Before It Ends • Hessa • Emery Scott

𝔽𝕠𝕣𝕥𝕪 ℕ𝕚𝕟𝕖

I stuff my phone back into my pocket and take in a deep breath before entering the hospital room.

"What'd she say?" Tessa immediately inquires.

"She said she will see us tomorrow." I smile gently at her and her mouth curves up into her own smile.

"Okay." She looks out of the big window showing off the parking lot. "That means you have to go get Auden."

I sigh, pressing my fingers onto my forehead. "I don't know if he should see you yet, Tessa. You still look pretty..." I trail off, not wanting to vocalize her bruises on her face. She just looks at me, innocently listening as if it isn't a big deal. "Landon said he will keep him as long as needed—"

"Hardin, they are going through their own shit right now with Addy gone—"

"But we're going through shit too, Tessa. Alright?" I snap, immediately sighing afterwards. I plop down into the uncomfortable as fuck seat I had been sleeping in last night and I bury my head into my hands. "Let's just wait until you look better. I don't want to burn this image of you into his head. It's traumatizing."

"Wow, thanks." She chuckles and I shake my head. This is not a time to joke. She knows what I mean.

"You know what I mean, Tess." I reply, "I would've given anything to remove that image of my mum's beaten face from my mind." I prop my chin up onto my hands, looking at Tessa who has a huge frown on her face.  Her left eye has a huge shiner, purple and blue. Her lip is busted— but almost healed, and her right jaw has a small bruise where he bumped her with his shoulder 'on accident' she said.  'This bruise wasn't intentional. He didn't mean to bump me with his shoulder.' She had said. I have never seen or heard of anyone, who had been violated, defend an intruder's hit. 'Of course it worked in his favor but anyways... this bruise was when—' and she rambled on about how each and every bruise happened. There were some that she just wasn't sure about because she couldn't really remember. She said it happened so quickly that it was hard to do anything but fling her arms around in hope to hit him.

I shake my head, exiting the whirl pool of thoughts swirling around my head. "I couldn't protect Emery from it. Let me protect Auden." I finally say, running one of my hands through my brown hair.

Tessa sighs, turning her head to face the other way. "You're right." She mutters.

"Get some rest. I'll be back in a little bit." I say, getting up from the chair.

"Where are you going?" She questions, following my movements with her eyes.

"I'm going to go to the hotel and take a shower and then grab a bite to eat." I reply. Yesterday, when I found that fucker in Emery's room, the cops there suggested me to get a hotel while they clean up the place. I am more than happy to do so. It looked like a crime scene in there.

I kiss Tessa on the forehead before leaving her.

◉‿◉

COLE.

"They're all dolls with smiles.
Deceiving us with styles.
I'll cheat them with a smile
just to save me for a little while.
Only a few I'll show my shame,
The others get my game.
Yes, the mind game I play,
To make it through the day. "
(1)

Lilly's poems. I know I shouldn't get into these right now, especially with a mentally exhausted woman sleeping beside me.

I don't think I had ever seen Emery like that. Something her father said triggered her tears, and once they began, they wouldn't stop. There was a time where she placed the phone down, quickly darting into the bathroom for a towel to use for her tears. She kept her head down, refusing to look at me.