You Light Up the Sky Like Lightning

Chapter Thirty Five

Chapter Thirty-Five

Paparazzi. 

About fifteen of them were waiting around the lobby, and as soon as they saw Justin come out of the elevator, they immediately rushed towards him and started flashing pictures and yelling questions. 

Justin's grip on me tightened, and I flinched from from all the bright lights. I actually had to dig my head into his shoulder, and since he was on my right, it hid my lovely bruise on the right side of my jaw from the paparazzi. But, I was in a tank-top, so you would be able to see the bruises and gashes on my arms. Thank god I was in sweatpants, though. They covered every inch of my legs, and the last thing I wanted was to be asked about them. 

Kenny came over and basically shoved the paparazzi out of the way so we could get through the lobby. Kenny went first, and he made Justin and I follow right behind, followed then by Ry Good, and then Jeremy, Pattie, and Carin brought up the rear with Jazzy and Jaxon. 

The paparazzi actually kept getting closer to us the farther we walked, and I was scared that they would accidentally bump into me in my rib area, or something, because I knew that if they did, it would hurt just like it did when it first happened. You can't mess with broken ribs. 

At some point, they had cut off Carin, Pattie, Ry Good, Jeremy, Jazzy, and Jaxon, and started following behind us, a little too close. 

Questions were being screamed at Justin all at once- questions that he didn't answer. 

"Who is she?"

"Is this Landry?"

"Is she the girl you've been talking about on Twitter?"

"Did you hit her, Justin?"

"Why does she have a sling?"

"Why are her arms covered in cuts and bruises?"

"What happened to her?"

"Is she related to your manager, Scooter Braun?"

"How do you two know each other?"

"Why is she on tour with you, Justin?"

All the questions were about me, and that made me scared. 

The paparazzi realized that Justin wasn't and wouldn't answer them, so they tried touching him to get his attention- just a tap on the shoulder. Apparently they really wanted to know, because paparazzi didn't normally touch people. 

Justin still ignored them. 

But then they turned to me. 

A few of them tapped me on my back, a little too close to the giant cut going down it. I flinched, but I didn't say anything. I was just following what Justin did. It was his lifestyle and probably knew what to do. 

When I didn't answer either, the paparazzi tried to tap my shoulder, but then thought better of it because the arm closest to them was in a sling. 

So they decided to tap me on my side, instead. 

My left side. 

The one with three broken ribs. 

As they did, I let out a gasp and a cry of agony. A string of intense and burning pain shot through my side, and I fell into Justin's body. He had to catch me in a weird and uncomfortable way, just hurting even more- a lot more. I squeezed my eyes shut tight, holding back tears of pain, but they didn't stay held back for long. I immediately started to cry because of the extreme twinge of pain that was now throbbing and shooting throughout me. I dug my head deeper into Justin's shoulder, and he immediately flipped out and started yelling at the paparazzi. 

"DO NOT TOUCH HER!" he yelled. Just from the sound of his voice, I knew he was pissed off. "DON'T FUCKING COME NEAR HER!"

All fifteen of them simultaneously backed off, obviously unsure what to do about his rage. It wasn't the normal Justin Bieber that everyone knew. 

He brought me in closer under his arms, squeezing them underneath my underarms- but being careful not to hurt me, especially on the left side- and put me in front of himself.  This was is way to get the paparazzi away from me. We walked faster now, but Justin was being very careful that it wasn't too fast for me to handle at this point, even though my ribs were screaming out in pain, making me somewhat weak. 

By now we had reached the lobby doors, and we quickly walked outside. The paparazzi didn't follow us any farther.  

When we got outside, Kenny was there waiting for us. 

And when he saw that I was huddled into Justin's shoulder and lightly crying, he flipped. 

"What happened?!" he asked frantically. 

Justin found a bench, and slowly led me over to it with his arms still around me. He could see I was in excruciating pain. 

He helped me sit down gradually before squatting in front of me. I was still crying softly, and somehow, my right arm had hooked around to my left side, as if for the release of pain. It didn't work, but it was dying down a little bit. But not as much as I'd like it to. The pain felt like a hammer was being thrown into my rib cage repeatedly. 

"Landry, are you okay?" Justin asked, his eyes full of concern.  

I took a shaky breath, a nodded a tiny bit. After a minute, I stopped crying, but I didn't bother to move to wipe the tears off my cheeks. 

Justin sat down next to me and put his arm around my shoulders. He was on my right side, and so he was careful with his arm that was on the left side.  

“What happened?” Kenny repeated, now standing in front of us. 

I leaned my head on Justin’s shoulder, and he gently wiped the tears off of my cheeks.

“One of the paparazzi hit her left side,” Justin said quietly, leaning his head against mine tenderly. “They tried to tap her to get her attention, but they don’t tap lightly.”

“What?!” Kenny screamed as Justin kissed the top of my head soothingly. 

Neither Justin nor I answered him.  I was too busy trying to breath through everything. 

After a minute, Pattie, Jeremy, Ryan, Carin, and the two kids came out of the hotel after being separated from us by the paparazzi.  They were looking for Kenny, Justin, and me.

When they saw us, Carin and Pattie hurried over, knowing something was wrong.  Jeremy and Ryan stayed with the kids.

“Landry, what happened?” Carin asked worriedly. 

“One of the paparazzi hit her side,” Kenny mumbled. 

“I’m fine,” I lied before they could freak out, but my voice cracked.  I just hated everyone fawning over me like I was a baby that always needed to be watched.  I don’t think they believed me when I said I was fine, and that was true because I wasn’t okay, but I didn’t want attention. 

My arm was still around my side for support, even though it hurt to touch it.  Everyone was giving me a skeptical look, but I gave them a reassuring smile. 

I started to stand up, but before I could get very far, Justin quickly got to his feet and helped me. 

Once I was standing, I gave them another reassuring smile, and they bought it.  Everyone except Justin. 

He was looking at me in a weird way, as if trying to know what I was thinking.  But I just smiled at him, making him smile back. 

“Uh, okay,” Carin said as Justin and I started to walk back to where Jeremy and Ry Good were waiting with Jazmyn and Jaxon. 

They gave me a weird look as to ask if I was all right, but I looked away.  No, I was not all right.  It hurt like hell.  Ryan and Jeremy gave Justin a questioning look, and he just shrugged and entangled his hand with mine.  I laid my head on his shoulder as Pattie hesitantly said, “Okay, let’s go, I guess.”