Him: e.g.d

"Why Did You Lie?"

"Ouch." I mumbled as I awoke from a deep sleep. "Tatum?" I heard a voice ask. I fully opened my eyes to see Gray. "Grayson? What's going on?" I looked down to see a needle in my arm. I'm at a hospital?

"Where's Ethan?" I started to panic. Why was I at a hospital? "I'll go get them." He walked out the door and got Ethan and the doctor in here.

"Babydoll." He came over and sat down, holding my hand and rubbing his thumb over the skin. Him saying 'babydoll' made my heart flutter. I couldn't help but smile. "Ms. Williams, do you remember what happened?" The doctor asked me. I slowly nodded being careful not to move my head too much since I had a horrible headache.

"It was Tyler, he choked me. I started running and went into the place I worked at. I was breathing real heavily and I guess I passed out." I looked at Ethan telling him. The doctor took notes and told me that the police will be here soon.

Ethan's jaw kept clenching and unclenching as I told him what happened. "My baby!" My mom walked in and gave me a tight hug. She let go and put her hand on my cheek. I smiled softly enjoying the presence of my mother here. "Is Tums going to be okay?" I heard Luke ask Ethan. Ethan sat down in the chair and was about to answer, "I'm fine Luke." He came over and got on the bed and laid down next to me.

"Oh, hi Ethan. What are you doing here?" My mom asked, not in a rude way. "He's my boyfriend." I never told her that Ethan and I were dating. "Oh." She walked over to Ethan and he instantly stood up. "I'm not surprised that you two started dating, but thank you for looking after her." She grabbed his hands and held them. "My pleasure, Ms. Williams." He smiled as he took a glance at me.

"Oh please, just call me Lauren." She smiled. "Are you Tatum Williams?" A police officer came in. I nodded my head, ready for the questions. Luke laid next to me, resting his head on my shoulder and Ethan held my hand.

"I'm officer Lawrence and this is my partner Sanchez." They introduced theirselves. "Are you the mother?" The officer looked at my mom, and she nodded her head.

"Okay this hopefully won't take long, as I'm sure you want to leave. Can you tell us what happened?" I cleared my throat before speaking. "Um," I took in a deep breath,"I was walking alone and some guy grabbed me and pushed me against the wall, choking me. I tried to do everything I could to get away from him. I was able to scratch him and he let go of me, and I just started running."

"Do you know why he would want to hurt you?" He asked. "It was just probably one of my ex boyfriend's friend. He just was probably jealous and was trying to scare me." I lied. I could feel Ethan's confused and disappointed look staring at me, but I just kept looking at the police officers. "Could you give me a description of him?"

"He has dark blonde hair, green eyes, a tall frame, and I think his name was Jacob." I gave him a small description of the fake guy. "Would you like to press charges on this guy?" I shook my head. "Are you kidding me? Of course we're going to press charges!" My mom yelled. "Mom please, it won't fix anything. Just leave it. And you guys don't have to keep this case open. I don't want things to get worse."

"Are you sure? Wouldn't you like to see him put to justice?" I shook my head. The police officer sighed, "Okay."

"Well Tatum, you're free to go. I expect you to drink lots of water for the rest of the evening, eat healthy food, and get some rest." The doctor told me. A nurse came in with a wheelchair opening it up. "What's that for?" I asked her. "It's for you, silly." She said, grabbing my hand and setting me in the chair. "I can walk perfectly, I don't need a wheelchair." I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Tatum, don't argue." My mom sighed. I huffed and stayed quiet. Ethan rolled me out of the room and I saw Dani, Laney, Vic, Kian, Neels, and Grayson in the waiting room. "Hey babes, you okay?" Dani, Vic and Laney came over to me. They bent down to give me a hug. I hugged them back. "I'm fine, my body was weak, I guess." I told them. "Hey bud, how you feeling?" Neels asked as he came over to me. "I'm okay, I'm just tired." I weakly smiled and leaned my head on my hand.

"Okay, we'll call you tomorrow. Later babes." They walked away. We still had to stay, since my mom has to pay for the medical bill. Ethan hasn't said anything at all and it upsets me. I know he's mad that I lied, but I had to. I don't want Tyler doing even worse things to him. I'm sure even if I did tell the truth, somehow Tyler could still get to us, and I didn't want that to happen. I stood up out of the wheelchair and walked outside. "Tatum, you shouldn't do that. You need to take it easy." My mom said.

"Mom, I'm fine. All I did was pass out. It's not that serious." I heard Ethan scoff. "Yeah, and someone choked you before that!" I gave him a look and sat in the front seat of the car. My mom drove and Ethan and Luke were in the back.

"I'm taking a shower." I headed upstairs not bothering to hear what their responses would be. I felt so mad and annoyed and I don't even know why. Ethan just pissed me off from what he said—the way he said it.

After my shower, I went downstairs and sat down on the couch next to Ethan, but I kept some space between us. "You should drink some water." He nodded to the glass of water that was sitting there, not looking at me. "I'll drink it when I want to."

"Where's my mom?" I asked, looking straight at the tv. "She went back to work and asked me to stay here." He sighed. "Why'd you lie to the police officers?" He turned his body towards me. I sighed and looked down at my hands, "I didn't want to, but I felt like it would've been best. If I did tell them what happened Tyler could still somehow get to you. He knows people. Is it so bad that I wanted to keep you possibly safe? He threatened to kill me when he was choking me." I held my legs close to my chest as I looked away from him.

I wiped my eyes and heard him sigh. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me closer. I felt him kiss the top of my head before I fell into a deep sleep.