Piecing it Together

Chapter 8

Jordyn POV

I haven't been at school all week. After having surgery Saturday night, I was told by the doctor to stay out for a week. It didn't matter anyways. I had to stay in the hospital for four days. I guess there were a lot of unusual things that happened to me. They say you only stay for two days but it depends on the type of surgery you have.

My appendix was so swollen they had to use the open method instead of the three small incisions. Let's just say I will have a nice scar on my stomach. To top it off, the pain hasn't gone away. This pain is crazy. They gave me Vicodin, but I have weird side effects with it. My face constantly itches when I take it, so I stopped.

A week and a half after I had surgery, I was able to go back to school. I was limited with some things. I wasn't allowed to carry my stuff from class to class. I thought it was stupid. I don't want people going out of their way to help me. I guess I can't have my stomach have too much strain on it.

Anyways, on the first day back my mom drove me. She wanted to make sure all the teachers knew if I started complaining about pain to call her. She is being a little overprotective.

When she finally decided to leave, I went to my locker. I haven't seen or heard from Callie since the weekend we were at WSU. I tried to text and call her, but she didn't respond.

I wait for about five minutes until she comes walking in. When she sees me, she turns around. She starts walking down the hallway.

What is that about?

I ended up going to my first hour and not chasing after her.

With only a minute left until the bell was going to ring, Christian walked in. This is the first time I have seen him since I found out what he did to Callie. He sits down beside me.

"About time you come back." He tried to tease me.

I didn't find it funny coming from him. I don't even want to look at him let alone sit by him.

"What's going on with Callie?" I asked to see if he knew.

He leans over his desk. I could smell the weed on him making me want to vomit.


"I think she is afraid to tell you because you will be jealous"

I look at him confused. "Tell me what?"

Christian sits back at his desk looking over at me with his cocky smile. "We are dating."

What? He turns away from me keeping a smirk on his face. How in the hell can she date him?

I get up. I need to find Callie. I walked to the door and was met by the teacher.

"Are you going somewhere Miss Chancellor?"

The bell then sounds. I walk back to my desk with the sounds of Christian's laughs echoing in my ear.

The angrier I got, the more I felt my body tense up, which was making me feel nauseous.

After class, I went straight to my locker hoping this time Callie didn't avoid me. If she did, we shared the next class.

"Your back!" I hear a chipper voice that sounds completely fake.

I turn around to see Callie standing there.

"Callie what the hell?"

She gets in her locker and grabs her stuff.

"What?" She almost fooled me pretending like she doesn't have a clue what's going on.

We start walking to class when Christian comes and puts his arm around her. I look at her face and see two different sides of her. There is part of her where I think she truly likes him, but then there is a side that looks frightened and scared.

Christian unfortunately walks with us all the way to class. Him touching her made my blood boil.

We got to our classroom door and Christian was still standing there.

"You can go now." I try to get him to leave.

He ignores it. me. He puts his hand on Callie's face. It did not look friendly or gentle.

"I will see you after class." He then leans and gives her a kiss. The way he said 'will' sounded like a threat.

We walk into class and take our seats. Callie tries to keep her head down.

"Callie, why are you even talking to him let alone dating him?" My patience is running thin with her not communicating. "He hurt you and he is going to hurt you again."

I know she isn't listening to a word I'm saying.

"Leave it alone and worry about your own life." Callie mumbles.

How am I supposed to leave it alone when she comes crying to me about it? What kind of person would just drop it?


Paige POV

I just finished my midterm test for biology. Even though midterms were a couple of weeks ago, the teacher is counting this test as it. It was hard and frustrating. I'm one of the worst test takers. I can do homework no problem. Most of the time I don't even need my book.

When we are timed, I start to freak out. It's like my mind messes with me and gets me all worked up. If I finish too fast, I start to second guess my answers. Test scores are what brings my grades down.

I decided to walk around campus to let off some steam from the test. The air outside was refreshing. Nothing can beat fresh air when a stressful time hits you. I go over to a tree and sit under it. I lay back with my headphones in. I close my eyes and relax.

After a while, I feel my phone vibrate on my stomach. I pick it up and see a text from Jordyn.

Jordyn: Can you call me when you have time?

I click her name and hold the phone up to my ear.

"Hey you." I say as she answers.

Jordyn starts talking.

I can instantly tell there is something up.

"I need your advice." Jordyn starts off. "I need to tell you something first. I don't want you to flip out."

I sit up and brace my back against the tree.

"Okay."

"Christian and Callie are dating." She then pauses for what felt like a minute.

Is she trying to tell me she is jealous? "And?"

I hear her take a deep breath.

"The reason why she came with me the other weekend is because she told me he physically hurts her. Then when I got back to school from being gone, I found out they are now dating."

I start picking at grass to keep myself from not saying anything.

"I'm worried about Callie. I don't know what to do Paige." Jordyn voiced.

Now that I feel like it's my turn to talk, I do so. "You need to convince her to leave him. If she doesn't, you need to tell an adult."

Jordyn sighs on the phone. "How can I convince her?"

Before answering I take a second to think. How do you convince someone who is in an abusive relationship to get out of it? There is a reason she hasn't left yet.

"When you talk to her, let her know that you remember the bruises he left and you worry about leaving her alone with him. Remind her how worried you were when you saw how upset she was when she told you about it. Continue to offer to do things with her. Help her feel successful without him."

I try to brainstorm more thoughts, but one main thing comes to mind.

"Offer to go with her to get help. If she refuses, you might have to tell an adult yourself."

The phone goes silent.

"Jordyn, are you there?"

"Yeah, I'm here." Jordyn answers. "Thank you so much."

I smile to myself. "I'm always here for you Jordyn. Always."

"I know and I love you for that." She says before ending the call.

When we hung up the phone, I looked at the time. I realize I only have twenty minutes to get to the meeting. I get off the ground and hurry to get across campus.

"Where are you off to in a hurry?" I hear a voice from my side.

I look over to see Derek walking beside me. I rarely see him on campus. With him being in season and having football nonstop, he has been a ghost.

"I have to go to a meeting." I was vague not wanting to tell him exactly what I'm doing.

He continues to walk beside me. With his hair being wet and by what he is wearing, I'm assuming he is coming from football practice.

"I will walk with you."

I look up at him confused as to why he wants to walk with me.

"I heard Jordyn met my ex-girlfriend." He ends up saying.

This causes me to stop walking. "Ex-girlfriend?"

He nods. That relationship didn't last long.

Derek was standing there looking uncomfortable.

"What happened to you Derek?" I have wanted to ask him this for a while.

"What do you mean?"

We start walking again.

I glance at him. "You have changed. You used to be someone people could look up to. You even lied to your ex-girlfriend about why Jordyn and you broke up."

He runs his hand through his hair. "I shouldn't have lied, but you know how hard it is to tell a girl that your girlfriend left you for another girl?"

"You didn't have to tell her anything. It was none of her business. Instead, you lied and it got back to the one girl you say means the world to you."

He gently grabs my shoulder to stop me walking.

"I know. I tried so hard to be everyone's friend in high school. When things went bad, I felt like anger started to take over. Anger that I would never show because I didn't want a bad word to be said about me. I'm the guy who people say have it all. I have rich parents, athletic ability, and good looks. To everyone else that means I have everything. If I lashed out, I'm the rotten spoiled kid. Everything started to build up. I managed it poorly."

Derek pauses as he catches his breath.

"Now I'm here with a fresh start. It's normal for me to lash out. It's normal for me to be rude. No one cares because they don't know my home life and who I used to be."

I stare at the guy I grew up with. "Is this the guy you want to be? Do you want people to be scared to talk to you because they don't know what Derek they are going to get? You don't have to be the perfect guy Derek. No one expects that from you. It's ok to get mad. It's okay to lash out, but you have to learn how to control it."

I look at the time. I don't have much left. I start walking again.

Derek continues to walk with me. "I feel like it's one or the other."

We get to the building where I'm trying to go.

"Look, I have to go. If you want, you can come inside with me. Maybe it will do you some good to tag along."

He looks at the building then back at me. "What is this?"

I debated whether to tell him, but since I invited him to come, I might as well.

"It's a support group for students. A place to talk about stuff you're dealing with."

I could tell he was contemplating whether to go in.

"Why do you go?" He questions.

I play with the straps on my backpack. "This is my first time coming. If you want to know why I am here, then come in with me."

I walk in and he follows. We walked into the room and there were about fifteen people in there.

We took our seats together. Someone started it off by standing up and telling their story. This went on and on. It was crazy to hear some of the things people have gone through.

I stand up to go.