World Behind My Wall (A7X/The Rev)

Chapter 20|The Last Fight With A Drunken Demon

Jimmy's POV

At the end of school the next day, I smiled when I came around the corner and saw Rylie already at her locker. She was better today than she was yesterday, happier. It made me less worried about her, maybe there really wasn't anything major going on that she's keeping from me. I walked down the hall and came up behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist. 

"Good afternoon, beautiful." I said into her ear, kissing her cheek. 

I saw her smile. "Hey, you." 

"So, how was your--" I began asking her how her day went, but I stopped when the sleeve of her sweatshirt pulled up as she reached into her locker, and I saw something I didn't want to see. I reached up and stopped her motion gently, keeping her arm in place. "Rylie..."

She tensed, and paled, knowing what I'd seen. Holding her arm with one hand, I reached up with the other and gently pulled her sleeve all the way back to her elbow. Tears came to my eyes when I saw all the extremely fresh cuts. When and why could she have done this? She seemed happy today, what went wrong?

"Baby, what did I do wrong? Why would you do this again?" I asked her, my voice cracking.

Rylie spun around, eyes wide. "Jimmy, no! You didn't do anything wrong, you're perfect! It has nothing to do with you, I swear." 

"Then why?" My voice came out near a whisper.

"It's nothing, Jimmy. Don't worry about it." She tried to dismiss it, turning back to her locker and shutting the door. I spun her back around, not about to let her just dismiss things and tell me not to worry anymore. No more 'Mr. Nice Guy'. 

"Rylie, you hurting yourself is not nothing, and you can't expect me not to worry. This is serious, and you need to talk to me about whatever's going on because you continuing to do this to yourself is not ok." I told her sternly. 

Rylie stared back at me, swallowing hard. Then, she said, "Ok, you're right. It's serious. But I can't talk about it tonight, I'm helping Johnny study. Tomorrow, after school, I'll tell you everything." 

I relaxed a little, glad that she was going to talk to me about this. "You promise?" 

"I promise." 

"Good. You're too beautiful to be doing that to yourself." I said with a softer voice, giving her a gentle kiss. I was reluctant to leave her side after I pulled away, but I had to trust that she'd be ok for the night. Then tomorrow, I'll do whatever I can to help her. "Go study with Gnome Boy, I'll see you tomorrow morning. I love you." 

"I love you too." She replied, kissing me once more before she went to go meet Johnny at the front doors of the school.

As I walked out to the back parking lot to where my car was, throwing my bag in the passenger's seat as I got in, I felt a small bit of relief that Rylie was finally going to tell me what was going on with her. I was even more relieved that I wasn't the reason for her cutting this time. I'd automatically assumed that it was my fault that she cut again because I had always been a big reason for her to do it. I was glad that I wasn't at fault, but that didn't overshadow the fact that she was doing it in general. I don't want there to be any reason for her to hurt herself, so that's why I will do whatever it takes to get her to stop for good.

Rylie's POV

I found it hard to focus on helping Johnny study for this test he has coming up, thinking about my conversation with Jimmy earlier. He'd noticed the cuts, and I knew it was only a matter of time before he would see them, but I didn't think it would be this soon. And now I've promised to tell him everything tomorrow afternoon, which means the situation with my father. I'm really nervous about that, but I can see that it's time for this thing to come out, because I'm not able to avoid it anymore. Jimmy's too curious and suspicious for me to be able to find ways to keep it from him and make excuses, and I absolutely hate lying to him. I feel like a bad girlfriend when I do, and I am for lying. I'm just afraid that if my dad found out he was the one who told, he'll get hurt and I can't stand to see him get hurt because of me. I know that he's going to be heartbroken when he finds out, and I sort of have this silly fear that once he knows the truth, he'll leave me because he doesn't want to deal with a girl who's getting abused by her father, because he doesn't want to be involved. I wouldn't really blame him if he did.