Summer Relations

Chapter 4

The pic on the side is of Justice.

SPENCER'S POV (still)

I was asked to wake Natalie for lunch, because she slept all day. I shove my hands in the pockets of my jeans and wander upstairs. I knock gently on her door. When her soft voice doesn't ask me to come in, I just slip in.

I smile and leave the door open.

She's fast asleep, her blonde hair all over the place. Her shirt has ridden up to her ribcage and the blankets are tangled with her legs.

I move closer to wake her, and my eyes flick towards her ribcage and then back to her face.

Then they go right back to her ribcage. My jaw drops and fury fills my veins. The doorbell rings.

She wakes up.

"I was just about to wake you." I say gently.

She pulls her shirt down and sits up.

"Turn around so I can put a bra on."

I do, and she puts a bra on with the door wide open. My brushes her hair.

"You need to leave." Uncle Albert says again.

It's Nate, her ex boyfriend.

I know he's the one that left bruises on her.

His eyes set on Natalie.

"Natalie." Nate says. "Just let me-"

"You asshole." I whisper.

He cuts off and looks at me.

Natalie told us over skype that he was an asshole and that he hurt her.

I thought she meant mentally, but the bruises tell me otherwise.

"Excuse me?" Nate says.

I cross the room and grab the front of his shirt roughly, pulling his face an inch from mine.

"You listen to me, Nate. When I let you go, you're going to get the fuck off of Albert's property. You're going to get the fuck out of California, fly your ass to wherever you came from, and you're going to leave Natalie alone. I promise you, bud, if I ever hear that you did so much as looked at her again, I will beat the fuck out of you. You hurt her. Do you understand?"

"Yes." He squeaks.

I let him go roughly and he falls on his ass and then scrambles up and runs out of sight. I slam the front door.

"Come here." I tell Natalie.

She knows I saw. I guesture for her to walk out the door.

She does.

"If you guys could give us just one minute." I say. Everyone nods, confused. I step out of the door and shut it behind me. We go to the driveway so nobody can overhear us.

"He left those bruises all over you, didn't he?" I ask.

She just stares at me.

"Natalie, you can talk to me."

"Yes." She whispers. "He was trying..." she trails off.

"Trying?' I ask. "You can tell me, Natalie. I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to."

"He was trying to rape me." She looks down. "And I got away. Don't tell Spencer, please?"

"I won't." I whisper, giving her a hug. "If I see him again, I'm going to beat the hell out of him."

I hear the purr of an engine, and Nate's car comes flying at Natalie.

She screams and I grab her and move her without even thinking, and then Nate's shiny black Mercedes collides with my body.

I hear a scream and then something hits me in the head, and then everything goes black.