The weeks flew by and despite Eli not talking about our kiss that night on the bridge, we had gotten closer over the time that had passed ever since.
For example, he hugged me a lot more now even though I felt kind of awkward about it. He didn't seem to notice and just smiled his usual adorable smile at me. It wasn't that I didn't like him, I was just so used to the only contact I had which was the beatings from my dad.
I was slowly getting used to it though and even hugged him back sometimes which made Jett extremely jealous. I didn't understand why so I didn't question him.
One day though, I had been hit worse than usual by my father and had fallen into our glass coffee table which had shattered upon contact. The sound of the glass breaking rung out in my ears.
All I could see was tiny pieces of glass fly past my face and some sliced up my arms and legs. I cried out in shock of all the pain in my arms and quickly backed away from my father who was shaking from rage. I noticed he was very drunk though which was probably why this had happened.
"Get out of my sight!" He yelled at me, making me quake with the fear that he'd throw a punch.
I shakily stood up, pain searing through me but I forced myself to leave. I didn't stop in the hallway and ran straight out the front door without saying anything. At this point, I didn't care if anyone saw me because all I could focus on was getting to Eli's house.
Tears were dripping down my face and I was very much conscious of all the blood sliding down my arms. I was no professional but I could tell I needed some sort of medical help because of how deep some of the cuts were. Some of them still had the glass embedded in my skin.
I ran up to the front door of Eli's house and knocked loud enough to be heard.
I suddenly panicked because it was very late at night and everyone was probably asleep. This thought made me bite my lip in anticipation, wondering if the door would open.
Luckily for me though, it did, lighting up the doorstep and revealing a very sleepy looking Jett who was just in his nightwear. His hair was all over the place where he must have just gotten out of bed. He looked at me in confusion.
"Ash?" He blinked. "What the hell happened to you? You're covered in blood, come in quickly."
I stepped inside hurriedly and he looked at my arms in alarm.
"Wait here." He ordered and made a dash to the stairs. I listened as he knocked the upstairs doors and spoke in hushed tones to his mother and Eli.
Five seconds later, Eli came running downstairs with his mother behind him. She burst into tears when she saw me and Eli could only look in shock at my sliced up arms.
"What happened Ash? You have to tell us otherwise we can't help you." She said once she'd stopped the tears from falling.
"H-he was drunk." I stated, my voice wavering in fear. "I don't know why but he was really angry and he pushed me so hard I fell into the coffee table. It smashed and I got cut up pretty badly."
I looked down at my arms. Many of the cuts were still open and bleeding, causing little droplets of blood to roll down my skin. Some of the cuts were long and ugly, having ripped into my flesh like a knife into butter.
"She needs to go to the hospital." Jett observed calmly. He had been leaning against the doorframe and had been looking at my injuries. "Some of the glass is still inside."
"No!" I yelled, my heart rate increasing dramatically. "I can't, they'll know what's happened and my parents will flip!"
"Ash, calm down." Eli said gently, putting an arm around me carefully as though he thought I was as delicate as the thing that had hurt me: glass.
"Sweetie, you need to see a doctor about this. These cuts won't heal with the glass still inside there." Mrs Barnes said, gesturing to them all.
I frowned, my heart thumping in my chest as I worried about what would happen if I went to the hospital. The doctors would surely question how I did this and if they found out, my parents would be spoken to by the police for abuse. I could imagine the sort of punishment I would get from my dad if that happened.
"They'll know." I whispered quietly. "My Dad will kill me if they find out."
"If he lays a finger on you I will kill him." Jett snapped angrily, losing his cool all of a sudden.
"That makes two of us." Eli replied.
"Three of us!" Their mum answered sternly from beside me.
"Thanks so much you guys but I'll be okay now." I smiled weakly.
"No you won't young lady." She said. "We're going straight to the hospital now, no arguments. You'll come here and stay with us afterwards."
So that was that. I couldn't argue against Eli's mum, she was so headstrong and no one would dare go against her.
We walked outside to the car and Jett quickly jumped into the front, making his mother glare at him before she started the engine. Eli helped me get into the back with him as my arms and legs were in so much pain I could barely move without one of the cuts screaming in agony.
"Don't worry, we'll get this sorted. You'll be okay, Ash." He murmured into my ear as we drove away.
I nodded bravely but I was still frightened beyond belief at what might happen once we get to the hospital.
A little while later, we arrived at the hospital doors and Eli rushed me inside as quickly as he could. The white walls of the hospital blurred past me as I was lead down several corridors. I finally found myself sat down on a hospital bed with several concerned faces staring at me.
"It's okay, you'll be fine by tomorrow morning." A nurse said from beside me, giving me a big fake smile. I could see past her mask and underneath I saw that she could tell this was no accident.
I laid back on the bed and didn't try to stop my eyes closing. The last thing I saw was Eli before I was soon fast asleep.
