I Remember It All

Without him

I woke up the next morning to find the bed empty and immediately felt lonely. I had expected him to at least stay around at least until I got discharged.....well I guess I was wrong about that.

That is until I saw the note he left for me.

It read,

Dear Lily. sorry for leaving you so soon, that too right when you were getting discharged. I could not stay any longer as the nurse caught me sleeping on your bed and literally kicked me out!

I giggled at the the thought of him being kicked out and continued reading the letter.

Well that and the fact that I still have to go to school today. Here's my number and call me if you need anything. Love Damon.

I frowned as I felt my heart beating faster than before at Damon's caring words. Why would he write Love?! Does he like me?

I shook my head violently to get those dumb and stupid thoughts out of my head and carefully tucked the piece of paper in my pocket.

Slowly I stood up and grabbed on the table for support. I felt sick and thirsty.

Reaching for the glass kept on the table stand I remembered that I forgot to contact Dad about it. Gulping down the water, I placed it back on the table stand and reached for my phone.

Thankfully it was kept under my pillow. I was about to reach for it when the door flew open and dad rushed inside, his face steaming with anger.

ASHTON POV

"Woah bro, slow down will ya!", said Jack, my fellow member in the basketball team.

"Urghh! Where the fuck is Lily?! I told her to be on time for school! She should have been here by now!!! How could she be late even after a day off!?" I shouted.

"She must have overslept, man chill! Look, there she is.......woah......", he trailed off.

I turned and my jaw dropped. A black eye, a bruised jaw and she was limping due to a swelling on her left foot.

Running up to her, I immediately supported her by putting an arm around her and helped her walk up to Jack.

"Sorry, I'm late Ashton. My dad......he...." She whispered. Her voice sounded hoarse and grainy.

"It's ok Lily, don't, it's ok, just let me help you for now.", I whispered to her.

"Thankyou Ashton, I'm so sorry for acting like a bitch to you earlier. I just..........."

"It's ok Lily, it's ok", I said to her, my heart breaking to see her like this.

She pulled my hand off her shoulder as she entered the school building. I knew not to protest as I knew exactly what was going through her head.

She wanted to have courage and believe in herself and by letting others see her being helped by me, she would be considered even more weak amongst her bullies.

She walked in with her head held high.

My mind flashed back to the time when she got her first scar out of her three scars on her back.

Her dad had thrown a broken alcohol bottle at her while she cooking as she had forgotten to take the garbage out. She had to use all of the savings she had to have the cut stitched up.

That week she didn't attend school and I couldn't go to meet her as her dad didn't allow anyone to come near their house.

When she started attending school again, I noticed her forced smile and slow, painful movements. She barely came to gym class and stopped all together after sometime. I asked her about it but she refused to even tell me.

Two days after that incident, one girl pushed her from the back while she was waiting in the lunch queue. She fell on the floor wincing in pain and continued to whimper the entire day. Later, while I was leaving her to her next class, I noticed a spot of blood on her t-shirt.

I slowly nudged up her t-shirt with my hand while she was talking to Katy, but my movement didn't go unnoticed. She caught my hand and shook her head.

But I had already seen what lay underneath, a jagged line of stitches from her hip bone till her tail bone. And the worst part was that they were bleeding and a few of them had opened.

The following day, I took her to the doctor again as I feared that it was infected. Fortunately, it was not and she had the stitches redone.

That day I could not get the image out of my head. Everytime I closed my eyes, that ghastly image would come to my mind making me shudder.

Shaking my head to relieve myself from that horrible but lingering memory, I saw Katy running upto her and felt some sort of relief.

I knew that Katy was not good news but at least she could keep Lily company for now.

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Lily POV

"Lily?! What the fuck happened to you?", Katy shouted with disgust.

"Nothing much, I just fell off the stairs last night.", I said soothingly.

"Ahahahaha, OMGEEE, look what the dog dragged in, girls.", sneered Amanda.

Ignoring them, I limped half-heartily to my my class with Katy by my side.

Entering the class, I noticed Damon sitting at the back, causing my heart to swell but deplet within a few seconds when I saw who was sitting next to him.

Sitting down on my usual place beside nerdy but totally sweet, Christy, I turned towards Damon, who was sitting at my right side, giving him a small smile.

He looked shocked at my face but slowly smiled back.

Whereas the idiot sitting next to him, called Tristan, completely ignored me.

Our teacher, Mrs. Moody, stepped in and hushed the class to take their places and got ready to start. She was one of the teachers that kept up to her name, Moody. Sometimes, she wold randomly smile while at other times she would snarl at any student who dared to interrupt her.

I was her favorite student and believe me, being in her good books was a matter of pride.

"Good morning class, today I will be teaching you all about the Russian revolution." She said in her crisp voice.

"Can anyone tell me when did it start?", she continued.

I immediately raised my hand and waited to be called upon. She smiled warmly at me and said," Yes? Miss Collins?"

"1917, Miss.", I answered confidently. Beside me I heard Tristan whisper,"Fuck."

"Very good, Lily" she said and continued. I knew the answer as I was quite jobless at home when my dad was not around and couldn't even go out as I was not permitted to except for my part time jobs.

I sat down and immediately glared at Tristan. He glared back with the same vigor.

Damon looked at both of us and asked me what happened to my face.

My eyes teared up and i just shook my head, not wanting to answer. I glanced at Tristan and noticed a pained expression on his face. Immediately my memories rushed to me and I remembered when I used to see him smiling at me with his cute dimples. Suddenly his face grew sour and he looked at the board.

It felt like someone had thrown cold water over me and I just shook my head and gave Damon a sad smile.

I willed the day to go faster in my head and listened attentively to Mrs. Moody.

After the period got over, I immediately grabbed my books and headed for the door, when Tristan blocked my path and said, " Lily, I need to talk to you..."