Not The Life I Expected

Chapter Ten

I finish my shower ten minutes later, I get dressed and do my makeup. I walk out of the bathroom and look over at Brian sitting on the edge of the bed. "You... look pissed," I tell him

"Of course I am," he says. "Your showers take too long!"
"Yeah, but... you came in, it's your..."
"My what?! My fault?!" He yells, and I look away.
"I'm sorry, Brian... it's my fault, you're right." He gets up and walks over to me, I flinch, scared of what he's going to do. But he only kisses my cheek, 
"Let's go now, beautiful." He walks away... Is he actually trying to change? I ask myself, I only shake my head and walk down stairs. 

We arrive at the studio in only ten minutes, we walk through the front door and first walk into the kitchen, where Matt is pouring coffee and Mikayla is right by his side like a lost little puppy. "Hey, Mackenzie!" Says Matt, "Long time no fucking see!" I chuckle and we hug each other, Mikayla just stands there awkwardly. "You remember Mikayla, right?" He asks, and I nod. 
"Yeah, I do." We glance at each other and I walk into the studio. All the other guys look up at me and yell "HEEEYYY!!" at the same time. I laugh and go to sit next to Arin, I punch his arm jokingly as I sit down. 

"Hey, Mackenzie." He smiles, 
"Hi," I smile back.
"Where have you been, it's always quiet without you here." I shrug and don't say anything. 

Hours go by, and all we've been doing is sitting and joking around. I don't really mind, since Brian is being nice for now, I'm not looking forward to going home. Brian has been sitting next to me for the past hour, with his hand on my thigh, it's nice knowing he's not going to grab a hold of my knee like he always does at home. 
I get up and go out to the kitchen, and just sit at the table to think. Arin comes out after me and sits across from me. "Are you okay?" He asks, I only shrug. "What happened to your arm?" I look down at the bruise half way wrapped around my arm, 
"I don't remember." I answer, Arin looks at me and raises an eyebrow. 
"Mackenzie, tell me the truth." I look at him in the eyes, "Are those bruises from Syn?" I shake my head, 
"Why would you think that?" He shrugs, 
"You just bruise so easily, but that bruise looks almost like a hand." I look down at the bruise and back at Arin, 
"It's not from Syn, though. It's from someone else." I lie. 
"Who is it from? Do I need to kick ass?" I shake my head. 

 Arin is like the over protective, little brother I never had. Since he started playing with the guys, we became best friends and I can almost tell him anything. I refuse to tell him about what Brian does to me at home, scared of what Arin's going to do. He'd either kick Brian's ass (which I doubt that could happen, since he's a stick) or he'd just call the police on Brian, and have him arrested. 

"It's from my cousin, Ryan." I lie again, "He came over while Brian was gone yesterday and he just started hurting me... Brian eventually came home and things got out of hand."
"What happened to Ryan?" I shrug, 
"Brian just came in and started screaming at him, and he left." I sigh and work up my fake tears (I am actually a good fake crier). Arin looks at me in the eyes and places his hand on top of mine, 
"It's okay, Mackenzie... you have Brian and the rest of us here for you." He gets up and walks back into the studio.