Back Talking & BackHanding

Comfort

Sean POV

Ms Abelina grabbed my hand and Marc rubbed my back. "I'm such a terrible person." I told myself. "No you're not, Sean." Marc said. "Yes I am! You didn't see her face! You didn't hear what she said!" I complained. "What did she say?" Ms Abelina's voice was calm and quiet as always. There was no sympathy, no disappointment, no sadness. It was just her same old voice. "She told me...she said she..." I didn't want to hear the words let alone repeat them. "She told me she hated me..." I sobbed. Ms Abelina pulled me to her shoulder and Marc continued to comfort me by rubbing my shoulders.

"Now, Sean, she's just speaking out of anger, that's all. I'm sure she doesn't mean that, boy." She said. "Yea, I mean come on, Sean. Its obvious she really cares about you." Marc said. They just didn't get it. No one got it. Ari never really cared about me. She hated me even before we went on the trip. Her feelings hadn't changed since then. She would always hate me and I needed to stop trying to make her love me. It was just so hard to do that with the feelings I have for her.

"You need to rest Sean. Go to bed. Sleep this off." Ms Abelina instructed. I nodded and headed to the bathroom to change. Why was I like that? How come I of all people had to get this stupid personality trait of aggression? Letting the hot water run down my body, it washed all the pain from that way down the drain. At least that's what I kept repeating to myself enough times to actually believe it.

I'd been washing my hair and got shampoo in my eye, the swollen one. Running my hands through my curly hair to untangle it, my thoughts engulfed me in misery. Making myself unaware that my head was not tilted far enough back to keep the hair wash from sliding down the temple of my face and reaching my sensitive eye.

It hurt more than anything. "Oww." I groaned covering the irritated spot and trying to find a dry towel. In the process, I lost my footing and slipped. Falling on my back, *THUMP*. "DAAMMIIIT!!" I cried. The water continued to run. Pain spread from my waist to my shoulders. Efforts to stand were going to be useless. Flashbacks of Ari trying to pull herself up made me want to feel helpless like her. At that point I did. Because I knew damn well I couldn't get up. Not feeling all that pain.

"Sean?" I heard Avis ask. "You okay?" There was a knock but all I could reply with was groans. The door opened slightly and Avis's head popped through. "Oh my gosh, Sean, what happened?" His face was horrified. I looked down to see bruises forming. Purples and blues and blacks coating my skin. The same shades as Ari's purples and blues and blacks. Her pale skin looked like a rainbow...a brutally created...rainbow.

I blinked. Unsure what to say. "I just...I..I.." Avis sighed. "Trevor!" He called. Why Trevor? Why not Marc? My guess would've been Ms Abelina. Trevor came into the steamy bathroom. "What do you- Oh my, Sean." he said looking at me with a saddened expression. Avis and Trevor helped me up. Avis shut off the water and wrapped me in a towel. Trevor, the stronger of the two, pulled me out of the tub and laid me down to look at my injuries.

"Wow, Sean. What happened buddy?" Trevor asked walking over to the first aid kit that sat on the wall. "I-The-Well-" I didn't even want to say anything. I just wanted to go home. Back to my parents. Back to all of my friends. Back to my regular life. Not here, beating the hell out of Ari. Honestly, if there was the choice of not being able to be with her or even see her but she was safe, to being with her and me beating the shit out of her every time I got mad, I would rather the first option. And there was that choice .

My brain just couldn't seem to make me think about it sooner. Trevor cleaned my bruises quite nicely. He removed the soap from my eye carefully by rinsing it. Then, Avis dressed me after I refused to do it myself. They dragged me to bed. I put the covers over my head and pouted. "Stop acting four. Go to bed." Avis groaned. "Stop acting four. Go to bed." I mocked in a childish way. "Sean, I know you're hurting right now but you need to chill. Soon enough, you'll be back home with Ari and everything will be okay. Okay?"

But it wasn't okay. Being at home with Ari was the exact reason I was hurting. Hurting her was hurting me more than I could imagine. "Whatever." I said laying down. I could feel Avis rolling his eyes as I heard him click the lamp off and walk away.