Briar Preparatory Academy

The Scars of Our Past

"Won't Jasper get angry?"

"He's out with Butch and Carl right now. And I disabled the security system."

"Oh."

"Um... I brought some pain meds, in case you need them." He pauses and scratches the back of his head, running his fingers through his hair and looks away. "They help me sometimes whenever I-- yeah. Can I see your arms?" I furrow my eyebrows, but don't see the point in rejecting him. My arms are black, blue, purple, and green from Jasper's rampage. I touch the hem of my shirt and lift it up to see what my stomach and ribs look like. On the right side, the entire length of my torso is blue and black.

Joe curses under his breath when he sees all the bruises on my arms and torso. I simply ignore him and survey the damage. I tenderly touch the area on my rib cage that hurts the most, gritting my teeth together to keep from crying out in pain. Finally, my fingers reach an area that feels different. My rib is cracked. I learned how to determine the difference between a cracked rib and a shattered rib at BPA in intro to medical. A cracked rib isn't as severe, but it is still a serious injury.

"It's cracked." I say with a sigh as I lean my head back against the wall and let my shirt fall back down.

He instantly grabs the pill bottle and hands it to me along with a water bottle. I haven't realized just how thirsty I was until now. I haven't had water in almost 24 hours. I pause before taking the pill. "How do I know this isn't a fake?"

"You don't." Joe simply shrugs. I take the water bottle and the tablet, throwing it down and chugging the water.

"Thanks." I say quietly. He just nods in return. Next he hands me a protein bar, which I wolf down hungrily.

"Why are you helping me?" I ask him carefully, catching my breath from the effort it took to eat the bar and drink the water, which was made much harder because of my cracked rib.

Joe sighs and wrings his hands together. "Because it's wrong."

"You didn't think that a few days ago."

"Well things change."

"Apparently." I snap back at him, still not trusting him completely.

"I... I didn't like it when he hit you. What gets to me is that it's never bothered me before but--" He trails off, as he reaches up to touch the spot on his face where Jasper hit him. I notice the dark bruise forming on his cheekbone, and feel the slightest temptation to touch it...

I erase that thought from my mind as quickly as it came.

"Well now you've had a taste of your own medicine." I say towards him bitterly.

Joe looks away. "It wouldn't be the first time."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He just sighs and runs his hand through his hair. "Princess, what I don't get about you is why you refuse to comply. You're only making this harder on yourself." He tells me forcefully, grabbing one of my arms and gesturing to the bruises everywhere. His grip is hard, but he is careful to avoid the injured areas.

"I've already told you! It's because these people mean something to me! Kate and Seth, they... they're--" I pause, "I don't know. I don't know how to explain this to you. But haven't you ever felt that way about someone?!" I say forcefully, my voice raising.

"Yes." He says it quietly. Almost as if he didn't intend for me to hear it. I watch as he reaches his hand in his pocket and grabs hold of something, but he doesn't bring his hand out. I furrow my eyebrows and watch his face. It goes from confused, to sad, to reminiscent all in the course of a few seconds.