Between Us (all of us #1)

F I F T E E N

A U B R E E

Trenton didn't answer me or even return my calls. Chloe left an hour ago, I assured her I'd handle everything and that put her enough at ease to leave. She hugged me for the first time before walking out the door, and that was one good thing to come out of this.

After glancing at the clock above the oven, both hands on twelve, I go to reach for my phone again when the front door opens.

I walk past the wall to see Diesel hanging from Trenton's shoulder, but my jaw drops when I see how battered Trenton is. His eyebrow is split, blood crystallized before it'd ran straight down his cheek. The blood vessels in his left eye have burst and the skin around it is bruised.

My hand covers my mouth as I rush to help him set Diesel down at the dining table.

"What the hell happened? Where were you two?"

Diesel collapses on the tabletop, face down, and I sigh into my hands.

"He was at Gio's." Trenton brushes past me and straight to the fridge, holding his side, but his obvious anger masks the pain he's in.

I watch him guzzle a cold water bottle before leaning his back to the counter, staring blankly at the sink in front of him.

"Who did this to you?" I reach for him, placing his hot face in my hands.

He doesn't answer me. He doesn't look at me. His chest is still rising and falling in a way that indicates he's still coming down from an adrenaline rush.

"Trenton," I say, hoping to snap him out of the fury trance he's in.

His eyes lift to mine and he softens in my palms.

I gently lift up his shirt by the bottom hem and expose the deep v on his lower abdomen, raising it up until I can see the spot he's had covered by his hand all this time.

I sigh at the tender bruise that takes up a pancake sized patch over his ribs.

"I'm alright," he says softly. My eyes veer up to him to witness his smile. The smile that's only ever been for me. The one that plays with his eyes and displays my clear reflection in his widened pupils.

After making Trenton a sandwich bag icepack, coaxing Diesel into drinking a glass of water, and then into his bed, I return to Trenton who's standing silently against the hallway wall just outside the door.

He snags me by my waist, grunting from the pain of his movements, but that doesn't change the look on his face or the fact that I'm right up against his bruise.

His forehead presses to mine.

"What happened?" I ask against his lips.

"I got my ass kicked," he whispers, "but to be fair, I was jumped. You should still see the other guys."

I pull back to look at him, my motherly concern toward Trenton coming out to play for the first time in weeks. "Poor baby," I whisper back.

The corner of his lips rise as his hands lower. "I'm okay. Diesel was being a fucking dick, but I brought him back to you. That's all I was trying to do."

He stares down at me, his face busted, holding me through the pain he's feeling and I am completely enamored by him. He is slowly piercing his way into my heart and it both hurts and feels so, so good.

In a sudden rush, our lips connect and he lifts me into his arms. A subtle groan leaves him as I wrap my legs around his waist, but he carries me up the flight of stairs anyway. Suddenly he seems like he never got into a bloody fight at all, whisking me up to my room like I'm light as a feather.