LDN

Red Lace & Bloodstained Giuseppes

Nawal's point of view

I couldn't take my eyes off of James. Partly because I was too scared to but mostly because I was mesmerized by him.

He somehow seemed to transform my home entirely. He made it seem tiny, less safe, less sacred. His head practically grazed the low ceiling of my bedroom when he walked in. The very sight of his bloodstained Giuseppes sinking into my mink rug emphasised how out of place he was.

He held my mother's frozen peas to his nose and sat on my bed with his head tilted back and his eyes closed. With the gentle rise and fall of his chest and the subtle morning light illuminating his face he seemed peaceful for once. Whenever his eyelids would flutter or his body shifted a little I found myself holding my breath. Anticipating the moment that he would open his eyes and turn back into the intimidating boy that I knew him to be. I briskly swept my hair up into a ponytail and sighed . At least the worst part was over, I think. The part where I had to touch him...

My hands felt numb but still shook incessantly when I attempted to lightly dab at his nose with a wet towel. I was nervous, flustered and the smallest movement required all of my attention. His skin was warm and soft and I found that I was handling James with the same delicacy as his sister had earlier. As bad as he was something told me to be gentle with him. All that I could really think about as I wiped his blood away was the last time we were this close in proximity, that night in Angel's flat. Hatred radiated off of him like sun beams and he cut me with his words. Precise and painful words that made me want to slowly crawl back to my village on my hands and knees. And here I was helping him, offering compassion. I imagined I was helping a harmless baby or a never seen before stranger but those brown orbs were stuck to me and wouldn't allow me to forget who I was really touching.

When the bleeding stopped I tiptoed to the kitchen, I was unable to figure out how to get the fridge's ice dispenser to work so I settled for frozen peas. He grimaced when I pressed the frosted packet against his nose and grabbed my hand so that the peas were held at a distance. It felt weird to be standing over him but not as weird as his rough fingertips felt against my tiny wrist.

"That hurts man," he grunted and scrunched his face up, his discontent evident.

"Fine then you do it," I said this in an attempt to sound forceful but the words meshed together and formed more of a croak and less of an assertion.

I didn't know if this was how you treated a broken nose, I didn't know if his nose was even broken. But I did know that it would not stop gushing blood and I knew that James' response to going to A and E was 'fuck that'. So I was left to improvise. My grandma would know what to do, she had a cure for everything, migraines, fever, cramps. But she wasn't here and I had to focus on getting this guy out of my house in one piece before my mum woke up.

James and Angel had this unique ability to switch everything up the second that you thought you had them figured out. I couldn't believe that the same rabid animal fighting at the penthouse was the same handsome boy leaning against my rose gold headboard with his long lashes and pink lips.

When tp stepped out onto the balcony earlier that night with three of his friends trailing behind him, the group transformed. They hid away any sign of chaos and fell in line like soldiers. Chinasa wore an uncharacteristically solemn expression which dimmed her natural glow. Jade stood erect, one hand on her hip and the other on her clutch. She didn't seem worried at all, she stood next to her brother in her figure hugging dress and smiled sweetly as if her one job in the world was to look flawless. Sam stood on the other side of James, the two boys mirrored one another. Faces confident, stances inoffensive. Even Angel who swayed drunkenly from side to side knew to keep her mouth shut.