I See You

39

Ryan let go of Lena’s shoulders when his fingers and palms started to ache, it hadn’t been in his plans for Lena to pull the mask off his face but now that the secret was out, it wasn’t really something that bothered him. Lena’s spine and bruised ribs had started to hurt when Ryan had been holding her against the kitchen island, but as soon as she saw his face her body forgot all the pain it was going through and it simply froze.

Lena mindlessly slid down the kitchen island’s wall and dropped herself over the cold kitchen floor, her left hand trembled up and she had to cover her mouth for a few seconds as the tears continued to flow down her face. Ryan walked towards the sink and turned the water on; Lena heard the water running and splashing over the metallic sink. Ryan cupped some water in his hands and cleaned his face, he drank a bit of the water and then turned it off, Lena hadn’t moved from the floor, he turned around and leaned against the sink, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes glued over the trembling young woman.

“No” was all Lena’s mind was saying to her, she pulled her legs up to her knees, she could feel Ryan watching her.

Lena remembered being lab partners with Ryan when he failed chemistry and had to take it again when she had turned into a Sophomore and Ryan had turned a Junior, she had ended up tutoring him and they had passed with high notes. Her mind rapidly flashed to Ryan driving her home after a few of the football games and all she could think from all the flashbacks was:

“No, he is my friend, this isn’t happening”

Ryan sat down near the drawer where he had pushed in his bag and pulled it open as he allowed Lena to get out of her catatonic state, he pulled out the bag and placed it over his lap. Ryan glanced at Lena but the girl was still covering her mouth and her legs were pulled against her chest, he rolled his eyes and looked back at his bag and pulled one of the items inside of it.

“Why… Lena stuttered “Why... why are you doing this Ryan?”

“Huh” whispered Ryan, he played with the item in his hands and looked at Lena “I can’t really believe you are asking me that”

“Really?” whispered Lena “Why not?” she hadn’t dared to look at Ryan, turning to look at him would be facing once more the fact that he had punched her and pulled from her hair, it was facing the fact that one of her closest and more dearest friend had been tormenting her for the last months and now… now she could never take this back.

“Because you should know why, Lena” he answered “You should know why”

Ryan heard a sob slip out of Lena’s lips, it was muffled by her hand covering her mouth, if she could see herself now she would see how much of a wreck she looked like: her hair was tied on itself and ruffled around, like a hay pack, a few bruises were starting to appear all around her legs and he could see a few others over her arms, there was dry blood over the side of her face, from where he had slammed her face against the window frame, he couldn’t see the few blood drops that had appeared over her scalp nor the terrible pain in her ribs.

He smiled to himself, sitting there, Lena resembled everything she was, a horror; he couldn’t believe this girl that had once been his friend now looked so disgusting and Ryan felt a small wave of anger rise in him.

“Breath” Ryan told himself.

“Are you going to kill me?” Lena asked, she lowered her hand and placed it over one of her knees.

“Did you think I was going to kill you when you saw me under the stairs?” asked Ryan, Lena felt chills at the sound of his so very calm voice.

“Yes”