Picture Perfect(a lukesse story)

Chapter 1// Storm and Silence

Jesse POV:

I hugged my coat tighter to myself as I hurried across campus. "He's going to kill me," I thought to myself. The campus was practically deserted by this time. My pace sped up as the anxiety inside of me grew larger and larger. I hated when he got upset.

Finally, I reached our dorm. I slowly opened the front door, almost scared to enter. All of the lights were off inside, and I timidly stepped inside and closed the door. Good. Maybe he's asleep. That means he won't notice that I was gone for so long. I breath out a sigh of relief and quietly slip my shoes off.

I make my way upstairs and go through my usual nightly routine of getting ready for bed as stealthily as possible, careful not to wake him up. He's already fast asleep in bed, and I cannot thank God enough for that. As soon as I'm in my sleep clothes, I slowly make my way towards the bed and lift up the covers.

"Why are you late." Oh no. He wasn't really asleep. I don't reply, hoping he's too tired to press any farther and will at least spare me until the morning. "Jesse, why are you late," he repeated. I take a shaky breath.

"Can we talk in the morning? I'm exhausted," I say. He sits up in bed and turns on the bedside lamp next to him before turning to face me fully. "Well, you're not going to sleep until you tell me why you were out until almost midnight," he says. I sigh in defeat.

"I was just hanging out with Petra and Olivia after my classes," I tell him. He's silent for a moment. "What did I tell you about staying out past ten?" He asked. "Aiden, I was just-" I started. "What did I tell you?" He yelled harshly this time, causing me to flinch. His chest heaved with anger, as it always does whenever I disobey him. I hung my head and avoided eye contact with him. "That I'm not supposed to stay out past ten without your permission," I said quietly.

He drew in a long breath. "So why didn't you ask me?" He's still yelling, rather loudly I might add, and there's nothing I want more than for this conversation to be over. "I'm sorry," I said quietly. Tears are starting to prick at my eyes, but I quickly wipe them away. And then Aiden did what he's never done before. He slapped me. "Well maybe you wouldn't have to be sorry if you weren't screwing up all the damn time," he shrieked as I stumbled back and into the wall, trying to get as far away from him as possible. He's never slapped me before. Yelled at me? Yes. Called me names? Yes. But physically hurt me? He's never gone so far before. He spent the next few minutes yelling and calling me a few choice names as I sat there and took it. Call me a coward, but I'd much rather just listen to him than drag on the argument. He'd win either way. After he's done with his yelling session, he takes a deep breath to calm himself down.

"Just get to sleep," he huffs. "I don't even want to look at you right now." I slowly nod my head. He turns the light off and I'm thankful for the curtain of darkness that surrounds me.

***

I wake up to a stream of light coming through my window. Aiden is still asleep on the other side of the bed, so I take the opportunity to slip away. I'm usually the one to wake up early and make breakfast. A part of me wants to go out today to an on-campus cafe that I've been dying to try, but I don't want to wake up Aiden and ask if I can go, so I just stick to the usual routine.

I turn on the stove and crack a few eggs over the frying pan. As I'm doing so, I feel a pair of strong arms wrap themselves around me, causing me to stiffen. Aiden. I feel an urge to wiggle out of his grasp, but I know I shouldn't. So I stand still as he places a trail of kisses down my neck.

"Good morning, Jesse," he mumbles against my skin. "Good morning," I say quickly. "I'm sorry for yelling at you," he says. "It's okay," I say quietly. "You know I only do it cause I care about you, right?" He asks, his arms still wrapped tightly around me. "I know," I say. "Good." These kinds of things are routine for us. Aiden would get mad and yell at me the night before, and then we'd just sweep it under the rug and forget about it the day after. Just like today.

Aiden gives me a quick kiss on the cheek before taking a seat at the table. "By the way, I'm having a few friends over today," he says as I start making coffee. "Okay," I reply distractedly. I avoid eye contact with him as I rummage around in the cabinet for a couple of mugs. Every fiber in my body is telling me to run far away from him right now. But of course, I can't. So I hold my tongue as I pour the coffee from the brewer into the mugs before carrying his own cup to him.

After sitting down with my own cup of coffee, I pick up the newspaper that's already on the kitchen table and open it to a random page in an attempt to get my mind off of the events of last night. An uncomfortable silence settles over us for several minutes before Aiden speaks again.

"You okay? You seem quiet today," he comments before taking a sip from his mug. I only shrug in response. The last thing I want to do right now is talk to him. After several more seconds of silence, he gets up and grabs the paper from my hands, causing me to immediately turn towards him with an upset look on my face.

"Why are you so quiet today?" He asks. I shoot him a glare as I reach for my paper again, but he snatches it away and holds it above my head so I can't get to it. "Why are you being so quiet today?" he asks again. "I don't want to talk about it. Just give me my paper back," I say, again trying to reach for it.

"Not until you tell me why," he says. The3 last thing I want is to talk about this with him. "I don't want to talk about it," I said. He stares at me for several more seconds before shrugging and folding up the paper. "Fine. I'm not giving this back to you until you tell me," he says, walking back to his seat with my paper in his hands.

A/N: I hope you guys like it :) If you can't already tell, Aiden is kind of an abusive boyfriend. I'm so excited to write this book and I'll try to update as often as possible. I haven't written anything in awhile because I've been on vacation and couldn't take my tablet with me, and I'm so hppy to finally be writing again!