I'm Not His Sunshine

Chapter 3 Part 2

I woke up groggily and was cocooned in blankets. I opened my eyes and came to the realization that I was in my bed.

And I realized that Bryce was sitting in a chair next to my bed, looking worried and exhausted. His knuckles were taped up but looked swollen.

"Bryce," I croaked out.

He looked up, looking relieved.

"Ella," he began, "I need to know what happened last night."

"No Bryce," I said sternly, pushing myself up to rest on my headboard, "I need to know what happened last night." I looked pointedly at his hand.

Bryce's lip formed a grim line and his eyes darkened before he seethed, "I only did what was right."

"Punching your best friend in the face because of my panic attack is not my definition of right," I said angrily, getting louder.

"So now you're defending him?" he asked furiously.

"Bryce, I'm really more worried about your friendship with Kayden," I said softly, looking down.

"You really want to know what happened," he sighed in defeat.

I nodded vigorously, never breaking our gazes.

"I found you on the floor, sobbing, in the middle of a bad panic attack, wrapped in Kayden's arms. At first, I just saw pain in his eyes, but when he looked up at me, I saw tremendous guilt," he explained, "that guilt showed me that it was his fault that you were hurt, so I screamed at him to get away from my sister and then I punched him in the face. Hard. He didn't even fight back."

My eyes widened at his confession.

He continued, and asked softly, "was he the one that hurt you?"

Bryce's eyes glazed over with tears.

"Not exactly," I began to reply.

"You mean he had help?" Bryce asked me, screaming, "who were they? I'm gonna wring their necks!"

"No Bryce, Kayden helped me," I tried to explain, "the memories of him were the things that hurt me."

Bryce's face visibly softened.

"Bryce, you really need to go apologize to him," I said, "even though I hate him."

I giggled loudly and Bryce cracked a lopsided smile.

He pulled me into a hug, and said, "I will go apologize, but only if you come with me. Kayden is the one who really needs to apologize to you."

My eyes widened again and I hid under my blanket.

"No. I'm not going," I stated simply.

"You have 15 minutes to get out of bed and get ready, and then I'm dragging you out of this house and across the street, Ella Amanda Knight," he ordered.

"No," I replied again.

"Don't make me tickle you," Bryce laughed.

I popped out of the covers and screamed, "I'm up! I'm up!"

"Works like a charm," Bryce snickered and walked away.

Ugh. 15 minutes until torture.