Bruised, Battered And Broken.

Chapter 2

The table fell over as she stumbled into it, sending the vase smashing into the wall. This only seemed to entice him more, as he picked her up by the hair and threw her onto the sofa. She felt something drip down her cheek, but she knew it was blood not tears...She didn't cry when this happened anymore.

"Why did you show me up Jess?" Jacks nose touched hers. The touch of his skin burnt into hers. She wanted nothing more than to be able to push him away...She wanted to scream at him to leave her alone, but she didn't. Instead, she just sat and took it. "Why are you not answering me!"

Jess shut her eyes, tight shut and waited for his response to her silence. She relaxed almost immediately as his hand made contact with her cheek, knowing fully well that it could've been a lot worse. For her, it was a loose, loose situation. She knew if she argued back, it would make him worse, but she couldn't beg for him to stop. So the only way that she could deal with it was to remain silent.

Smash. He had picked up the bottle of wine he had started drinking when they'd got back in and threw it at her. She narrowly got out of the way in time.

"Jess, get out! Get out now before i do something that i regret! Get out Jess!" he threw something else but Jess had no idea what it was. Shards from it hit the back of her head as he charged at her, so she got up and bolted to the door, grabbing her Toms as she left. She was still wearing the dress form earlier, and so the cold hit her like a thousand knives. This wasn't unusual for Jack to throw her out at all hours, she was just lucky he let her leave when he got in those moods, because sometimes, he would just use her as a punching bag. She slipped on her Toms and hitched up her dress, wiping the blood of her head with the hem. She tried to remember exactly what she had done wrong earlier. Harry Styles had given her his phone number, but that wasn't what he was angry about. Jess could only presume that he hadn't seen that, because if he had, there was no way he would've been able to keep his cool, even if he was in a room full of important people.

She allowed her thoughts to drift back to Harry, and she remembered that his number was safely tucked into her bra. She fished it out and continued walking. She had left in such a rush, she hadn't picked up her bag, so she would have to find a phone box. This wasn't the way she wanted to live her life; running scared. Before she met Jack, she wanted to be a vet, she had her own horse, but he made her sell it...Even after having him for four years. Jess could pretty much pin point where in her life she had just given up. She didn't want to live anymore, but she was scared about what Jack would do to himself if she gave up, so she carried on living in her empty shell.

Finally, she reached a phone box and dialled Harry's number. He had answered it before she even registered what she was doing.

"Hello?"
"Oh erm hi, is this Harry Styles?" Jess wasn't surprised that Harry was so cagey. He was the pin up boy of the decade, and she could see why. The thought of her curly locks alone was enough to send her stomach into knots.
"My name is Jessica, we met earlier and you gave me your number when we was in the..."
"Red dress, of course i remember you," Harry said. "Hi, i didn't think you would ring. Jack seemed pretty upset when you left."
"He was fine," Jess lied. "Uh, thing is, I've locked myself out the house and Jacks gone out, so i was wandering if you wanted to go for a coffee?"
"Uh we aren't really allowed to go out for too long without management knowing, but you can come here if you want? Me and Louis were about to chuck on a film."

Jess knew that this was a bad ideas. There was no way she should even be considering going anywhere near Harry Styles hotel room. "Yeah that sounds great!" She found herself saying.

"Okay, well Louis said he can come and meet you, so where about are you?" He said.

"Uh actually, I'm okay, ill come to you. What hotel are you in?"

Harry gave her directions to the hotel and she was happy to realize that she wasn't too far away. Shay told her to ask for Larry Mackintosh (apparently their fake name) and that they were on the top floor

When she got there she was surprised at how easily she gained access to the hotel, and how she got to the top floor with only being questioned once, she knocked on the door. It was at that point she realised she hadn't actually looked at herself in the mirror to see how she looked. She knew that she had been bleeding, and she could only presume that he looked a state, she began frantically scrubbing away at her head with her sleeve, only to snap her hand down quickly as the door opened. It wasn't Harry that opened the door, it was Louis.

"Wow, love," he said, "you look terrible, what happened?"

"I tripped" Jess was used to lying now, mechanically.

"Sit down, I'll get an ice pack and the first aid box," Louis ushered her in "Harry!"

"Fuck Jess, are you ok?" Harry said walking out of the bathroom, wearing nothing but some basketball shorts "what happened to your head, there's glass in your back"

"Is there?" Jess was genuinely surprised she hadn't even noticed, but now Harry had mentioned it, she felt a sharp pain in her upper back.

"I tripped" she repeated.

"On to what a glass door," Harry motioned to the kitchen table, where he pushed her into the chair "Louis! While your in the bathroom see if Zayns left his tweezers in there!"

"What do you need tweezers for?" Louis motioned handing them to Harry as he came out the bathroom.

Harry drew circles on Jess back, Jess could only presume he was showing Louis old scars and the cuts on her back. "Guys, its fine I honestly just fell, if you leave it I'll get Jack to do it when I get back, in fact he's probably there now, I should really get going, he'll be wandering where I am."

"Louis," Jess felt Harry begin to pull the shards of glass out of her back "Can you leave us a minute, I need to talk to Jess."

"Harry, I don't think its a really good idea for you to get involved..."

"Louis please..."

Louis left, just as his friend had asked, Jess could see that he didn't want to leave. These boys were clearly not stupid, and Jess was used to the looks, the whispering behind her back. People weren't stupid, she knew that people knew what was going on with her and Jack, but what she found was no one was actually willing to help. And that was something that she had got used to.

"Harry seriously, you don't know whats going on, I honestly just fell, please don't make this out to be something it's not."

"Tell me one thing Jess, if there was nothing going on, why would you call a complete stranger in the middle of the night if you didn't need help?"

"I did need help, I'm locked out."

"That's bullshit Jess and you know it," Harry looked at her sympathetically, it's a look she wasn't used too "I spoke to Kevin before Jack came over, I'd been watching him with you the way he looked at you, Kevin said there were stories about jack's aggression toward you, then he snatched you away like that, no one deserves to be treated like that."

"You don't know the whole story Curls, I wind him up," Jess shouted, "don't go accusing people of things you don't understand or that concern you, I don't know why I'm here, i don't know you from Adam, and you have no right to talk to me like that," She stood up and made her way to the door, but Harry blocked it.

"Get out the way styles or else," and that's when she felt it, the unfamiliar feeling as fluid ran down her face, she reached her hand up to her cheek and gently caressed her cheek.

"I bet you don't stand up to him like that," Harry walked over to her and pulled her into his embrace and she let him, buried her face into his torso and cried.