Happiness [Book 2]

Chapter 54 - Behind The Smile

Although Ryder wasn't there, I still managed to have the best birthday ever; Mom and I spent the entire day just talking, singing and dancing, and snacking on chocolate, along with Mom giving me a few beautiful gifts.

Finn and Mr. Schue wanted to get as much Regionals practice in as possible - Regionals was in two weeks, and I was pumped for it. Angie had finally agreed to sing the solo, after much begging.

Finn had called an early Glee club meeting, and by early, he meant six am. I dragged myself out of bed at five to get ready and was walking to school by five thirty (most people weren't even up at that time).

Now we were all sitting in the choir room, not saying a word. We were all too tired.

"What's the time?" I asked quietly.

"Nearly six," Travis told me with a yawn. His voice made me cringe. I was still feeling bad about the kiss and I hadn't told Ryder yet, just adding to my guilt and making me cringe and want to kick myself more.

"Hey, guys," Finn said, walking into the room with a large smile. "Shall we start?" He pushed the piano out of the way and we began learning the rest of our dance routine, and it was a lot of partner dancing, and the first thing I thought was thank the Lord I'm not with Travis - Angie was with Travis, and she was hating it because he was feeling her up all of the time.

There wasn't enough boys in Glee club at the moment, so only three of us girls could dance with them. Finn was being super nice and not as strict as last year, so that was a blessing. 

Mr. Schue was currently on his honeymoon with Ms. Pillsbury, so Finn was leading Glee club for three weeks, and all of us weren't too happy about his constant training.

Although he was being nice about our mistakes now, he probably would get stricter, and I'm not looking forward to that. He pushed us way too hard last year, and I didn't want Finn to be mean to us again with the rough training.

***

After a week of practicing every day and afternoon, I was dying to have two days off to just sleep and talk to Ryder. 

Finn dismissed us with a smile. I stood up and went to exit the room with everyone else, but a hand gripped mine tightly. I turned around and found Angie gripping my hand in hers. "I need to tell you something, Marley." Her voice was shaking and so were her hands.

"Sure." I said.

Finn left the room a second after that, saying he'd see us on Monday. I nodded before Angie dragged me to the seats in the choir room and sat down at the front of the room.

"Okay," she took a deep breath, looking at her lap. "I need to tell you something - something I haven't told any one." She was still avoiding my eye contact. "I need to get this off my chest, and I trust you." 

"Angie, what is it?" I asked, facing her and holding my hands tightly in my lap. Angie had made me worried, and I feared what she was going to say next. She had seemed fine five minutes before.

"You just  have to swear, swear on your life, that you will not tell anyone. No Ryder, no Jake. No one." She finally made eye-contact with me, and I spotted tears in her eyes.

"Tell me." 

"Last year-" Angie cut herself off, shaking her head. "I'll show you," She muttered, tugging off her jacket angrily. I watched her as she practically tore at her sweatshirt out, pulling it off, revealing her arms that had never once been seen before. 

"Oh, my god." I whispered, covering my mouth to hide the rude gaping I was doing. Angie bit her and closed her eyes. 

On the top of her arms were almost black bruises in the shape of a hand wrapped around her arms. They were pretty much equal on both sides, the one of the right looking slightly larger. Further down her arms there were small bruises and cuts the size of nails across her arm.