After The Truth

Tessa Chapter 41

"I'm in so much pain." I almost whisper.

He leans on the counter and tucks my hair behind my ear, I look up at him and that's when I see a huge bruise on his jaw. His bottom lip is ripped open and his knuckles have dried blood and scabs on them.

"Hardin.....................what the hell happened?"

I raise my hand to his face and he backs away.

"Don't, it's nothing." He says defensively.

"It's obviously not nothing, look at your face.............what happened last night, who did this?"

I get a shooting pain in my head.

"Tessa it doesn't matter about me, I'm fine."

He tries to walk out of the bathroom but I walk up to him.

"Hardin, I can't remember anything from last night..........please tell me what happened." I beg.

He sighs.

"Come on, I'll explain but you need to eat first."

"Fine."

"Go lay in bed, l bring you something." He says.

"It's alright, I can just go grab something myself."

"Tessa you were passed out on the floor, go lay down."

I scold him and he stares me down.

"Fine, whatever."

I walk back into the room and lay in bed, I look for my phone but I can't find it anywhere. I hate how I can't remember anything, but what happened to his face. Did I..............did I do that?

No, that's impossible.

I look at my hands but they look fine and my knuckles are fine, moments later he walks in holding a tray. He sits across from me and puts the tray down, he brought me cereal, toast, coffee and eggs. I forget why I'm mad at him for a moment, I look up at him and see that he's in obvious pain.

"I'm not eating until you tell me what happened last night." I demand.

He sighs, he turns away from me and sits on the edge of the bed with his feet on the ground and his hands in his lap, his back in hunched which is different because he usually stands with great posture. I'm sure he stands like that so he seems intimidating, but in this moment he's very vulnerable.

He cracks his knuckles before he look at the floor and closes his eyes.

"A few hours after our fight I got a call from Brain saying that............that you were getting drunk with Zach.......and that you guys were.....touching." He winces at his own words.

He screws his eyes shut as if he's in pain.

I suddenly get a flash of me grinding my ass against Zach.

Shit.

"I............I drove to the club to find you, I found Zach alone and I.............I roughed him up a bit but I..............I saw some old piece of shit carrying you out of the club, you were passed out and I............"

He gets very emotional and I hear him sniffle, he wipes his face quickly.

"I've never felt the way I did when I saw him carrying you............I ran after you and took you away from him, and I go so fucking pissed so I...............I almost killed him, he was barely breathing when I left him but he deserved it. He said he and his group of friends were gonna..................they were gonna................I can't say it."