Shadows in a Window // Luke Hemmings

chapter 9 • liar

Ryan slams the front door in Luke's face and watches out the window until he sees Luke get in his car and drive away.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?" Ryan screams at me as he turns around to face me.

"Jessy, you lied to me! You told me you were at Allie's! And you lied! I can never trust you again you little slut!" Ryan screams again as he grabs me by the ponytail and pulls me to the ground.

I let out a scream in pain as my face comes into contact with the tiled floor.

"Oh shut up, don't act like you don't deserve this." He tells me as he steps on my back, forcing my whole body to fall on the ground.

"You deserve every bit of pain you can handle and you wanna know why? Because you're a filthy liar! And liars need to be punished so they can learn their lesson!" He yells at me as he kicks me hard in the stomach, which winds me and stops me from screaming out.

"Please stop." I whisper, short of breath as he flips me over so I'm now laying on my back.

He leans down and straddles my waist as his face grows closer and closer to mind until our lips almost meet.

"Liar." He spits, making me flinch before he climbs off me and stands back up.

"Go get me some pizza." He demands throwing $20 at me.

I gather the money with my shaky hands and manage to get to my feet.

"C-can I take your car Ryan?" I ask hesitantly.

"Whatever." He replies angrily before leaving the room.

I run out of the house and towards Ryan's car trying to leave before any other act of violence is inflicted. My fingers fumble with the car keys and I drop them twice on the ground before I manage to unlock the car and climb inside it. Turning it on I quickly reverse out of the driveway. I drive until I'm out of site from the house and pull over on the side of the road and that's when I break down in tears.

I sit there, on the side of the road for what feels like forever just crying and screaming out in pain. My hands tremor and my body twitches from the adrenaline and pain trying to fight against each other.

When I can no longer cry no more I look back up at the road only to notice that the sun has now gone down and rain it starting to fall on the windscreen. I switch the car lights on and pull myself together as I indicate to re-join the traffic.

I finally pull up at the pizza place, get my wallet and make a run for shelter as the rain it pelting down. Walking through the doors I go straight up to counter to be served.

"Um, can I please get one cheese pizza and one pepperoni pizza please?" I ask the guy at the counter as I refuse to make eye contact with him.

"That'll be $11.85." The guy tells me as I hand over the correct cash before turning around and taking a seat at a table to wait.

I notice 2 pairs of feet across from me and as I finally gather the courage to look at their faces I almost gasp as I notice the purple haired boy and the drummer. They notice me looking at them so I just politely smile before I look down at my hands and play with the ring on my finger.

The door of the pizza store opens as I watch another two pairs of feet enter the store. I don't dare to look up just incase it's Luke so I keep my head down and pray for the pizza to be ready.

"Jessy?" I hear that familiar voice softly call as he takes a seat next to me.

"Are you ok? When I dropped your phone off before your boyfriend seemed kind of angry. Did you guys get in an argument or something before hand?" He questions me softly, trying to be as quiet as he can so others around us don't hear.

"Yeah, you could call it an argument." I almost whisper as I still refuse to look at him due to the fact that tears as pouring down my face.

"Are you ok?" He asks yet again.

"Can you please stop asking if I'm ok because I'm not." I snap at him as I finally look up into his eyes with my teary ones.

"Y-your face." He gasps.

Right at that moment my order is called so I quickly dry my eyes and stand up to collect it. As soon as I get it off the counter I turn on my heels and walk as fast as I can out if the pizza store and towards the car. I manage to get to the car door and check my bruised cheek and split eyebrow in the mirror before I hear heavy footsteps behind me.

"Jessy please wait, I'm so sorry." Luke calls as he quickly catches up to me.

"Luke please don't." I tell him as I dry my eyes and put the pizzas in the car.

"What happened to your face Jessy? It's bruised and it wasn't like that this morning when I took you home." He asks me in a serious tone.

"It's nothing." I tell him as I go to get in the car but he grabs a hold of my arm pulling me back to face him, just as Ryan did earlier.

"Your boyfriend did it didn't he?" He asks me and I just shake my head.

Unable to answer him I just look down at my arm.

"Sorry." He apologises as he lets go of my arm.

I turn my back to him and dry my eyes as I suck back a shaky breath before climbing into Ryan's car.

The whole drive home I'm a crying mess. The fact that Luke knows about what Ryan did scares me so much. No one has ever known the truth and no one has ever cared enough before to want to know. By the time I pull into the driveway my eyes are still filled with tears and I'm so scared to walk back into my house.