𝘾𝙍𝘼𝙎𝙃𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙄𝙉𝙏𝙊 𝙔𝙊𝙐 ↣ 𝙊𝙉𝙀 𝘿𝙄𝙍𝙀𝘾𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉

fourty-eight - more than this

who owes me an apology?
i've been far more cruel to myself
than any man.

_________________________________

The boys were in the living room when I walked inside.

I pulled my hood up and kept my head down, trying to walk past them without them trying to talk to me. But they were my brothers, and they cared, so of course they did.

"Hey, Mick. How was school?" Niall asked from behind me.

"Good," I lied.

I had one foot on the steps when they called me back.

"You good, peaches?" Liam asked. I kept my eyes down.

"Yeah, no. I'm good," I lied again.

"Why aren't you looking up at us then?" Zayn asked. I couldn't see him, but I was sure he was raising one eyebrow.

"Can't I look at the floor? Is that illegal?"

"Mickey," Niall sighed.

Louis stood up from his spot on the couch. He pulled my hood down and tipped my chin up in one motion, too fast for me to move away.

"What fucking happened?" he gasped. I shook his hand off of my face and looked back down. The other boys stood up in shock, trying to get a closer look.

"I tripped," I said numbly.

"And you tried to cover it up?" Harry asked, leaning in, "you realize that if it's swollen shut it's obvious, don't you?"

"Believe me, it's covered up," I mumbled, looking up again.

"Let's go wash this off then, get a better look at you," Liam said slowly. He pulled me into the kitchen and nodded for me to sit on the island. I huffed and did what he wanted. Zayn got a washcloth wet and handed it to Niall, who was in front of me.

Niall dabbed at my eye as gently as he could manage, washing more concealer off each time he wiped. "does this hurt?"

"It's fine," I said. I was gripping the counter top as hard as I could, trying to ignore Niall cleaning my face up. It wasn't fine.

"Liar," Harry mumbled. He grabbed one of my hands in his and let me squeeze it.

When Niall was finished taking off Olivia's attempt to hide my black eye, he swore loudly. The make-up did do wonders at concealing it.

In reality, it was already dark purple and blue with spotting and yellowing edges. It looked worse than it was, but it was still bad.

Louis grabbed my chin gently and turned my head towards him. I rested my chin in his hand and he supported the full weight of my head while he looked at it. "You tripped?" he checked, disbelief peaking through his tone.

"Yeah."

"Are you sure you tripped?" Louis asked.

"Yeah," I whispered. He touched the edge of it, over where my orbital bone was once broken. I winced and pulled my face away from him.