Jenalyn: Daring to Defy (#1)[Complete]

Chapter 103: Harper

Monday, 1:25 A.M.

I have a flight in... 6 hours, and I'm wide awake. No- not even wide awake, I'm like... alarmingly awake.

"-Please just keep it between us!" Jenalyn cries sitting across from me- her eyes glassy and swollen, forehead scraped, lip busted, neck bruised, and clothes bloody. "I wouldn't have even bothered you again, but you said you could help me out with a room for the night, and-"

It takes a few moments to find my voice- the shock of all of this alone just... twisting my mind in ways I don't think it's ever been twisted before.

"I think maybe you should stay in my room..." I say as soon as I can find my voice. My mind is instantly positive it's a man, maybe a father of sorts or boyfriend, that did this to her though she refuses to say any thing about it.

All I know is, she's in no position to be alone right now.

"No, please-" she cries out, somehow able to break my heart although I literally just met the girl yesterday afternoon. "I don't want to be a burden or anything- I just need a place to sleep and I'll... I'll figure it out in the morning!"

I can't. I can't get her a room. If whoever did this to her decides they need to come looking for her, and end up here? I can't have that. Not in a room under my name.

"Jenalyn, please just stay in my room with me?" I say rather sternly. "I know what I told you earlier about the room, but until I know what's going on with you- I'm going to have to use my better jugement. And my better judgement is telling me not to leave you alone."

Jenalyn cries more, but nods her head in resignment. She refuses to let her eyes meet mine- a look of embarrassment passing over her anytime she gets close.

I can't help myself from thinking back to earlier- how she tried to convince me, on the patio of the room Tyler and Gage are staying in- that she is a bad person. 

She gave me three statements about herself- all of which were supposed to convince me she was a bad person or something. At the time, Jena told me we were going to be playing two lies and a truth- so I expected only one to be true, and chose based off the bathroom break I'd seen her take when she first got here. 

What if she really did mean two truths and a lie, though? What if that was her way of trying to tell me she was being pimped out.. and beaten?

That's normal out here in the city, right? I mean.. she's super young, but.. It happens, right? Am I crazy to assume that's what's happening?

I look at the girl sitting across from me- crying and physically hurt though I saw, not only in the video, but earlier today- that given the right hands in life...and she could have been something so much better. 

I don't know why I like this girl so much... I don't know why I want to make it a personal mission to help her- but I do. Sometimes I guess you can just see the potential in people that they thought was stolen away.