Walking Through the Desert (On Hiatus)

Chapter 2

Pain. That was all that I could feel right now. I was hoping that everything from last night had been a dream, but unfortunately for me, it wasn't.

Ignoring the pain for a few minutes, I noticed that I was on a bed. And it felt like absolute heaven against my battered body. The warm sheets were wrapped tightly around me and I could feel the heat from the sunlight that flooded the room.

I heard a loud knock on a door, but it wasn't mine, and voices filled the air. From what I could hear, they were all males. Just my luck. I slowly opened up my eyes and almost had to shut them again from the brightness in the room. Once my eyes had adjusted to the light, I looked around the room.

The walls were a blue and the carpet on the floor was black. The sheets and duvet on the bed I was in were also black. There were two doors on the left side of the room, one of which I'm guessing must be a closet. On the right wall, a flat screen TV was hooked up with multiple consoles and games beneath it. Surrounding the TV was a dark blue couch and several smaller dark colored chairs. On either side of the bed were small bedside tables. Also on either side of the bed were huge windows with red curtains, which had been drawn open letting in the sun. That explains the amount of light in the room.

After looking around the room for a few more moments, I noticed the boys' joking voices from earlier were drifting closer and closer to the room I was in. By listening, I distinguished that there were about four boys outside my door right now. One with a husky voice, one with a higher, but not quite feminine voice, one deep, but not really deep voice, and one with an Irish accent. Then I heard a completely different voice saying, "Shut your traps, I don't want you lads waking her up and scaring her. She went through more than enough last night, she doesn't need you four up in her face right after that." This voice was different than the rest, almost sweeter. He spoke with emotion in his voice, as if he actually cared about me, even though he had not a clue who I was.

But he couldn't. Not after last night. No guy would ever want a girl. I'm damaged now, after being raped and no guy in his right mind would ever want a girl with the amount of package I now carry.

As I thought this, tears began leaking out of my eyes. Who knew that my "perfect" image could be ruined this much. I was basically the perfect child my entire life. I had excellent grades, never stayed out late or went to parties, and never smoked or drank. But perfection wasn't what I had wanted in my life. I wanted some freedom from the life my parents were basically forcing me to live. About two years ago, I got a job at what they would call a respectable place, but honestly it was the most boring place in the world besides school. But I couldn't just quit, I needed the money. I began saving and once I had enough, I secretly bought a one way plane ticket from Chicago to London. I got rid of my phone, deleted my Facebook, email and Twitter. Once I came into the city, I stayed at a hotel for a little before I converted the rest of my money in pounds and went out to buy an apartment, which I had moved into last week. Everything was fine until now.

Now, I was lying in a stranger's bed after being raped, and had five boys outside the door. My life was far from the perfect it had once been.

Several minutes later I heard the boy with the voice I had basically fallen in love with tell the others to go away. Then I heard the door being carefully pushed open. I pretended to be asleep as he walked over to me. I could feel his gaze on me, probably looking at me with disgust. I wish things had turned out differently.

Zayn's P.O.V.

I looked down at the sleeping girl and wondered why someone would ever want to do anything as revolting as that man had done to her last night.

I had stepped out of the gym I worked at for a quick smoke since I had had a hard day and I saw the man dropping a knife from against the fragile looking girl's neck as he entered her and moaned as she tried to get away. At the sight, I was filled with rage and immediately went over and ripped him away from her as she collapsed to the ground. No mercy was shown as my fists rained down upon his face. At first he was surprised but began fighting back. He was no match against an experienced boxer though and I quickly overcame him and knocked him out. My anger was still there as I continued pounding my fists against him, but was quickly stopped as soon as I heard her whimper.

I ran over to the girl and picked her tiny body up into my arms. She looked to be around eighteen, but she seemed to be short for her age. She would have been no match against that man. At that moment, I vowed that I would protect the beautiful girl in my arms.

I took her naked body into the gym, covering her body from the other guys trying to catch a glimpse at who the young girl in my arms was. I carried her into the locker room and wrapped a huge towel around her before grabbing my own bag and walking out. Once outside the building, I went over to the parking lot and unlocked my black Bentley before gently placing her in the back seat. I hopped into the driver seat and started my car up before speeding away.

When I had gotten home I put her into one of my t-shirts and a pair of boxers, which were both huge on her. I placed her in my bed and just spent the night on the couch in my living room. I didn't want her to be alarmed if she woke up with a strange guy lying on the couch in the same room with her.

When the lads had come over this morning, I told them that the whole story and they said they'd help me as much as they could. I really love having them around, even though I'd never tell them that. They'd tell me I'm turning into some sappy guy. Which I'm definitely not.

The girl began stirring and I backed up a little wanting to give her some space. Her eyes opened, revealing the most beautiful brown eyes I have ever seen in my life. I was completely stunned and then she whispered, "Thank you."

Her words took me out of my reverie and instead, confusion swept over me. Why would she be thanking me?

Clearly seeing the confusion on my face she continued, "For saving me last night."

"Oh," I answered. "Well, I wasn't going to just leave you there. I'm not cold-hearted." She nodded. "But your welcome," I finished.

She gave me a tiny smile, and asked, "Who are you?"

"Zayn Malik," I said answering her question. "What's your name?"

"Jess Chale," she answered in a soft voice. I smiled at her and was about to ask her some more questions when her stomach grumbled pretty loudly. Her cheeks quickly became a light rose color and I chuckled at her.

"Hungry?"

"A little bit," Jess said, with the blush still on her face.

Not knowing if she wanted anyone to touch her after last night, I held out my hand in case she wanted to grab it and help herself up. She warily looked at my hand, but after several seconds, she hesitantly placed her tiny hand into my much larger one. My hand squeezed hers, assuring her I wouldn't try anything with her and I quickly led her out of my bedroom into the kitchen.

Once in the kitchen, I left her at the counter and opened the refrigerator to see what was inside and saw almost nothing. Looks like Niall decided to eat all my food... Again. Fortunately for me, there was a carton of eggs in there, which I grabbed and pulled out. Before closing the fridge, I turned to the small girl standing feet away from me and asked, "Are eggs alright?"

She nodded while saying, "Eggs are fine."

"Then eggs it is," I said smiling and pulling a pan from one of my cabinets.