Working With The Rockstar - JH

Chapter 28

Jaden pov

"Did you catch the guys name? Or see his face at all before you rearranged it?" Landon asked as he looked over Liza's face.

She had woken up pretty much as soon as I locked the bathroom door. She seemed okay? If that's what you could call it. It was quite hard to tell if she knew or remembered what happened because she was silent when she woke up.

Landon had clothed her again and made sure there was no other major damage done to her body. Whenever she looked up her eyes were cloudy almost. There was suddenly a barrier over them, and the silence didn't help either of us with figuring her out.

"No I didn't. I just pulled him off and started punching. You would've reacted the same if you saw what he was doing." I answered, watching him nod.

"It doesn't matter. We need to clean your face." Liza stated, breaking the silence and walking over to me.

"Wha- doesn't matter?" I asked in disbelief.

"That's what I said."

"I'm gonna go and make sure that everything has died down a little bit." Landon said, making a quick break for the door.

"Liza, of course it matters. He fucking rap-"

"I know what he did Jaden. I was there, I know what he did. It doesn't matter who he his. It doesn't matter what he did, it's in the past and I don't want to think about it." She snapped, grabbing out cotton pads and rubbing alcohol.

"Liza you can't just-"

"Please? I really don't wanna talk about it." The glint in her eye was practically begging me to not press this. I only nodded, knowing that if I spoke, I wasn't going to agree with her plea.

She spent the best part of ten minutes cleaning just one gash. She looked so concentrated on my face, but her eyes. The look in her eyes made me feel sick. Knowing that this bastard did something like that to her, something she clearly remembers and then her bottling it all up made me feel sick.

"You should've just left him." She mumbles, picking up another cotton pad.

"What? Why?" I asked in disbelief.

"Because he messed up your pretty face. It wasn't worth it." She answered.

"No what? I don't care if it was you or any other woman in there. I still would've done the same thing, no matter the consequences." I watched as her eyes shifted to the floor quickly before flying back up to my face. She fell silent again as she continued to clean the cuts.

"Thank you." She whispered out after a few moments of silence. "For stopping him." She clarified a little louder.

"Why are you thanking me?" I was so confused by her thanking me.

"Because no one else did that before?" Did what? Hold up. Before?!

"This isn't the first time it's happened was it?" I asked, her watching as she finally let go of the tears and shook her head.

I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her head into my chest. She tried to fight me at first, but eventually gave up when she saw I wasn't going to let go of her. She wrapped her arms around me as well as she continued to cry.

"You were right." She mumbled after she had calmed down. Her confirmation of the matter made me want to throw up. "Tonight wasn't the first time. At all." She went on, still not pulling her head away from me. "I wasn't even drugged. I mean, technically I was but they didn't work." Hang on.

"Wait, but if the drugs didn't work, why did you let him do it?" I asked, completely baffled.

"Because it's common sense. You see so many stories of men and women being beaten to death or beaten half to death by their attacker because they fought back. It's a simple principle really. Just allow them to do it, and you might come out okay. You fight back, and you risk your life. I know what route I'd much rather go down." She explained.

The fact that she has to think like that is sickening. But the fact that she's not wrong is a hundred times worse. The way she said everything so calmly too, as if it's rational, bothered me as well. And I just know that this isn't the first time she had to think like that either.

"How many other times has it happened?" I asked her as she fiddled with her fingers.

"Uh, tonight was the third time." She answered, not looking up. "The first time was when I was 16. My boyfriend at the time kept pressuring me into doing things with him and at first I agreed, but I changed my mind just before we actually did it and he didn't listen. The second time is all kind of a daze. My mind kind of just blocks it all out but I know it happened. And then there was tonight." She answered, taking long and shaky breaths every so often.

"Does Landon know? About the other times?" Her head immediately snapped up and her eyes met mine.

"No. And you cannot tell him either." She rushed out.

"What? You expect me to lie to him about something as serious as this?" I looked at her like she was crazy.

"No Jaden please? I already know he's gonna tell Travis and Colson about this, tonight. I don't think I'd have the heart to explain to them that it's happened before. A-and it's technically not lying if he never asks. I am begging you, just keep it to yourself." She pleaded, looking up at me.

"Liza I-"

"Please? There's already so much shit I have to deal with because of Mads and my parents. And I know you beating that guy up was recorded by at least someone so that's gonna be all over the tea pages. I think people are going to get the context clues pretty quickly. I really don't want to have to deal with this too." She interrupted.

"Okay." I agreed, biting my tongue to stop me from arguing her.

"Thank you." She sighed, re-wrapping her arms around me.