When I look at you - Reggie Peters <3

Fourteen.

After getting changed, I headed to the bathroom to grab the first aid kit from one of the draws under the sink so that I can see if the cut is just a scratch. After cleaning the blood of my cheek, I saw that it's not a deep cut, but I'll definitely need a plaster on it. Hopefully it'll be fine by tomorrow morning for school.

After properly sorting out the cut and putting a plaster on my finger, I headed back to my room to get everything ready for school tomorrow. Once everything was sorted, I text the group chat with Julie and Flynn to tell them that me and my dad had an argument and that I'm okay, before getting ready for bed.

It's been a long night.

——————————————————————————

My alarm was the first thing that I heard in the morning, instantly putting me in a bad mood. As I slowly started to wake up, my mind wandered back to everything that happened last night, diminishing my bad mood, making me sad instead. Looks like it's gonna be one of those days.

Just because I don't feel good today, doesn't mean I can't dress cute. It's definitely going to be a no makeup and hair in a messy ponytail kinda day though. I grabbed a white turtleneck top with a green patterned jumper to go over it, along with some striped flared jeans and white converse. Looking in the mirror, I noticed that I have a small bruise on my cheek from where my dad slapped me. Luckily the plaster covers most of it, but it's still visible. Looks like I'll be wearing my hair down instead.

Just as I finished getting ready, Julie texted me, telling me to come over slightly earlier as she had something to tell me. I left my book in the studio the other night, so I was going to head over to her house anyway. I just know she's gonna ask about the cut on my cheek, I just hope the boys aren't around so they don't find out. It's not that I don't trust them enough to tell them, because I do. It's just that it's a whole lot of explaining that I really don't want to get into.

Grabbing my school stuff, I head over to Julie's. The first thing I see when I enter the house is Julie herself smiling at the kitchen table, eating breakfast.

"Hey J, what's got you all smiley?" I asked her when I stood next to her, stealing some food from her plate.

"Me and Luke finally finished that song we've been working on! It's called Edge of Great. Wanna head to the studio and work on some of the chords before school?" She asked me with a huge smile on her face.

Her smile slowly dropped as she noticed the plaster on my face. "What happened?"

"Nothing J, just drop it." I said before I headed out to the studio to grab my songbook that I left in there the day before.

"No. I'm not gonna drop it, Bel. Talk to me. Please." She stopped talking as we entered the studio. I saw the guys sitting on the sofa and mentally scolded myself for leaving my book in here in the first place.

"I said nothing happened, Julie." I repeated as I looked around the studio for my book, ignoring the boys as they looked at us curiously.

"If it was nothing then you wouldn't be so defensive about it!" She exclaimed as she threw her hands up in the air.

I finally found my book and picked it up before turning around to face Julie. "Did you think that maybe I just don't want to talk about it!?"

"Yeah, May. Believe it or not I did. But you're the one who's always telling me that talking about things help, so why aren't you telling me about what happened to your cheek?"

Just as Julie said that, I saw the boys look over at my cheek, before they stood up and started to head over towards us from the chair.

"I'll see you at school J." I said bluntly before heading towards the studio doors. Just as my hand grabbed the handle, Julie's voice made me stop dead.

"Did your dad hit you again?"

I froze in my spot before talking a deep breath. I vaguely heard the boys all mutter 'what?' Under their breaths, making me squeeze my eyes shut.

"Yeah. He did." I whispered as my voice cracked, before turning around and glaring at Julie. "He threw a plate at me too. Is that what you wanted me to admit so badly?"

"May." I heard Reggie say, making me look over to the boys, seeing them all with sad looks on their faces. I just shook my head before turning back around and walking out of the studio.

Julie followed me out and grabbed my wrist before I could leave her house and turned me around to face her. I saw how sad she looked and it did make me feel bad for yelling at her.

"I'm sorry for yelling. I just didn't want anyone to know." I whispered to her as tears started forming in me eyes. I saw the boys leave the studio and look towards us, making me keep my attention on Julie only.

"No. You don't have anything to be sorry for. I shouldn't have pushed you for an answer. I'm just worried about you." Julie said as she linked her pinky with mine. "Are you okay?" She said quietly.

When she asked that question, I finally broke. I shook my head as tears betrayed me by slipping down my cheeks. Julie just wrapped her arms around me in a hug as I cried into her shoulder. I heard her say something to the boys, followed by the sound of them poofing away. I mentally thanked her, as much as I love them, I don't want them to see me crying.

Julie led me into her house and took me to her bedroom before she left and came back with tissues, a first aid box and an ice pack. "Let's fix you up and go to school, and when we come home, we're having a movie night in the studio with the boys because I know they will cheer you up." Julie said, making me laugh slightly and nod.

"Do you want to tell the guys about your dad?" Julie asked me after she finished fixing up my cut properly.

"I think I do. But at the same time, I don't want to have to explain everything you know? It's just going to make me sad."

"If you don't want to tell them, I can? Or if you don't want to tell them at all, that's fine too." Julie said as she went to put the first aid kit away.

"No. No, I want them to know. It's just gonna be hard talking about it. Anyways, enough about that. Let's go to school before your dad grounds both of us." I said, making Julie chuckle at me before linking her arm through mine.

It's gonna be a long day.