Never Again

Chapter 17: Leaving

Her head was throbbing and when she opened her eyes everything was blurry. The light was very bright and when she tried to move her head the pain took over her body. She didn't know what had happened and taking a deep breath made it even worse, because her chest was hurting badly. After blinking a few times she could make out a white room and a person curled up in a chair next to her bed, Abby. Images from last night started flashing through her head and she slammed her eyes shut again while gritting her teeth. She let out a huge sigh, but winced when her cheek started to sting. Her face was bandaged and she imagined she had to be worse off than the last time.

'Hey, you're awake?' Abby's voice broke the silence in the room. She sat up in her chair and moved closer to the bed. She stroke Keira's hair when she saw a tear rolling down the bruised face. 'Shhh, don't worry, you're safe here,' she said in a tiny voice.

She could feel Abby's warm hand on her skin and tried to wipe away a tear. Abby being here meant a lot, she wasn't strong enough this time to do it alone. 'You're here,' she whispered.

'Of course I'm here! Where else would I be?' Abby sounded serious, but her voice trembled. She sat down on the bed so she could be closer to Keira. 'I'm so glad you called me,' a tear was now also escaping from her eyes.

'I did?' Keira was confused, there were still gaps in her memory from last night. She looked at Abby and tried to give her a small smile, but her face was hurting too much.

'Yes, you did. I immediately knew that something was wrong, so I called Tom and we hurried to your house. We found you passed out on the floor in a puddle of blood, it was the worst thing I have ever seen...' her voice trailed off and she scooped up one of Keira's hands. 'I was so scared Keir, I thought you were gone,' her voice was small and more tears escaped her eyes.

Keira squeezed her hand. 'I'm so sorry, I should've listened to you. It's all my fault, again,' she said timidly. Her throat was hurting and she could feel more tears burning in her eyes. The white room made the situation even more real and it contributed to the guilt she felt towards her friends, she had let them down.

'Don't worry, focus on recovery for now,' Abby planted a kiss on Keira's hair and handed her a glass of water to drink.

'I've ruined your night,' Keira sighed while accepting the water. 'I think I unintentionally cockblocked your guy, didn't I?' she tried to grin but her face wouldn't let her, so she just went with an apologetic smile.

The corners of Abby's mouth quirked up. 'Well, in the morning they aren't nearly as attractive as I thought they were, so it's not so bad,' she smirked while running her fingers through her uncombed hair. 'I'm glad you're like you again.'

'My body hurts all over though, do you know what happened?' she tried to reposition her pillow and even her arms were covered in bruises.

The smile faded from Abby's face when she heard that. 'I don't know exactly, David was nowhere to be seen when we arrived. However, the doctor said you have a broken cheekbone and bruised ribs,' she tried not to look too upset, she wanted to be strong for her friend.

Keira groaned, right, this was perfect. She would never forgive David for this, he had gone too far this time. Something other than her cheekbone also had broken last night, namely her heart. She had always kept hope that life would get better and that loving someone was going to be enough to fix problems. Now she saw that wasn't true and although she felt her heart ache at the prospect of leaving David, it had to be done.

'It could have been more serious,' Abby's voice sounded, 'you've been very lucky they said.'

Keira let out a hollow laugh. 'They call this lucky?' she said while pointing at her face.