I shift in place, trying to find a comfortable position. Pain erupting in every muscle near my abdomen. Instantly, flashes of what happened play in my head.
I groan.
"Hey honeybun.. How do you feel?" I hear from beside me.
I open my eyes slowly and see Nicklaus resting on the floor next to my bed. My phone in his hand, I watch him scroll out of something before placing it on my side table. I make a mental note to ask him about that later.
"I'm.. hurting." I mumble.
He frowns, "I know hun, I'm so sorry."
I scrunch up my eyebrows confused, "What time is it?"
He clicks my phone, "2:14."
I look at him extremely confused, "Nick what are you doing home? How did you know I was here?"
He looks away hesitant, almost reluctant to say anything. I start to sit up and hiss when more pain erupts throughout my body. He rushes down to place his hand on my shoulder.
"What the hell do you think your doing Rillan? You are extremely hurt, I don't want you moving from this bed until your able to sit up without hissing." He says sternly, pushing me back down.
"Nicklaus." I snap.
He looks taken back, I only use his full name when I'm serious and or upset. He reaches up to rub the back of his neck nervously, a habit I've noticed he picked up.
"Yes?"
"What are you hiding from me?"
He goes to open his mouth, but he closes it again. I glare up at him, "Now. Nicklaus."
He sighs, "It's not my place to say, they will tell you when they are ready too."
"They?"
He shakes his head, "I'm not disclosing anything."
"So 'they' called you?"
He nods. "And how did 'they' know what happened and that I was here?" I ask.
He shakes his head again, "Sorry Illa, not saying anything,"
I groan and close my eyes, bringing my hand to cover my face, "Any chance you could get me some water and pain meds from y backpack?"
I hear him shuffle around and unzip may bag, My ears perk up at the glorious sound of the medication bottle and I open my eyes back up to grab the water bottle and medicine.
"No more then 3 please. That stuff is strong and I don't need you getting addicted."
I roll my eyes, "I've been using these for years, I think I'll be fine." I retort.
He sighs and sits on my bed, resting his elbows on his knees, his head in his hands. I finish swallowing the pills and reset a hand on his shoulder.
"Nick what's wrong?"
He doesn't answer at first, I wait in silence, the only thing that could be heard was his ragging breath. Finally he sits up and looks at me.
"Rillan, I'm not going to be here soon. You have to leave here. You aren't safe, and you know it." He says completely serious.
I stare at him, eyes wide, "Are you serious? Nick I can't just leave! Where would I go? Nate's parents will ask questions, and I don't have any other close friends."
He looks away for a second, "What about that Darius guy?"
I give him a strange look, "What about him?"
"You could stay with him, I heard his family is always out of town and he has no siblings that live with him." He offers.
I laugh, "No way. No way in hell."
He sighs, "Rillan you don't have a whole lot of options right now, You need to leave before I go off to college. I was able to delay it a semester but after this I'm two hours away."
I look down, "Why him? Why does it have to be him?"
I gives me a sad look and reaches over to rub my cheek, "Honey it will be okay, Why are you so worried about Darius? Did something happen?"
I shake my head, "No he's just the schools asshole, he's fucked almost every girl there. I really don't want to worry about him bringing girls home and me being there to see that."
He shakes his head laughing, "That's what your worried about? Or are you just worried about your boyfriend."
I sigh, "It would be pretty hard to explain."
He smiles, "We will figure it out, please talk to Darius about it?"
I give up reluctantly, "Fine.."
He wraps his arms around me gently, rubbing my back soothingly, "Everything will be okay."
"Yea, Okay."
He pulls back and gives my shoulders a gently squeeze, "Speaking about boyfriends, when was the las time you talked to him?"
He look away, "Not sure.. maybe 3 days ago?"
He frowns, "Maybe you should stop avoiding him and call him."
I jump in quickly, "I'm not avoiding him!"
He gets up and shakes his head, "If you say so, I'm going to go make you something to eat. Mom left about 30 minutes ago, so she shouldn't be back for a while."
I nod and watch him walk out and close the door behind him. I glance at my window before I turn over on my side, but something stops me. I look closer to see something metal and shiny on the floor by the window seal. I get up slowly, careful not to jostle myself around too much, inching my way to the edge of the bed next to the window. I look down and see it.
"A ring?"
I position myself on the bed and reach down, grabbing the metal ring with my finger tips. I move it closer and inspect the stranger ring.
The band was silver with strange grooves in it, it felt cold in my hand, like it had been sitting there for a while. I place it in my palm and close my fingers around it, moving back to my spot under the covers. I grab my phone and dial a number, placing it to my ear. The ring in front of me as I turn it around, looking at all the grooves and engravings.
A familiar voice picks up on the other end, "Hola."
I smile, "Hey there stranger."
I hear a chuckle, "Hey yourself sweets, haven't heard from you much recently. What have you been up to?"
I sigh, twirling the ring around in my hand, "Nothing really, just a lot of school. One of our teachers died.."
"Wait what? What teacher?"
"Mr. Darvis."
"What? Ah that sucks, I liked him."
I smile a bit, "Yeah, We got out of school early, I guess a lot of the teachers were very distraught and didn't want to teach the rest of the day."
"Well there's a plus, one less day to do school work." He laughs.
I chuckle a bit, "Yep."
"Anything else interesting go on? How's Nate?"
I laugh, "Oh just loosing very badly at Siege against me."
I hear him laugh, "That's my girl! You've been practicing haven't you?"
My hear skips a beat at his words, "Absolutely, I have to beat you somehow don't I?"
"Good luck sweet cheeks, I'm better and you know it!"
I snort, "Yeah only cause I let you win."
I hear a knock on my door and I place my other hand on my hand and call Nick to come in, "Sorry my brother is bringing me food."
"Bringing you food? Aren't you supposed to be at school?"
I suck in a breath, "Yeah, I just wasn't feeling great today. I had my mom come get me early."
"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were feeling bad. Are you okay?"
"Yeah yeah, no I'm okay. Just a bit of a stomach ache."
I grimace at the lies I'm spilling to him, Nick places done a plate and a cup on my side table and gives me a sad look.
"Okay good, Wouldn't want my baby getting sick before I come home."
I laugh softly, "Yeah I'm sure you'd hate the chance to play doctor."
He snorts, "Hey! I'm a sexy doctor!"
I roll my eyes, "Yes you are. Anyway, I'm going to eat some food and take a nap, I'll call you when I get up okay?"
I hear shuffling on the other end and some voices, a girls voice stick out to me the most.
"Yeah of course, Get better soon okay babe?"
"Yeah, will do."
I hear the line go dead, and I slowly move my phone down my face to rest on my chest.
"Everything okay?" Nick asks sitting on the bed again.
I nod, "Yeah.. Probably just over thinking again."
He grabs my plate and helps me sit up, "Here, eat some food then get some rest. I'll come check back up on you in a few hours, if you need me just text me or call okay?"
I nod and he pats my head. Sighing I lean back on my headboard and grab the sand which on the plate, taking a huge bite out of it. I scroll through instagram on my phone while I finish my food. I chuckle when I come across a cat failing at trying to jump across a ledge. I frown, I probably shouldn't have laughed at that.
I shrug and giggle, "Why would I not laugh at that?"
My phone rings and see Nate's name flash across the top, I hit accept call and yell into the phone, "YOU ARE SUCH A HORRIBLE FRIEND."
"I'm sorry!! I tried to help but my dad wouldn't even let me leave school early!" He responds frantically.
I chuckle, "It's okay, I'm just kidding."
He sighs, "God women you almost gave me a heart attack. What happened when you got home??"
I think back to the car ride..
—————————————————
I stare out of the window in silence, the tension so thick you could cut it with a knife. My mother says nothing the whole ride home, which scared me even more. When we reached the house, my mother turns the car off, and gets out of the car. I follow her and we walk into the house, I stand in the dinning room, her heels echoing off the high ceiling. She clicks her tongue and looks at me.
"Do you have any idea how disrespectful you've been these past couple days?" She gives me a deadly look that says 'I dare you to talk back.'
I look at my feet, "I'm not trying to be.. I'm sorry."
I decided that just playing it safe and apologizing might get me off on a better foot.
"Sorry isn't going to cut it Bitch." She walks forward and grabs my hair, I yelp in pain and she drags me up the stairs and into my room.
"You WILL NOT disrespect me in MY house! You understand me!?" She yells throwing me to the ground.
I cry out and grab my head, trying to work out the pain, "Yes Mother, I understand."
She grabs my hair again and pulls my head up to look at her, "So now you think it's alright to have an attitude!?"
I yell back, "NO! I wasn't! I SWEAR!"
She back hands me and I fall to my side, my cheek burning. She kicks her heal into my stomach and the breath is knocked out of me. I cough, trying to get as much air into my lungs as possible. She grabs my hair again and gets extremely close to my face.
"You are NOTHING! You hear me!?? NOTHING!!"
She drops me and kicks me again, over and over again. I cough up the saliva I was chocking on, blood mixing in with it. Before I can catch my breath to try and move away from her, or block her next blow, she kicks me in the side of the head.
Everything goes black.
———————————————-
"So that's basically what happened." I finished explaining.
The line is silent, dead silent. I pull the phone away to make sure he was still on the phone, I see the call still going and I put the phone back to my ear.
"Nate?"
"We are getting you out of there. Now Rillan. I'm not fucking around with this anymore. If we can't call the cops then your leaving the house."
"My brother already talked to me about it. He thinks it would be a good idea for me to stay at Iyvan's house. IYVAN! Can you believe it!?"
He doesn't say anything.
"Nate not you to!" I whine.
"I don't know what else to say to that Rillan! Your brother is right. You are going to talk to him about moving in with him."
"But-"
He cuts me off, "No Rillan there is no debate here, if I have to I will talk to him myself."
"Nate I can't! What do you think Aidan will say!?"
"If Aiden KNEW what was going on to his girlfriend behind his back he would understand." He snaps back.
I frown, "You know why I'm not telling him.."
"Yes Ri I know why, but that doesn't change anything. You are unsafe and this will eventually lead to you not getting up and walking it off next time."
I sigh, "I know.."
"Tomorrow at school your talking to him whether you like it or not. And to make sure you do I will be there right next to you."
"Nate please, I'm not going to have you babysit me!"
"You don't, but I'm going to anyway. I care about you too much to watch you be in pain day after day Rillan Marie!"
I grimace at his use of my middle name. "Okay Nate.."
"Good, now get some sleep, I'll be waiting for you at school tomorrow. Call me if you need anything."
"Okay, Goodnight."
"Night love."
I click end and connect my phone to the charger, I move my plate to the side table and shimmy back under the covers. I pull the ring I found out from under the covers to look at it.
Part of me knew who's it was.. But the other part of me wished it wasn't his..