Every Which Way

Chapter 34- Are You Okay?

Then there was her bed, which she must have been laying in judging on the Natalie-sized lump in her sheets. She was completely swallowed by her blanket, a steady rise and fall of her breathing visible.

"Natalie?" I asked. She barely even shifted.

"Natalie!" I tried again. She shifted this time, slowly turning over and her eyes peeled open.

"Rowena?" She asked, groggily at first but then her eyes opened more, and she was more alert at seeing me in her room. "What are you doing here?"

"You weren't at school and you haven't answered my texts."

She inhaled a breath and looked around her room. "Oh no," she sat up straighter and dropped her face in her hands. "It's your birthday today."

"That's not why I'm here Nat. I was worried about you. I haven't seen you much since whatever the hell happened at the diner."

The mention of the diner made her eyes go a little wider as if she had just remembered something. She turned her face more towards the window in thought.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I'm sorry for worrying you. I think I left my phone on the charger," She shrugged her arm in the general direction of her desk. Sure enough, there was her phone, the screen faced upwards and silently lighting up with a brand-new notification. I looked back at her still facing the window.

"Natalie?" I called softly, waiting for her to turn her face towards me, but she wouldn't.

I started to walk towards the side of her bed, but she sensed my movement and shot out of her covers suddenly. "I actually need to use the bathroom, could you give me a minute?" She didn't wait for an answer before she made her way to walk past me.

Knowing her behavior was very off, I didn't want to give her the chance to leave the room without talking to me first. I reached out and gently gripped her arm before she could get past me. "Listen, we can just-"

I cut myself off as my grip turned her to face me for the first time. Her eyes downcast immediately, not able to look me in the eye any longer. "What the hell is on your face Natalie?" I asked towards the bruise visible on her cheek bone.

(TW: mentions of abuse from this point.)

She looked up at me with small panic in her eyes, but she didn't respond. "Natalie, how long has he been doing this to you?" The urgency in my voice was obvious and I raised my voice without meaning to.

"Shhh, lower your voice, Rowena, please," She used her arms to express her words and the panic in her eyes only grew.

"You haven't told anybody?" I asked in shock.

I reached out and took her arm again, lowering her long sleeve from her arm. There was nothing there, so I took the other one and lowered that. There was a hand shape bruise wrapped around the wrist of her left arm.

I took a deep breath to calm myself, unsuccessfully, but I tried to speak softer this time. "Natalie, I need you to tell me what's been happening. I know you haven't been happy in that relationship for a long time and you've always been private about that part of your life and that's been fine," I said in one breath. "But this," I raised her arm in front of us, "is not fine. This is the time for you to open up to your close friend who cares about you."

She looked at me silently at first and then blinked back tears. She pulled her arm back, holding her bruised wrist with her other hand and rubbing her injury with a single finger, I think as a nervous gesture. She looked back down at the floor before she dropped herself into the cushion of her window seat, still rubbing her bruise.