It's Not All Roses

Chapter 17

HERO

The words I said to Mae play over and over in my head. "I promise on my life." I meant those words, every single fucking one. I refuse to let Nick ever touch Mae again. I will not let her go through that shit again.

"Come on, I'll take you to your room, so you can get a little rest," I help her stand.

She looks at me, "I know we are not in the best place right now, but thank you for all that you are doing for me."

"Of course," I smile softly. "I'll stay with you until you fall asleep if you want me to?"

She smiles, "I'd appreciate that." Even in distress she's fucking beautiful. She's wearing sweats and a T-shirt and her hair is in a messy bun, but she still looks amazing. "Thank you," she takes me out of my trance.

"It's not an issue." I smile at her and take her to her room. She lays there a bit, staring off into some unknown realm deep in her mind, before she eventually closes her eyes and falls asleep.

I stay there for a bit and make sure she isn't having a bad dream. I know how common they are after a panic attack. Once I think she's okay, I get up and quietly leave the room.

"She's asleep." I tell them, when they all look at me, all of them look at me but Kiya, she looks like she has something to say. "Well spit it out, I know you have something to say."

She looks at me with a death glare, standing there with her hands on her hips. "Excuse me, but don't fucking talk to me like that in my house. If you got a fucking problem with me, then get the fuck out."

I gulp at her words, they are never a threat, but always promise. Right now I know she is going through some shit. Her bipolar is out of control because her medication went up in prices, so she had to cut her dosage. "Sorry," I mumble.

"If you must know," she says. "I do have something to say. I don't think Mae needs to be living in the dorms by herself. Jess is never home. If she stays here with me she can have her own room. Something will happen to her at that dorm," she shudders a little. I know all to well what can happen in dorms behind closed doors.

"I agree, we can't let anything bad happen to her, here she will be safe, someone is almost always here," Niall puts his input in.

I notice that Tom isn't saying much on the subject. I feel like he's the most worried out of all of us. I'm going to have to talk to him after this, just to check in on him.

"I agree too," I say. "It's safer here for her. So when she gets up, we will ask her then? I don't think she will fight it."

"It's settled. Since it's been a day I'm going to order pizza and run to the library really quick. Pizza moneys in the drawer by the-"

"Stove," Niall finishes and she smiles.

"Thanks babe," she kisses him softly and then looks at me. "Be nice to everyone or I will slice you."

Tom gets up and walks from the kitchen to the living room. "I'll be right back ok?" I ask Niall.

"Mhm."

I walk out to the living room and look at Tom. He's seated on the couch looking down at his lap. "You okay mate?"

He looks up at me in surprise, the fact that its me who has come to ask how he is doing throws him off. I hope my eyes show how genuine of a friend I'm being.

"I'm very worried about all of this," he tells me.

"Which parts?" I ask.

"I am about to break a oath I made to my best friend because I'm scared for her. I know if there's one person I can tell about this, it's you."

I raise my brows and bite my lip ring. "An oath?"

He nods. "Do you remember about two months ago when you took Mae home for her grandfathers funeral?"

I shrug, "Yeah, what about it?"

"Remember when you got back to campus?"

"Tom, get to the fucking point," I snap.

He rolls his eyes and I'm instantly annoyed. He can be like a bug you want to squash or a cute little rabbit, there is no in between. "If you got something to say Holland, you better fucking say it."

"I do." He stands up. "Listen man, she came to see me after you were unbelievably cruel to her. She wouldn't go see Christian after because she had a bad feeling about the party," Tom said.

"I shouldn't have done any of that to her, I get that. I already feel like shit for doing that," I mumble.

He looks at me confused for a moment, "I have to ask, what happened the night before her grandfathers funeral?"

I take a deep breath, I'm going to have to have a talk with Mae and tell her that not everything needs to be spoken about. "The sleeping arrangement at her mom's fucking freaked me out."

Tom raises his brows and waits for more of a response from me. For some reason I feel like I'm under a microscope, being poked and prodded, being inspected. I glare at him. "Mae's family and myself were watching some witch movie. Mae was next to me, we fell asleep and when I woke up, Mae was on top of me, sleeping."

Tom chuckles, "Yeah and what's wrong with that?"

I stand there and look out the window, watching the rain. Now that I think about it, nothing. There was nothing wrong with it, I just didn't feel the same things then that I do now. "I guess nothing," I admit. "I think just back at that time frame I didn't want her getting close to me."

He rolls his eyes again. "You're such a man child. What is wrong with her getting close to her?"

The next words shock me; they tumble out in word vomit. "Because... Tom I don't want to fucking her hurt."

His facial features soften. "Does this have something to do with Lia?" He pauses a moment. "Or maybe your sister?"

I cross my arms and huff, just like a child. "You already know the damn answer to that question."

"Mae," he smiles. "She will never be like them. The girl has a kind soul. But you do need to now something about Mae, when Nick went to court.

My stomach drops, "Okay? What is it?"

"Before the last day in court, Sam ran into Mae in the bathroom and confronted her," Tom starts out, worry thick in his voice. "She told Mae that Nick was going to get a slap on the wrist and walk. Mae knew deep down he was going to walk. She was already vulnerable."

"What the fuck did she say to her?" I whisper, seething with anger.

He sighs, "Sam told her that if she wanted this mess to be over that she needed to just kill herself... And well..."

"Wait... Hold up." My voice is rising and pissed. "Are you fucking telling me that Mae tried to kill herself? Why would she listen to that bitch?"

Tom places a hand on my shoulder and looks at me. "She did try. She believed that nobody would care if she was gone." He rubs his eyes, tired and worried. "Hero," he starts. "I've never seen a person so distraught. She was so scared. When she came to see me she felt like that, just like she did when Sam told her to kill herself. I'm just-"

"Your tired of history repeating itself." I finish for him.

I watch as he nods. "Exactly.

I walk over to the door and open it, not looking at anyone or anything when I say, "She will never have to worry about that again. Someone would have to fucking kill me. No one will hurt her unless I'm deep in my fucking grave."