Crawling Back To You

Chapter 26

Alex POV
'What the HELL are ya doin'?! DON'T YOU FUCKING TOUCH HER!' I yell. I think I've never been this angry before. He just slapped her. He slapped her.
She is still screaming in pain. She isn't even able to say anything or fight back.

'You took her from me, dick'ead! You better leave before I kill you!' He shouts, his face turning purple.

'She isn't yours! She isn't anyone's!' I say, trying to be brave. But Jack is really scaring. He is big, the muscles in his arms are almost bigger than his waist and he looks furious. I'm not brave. I'm scared actually. I'm a coward. Immediately when I saw him coming, I was scared. We were on our way to a hotel when we saw him coming. Hailey was afraid of him. What is he for terrible person? He walked towards us and looked really angry. Apparently he knew we were a sort of "together" again. He ran to Hailey and slapped her right in her face. Can you believe it? He slapped his girlfriend!

'Just leave her alone!' I add.

'Says who? Who has to leave her alone?!' Jack shouts, ignoring the crying girl who is sitting on the pavement.

'Look at her! Are you making her happy? Do ya? Seriously, man, you are no good to her! You're a real jerk!' I scream and I mean it.
Jack starts beating and kicking me. My face, my stomach and my shoulder. Hailey screams, but she can't stop him. Neither do I. I try to hit him too and I do hit him, but he is so much stronger. Then he finally stops. I fall down on my knees.

'C'mon Hailey, let's go,' Jack says. But Hailey looks him in the eyes and slaps him. Revenge.

Hailey helps me up and we stumble forwards.

'Alex, I am so sorry!'

'No, none of this is your fault! It's just one big mess!' I almost fall, but she helps me. Her arm on my waist keeps me up. Everything hurts.

'Where the hell did you get to know this guy?!'

'You mean Jack?' Hailey asks. I nod.

'He seemed nice... I met him at some strange bar. And I dunno... I've never seen him like this...' She explains. She's really hurt. She tries to hide, but I just see she is.

'You mean a lot to him,' I groan.

We enter our hotel room and I lay down on the bed. My nose is still bleeding heavily. So is my lower lip. I feel all broken.
Hailey sits down next to me with a cool pack. She puts it on my bruised shoulder, which makes me shiver. Not because of the cold, but because of Hailey. She makes my heart pounding really fast. I haven't had that a for a long time.

'Why do we have to get together like this all the time?' I mutter. 'Why can't it just be because we make each other happy? And not because of all this crap...'

'You do make me happy! Leaving out the circumstances though...' She chuckles. She touches my cheek for one little moment and I almost stop breathing.

'I'm sorry, did that hurt?'

'No, not at all!' I say quickly. 'I was just forgotten how nice it felt when you touch me...' I stare at her lips. Desire flows through my body. I want her.

She looks like I scared her a little. Not like she didn't like me to say it, but more like she isn't able to say things like that too. She doesn't. Saying something like that, I mean. She walks away and comes back with a wet towel. First she swipes away my hair. Then she carefully holds the towel against my swollen eye without talking. I don't want her to say anything. Just looking at her and feeling her beautiful hands touching me is enough.
I can see where Jack hit her. Next to her eye her skin is a little thick and it's slowly turning blue.

'You need that towel too,' I say, pointing next to her right eye.

'I'm okay...'

'No. Really. Please let me...' I hold the towel softly against her face. She finally looks me in the eyes.
Hailey's phone rings.

'Fuck.' She brings the thing up to her ear.

'Hello? Dad?' I can feel the silence turning heavy.

'What? What's wrong? Dad, please answer me! What happened?' Her eyes grow bigger and bigger. Desperately she throws her phone on the bed. Ignoring the pain, I got up from the bed and I'm walking towards her.

'My father said we have to go to the hospital. Right now.'
I want to ask her so much, but I can't.
Jamie picks us up and drives us to the hospital. We don't say a word. None of us. Jamie doesn't even asks about Alex's bruises. Maybe it's fear. Maybe it's the awareness of something bad.

Hailey POV
Immediately when we walk in, I know there's something terribly wrong. But still I want to deny it.

'Dad?' Is the first thing I can say. My voice is hoarse, my throat dry. My father can't look at me. He looks like he is about to cry.

'Dad!' I say a little louder. I want him to tell me it's okay. I want him to wake me up of this nightmare, which hasn't actually started yet.

A nurse has to tell me what's going on. I haven't heard a word of what she told me. I only see the cold, pale body of my mother, laying on exactly the same place as where I left her today. She is like a scary doll. And still she is my mother. No, this is not my mother. This isn't real.

'Dad! Stop staring like that! What are you standing there?! Please just DO something! This is not real, TELL ME IT'S NOT REAL!' I panic. Alex tries to calm me down. Well, it doesn't really work.

'Let go of me! LET GO OF ME!' I run to my mother.

'WAKE UP! DON'T YOU FUCKING LEAVE ME!' I try everything, but I know it won't work. The doctors want to take me away, but Alex stops them. Finally I burst into tears and let Alex hug me.