Ephemeral //H.S

Chapter 13

"Hey Lu' can I borrow your-" Devon appears through the doors and her jaw falls as she gaps, her hand immediately covering her mouth she looks at my face, then my neck, my shoulder and my arm. I can't move, my eyes are wide as I look into hers like a deer caught in a headlight.

Fuck.

I stand there in my underwear as she stares at my beaten up body, her hand still covering her mouth and I don't know what to do.

"Dev.." I say breathlessly, unsure of what to say. Her hand slowly leaves her mouth and falls to her side, she finally looks into my eyes with her own glossy ones.

"Wh-what the fuck happened to you?" She stutters in shock, frozen on her spot as her face falls along with my stomach.

"It's nothing, please don't freak out.." I try to contain the situation before I have to explain myself, and I still don't know how I'll even do that.

"It's not nothing Lucy, look at you!" She shouts and I step closer with my hands in front of me and my eyes wide.

"Please keep your voice down... please, I don't want to wake them up." I say in a soft voice as my throat tightens, and I'm not really sure what else to say to keep her from completely freaking out.

This is bad, I didn't want her to see me like this. She didn't need to know, ever since we found out about the letter she's been acting different. I can tell that she's scared, and it's weird for me because the Devon I know isn't afraid of anything. But this is way beyond her, and beyond me. And I'm scared, too.

"Lucy just tell me what the hell happened." She says more quietly, her eyes not leaving my face.

"Okay just-please, go sit in my room and I'll tell you. I promise." I convince her and she nods, sniffling back her tears before exiting the closet and going to my room.

I never hide anything from her and I've just been caught red handed. I have no idea how to handle this, and now she's probably going to be so mad at me for hiding this from her. She's not gonna want to talk to me anymore, she'll probably want to move out and have nothing to do with me anymore. She's going to hate me. She's going to hate me for hiding things from her, and for putting her life in danger just for being a part of my life. And she'll never talk to me again. But for now I have to go out to my room and explain what happened to her, and act like it's not the last time she'll ever want to talk to me.

So I push through my intrusive thoughts and quickly put a pair of black leggings on along with an oversized gray sweatshirt. With a tight lump lodged in my throat I pull my hair out of the crewneck collar and slowly walk into my room. Devon sits on the edge of my bed, her legs crossed under her as she looks at the ground. I slowly sit next to her, crossing my legs just like her and fidgeting with my fingers, staring at them I then clear my throat.

"The morning you left for New York I went out to the store." I utter quietly, my voice wavering as I force myself to tell her before she leaves me and my world falls apart. I don't want to, because remembering hurts. But I can tell that seeing me like this hurts her, and I hate the fact that I did this to her.

"When I got to my car to leave, someone tried to take me. H-he attacked me from behind but I managed to make him fall backwards." She looks up to the side of my face and I keep my own eyes focused on my fingers. My throat is dry and tight, I struggle to get the words out and she can tell, because she slid her hand in mine and intertwined our fingers.

My heart tightens at her gestures, and suddenly all of my worries turn to dust in the wind. She's holding my hand, she's staying and not leaving me. How could I ever think that she could abandon me like this, we've been through everything together so how could this be any different?