The car ride home felt long and quiet since neither one of us said a thing. I could tell that Nick was deep in thought though. Instead of pulling up to my house Nick drove down to his house and helped me out of the truck just as Jax pulled up in his car.
"I'm gonna run down to your place and tell Charlie you're with me and grab a few of your things." he told me as he started to leave.
"Nick don't!" I say grabbing his hand with both of mine. "Please. Don't." I plead with him as tears start to come.
"I'll be back. Don't worry I'll just say we have a project to work on." Nick says as he cups my cheek while wiping away my tears. "Go with Jax. He'll find you a snack."
Jax comes over and leads me to Nick's house. I'm honestly scared of him going to my house because if Liz knows I'm with him I'll get an even harder beating when I get home later.
"Hey you okay?" Jax asks, putting his hand on my shoulder and giving it a comforting squeeze.
"No. I'm not." I whisper.
"Let's go get you a snack."
"That's not necessary Jax." He gives me a confused look before I continue. "I don't really eat." I say looking down.
"What?!?! Okay come with me." he says as he grabs my hand and leads me into the house and upstairs into one of the bedrooms. "Spill. Now." Jax says sternly with his arms crossed over his chest to make him look more intimidating.
"If I tell you, you have to swear not to tell Nick."
"I promise."
"Liz hardly lets me eat."
"What?" Jax hissed at me. "Your sister starves you?"
"Please don't say anything Jax! Not to anyone!"
"Guys! I'm back!" I hear Nick call from downstairs.
"In your room!" I'm in his room?!?! What's he going to think by me being alone with Jax in his bedroom?!?
"You say anything or hint anything to Nick and I'll strangle you." I say jabbing a finger at his chest.
"You have my word." he says with his hands up defensively.
"What are you two up to?" Nick says leaning against his door frame with an amused look on his face.
"Nothing." we both say at the same time.
"Uh huh. Whatever lets go do something fun." Nick led the way downstairs and just as we entered the family room my phone vibrated. I pulled it out and saw that I had a new message and it was from Liz too.
Liz: You are in SO much trouble when you get home!
"Lark?" I turn to see Nick and Jax looking at me obviously concerned. The tears were getting ready to come. All I could do was shake my head at them before I ran out the door and ran for home.
I ran straight up to my room not even bothering to see who was home. Soon there was rapid knocking on my door.
"Go away!" The door flew open revealing my sister. "Liz...please don't. It was all Nick I swear." I say trying to reason with her. But it doesn't work. She storms over to my bed, grabs my arm and pulls me up to my feet.
"What did I say?!?!" she yells as she slaps me really hard across the face. The force of the slap causes me to fall to the ground while clutching my face. "I've told you multiple times to stay away from people that will give you the attention you don't deserve!" Liz repeatedly kicks me in the stomach and my ribs. She then pulls me to my feet and punches me in the face so hard that my eye is going to be swollen for a while. "Don't let this happen again." she hisses in my ear before hitting me in the stomach and leaves me.
I lay on my bed all night sobbing into my pillow. My phone goes off all night with calls and texts from Nick, I ignore it all not wanting to get into more trouble. Being too scared to leave my room the next morning I sent Liz a text asking if I could stay home and surprisingly she said yes.
Around noon I wake up to pounding on my bedroom door. And of course being scared out of my mind, thinking that its Liz, I run and hide in my on-suite bathroom. I hear the door open and someone walking around my room.
"Lark?" I hear the person say.
"Nick?" I ask. He then comes into my bathroom and just looks at me.
"What happened?" I look down not daring to look at him. He could already see my stomach since I had on a sports bra and he could see the bruises on my legs since I had on shorts as well. I could tell he was already pissed off from what he could see.
"Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to." I whisper. Nick came over and sat in front of me and took my hands in his own.
"We had an agreement." I must have given him a questioningly look when I looked up at him. I saw his jaw clench as he probably saw whatever damage there was on my face. "The bet that we made yesterday. You lost." My face fell as I remembered our bet.
"Please go."
"Get ready. We're going out."
"I'm not going out like this!"
"Come on Lark. We have a lot to talk about so please go get ready." Nick says as he gives me a hand up.
"Can you please just go Nick?" I ask quietly. "I don't want you to get hurt."
"I'm not going to get hurt Lark." he tells me as he takes my hands in his, pulling me closer to him and holding them close to his heart. I can't bring myself to look at him so I just look down at my feet waiting for him to let go and leave.
"LARKEN?!?!" I pull my hands from his as my eyes widen as I hear Liz yell from downstairs.
"Nick you have to leave. Now." I hiss while shoving him towards the balcony.
"No. I'm not leaving you with her." Nick says as he stands his ground.
"Fine. But when I get abused again, it's on you." At that his eyes widen and he heads towards the balcony with me on his heels.
"I'll be back." he tells me. Just before he climbs onto the trellis, he kisses my cheek, causing me to blush and to stare at him and his retreating form as he climbs down. Once he reaches the ground he looks up at me, smiles and waves, then takes off down the road for his house.
