn't stop it in time. She felt guilty for not trying hard enough, for not seeing how hurt he was. She felt guilty that seeing him lying in bed not being able to move only now made her realize.

This time she wasn't sure of anything at all, this time she realized she was blinded by the things she wanted to see that she didn't realize the horror Lance was going through.

She wanted to see it as just a fight, she didn't want to face the truth, her truth. The truth is that it was all wrong. That he was hurting.

Lance hugged her tighter, "You have nothing to feel sorry for..." He didn't want to cry, but a single tear slowly rolled down his cheek, "It was all my fault, I'm sorry."