A thousand bad times - Post Malone

Six

Once at Austin's house Mac seems to let whatever vigilance he has holding go, his eyes grow sleepy and he leans heavily into Holi as she walks up Austin's front steps with him. She takes him straight to the spare room she had last weekend and helps him climb into bed while Austin lays a still sleeping Bell next to him.

It's been a long week and an even longer day and Holi just want's a moment to breathe so she climbs into the bed and cuddles both her siblings till she is sure they are fully asleep. While lying on the bed she notices that the mattress is different, it's much firmer than it felt last weekend...strange.

After checking again that Mac and Bell are fine she slips out of bed and goes looking for Austin. She suspects he has a string of questions for her and she is going to have to answer them, the look on his face when he left her in the room with her siblings suggested he was not prepared to play any games with her.

She finds him in the kitchen sipping on what smells like tea, he is leaning against the counter and his long legs are crossed over at the ankle. He is staring off into space and Holi knows the thoughts running through his mind are about her.

His eyes dart to her when he hears her shuffle a little by her pillar. He lets his eyes roam slowly over her body and she can see his face grows dark at his assessment of her.

"Who did this to you Holi?"

His tone is tender, but she can see his jaw clench and she knows he is holding onto his anger by a thread. She wants to answer him, but the lump in her throat is so big she does not trust herself to get any words out. So she shakes her head and blinks the tears away. She can't answer.

"You have barely any clothes on."

She nods.

"You have a bruise on your chest."

"Yes."

"And a bruise on your side."

"Yes."

He pushes himself off the kitchen counter and places his tea down then walks slowly and carefully over to Holi as if she was a scared baby deer. 

"Your lip and your cheek..."

"I know Austin." 

When he finally gets to her, he bends down so he is at eye level with her. He looks at her like he is searching for something, if Holi knew what he was searching for she would give it to him but she doesn't.

"Let me look after you...Please."

Holi nods and then stops trying to blink away the tears. Austin takes a moment to watch the first few tears trickle down her cheek then stands up and gently takes her hand and leads her down to his bedroom.

He leads her through his bedroom and into his en-suite bathroom that is bigger than the apartment Holi once stayed in with her parents. He holds his hands out like he wants to pick her up.

"May I?"

She nods and he then hooks his hands under her shoulders and lifts her like it's nothing, as if she weighed no more than a feather. He places her gently on the sink cabinet. Then he points to her cheek and lip.

"May I?"

She nods again and he gently runs his fingers over her swollen cheek and pushes gently on her cheekbone, he nods and moves his hand to her lip and carefully inspects that too. He wets a facecloth and gently removes any excess blood, inspects it again then nods and removes his hand. Then he points to the bruise on her chest.

"May I?"

She nods again and he bends down to inspect the bruise, he runs his fingers lightly over it then pushes down on the bones lightly. She flinches a bit and he immediately removes the gentle presser he had exerted, darting his eyes up to her. He retracts his hand and then looks at the nasty bruise on her side and opens his mouth. But before he can ask she lifts her arm and turns her body slightly in an indication that he can go ahead and inspect it.