Broken

Chapter IX

LEVI'S POV

From the living room I heard the front door open and I sucked in a breath. It had to be Jay-Pharrell; he was the only one that knew where the spare key was. I sat up straighter in the chair and watched him through the transparent glass as he walked up the stairs. I heard him rummaging around and the closing and opening of drawers.

Slowly I walk upstairs and push open the partially closed door of the guest room. I am greeted with the scene of Jay-P haphazardly throwing his few belongings into a duffel bag.

"Hey, hold on. What are you doing man?" I say to him worriedly. "You don't have to be like this, if she means so much to you, I will back off. I was just messing around, I wasn't actually gonna do anything to her you know." I knew I was pissing him of further, but he wasn't being fair right now and if I didn't apologize, he would think I didn't care.

He carries on throwing things into his bag, assuming he was ignoring me I stepped closer and stretch out my arm. I pull his arm and his body angles towards me for a second before he yanks his arm away.

"Don't fucking touch me." I barely hear him because he says it so quietly. He turns around to look at me fully and I almost wince at the intense look he is shooting towards me. His usually light green eyes have darkened so much that I can't see his pupils. His fists are clenched by his sides and I see him shaking slightly.

"You know about my past Levi," I hear him say carefully choosing his words. I know he is trying not to cry right now, and I know it's not for me, but I am grateful anyway. I f he broke down right now I would feel a hundred times worse.

My eyes widen and I stutter over my words. All I can say is, "Pharell man, I wasn't even thinking about what happened to you." I run my hands behind my neck and let out a frustrated sigh. He faces me fully and the look that passes through his eyes actually makes me wince. Pain, anger, sadness. He just looks broken.

JAY-P'S POV

I look at Levi and take in his facial expression. He looks genuinely sorry, but I am gonna have to take some time away for us to go back to how we were before.

I've known Levi for a long time, and he is one of the only people that knew about what happened with my dad. I trusted him and told him about what happened, he was there when I went to hospital and when I went into mental care. He knows how much this affected me and he still chose to do that to Cherise.

I throw the last of my things into the duffel bag I had brought over a couple of days ago. I push past Levi and walk out of the house. I have no idea where I am going but I decide to cross the street and knock on Cherise's door.

I just pray that it's not her brother who opens the door. My prayers are granted when a few seconds later when a lady in her middle age opens the door. She is around 5'5 and has dark brown hair that falls just past her shoulders. I instantly guess that this is Cherise's mum.

I give her a shy smile and look past her as Cherise comes up beside her. She looks slightly surprised to see me, but she quickly changes her expression to one of concern and worry.

"It's alright mum, this is Jay-P." she quickly explains to her mum. I see her mum give her an unreadable expression and watch as Cherise gives her a small nod. Her mum walks back into the house and soon disappears from my line of sight.

Cherise steps out the house and closes the door behind her and looks me up and down. I glance down at myself and realise that my mustard coloured sweatshirt has streaks of blood on it now. Whether it is mine or Levi's I have no clue.

We sit down on the doorstep and she leans into my shoulder. I close my eyes and relax; I know it's only been a few hours since I saw her this morning before my French class but since then a lot has happened. I can feel my chest going up and down a lot faster than usual.