Complication

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Lucas's POV:

The door bashed against the wall so hard I thought the glass was going to shatter. I spin around from the hockey game I was watching to see Gina, breathing heavily at the doorway, eyes red. "Gina?" I ask, wondering why she's home and what could possibly have happened.

She sees me staring and runs up the stairs into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

Confused, I walk upstairs to the door and knock. "What's wrong?" I ask, truly worried.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, I turn the knob, surprised that it's open, and find her sitting in the corner with her knees tucked up and her head resting on them. I kneel down in front of her and she looks up to me. She wasn't crying but I could tell she wanted to. But why?

"What happened?" I whisper. She's says nothing for a while so I encourage her. "You can tell me, it's okay."

Silence until she faintly, barely audible, says "Liam".

Anger surges through me, what did he do to make her feel like this? I wanted to go beat the shit out of him but then I look at her face and realize that she wouldn't want that. Right now she need to be comforted. I wrap my arms around her and pull her towards me. She leans her head on my shoulder and every once and a while I hear a faint sob come from her, yet I knew she was trying to hold it in. I whisper soothing things in her ear and rub her back, wishing I could do more to help her.

Soon her sobs faded but she never let go. I put my hands under her thighs, lifting her off the floor and she wraps her legs around my waist so that I'm carrying her like a toddler that's clung to her mother.

I walk up the flight of stairs and into her room where I somehow successfully climb onto her bed without letting her go and sit crisscrossed with my back against the wall. She lays her head on my chest and I notice that she quickly fell asleep.

I still rub her back. Never have I ever seen her this upset over something. Whatever Liam did, he better fix this.

*******************

I wake up before the sun rises and soon after Gina is jolted awake. I scrunch my eyebrows, "Are you okay?" I ask softly. Not only about last night but right now, did she have a nightmare?

I get no answer except that she rolls away from me and lays her head on the pillow. I notice her body relax and then I know she fell back asleep. What was I supposed to do? I don't know how to help her.

I quietly get out of her bed then walk downstairs into the kitchen. I call Liam, hoping that he'll answer. I have to know what happened, maybe then I could help her.

"Hello" his tired, hung over voice answers the phone.

"Ugh, Liam! You've been drinking!" He, like me, can't handle one to many drinks. But I was surprised too. He usually knows his limit and is always the designated driver by the end of the night because he's the only one that's sober. I don't wait for an answer before I continue, "What did you do to her?" I ask him quietly, not wanting Gina to hear.

"What?"

"She came home about to cry! And she hasn't spoken a word except your name! What did you do!?" I try my best to keep my voice steady but I can't seem to hold it in.

After a couple seconds I hear a low "Shit" from him. "Shit, shit, shit!"

"What!" I ask, he was obviously just remembering whatever happened.

"Shit Lucas, I made a big mistake. A really big one." He begins to tell me what happened and with every word my hand clenches tighter on my phone and by the end I thought it would snap in half.

"How could you do that!" I angrily whisper. "You know that she's not like that! You can't do that to her!" I was pissed, he should've known better, drunk or not, it was no excuse. I remember when me and Justin fought and how crushed she was, she's so tough most of the time but, like everyone else, some things make her fragile.

Realization hits me, she's not just thinking about Liam, she's thinking about Justin too. And the combination is just too much for her. "I have to go." I say to Liam.

"Wait! What do I do!"

"Give her space." I say before hanging up.

I knew that I should follow my own advice and leave her alone but I just felt like I needed to be there for her. She was there for me when she really should've left me in the dust and this was the least I could do.

"Hey" I whisper and nudge her shoulder. "Come one. You can't stay in here forever."

She rolls over and slowly opens her eyes and sits up. I thought she was going to say something but then she looks away. I debate on telling her that I know, would it help? Frankly, I don't know but I take a long shot and tell her. "Liam told me what he did." I softly say and her head looks towards me. "It was wrong of him, I know. But I know that's not all that you're thinking about." Her eyes grow wide, wondering how I could possibly know. "You're thinking about Justin, aren't you?"

She looks down and nods but doesn't say anything.

"Can you come downstairs? You're going to hate me for asking you this but can you eat something?"

She looks at me and laughs, "Sure"

I was surprised and I quickly go downstairs to make her something. What would she want? It's only now that I realize how little I really know about her. I search through the pantry and come across pancake mix and hope that she'll like it.

It seems like forever before she slowly walks down the stairs and sits down at the counter. She looks at bowl of pancake batter and smiles, "There better be chocolate chips going in there." she says in her normal voice.

I smile and search through the pantry to find the bag of chocolate chips. "Ah ha! Got it!" I say as I finally find the chocolate chips that were stashed all the way in the back. But when I turn back around I see her face blankly staring at the wall. I give her her space and make the pancakes in silence, every once in a while glancing at her to see any change but she stayed in her trance, even when I put a full plate of food in front of her.

I eat slowly, seeing if she'll even try to eat. After ten minutes I finally speak up and quietly say, "Come on, Gina. Please eat."

She looks at me and shyly smiles, picking up her fork she takes a tiny piece and eats it.

"Wow, you must be stuffed. For dessert why don't we each split a crumb?" Sarcasm oozes from my voice before I could think of what I was saying.

But to my surprise she giggles, "I needed that. Real talk." She takes another tiny bite then pauses and turns in her seat towards me and looks as if she's going to say something but reconsiders and turns back around to stare at her plate and play with her food.

"What were you going to say?" I ask but all she does is shake her head.

It annoys me that she feels like she can't talk to me. Well... I don't blame her, only three weeks ago did we actually start to get along, all before that she hated me. It was for a good reason, I agree with her on that.

After five more minutes of silence she walks back up the stairs and I hear her go in her room. I leave her alone. Her phone buzzes and I wonder why she left it down here. Liam's name comes across her screen as a call and when it ends her lock screen shows that he left her five messages. I put her phone in the middle of the counter and a note saying that I have to go to the show grounds. I'm an hour late but I'll take the penalty. I just wish I could do more for her.