Asterism

47. north star

***4 chapter update! Start at chapter 45 :) ***

MARLEY Hoover has, well, 'eaten shit', as they say, many times in her life. Her abusive father, her clumsiness, and her 'Smartypants' reputation at school has left her victim to many cuts, bruises, scrapes, bumps, and emotional scars. In moments of stress and pain, Marley learned to compartmentalize, shrink, and take it all in silence, waiting for it to be over while she hides in the deepest crevices of her mind.

While her boyfriend is very much a fighter, and wishes she would be, Marley's default setting has always been to freeze with only a few exceptions.

He'd be disappointed in her lack of self-defence skills today. They were no match for several girls who clearly had no histories of being violent with anyone. There was hesitation in their kicks, their punches, their yanks of her hair and even wavers in the obscenities they screamed at her.

Marley had wanted to say at one point she'd been hit harder by her blacked out father when she was putting a blanket over him on the couch and copped an accidental elbow, but figured that wouldn't help her case.

It was child's play, their attack on her. She isn't seriously injured. High school girls were meaner. Those girls had no issue with Marley—this is very clearly orchestrated by Marco. Hiding behind women is clever, Marley could give him that. Aiden would never lay a hand on one. But he's as smart as his girlfriend is, he'll know who's responsible for the love of his life currently battered, nearly naked and wet with coffee on the floor of a Chemistry classroom.

And he'll kill him.

Marley groaned aloud at the thought of what was to come, struggling to sit up and staring around her at the mess left behind. The girls had yanked her clothes off, proceeding to burn them with their lighters and toss them in the metal garbage can while the redhead one spilled Aiden's coffee on her head. After came the beating. Marley barely had anything to say, only crying out a few times and not bothering with anything else.

They'd do what they came to do regardless of what she said or did.

The coffee was sticky, her hair was tangled and itchy, and she stared down between her cleavage at the dried blood from her nose. She could feel her right eye swelling up, disrupting her vision, and her stomach ached from the repeated kicks to her abdomen. There were scattered bruises forming on her arms and legs, some of them defensive wounds to her credit, and she winced at the sight of every single one of them.

Aiden can't see this. He can't know this.

But how? How could she even manage that? Her head spun with sudden dizziness, but she pat around for her phone without allowing it to interrupt her search. Who knew when that classroom door would try to open again. Marley locking it doesn't mean she's the only one who's able to get in.

She shuddered at the thought of some old Chemistry professor finding her in this state, finally finding her phone in the pocket of her coat and instantly heading to her recently dialled. Leo. Of course she should call Leo. He'll help, he'll keep her secret. Right? Wrong. He's loyal to Aiden first, Marley already learned that the hard way. Okay, other options. Ellie can't be involved, she'd flip her lid. And she'd tell Aiden, as previously proven. Ayla is more in control, calmer, and always on the side of a non-violent solution. But she's, admittedly, too timid. If Aiden so much as glared at her with half his strength, she'd fold like a deck of cards.

What about-

What about trust?

Marley's whirring brain came to a screeching halt at the voice in her head, reminding her of her pact to be honest with Aiden.