BULLY-a.i-l.h

Chapter 2 (republished)

Aria's POV

I arrive home and notice that none of Luke's friends are at my house, so I walk in through the front door and sit on the couch that brings back so many bad memories, and I wait for Luke.

"Hey Aria." Luke says, sitting on the couch next to me.

"Luke." I say simply. He beats me on a daily basis, why should I be polite to him?

"I know I'm a jerk and I'm the worst brother in the entire world, I know, but please. I have a really important question to ask you." He pleads, touching my shoulder. I jerk away and move away from him a bit.

"Go ahead." I say, looking at his blonde hair, which used to flop casually around his head, but something inspired him to quiff it a while back.

"Do you cut your wrists?" He asks, looking dead into my eyes. I look away.

"Um..no I don't." I lie, crossing my legs.

"Show me your wrists." He says. I shake my head and put my hands behind my back.

"Please Aria, show me your wrists." He gently takes my lift hand and pulls the sleeve if my sweater up, revealing three fresh cuts and countless closed scars. He gasps.

"Aria, why do you do this to yourself?" He says sadly, pulling my sleeve back down. I shake m head and stand up.

"Why do you do this to me?" I yell as I run upstairs to my room, grabbing a razor and making ten deep cuts on my left wrist. Everything fades into darkness. Maybe it's better this way.

-Luke's POV-

I run upstairs after my sister and open her door. She's in there, on the floor, surrounded by a pool of her own blood. Oh no.

I run to her and pick her up. Blood is gushing from a new cut in her left wrist. I grab a white cloth and tie it around her wrist like a tensor wrap. Then, I carry her all the way downstairs and to my car, ignoring the fact that Ashton just pulled up to my driveway. I speed away, looking in the rear view every so often to confirm that he's following me.

I pick her up and run through the emergency doors. Doctors take her immediately, and try let me follow her to a second waiting room, where only two other people sit, parents of a child I'm guessing.

About five minutes later Ashton walks in with a nurse.

"There he is, thank you." He says. The nurse nods and struts back to the other room.

"What the hell happened? I was just going over to your house to show you the new video game my mom brought me and out you come with a girl in your arms. Why the hell did you have a girl in your house?" He nearly yells, earning multiple shushes from around the room.

"She lives in my house." I say. "And her name is Aria Rose Hemmings, or Carter as she now goes, she's my sister."

-Ashton's POV-

"She lives in my house." Luke says. Why does he have some random girl living in his house? Is she like an exchange student or something?

"And her name is Aria Rose Hemmings, or Carter as she now goes, she's my sister." I gasp. Luke has a sister? But wait, it couldn't be.

"You don't mean..."

"Yes," he cuts me off, holding up a hand. "The girl who you've made me beat for the past three years is my little sister."

I sit in complete shocked silence for a few minutes before nodding.

"Why didn't you tell us?" I ask him, looking into his eyes.

"Because you told me that first one you saw her that she was a loser. How would you feel if I called Lauren a loser? I was ashamed." He says, putting his head in his hands. "And now she's dying."

-Luke's POV-

"Any visitors for Aria Rose Hemmings?" A nurse says loudly. I stand up and Ashton does too.

I walk into the room to see my sister in a hospital bed with two iv's, one in her hand and one in her left wrist.

"We're giving her blood right now through that one in her wrist. She lost a lot of blood." The second I hear that I break down.

"Aria I'm so sorry I love you. You're my little sister and I've been the biggest bastard possible for three years. I'm so sorry, please forgive me Aria?" I ramble, barely able to breath.

"Of course I forgive you Luke. I was never mad at you." She says, I pull myself as close to her as I can and I hug her.

-Aria's POV-

I smile and then my smile fades when I notice my other visitor.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I say loudly. "Get the hell out of here before I call the police." I speak forcefully and he backs up a bit, looking shocked and concerned.

"I had no idea you're Luke's little sister. He didn't tell me. I'm so sorry for what I've done and I owe you so much that I'll probably never be able to repay you. I was just so jealous of you in year 8. You had so many friends, and I always though Luke was your friend, so I came up with the shittiest plan ever to ruin your social life, and it worked, and I regret every last second of it. Listen Aria, I'm so sorry, will you ever even consider forgiving me?" He says, looking at his feet in dismay.

"I've never been mad at you for what you've done, upset maybe but I'm a very forgiving person luckily. I don't trust you yet at all but I'm sure with time there will come a day when I will trust you." I say honestly, attempting to smile at the boy.

"Thank you so much Aria." He says, gently laying his hand on my shoulder. I slightly flinch away, but then I think to myself that he's not a threat anymore, and I start to calm down.

Luke's phone rings, and he puts up one infer as he leaves the room.

"So, I didn't want to say this with Luke in the room, but when you were in hear 8 I had this huge crush on you but I always knew that if I asked you to date me you'd say no, because I was the loser kid. So that's why I didn't like you much these past few years." Ashton confesses, running a hand through his wavy hair.

"That's silly, i wanted to be friends with everybody that year, that was my year, and I'm sure you had yours, remember 10th year?" I say, remembering when he was swarmed by a pack of girls who thought he was some boyband member or something.

He laughs and nods. "That was interesting."

"It says on your door that you have mild anxiety you know, they have your chart just kind of stuck to the door." He says, opening the door so that I can see just as Luke walks in.

"Mom can't get here, she's all the way in New York City until December." Luke says. "She just took off I'm guessing, because she told me she had to go."

I nod my head. "Mom's never really been here for us, she's been so absorbed in her work since I was probably eight." I tell Ashton, who nods.

"Last time I saw my dad he was like that." He says.

"You can be discharged tomorrow morning." A nurse steps in and says. "We just want to monitor everything for the night."

I smile weakly as I start to fall asleep.

"I'm sorry." Ashton whispers as I fall into a deep sleep.