Numb | Editing | 18+

Chapter Thirteen: Round 2.

Trigger warnings for this chapter:

• Mentions of past abuse

• Physical violence

• Triggering language

• Domestic violence

• Mental abuse

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*Sunday, March 1, 2020; 9:47 A.M.*

*Adrian's point of view*

"Linden, I'm going to ask you again. Is Ian harassing you?"

"No, he isn't." She signs towards me.

"What's going on here, why is she not being truthful with me?"

I'm seriously contemplating on whether or not to basically snatch her phone out of her hand, and going through and reading the messages that Ian's sending her.

But, because I know that if I try to force an answer out of her, then I won't get anything, and that she probably won't want to be within a fifty mile radius of me after that, I'm not going to do that to her.

"I know that you're lying to me, Linden." I doubtfully answer. "But I'm not going to do anything about it. You can tell me what's wrong, once you're ready to tell me, OK?"

She nods her head.

*switching points of view*

key:
Adrian: underlined
Linden: bold

"I hate to have to lie to you, Adrian. I want so badly to tell you about everything, but I'm so scared. Not of what they might do to me, but of what they might do to you." I thought.

"So, you said that I can tell you when I'm ready?"

"Yeah. Take as long as you need, I won't rush you. " She replied.

"Thank you, Adrian."

"No problem."

"I've been meaning to tell you this since you first got here, but you look very nice today, Adrian."

"Oh, word?"

"Yeah."

I look her up and down, and I can't help but continuously stare at her. Her hair is tied up, almost as always, and almost all of what she's wearing is completely black.

My eyes then move over to the same tattoo that I saw that she has on her neck a few months ago; apparently the tattoo looks like it's attached to another one, so I look down even lower, and I see that she also has a huge black floral tattoo on her chest, connecting to the one on her neck.

And that's when I make the very stupid mistake of looking right at her chest, instead of at her tattoo.

Her shirt was showing quite a bit of cleavage, and my mind instantly went into the gutter.

If this is what part of her body looks like right now, then just imagine what the rest of her looks like.

For a few seconds, I notice that Linden keeps on staring at me, and after about 40 seconds, her eyes seemingly stop at my chest.

"What the fuck? Is Linden seriously staring at my chest?"

"Linden, you know that my eyes are up here, right?" I ask, while pointing to my eyes.