The girl on the bus

Chapter 15: more than friends

Zed

Was there someone else he had in mind? My head spins with worries, what if it happened again? The brother lunges at me before I can even move and I hear Tilly yelling at him
"Stop Natan that isn't him" as she pulls him back. He is staring at us in disbelief. Who does he think I am? A scary memory flashes through my mind. The one of Tilly crying in a bar.
"Fuck Tilly did they do it again?" I ask ignoring the glares that her brother sends me.
"What?" He then says snapping out "it happened before?"
Tilly just brakes down crying confirming her brother's worries. I hate to see her cry, and it's even harder to not do anything about it.
"Tilly who is this guy?" He asks her while gently patting her back.
"We met on the bus, he is my friend" she said I'm her friend. He then looks at me dead in the eye "how do you know about them?"
"I helped her before, they were following her" I reply keeping my gaze on him. His eyes soften a bit and he gives me a compassionate look. "Come in" he says stepping in the hallway. Tilly is standing right in front of me and I don't really know what to do. Her brother is watching my every move. She extends her arms hugging me tightly. I wrap my arms around her waist deepening the hug. She is cold and the way her freezing hands slide along my neck makes me shiver. "Are you okay?" I whisper.
"Yes don't worry" she says but it feels like a lie. By the time we step apart, her brother is already staring at me like he is shooting daggers. Tilly sees it and rolls her eyes.
"Stop that" she says and he walks towards the kitchen. I can hear her dog Brownie barking from there too, we probably woke him up. I follow Tilly to the table and I sit down besides her. I suddenly remember that I haven't even introduced myself yet. I extend my arm towards her brother and he excepts it. "Zed" I say and he nods his head "Natan" at least now the formality is out of the way.
"Why are you here?" He asks. He doesn't seem as mad as before, but I can tell he really cares about her.
"She hasn't been answering to my messages and I got worried" I tell him the truth. I can feel Tilly's cold hand wrapping around mine under the table. I gently squeeze her hand and put them on my leg. "How do you even know where she lives?" He brings me out of my trance.  At this point I don't know whether to lie or not, but if I put myself in his spot and imagine if this was my sister we were talking about, I wouldn't really want to hear about a guy sneaking in her house. "I drove her here before" I reply and I can feel Tilly holding back a smirk. She then coughs removing her hand from mine.
"Are you okay?" I ask watching her shake with cold. She nods her head in reassurance "I'm fine it's not even that bad"
"Does he know?" Natan looks at Tilly. My stomach drops.
"know what?" I ask, watching Tilly press her lips together in hesitation.
"The guys from before" she pauses "I met them again on Friday and they were really mad that you hit them last time. Kieran was gripping my arm and asking where were you, to protect me. They pushed me around a bit" she then stops, like she held back on something.
"Was there someone else too?" I ask watching her shift on her chair uncomfortably
"Umm, no" she replies. She is lying, Luke saw her with two guys. I let it go, me stressing her about it won't help the situation at all.
"That bitch bruised her arms too" Natan hisses. Without even thinking I roll up her hoodie sleeves up. Both of her wrists and forearms are covered in blue marks. The thought of it makes me angry and hurt. "Does it hurt?" I gently glaze across her arm,
"No, it hurts if I touch it"
"Why didn't you call me?" I ask oblivious to the fact that Natan is there.
"I didn't want to drag you in my problems again" She whines.
"Tilly I said you can call if you need help, you aren't dragging me down" I can see Natan nodding his head apparently approving what I said.
"You could have called any of us" he adds "this can't keep on happening, Tilly they are endangering you" he sighs. His eyes then travel to me "what did you do last time it happened?" Tilly tenses up, she hates remembering that night, I know by the way she grabs my hand. "I went there and beat them up, but it was night then, I didn't think they would attack her in broad daylight."
he runs his hand trough his hair "What should we do?"
"What about the police?" I think out loud, but Tilly disagrees immediately "no please that will make it worse" out of ideas I gently caress her leg trying to calm her down.
"Why would the police make it worse?" Natan asks concerned,
"I don't know I just don't want the police involved" she mumbles "besides I'll look like a weirdo"
"Tilly you won't look weird, you have guys stalking and bullying you that is far more weird" Natan explains. He is right this whole thing is weird. What do they even want from her. It's worrying. I was about to ask her about police again but I was interrupted as the front door opened. Tilly and Natan both turned around in shock. "Don't mention anything to her" Tilly whispers in my ear.
"Hi guys how are you, Tilly are you feeling any better" I hear her mom yell trough the hallway, Tilly lets go of my hand and stands up, " yes I'm a bit better, how was work?" Tilly smiles, hiding her sadness completely. That makes me sad, watching her pretend to be okay.
"It was fun, ecstatic at that" she mumbles but she then notices me and stops for a second.
"Oh Natan you didn't tell me you had a friend over" she smiles at me,
"He is actually not my friend he is Tilly's" Natan laughs and I walk towards her to properly introduce myself.
"Hello I'm Zed" I say, as she smiles and replies "I'm Grace"
"Tilly how come we only hear about him now?" She exclaims "we have only ever had Annie over"
"Yeah I don't know" Tilly giggles,
"Well you are in luck, I brought some of the leftover muffins" she puts the big pink box on the kitchen table and opens it. They look amazing, but I can't really eat them, I have to stick to the diet right now. Tilly looks at me almost like she read my thoughts.
"Mom he can't really eat those he is on a diet" she explains
"I'm sorry they look delicious though" I feel really bad, so much for the first impression.
"Oh honey what kind of diet" she scans me from head to toe. Natan is intrigued too I can see him smirking with amusement.
"I'm a boxer so I have a strict diet plan for my matches" her moms mouth falls open and Natan seems to be shocked too.
"Bro I can't believe I was about to jump you at the door" Natan laughs and looks at Tilly "why wouldn't you warn me he would have absolutely smashed me"
Tilly giggles again grabbing my forearm in the process.
"Oh my good Natan" Grace rolls her eyes "don't talk to our guests like that"
"It's true though, Zed would have probably smashed him" Tilly shrugs teasing her brother.
"How long have you been doing that?" Her mom asks,
"I was five when I first started and now I do it professionally so I did my collage online" it feels like they are interviewing me and I'm stressed that I might say something wrong.
"How old are you?" Natan asks suspiciously. I get it, he is worried for Tilly. I'm about to reply but Tilly does it for me.
"He is 21,stop interrogating him" that makes her mom laugh
"Sorry honey we didn't mean to" she laughs before turning to me "sorry he tends to get a bit protective of her at times" she notions at Natan and he just rolls his eyes annoyed.
"That is okay, I understand" I reply smiling.
"Well we will leave you guys alone have fun" her mom says and Tilly drags me upstairs.