Love Me Anyways

Chapter Ten

 Taytum and Wyatt showed up twenty minutes after I called, and her dad is on his flight home. It's been two hours already, we're sitting in the waiting area, Taytum hasn't stopped holding me since she showed up. Taytum is really protective of me, and after having to tell her about what had just happened, I don't know if she'll ever leave me alone. I'm still lucky to have Taytum as a friend.

"Are you sure that you're okay Jay?" Taytum worries. I turn my focus to her, Taytums light brown hair is hanging in her baby blue eyes. "I'm fine," I reassure her. Taytums arms tighten a little more around me. I'm really tense right now, but she understands.

The doctor walks over to us, we all stand. "How is she?" I immediately ask. "Raya is fine but we'll be keeping her overnight for observation," The doctor informs us. "Can we see her?" Wyatt asks. The doctor looks impatient. "She's asking for Jayla, but only immediate family can see her," The Doctor explains.

"She is immediate family," An unfamiliar voice states from behind me. "And you are?" The Doctor asks. "I'm Raya's father, now let us see her," The voice responds. I turned around to see a muscular man with a buzz cut, in an army uniform. Why didn't Raya tell me her dad was in the Army?

"You must be Mr. Thompson," I speak, as the doctor leads us to Raya's room. "Yes I am, but you can call me Tony," His deep voice responds. "You must be Jayla, I've heard a lot about you in Raya's letters. I don't know if I'm supposed to tell you this, but I'm going to get your sisters out of that house," Tony's words shocked me. I just stare at him, did Raya really reach out for help from him, just for me?

Before I can reply the doctor leads us into Raya's room. As soon as Raya sees her dad she smiles. "Hi pumpkin," Tony hugs her. I can't help but smile, she seems so happy to see her dad. Once Tony sits in the chair next to the bed, I go up and give Raya a kiss on her forehead.

"I love you," Raya speaks, her voice is dry. I lay down next to her, I'm afraid to talk about what had happened. "I love you more than you could even begin to imagine," I remark. Raya rests her head on my chest, I run my hands through her hair as I hold her.

"You saved my life Jay," Raya states. I don't agree with her at all, I think she saved mine. "No you saved mine, if it weren't for you I'd still be stuck in that life. I would still be getting hurt every single day and night," My voice cracks.

"I think you saved each other's lives," Tony points out. I'm happy he approves of me being with his daughter, but I do have a few questions. "Are you really getting my sisters out?" I question. Tony nods eagerly. "As we speak the cops are at your house, they'll bring your sisters here and I'll bring them home with us," Tony proudly states.

How did I get so lucky meeting Raya and her amazing father? "Thank you so much Sir," I'm crying right now. I'm not sad, they're happy tears. I can't believe that this is happening, I can't believe my sisters and I are going to be safe.

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I spent the night at the hospital with Raya, my sisters came by and Tony took him to the house and got them settled. Raya and I are currently waiting for the doctor to give her the 'okay' to leave.

Raya's laying between my arm and my chest, I think she's exhausted at the moment. "Hey Jay?" Raya whispers. I look down at my tired girlfriend, she has bruises and scrapes all over her body from the fight. "Yeah?" I respond.

"If I wasn't with you, would you of Gorden and Lister hurt you?"

I'm shook by what Raya just asked, mostly because I wouldn't have had a choice on whether they would hurt me or not. "I guess... I would of been outnumbered, I couldn't have stopped them if my life depended on it," I reply.

I pull Raya in closer to me, I don't know what I would have done if I had lost her. It would have been my fault if she died, and it is my fault that she got hurt. Thinking about this makes my head hurt so badly that I want to scream.

"Raya I'm really sorry, this is all my fault," My voice cracks at the end. I am on the verge of tears, my head is pounding. I'm staring at the light blue wall in front of us, I don't think that I can look at Raya right now.

I feel a soft hand reach up and wipe a fallen tear off my face, I was trying so hard not to cry. "Jayla none of this is your fault and there is no reason for you to be sorry," Raya tries to comfort me. I don't want to be the one to hurt Raya, but it seems that everyone I grow close to gets wounded one way or another.

"It is my fault because they were after me and you tried to help me, so they went after you. Please don't try and tell me that it's not my fault, because I already know that it was entirely my fault," I confess. I can feel Raya's tired eyes burning into me, she's trying to figure out my feelings.

I don't want her to get hurt again, she has no idea how dangerous my life really is. Raya has no idea what's wrong with me, she doesn't know how broken I really am. The only things that I'm actually good at are hiding how much pain and sadness I feel, and accidentally hurting the people I love.

"Raya I'm not okay, one day I'm just going to explode and I don't want you to get hurt when that happens, but y-you already got h-hurt and I didn't explode yet," My voice breaks. "Raya I'm dangerous, everything about me is dangerous."

I don't dare look at Raya, even though I can feel her gaze burning into my skull. "Jayla even if you explode into pieces, even if you think you've hurt me, I promise to be here for you and pick up every single piece of you that broke. You could never hurt me bad enough for it to last, and this was not your fault," Raya remarks, I feel tears form in my eyes.

I don't know how she knows what to say, but everything that comes out of Raya's beautiful mouth, seems to calm me down. I'm not sure how to respond to what Raya has said, nobody has ever said anything like that to me before.

Thank God the doctor walks in, this was getting painful. "Raya you're good to go, just take a week of bed rest and no driving or sports for at least two weeks," The doctor states. "Thanks so much doc," Raya smiles. The doctor nods and leaves the room.

Wait do I have to drive her scooter again? Shit. "Don't worry about driving the scooter, my dad left his car for us," Raya explains. I give Raya a confused smirk, "Can you read my mind?"

Raya laughs at me. "I wish that I could read your mind." I can't read minds either, but I can come close to reading minds. I'm really good at understanding the small things about people around me, I notice things that normally go unnoticed.