Amour - A Jai Brooks Love Story [ ON HOLD ]

Chapter 16...

The next day I woke up with Indiana in my arms and the worst headache in existence. I rolled Indi off my chest trying my best not to wake her, and went to get some aspirin for my hangover.

As I staggered through the house to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, I tripped over Daniel who had made himself comfortable in the middle of the hallway.

"Fuck off Jai." He said, disgruntled from being woken up.

"Dude you're in the middle of the floor, It's your own fault I tripped over you." I replied. Daniel grunted something completely incoherent and curled back up into a ball and immediately fell asleep.

I wouldn’t be surprised if I was the only one awake; the others were probably planning to sleep off their hangovers, which wasn’t a bad idea to be honest.

Once in the bathroom I had to search for the aspirin for a good ten minutes before I found it wedged at the back behind some plasters and a bottle of long forgotten cough syrup. I opened the packet and saw that there were only four pills left. 'Fuck the others, theses are for me and Indiana.' I thought as I replaced everything I had moved around, back into its rightful place. I made my way back to my bedroom, being careful to step over Daniel and not wake him again as I knew he would be grumpy as hell.

It's always quite difficult to move Indiana when she's sleeping as she's very stubborn even in an unconscious state; she continuously rolls back to the position she was in, regardless of how you move her so it's safe to say that getting back into bed with her was a laborious and time consuming task. Despite my best efforts, Indi woke up as I was manoeuvring the blanket so it covered both of us again.

"Jai, my head hurts." She moaned her face contorted with pain.

"I know, I brought you some aspirin babe." I said handing her the two pills and the glass of water she needed to swallow them.

"Thank you."

I smiled. Seeing her like this was perfect. She was so vulnerable. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean that she would be easy to take advantage of, because she sure as hell wouldn’t be. I mean that all her protective walls that she builds around herself come crashing down when she's hung-over; she's shy and pure and… Indiana. It's like, for just that short period of time, she feels that she can be herself and not have to worry about what other people think of her or about any of the problems that define her. She's like a new person.

It's so easy to look at Indiana on a normal day and make the judgement that she's okay. I've done it. But I've also seen her so incredibly broken. She's one of those people that shut everything away behind tightly locked doors in her mind expecting the issues that surround them to disappear if they ignore how they feel about it. Indi has had more than her fair share of breakdowns and I've been there for all of them. We both have the scars to prove it; mine are purely emotional, but Indi's? Her scars are one hundred percent physical. They are not always visible as they cover the tops of her thighs and hips. Hundreds of tiny slices with a slightly different pigment mix to the rest of her skin; each one just another broken thought, forgotten emotion, or lost story.

Seeing her on a regular day-to-day basis, you would never know anything like that has happened to her, but now I can; and it's beautiful.

"What? Why do you keep looking at them like that?" she asked as she caught me gazing at the scars on her hips.

"Nothing, they're beautiful."

"They are far from that Jai."

"They make you beautiful, they make you real." I respond.

Indi looked at me with doubt in her eyes. "I didn’t create them to make myself feel more beautiful, Jai; I did it to punish myself."

"I know. What I'm trying to say is that regardless of those moments of pain, you are still the most beautiful person I have ever known; inside and out. And I love you."

Indiana smiled a true smile that I'm convinced she has only ever shown me, curled up in my arms, and without saying a word, fell asleep.

Indiana and I slept in each other's arms for most of the day only rousing when Luke and Michaela came in to our room asking if we needed anything from the store. It was a good day spent drifting in and out of consciousness dreaming of Indiana and my best friends until another 24 hours had passed without us even realising.