Beaten By Love

Chapter 7

                  

I blinked a few times, trying to wake myself up. It was still dark out. I reached to check the time on my phone – half three in the morning. The smashing sound came again. I knew I had to go out there. What if Jace hadn't heard it and it was someone breaking in?

I crept towards the door and silently opened it. Jace's door was closed. I carried on out into the hallway, heading towards the living room through to the kitchen where the smashing sound seemed to have come from.

That was when I heard swearing. And I relaxed. A little.

It was Jace's voice.

I slowly walked through, no lights were on.

But the lights from the city lit the room enough for me to see Jace, half naked, leaning against the counter top on the island in the middle of the kitchen. He was breathing heavily. I didn't understand what was going on.  There was shattered glass all over the counter and on the floor by his feet. There still stood two more glasses besides him, still intact.

Then he suddenly swiped one off the side, and raised it in the air, as if he was about to bring it down on the counter to smash it, when he noticed me standing in the darkness, watching him.

"What the fuck do you want?" He shouted at me.

I didn't know what to say. What was he doing?

He lowered his arm, but didn't put the glass down.

"Well? Fucking say something, for fucks sake"

He said it viciously, like a snarl, causing me to take a step back.

"Oh now you're scared of me? Not when you and your brother are being threatened because of me, or when I tell you you're staying at my place so they can't hurt you. When I put you in a room right across from mine, and the doors don't have locks. You haven't been scared of me at all until now when I'm smashing a few mere glasses? Are you fucking stupid, Shay? Because you fucking seem it"

I was shocked. Why was he saying this? He had protected me from day one, and he brought me here to protect me from whoever was threatening me.

"Jace...I don't know what's going on with you right now, but you won't hurt me. You've already saved my life, twice, and you're trying to protect me. Aren't you?"

I asked with uncertainty. Suddenly, everything didn't seem so sure.

He looked away from me, and finally put the glass down, to my relief. He swept a hand through his hair in frustration. He sighed, appearing to have calmed himself down.

I cleared my throat. "Um...we should get to sleep. We've got school in the morning."

He laughed. Grimly. Before looking straight at me.

"School isn't important right now. This is so much bigger than you, me and school, Shay"

He stepped away from the shards of glass littering the floor, treading carefully, and heading towards the sofa in the centre of the room and dropping down onto it, visibly relaxing.

I padded across the floor and sat down warily on the other end of the sofa.

"Jace...what's happening? Who are these people? What have you gotten yourself into?"

"It's none of your business"

"That's bullshit". I replied.

His turned his head instantly, curiosity burning in his eyes. He wasn't expecting me to speak out like that.

"Excuse me?"

"I said, it's bullshit. If it was none of my business, I'd be at my own apartment, with my brother, keeping one eye open in case I heard my dad come home. It's my business because people want to hurt me to get to you. So tell me what is going on. What are you a part of?"

His eyes grew angry. Shit.

"What makes you so sure I'm a part of anything?"

"You've got enemies, like you said. You must have done something to gain such acquaintances."

He stared at me for a while. As if he was studying me. It made me squirm, feeling uncomfortable under his gaze.

His eyes softened for just a moment in the dim light, and just when I thought he was going to open up and tell me the truth, his eyes went hard again and lost all emotion. He stood up and walked away.

"Whatever"

That seemed to be his go-to response. I needed to get used to that.

But just as he walked through a particularly brighter stream of light, I noticed marks on his back and shoulders but just as quickly they were gone. And he was gone, shutting his door behind him. Confused, I stood up and quietly went back to my room.

It wasn't until I was covered up in bed and finally drifting back to sleep, that it suddenly dawned on me what the marks on his back had been.

Scars.