Heaven

40: If I Can

Vagabonds- Grizfolk

I woke up at 3 am in a room that looked terrifyingly familiar. My room. My room in my parents' house. I shot up in bed, but a hand grabbed my shoulder.

"Lay back down, Teddy." He cooed.

"Jack? Where's Cassie?" I reached blindly for my boyfriend's warmth, but he wasn't there. I heard a scream downstairs.

"Shhh. Go back to sleep. It'll all be okay in the morning."

"But...." my eyelids felt extremely heavy all of a sudden. "Cassie...."

And I fell asleep.

I woke up at 8 am to a hand running through my hair. My boyfriend was sitting by the bed, tracing every line of my body with his fingers. He was crying. His cheek was bruised. What the hell was going on? I inhaled sharply when he lightly brushed over a pressure point on my wrist. I expected his to smirk at me, so I was rather caught off guard when his crying intensified upon seeing me awake.

"What happened? Why are we here?" I grabbed his wrist, pulling him closer.

He regained his composure. "What all do you remember?"

"I passed out at school. Uh...you took me home...." I tried to think as hard as I could. "That's it."

"Dad called Jackson. He tried to help out, but he figured it'd be best for you if your parents could help, since whatever this is has happened before."

"What happened to you?"

"What do you-," he remembered the bruise on his cheekbone. "Oh, um...."

I froze. "Did my dad...?"

He shook his head, body shaking. "H-he's downstairs."

"He...?" I gasped in realization. "No."

"It's okay. He heard about what happened and wanted to make sure you were okay."

I clamored out of the bed, marching towards the stairs.

"You shouldn't be up," he reached for me.

"I'm fine," I cupped his face in my hand. "You should stay up here."

"If you're going down there, so am I."

I took his hand and led him downstairs. Chris, Ari, April, my parents, Jackson, and Grey were sitting around, and all looked to us at our arrival. The four that actually cared about me ran over and hugged us both.

"Okay, Grey. There you go. I'm fine. Leave."

"Theodore! Do not talk to our guest like that!" Mother scolded. I raised a brow at her. She was defending Grey? Grey, of all people! I opted to ignore her.

"I said I never wanted to see you  again. I'll kill you."

"Teddy," Cass pulled on my arm. "Calm down." I kissed his cheek. He was right.

"Please leave, Grey," I tried again.

He nodded. He didn't look back at us until he was halfway through the door. "I'm sorry. All of you." And he left. You could almost feel a universal sigh of relief.

"You didn't need to do that," Cass muttered.

"But he...."

"If I can forgive him, so can you."

"You...?"

"Can we talk about this?" He looked around the room timidly. "Alone?"

I nodded and followed him back up to our room.