More - A.M.

Chapter Nineteen

Before Austin got to my house, I changed out of my short sleeved shirt and replaced it with one of Austin's baggy hoodies to cover up the bruising. Then I went into the bathroom and tried to cover the bruise on my cheek with some makeup. It wasn't perfect, but I was hoping it was good enough for Austin not to notice. Just as i'm finishing up, I hear a honk from outside and I know it's him. I take a deep breath, throw the hood on to hopefully cover my face, and walk outside.

"Hey," he greets with a smile when I get into his car.

"Hi," I say back as cheerfully as I could.

"Why do you have your hood on?" He laughs.

"Oh, I'm just cold," I lie.

Luckily it was dark so he couldn't see my face or the redness and puffiness of my eyes.

I see him nod out of the corner of my eye. I stay quiet after that because i'm afraid that if I talk he'll be able to hear the shakiness in my voice.

"Hey, you okay?" He asks. He reaches over and places his hand on my knee.

"Yeah, I'm good." I take his hand in mine. "Why?"

"You seem down or something."

Damn, he knows me better than I thought. I can never get anything past him.

"I'm not."

He didn't say anything else and I was glad. We finally got to his house and we went inside without any words. When we walk in he turns to me and starts to speak but stops.

"What?" I ask.

"Your eyes. Have you been crying?" He asks.

"No." I fake a laugh. "I think i'm getting a cold or something. I've been sneezing all day."

"Well, have you taken any medicine?"

I shake my head, "No."

"Want me to see if we have any?"

"No, it's fine. Let's just sit down or something."

He gives me a questioning look but nods his head. "Okay."

We sit and I wrap my arms around him and rest my head on his chest. It's quiet for a few minutes; the only noise is the sound of our breathing. I focus on watching his chest rise and fall with every breath. Eventually he breaks the silence.

"Ella, I know somethings wrong." He pauses to see if I'll say anything. I don't, I just let out a sigh. "You can tell me."

"I'm fine, Austin, really. I don't know what you're talking about," I lie, again.

"Ellanour," he warns.

"What? I'm fine!" I throw my hands up in the air dramatically as if that'd prove my point. In the process, the sleeve of my hoodie fell down my arm and revealed one of my bruises. I immediately catch him staring at it and I pull the sleeve down, bring my arm to my chest defensively.

"Where'd you get that bruise?" He asks sternly.

"Oh, the bruise.. it was my fault," I let out a fake laugh, "I bumped-"

"I'm not stupid. I know your eyes aren't puffy because you're sick and I know you're not wearing an oversized hoodie because you're cold. You're hiding something, so tell me what. Don't lie to me," he says. My lips start to quiver and I shake my head no. He grabs my hand comfortingly. "You can tell me what happened, it's okay, Ella."

"We.. I..," I choked. The tears were flowing again as I was forced to relive what happened only about an hour ago.

"Take your time," he assures me.

I take a minute to calm down a little and find my words. "Chris and I went to my dad's house for dinner & we got into a fight."

"Okay, what else," he urges.

"He was about to hit Chris so I stepped in and he grabbed me and threw me down. I fell on my side and I hit my cheek on the ground. It left bruises so that's why I wore the hoodie and covered my cheek with make up," I sniffled.

"He put his hands on you?" He asked, not bothering to hide his anger.

"He's never gotten this angry before, I don't know where it all came from."

"You need to call the police, Ella, that's not right," he said.

"No! I can't," I cried.

"He can't get away with that! Look what he did to you. Who knows what he would've done to your brother had you not stepped in," he argues.

"I can't do it, Austin, he's my Dad. I can't do that to him." I looked away but he brought my focus back to him.

"Ellanour, you have to. He should've never put his hands on you and Chris. You can't do nothing. What if he does it again? What if he does it to someone else?" He holds the sides of my face gently as he tries to reason with me.

I nod, knowing he's right. What if this wasn't a one time thing. What if he's abusing his girlfriend, or worse, her kids. That woman definitely is not someone I care much for, but I would never want her or her family to have to go through what my brother and I have tonight.

"Tomorrow. I still haven't even told my Mom about this and i'm sure she'll want to call the cops on him, so can it please just wait until tomorrow?"

"Sure, let's just get you taken care of tonight, okay? Come on." He holds his hand out to me and I take it. I let him lead me up to his room and sit me on his bed. "Wait here."

He leaves the room and I walk over to a drawer of his that holds some of my stuff. I grab a pair of sweats and change into them, not bothering to change out of the hoodie. I walk back to his bed and just lie there as I wait for him to come back.

"Here," he says when he reenters his room. He hands me an ice pack wrapped up in a rag and keeps one for himself. "Hold that to your cheek. It'll help it heal faster and it'll help the swelling."

I nod and do what he says. He crawls into the bed beside me and pulls my hoodie up, looking at the bruise that covers my side. He shakes his head with an angry look on his face. "I can't believe he did this to you," he said, looking at me now.

"I told him I hated him. I was cussing him out as Chris was dragging me outside and it looked like he didn't even care about what he'd done," I cried.

"I'm so sorry, Ella. You should've never had to go through this," he says softly. "You need to just get some rest."

I laid my head against his chest and iced my cheek while he worked on my side. I kept dozing off, but would wake up again when he placed the cold ice pack in a new spot along my side.

"I'm exhausted. I should go home," I say.

"Just stay," he suggests.

"No, you've done enough for me tonight, I can't," I shake my head. I don't expect him to take care of me all night.

He lifts my chin and our eyes meet. "Stay."

I nod. "Thank you."

"Get some rest, El," he whispers.

I don't fight him on it. I take the ice pack off my cheek and set it on the small dresser beside his bed. He opens his arms to me and I make myself comfortable in them. Eventually I fall asleep, and for a while I forget what a complete mess tonight has been.

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--m