Battered and Bruised

That shoddy girl is me

The couple who live next to my home won't stop shouting at each other. They've been doing this for 30 minutes and I think they won't stop until one of them leaving for work. Thanks to them, I don't have to set alarms to wake me up every morning.

Rather than listening to their never-ending-quarrel, I pick up my towel and heading to the bathroom. After showering, I stand in front of my giant mirror and look at the shoddy girl who has bruises all over her body. She has big purple marks on her stomach and on her cheeks, some wounds and cuts from her shoulder down to her wrists, she also has two bruises on her right foot. All of it looks pretty bad. I wanna cry for her. But she is me, there's no need to give pity for myself. It makes me wanna surrender and cut my wrist so I can meet death slowly.

No! I can't die. I'm not gonna lose. I'll get the life I've been dreaming.

I exhale loudly then lift my hand to get some concealer and put them on my bruises. After covering my bruises, I pick a plain white T-shirt, blue jeans, and my black hoodie. As I put on my jeans, I looked over Jaxon's hoodie still laying on a chair. I should wash it after school so I can give it to him by tomorrow.

I go downstairs and find my grandpa sleeping on the couch with a thin blanket. I feel sorry for him cause I don't have money to buy him a proper blanket. I go to the kitchen to get some water and two slices of bread. My stomach growl loudly, I remember I haven't eaten anything since last night.

I grabbed my key then walk down to my school. I was munching my bread when I heard my phone ringing. I got a text from an unknown number. I know it's Jaxon, of course. Who else? Like I have friends who will text me in this early morning.

See you in class ;)

I ignore his text and focus on the way to school. I hear girls' laughter from behind me. I turn my head to see the source of the voice and I see some girls yelling and laughing from inside a fancy car. I recognize their faces. They are from our school, We shared a couple of classes before.

After 15 minutes, I arrived at school. I go straight to my locker to put my books then close it. When I walk to my class, I hear footsteps approaching me. I turn my head aside to see the person beside me. Jaxon's smiling showing his white teeth.

"Good morning," he greets me.

"Morning." I put on a confused face.

"Hey, Jax." I hear Liam call out his buddy.

"Hey, Liam." Jaxon stops walking then gives his friend high five.

I keep walking leaving Jaxon. I don't want to meet Liam and let him do some insolent things. Jaxon me by my name but I ignore him and keep walking to my class.

"Eileen, wait, will you?" He keeps calling. He runs toward me then stops in front of me. "Why did you run away? I'm trying to talk to you."

"Go away, ignore me like you always did." I try to walk pass through him but he holds my wrist. I gasp and pull my hand from his.

"Look what we got here," Liam says loudly so all the kids in this hall can hear him. He stands close to me. Too close. "How's your juice yesterday? Did you enjoy it? Wanna some more?" he laughs at his own words.

I can see people gathered around me. They're whispering something I can't catch. All I can hear is 'who is she?' 'is she Jaxon and Liam's prey?' 'I knew her, she is from my class.' and 'is she Jaxon's new girlfriend?'. The answer to the last one is absolutely not.

I groaned in pain when Liam grabbed my hair and pull it so hard, made me fall backward and hit the floor. My face hit the locker. I feel my nose bleeding and I quickly wipe it with the back of my hand.

"What the hell, dude? Are you crazy?" Jaxon yells at Liam then pushes him.

Liam gets up then throws a fist and smack Jaxon's eye. Jaxon punches him back. Liam steps forward then kicks Jaxon's stomach. Jaxon collapse on the floor. Didn't waste time, Liam hovering Jaxon's body then punching his friend's face continuously. I can see blood at the corner of Jaxon's mouth. Instead of splitting them, people around us cheering Liam and Jaxon.

I move my body to Jaxon's to stop Liam. I grab Liam's arm and try to tug him, but he doesn't budge, he keeps punching his friend's face.

I have to stop this.

I mover my body over Jaxon and hug him. Now, Liam doesn't hit Jaxon's face but my back. After a few punches, Liam didn't punch me anymore. Jaxon rolls our body then gets up and shouting something I can barely hear. I wonder why no teacher tried to split them.

"You okay?" Jaxon says break my thoughts.

"Yeah, you?" I try to get up but Jaxon offers his hand for me to take. I grab his hand then get up. "You haven't answered me," I whisper and expect him to hear it.

Jaxon lifts his head and looks straight to my eyes. "How do you think? He raises his lips and keeps his gaze at me.

"This one looks pretty bad." I lift my hand and touch the edge of his lips. His lips are swollen and blood slips out from the corner of his lips. It really looks pretty bad. He flinches at my touch. "Sorry" I bring my hand back down to my side.

"Let's go." He says as he grabs my hand and pulls me to exit the hallway.

"Where are we going?" I look at the back of his head as he leads me to the parking lot.

"Home."

"What do you mean home? What home? Are we skipping?" I get startled by his answer.

He didn't answer my questions until we arrive in his car. He opens the passenger door and hints me to get in his car.

"I won't get in your car until you give me an answer," I say as I turn my body to face him.

"My home. And yes, we are skipping, now get in the car." He says and gently leads me to get in his car.

I sit in the passenger seat and wait for him to enter his car as well. I can't help but wandering his car, amazed by how fancy his car is. I bet he's come from a wealthy family. A poor family can't afford to give his children fancy cars, right?

He entered the car and start to drive. I watch his face, he looks angry. He has some bruises on her face and blood dripped out of his mouth. I feel sorry for him. He shouldn't have to yell at his friend and involved in a fight.

"I'm sorry," I say as I bring my gaze to my lap. Intertwining my hands, waiting for him to say something.

"What for?" he answers me shortly.

"Causing you to get involved in a fight with Liam."

"It's not your fault."

"Still, I was the one who made him did that." I'm curling my fingers on my lap.

"He started it first." Is he angry at me? Why his answers are so short?

"Are you mad at me?" I turn my face to see him. He puts his hand on the steering wheel while his other hand slips into his hair.

"No. I'm mad at Liam." His eyes focus on the road.

"You can't mad at him, he is your friend," I whisper,

He lets out a sigh then answers me, "I can mad at him because he did an inappropriate thing to you. I can't accept that." his reply got me surprised.

We fall into a comfortable silence. He keeps driving his car to his house. I look out the windows and see the trees are towering around us. Jaxon turns on the radio and calm music plays from the radio. Sleepiness comes to me and I lean my head to the window, let the darkness take over me.

☁ ☁ ☁ ☁ ☁ ☁ ☁ ☁ ☁ ☁

Goodnight, yall !!

here is an update for youuu. hope you like it ;)