New Hope Club Imagines | Book 1

"What happened to your face?" - Blake

You wrapped yourself in a towel and rubbed away a patch of condensation on the foggy mirror with your forearm.

Hesitantly reaching a hand up to your right cheekbone, you tapped it with your pointer finger. You hissed at the pain the contact caused and blew a breath at your reflection.

"Well this is gonna be a bitch to cover."

Pulling the makeup bag out of your top drawer you tied your hair up and started applying different products to try and mattify the shiner that you'd be wearing for a while.

You had to ghost your finger over it to not cause too much pain, but it was inevitable anyway. You moved onto concealer to hide the magenta pigment and topped it off with foundation and the rest of an elaborate makeup routine.

You were getting ready for a date with Blake after a day of laying in bed doing nothing but weep and ignore his texts. After you felt accomplished in ridding your body of all its fluids and binge watching Dynasty reruns, you decided seeing him would help you feel better - you just needed to pretend that there wasn't a poorly-covered bruise forming underneath your uneven makeup.

The two of you had only been dating for a few months, and you didn't want to scare him off thinking you came with baggage; this wasn't a regular occurrence, just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

You made way to his flat, trying to calm your breathing the entire drive there. You caught a glimpse of your cut lip in the rear-view mirror and sucked it into your mouth, but that only made it begin to bleed.

"Great - that's just great." You kept licking it every so often to try and soothe it.

You finally arrived at Blake's and let out a huff before knocking.

"Coming, love."

He opened the door with a bright smile on his face. He was dressed up in a black button up and a patterned blazer coat.

His expression fell the tiniest bit and you mirrored his action.

Oh no - busted.

You just weren't one to habitually wear makeup so it was a different sight.

"You copied me." He pouted sassily.

Relief washed over you as you laughed and walked into his open arms. "I didn't even know what you were wearing, Blake." You giggled over his shoulder.

A waft of his cologne waved over your face, breathing it in to distract you from the pain of his neck leaning into your bruise.

He pulled back a bit to look down into your eyes.

"Hey, baby." He wore a toothy grin before bending slightly to place a tender kiss right on your cheekbone, making you wince.

He furrowed his eyebrows at you, but you had forced a convincing smile at the same time, so he dropped it and smiled back.

"Are you excited?" He led you inside.

"Of course." You shrugged, smiling. As soon as he seemed to turn away you lifted your fingertips to your swelling undereye, the muscles from seeming happy aching it.

"You alright?" He wore a look of concern as you darted your eyes back to him.

"Yeah I just um... I poked my eye, I'll be right back." You lied, muttering as you scurried into the bathroom.

You leaned your tailbone against the counter edge and huffed, forcing yourself to tap the pulsing skin you had covered to try and immunize yourself to flinches.

You walked out with your chin high, insisting you leave to avoid missing the reservation.

"C'mon Blake, what are you doing sitting?" He had situated himself on a kitchen chair at his table, his left hand propping his chin up.