I Hate You But I Love You.

I Hate You But I Love You. Chapter 16

**Scarlet's P.O.V.**

I didn't get much sleep last night, I was ravaged by nightmares. But at least, another piece of the puzzle was uncovered.

I walked with the boy through the neighborhood for a while, the rain still not letting up. But I couldn't find my voice to even ask him his name. It was hard to grasp reality right now.

But soon we came up to a normal size house, empty driveway and the lights were off. It was probably around midnight. He opened the front door that wasn't locked and I left my shoes and socks at the entrance, as did he. Then he pulled me through the dark house.

He opened a door to a bathroom, closed the door behind us and turned on the light. It was blinding for a moment so I shielded my eyes. When I removed my hands he was staring at me with a towel in his grasp. He rubbed the towel over his head, moving the hair out of his face and I noticed a bruise forming on his jaw line and his clouded dark brown eyes.

I felt something drip down my forehead and figured it was water from the rain but he came over and pressed the towel against my head.

"You're bleeding," he said quietly.

I shakily reached my hand up to hold the towel in place and he went to look in the cabinet under the sink. A moment later he pulled out what looked like a first aid kit.

In my dazed state I faintly realized he looked familiar. Does he go to my school? My brain could barely focus on anything right now.

After the boy placed a band aid over the cut on my head he grabbed more gauze and tapped it down to the other cuts on my sore face.

He then stood back and looked me over, "Your clothes seem blood stained; so where else are you hurt?"

I looked down at myself and took off my thin jacket I had put on in a rush before I left, to reveal long scratch marks on my upper right arm and bruises scattered around on both arms. Upon seeing the wounds I started shaking not wanting to think back to what happened.

The boy quickly came over to hug me and started murmuring soothing words. Then he went to clean up the wounds on my arms. After that he stood back, "Anything else?"

My hand went to grasp the first aid kit and I motioned for him to leave.

I pressed my fingers against my temples as I remembered. Even if I didn't remember all of it, Lukas sure did. Who wouldn't remember finding a strange girl in an alley way and bringing her back to his house? He probably never brought it up because he realized I didn't remember. I just wish I could remember the whole thing; not knowing the end is killing me.

"I said I don't want to fucking talk about it!"

The hell? Turning around I saw Lukas looking very frustrated and flipping off everyone that was near him and his friend Mark staring after him with blank eyes. Lukas started walking down the hallway, but I noticed something peculiar about his stride. My eyes widened. No...

I quickly walked up to him, "Um, Lukas, are you okay?"

He stopped in his tracks and stared at me and I could see the pain in his eyes, "I'm... fine. No need to worry." Liar.

But nonetheless, he walked away obviously not wanting to be near anyone. I guess, if I'm right, then that would make sense, wouldn't it? All the clues point in that direction. It's a sad, sad, world we live in after all.

~*~*~

It was now lunch time and I noticed Lukas duck out of the back doors. I wouldn't blame him; getting a belt to the back really hurts and it looked like he got it bad. So wait, did that mean he got...abused at home? I've had my assumptions, but if it was true...

I shook my head, why am I thinking about this? It's none of my business. Maybe I should think about the fact that I haven't seen Alice since yesterday when we snapped at each other and I had my little, er, freak out. I looked up at Trinity who was reading a book. She hadn't said anything about Alice, and now I was starting to wonder where she was. She wouldn't get that pissed over a little spat, would she?

Trinity then looked up from her book, "Wondering where Alice is?"

I took a sip of my drink and raised an eyebrow at her, "How do you do that?"

"I'm awesome," she said nonchalantly, "But I haven't seen her all day."

"That's weird. Do you think she really got that pissed?"

Trinity sighed and closed her book, "I don't know. Maybe."

"Why is she so spazzy? I'm aloud to have my own friends; she doesn't have to like them."

Trinity held up her hands, "Hey, I know."

"Lukas and his friends aren't bad people either. They're actually pretty cool." I had a lot of fun hanging out with them; they were entertaining and I'm sure they were all good people in their own ways contrary to what other people thought of them.

Trinity shrugged, "I'm sure they are, but you know Alice," she made a weird gesture with her hand and I nodded while raising an eyebrow a little.  

"So, she skipped. That's just like her," I stated with a humorless laugh, while leaning back in my chair.

~*~*~

"Mom, you're home early," I noted as I walked in the front door. She was sitting at the kitchen table, poking through some random papers. She looked over at me and smiled a sad smile. Uh oh, I know that look.

"Well, I have some homework I need to do," I said quickly, diverging for the hallway, but she stood up.

"Wait, honey."

I stopped and slowly turned around. My mother's eyes were filled with such emotion; it was almost heartbreaking to keep eye contact. But I held my ground in some way to let her know I was fine.

"Sweetie. I've been noticing that you haven't been sleeping well..." she ran a hand down her arm and started fiddling with the button on her sleeve cuff.

My eyes widened, "How... Why do mothers know everything?"

She chuckled shortly, "Mothers intuition. Plus, when you have nightmares you talk loudly. None of what you said made much sense though... But it's not hard to guess what's been bothering you."

She gently grabbed my shoulder and sat me down at the table; she sat across from me. She ran a hand down the side of my face in a motherly manor, "You know that you can talk to me about it. I know it's been a few years, but it's bound to come back in a bad way."

I stared at her speechlessly. I didn't want to think about what happened. It would never happen again.

"Especially since you don't remember everything..."

"What?" I said quickly.

She gave me an unsure smile, "It's no secret that you repressed some things, darling."

"I know, I know. But do you know everything?"

She bit her lip and I noticed her eyes start to water. She looked at quickly and blinked a few times and then looked back. "As far as my understanding goes, you don't remember the...last incident?"

I nodded, "It's blurry."

She sighed, "Unfortunately, we weren't able to figure out part of that night..."

I remained silent. Was I really going to have to talk to Lukas about it, just for my own sanity?