The Colours of Us

Chapter 6

Thursday 19th of October 2023

Pain was all I could feel. Pain and nothing else. My entire body was an ache of nothingness, my entire being was painful.

I was puking out my guts, breathing in blood and everything was blurry.

"So, who do you like?" Ugo asked, stepping on my back.

I don't know why he was so obsessed with it or why exactly Ian had told him about my conversation with Juliette and Martha, but I was about ready to give him any names for it to end. I knew if it told him the truth he would hit me even more, though. He would destroy me just for the thought that a man could be attractive to me.

"No one!" I grumbled against the pavement, "I was just talking about Sloan with the girls and they thought I liked him!"

"Do you?" He crouched next to me with a sick smile.

I knew Ugo loved to see me on my knees for him, I couldn't even imagine what he was feeling seeing me kiss the group in front of him.

"No!"

"I always knew you had a thing for guys," he grumbled, pushing his feet further into my back, making me breathe out all the air I had in my chest.

"I don't like him," I said between my teeth.

He was about to say something else when I heard a scream of horror coming from the entry of the alleyway. A girl was looking at us, a hand in front of her mouth.

Was she to help me or help destroy me?

I closed my eyes, expecting Ugo to hit me once more, but all he did was stay still as someone slowly walked towards us.

"I think you're stepping on someone," the person said. That voice sounded an awful lot like Sloan's.

"Why do you care?" Ugo grumbled, stepping further into me, making me whine pathetically.

"Alright, let me just..." I heard a sound of shuffling, and then someone dialling a number on their phone.

"The fuck are you doing?" Ugo asked, fear sweating through his voice. "Hang up right now!"

"Yes, is this London's police department?" Sloan asked with a smile in his tone. "Someone's beating up my friend and they don't want to stop."

Ugo suddenly released me and ran to Main Street. I didn't move. I stayed laying down on the ground, thinking about how I could get out of this situation. But it was too late already, "Char? Is that you?"

"No..." I mumbled against the concrete.

He crouched in front of me and caressed my hair like a mother would a child.

"Do you know that guy?"

I sighed and pushed against the ground to sit up, only to be met with such pain it made me grunt and sigh.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I said, sitting up slowly.

"You're obviously not, but okay."

I rolled my eyes and looked up at him. He was blurry from the tears in my eyes. I felt ridiculous. I felt betrayed by life. Sloan Joakim had just seen me getting at up by my childhood friend. He knew now. He knew how insignificant and how much of a loser I was. He knew it wasn't worth the trouble of getting to know me.

"You can go, I'll deal with it by myself," I grumbled, slowly moving to put my back against one of the walls of the alleyway.

"I'm not going anywhere," he frowned. "Let me help you."

I looked at him for a second, and felt the tears spill from my eyes. I felt so alone and so lonely, I wasn't sure I could refuse anyone's help. I wish I had the strength to say no, to convince him that I was fine and that I didn't need anyone, because what I wanted so deeply in me, but I had no one. I so desperately wanted someone to help and care for me, but no one was there. No one cared, and Sloan had showed up like a flower in the middle of winter and I couldn't just step on it to keep it from growing. I needed it. I needed him.

He took me in his arms and I let myself cry against his shoulder. I don't know how long I cried, but in the end, relief washed over me, and Sloan was still here, and that's all that mattered.