Ashton P.O.V
Two weeks had passed since I started dating Harry. He was my everything, and I loved him so much. After the first week, he acted different sometimes, but I just rubbed it off. He would be better tomorrow, right?
It was a Saturday afternoon, and Harry and I were laying on my bed, his arm around my shoulders protectively and my head resting on chest. We talked for an hour about how I was doing in school and who bullied me this week, me mostly talking and him playing with my hair while murmuring sweet nothings into my ear. I decided to bring up a sore topic, one he said to never talk about again but I was curious.
"Harry, I wanna talk about the drugs.." I started, but he looked at me with such a fierceness it shut me up.
"I thought we discussed this already? Yeah I do drugs, but I'll make sure you'll never get in trouble for it." His face said anger but his voice was dripping with love.
"No, I want you to stop doing drugs." I mumbled into his chest. He sat up and shook his head.
"No. Baby, I need to.."
This got me moving. It hurt to see him destroy his body like that, and I wanted to put an end to it. I stood up completely, and he followed. "No! If love me, you would know how much it-"
Smack.
I stopped talking and brought a shaking hand to my stinging cheek. I looked at Harry, who's hand was still in the air. He glanced at his hand and looks at me with sadness in his eyes. "Ashton..."
I sat on my bed, my hand still hovering over my cheek. I looked at the ground and sniffled. My eyes burned with tears. Harry sat next to me and took my hand in his.
"I'm sorry Angel, I just.. I can't stop now. Do you understand that? I just can't.." He whispered violently into my ear. I flinched.
This wasn't the first time Harry hurt me like this. I tried to convince myself he would change, but he never did. "You hurt me. I thought you loved me-"
"I do! I do love you! Please don't leave me.." He pleaded. I felt pressure around my wrist, and looked down to see Harry's slender fingers wrapped around it. He squeezed harder, and I pulled away my arm.
"You're still hurting me!" I tried to scream, but the tears I was barely holding back burned my throat and took my voice. It came out as a sob.
Harry started crying too, and before I knew it he had pulled me back toward him. We laid in my bed, his larger frame wrapped around mine, me sobbing uncontrollably into his arms. He kissed my hair and rubbed my back soothingly. "I'm sorry, Angel. I really am. I don't want to lose you."
"I know."
___________________________
The next Monday at school, I had worn my oversized hoodie so no one could see the deep purple, hand-shaped bruise on my arm. No one needed to know, right? Luke hadn't talked to me in that two weeks, except in Languge. Even then it was all business, whenever I brought up Harry he quickly changed subjects. It didn't surprise me when he made his usual stop by my locker, but it made me uneasy the next class.
I sat down at my usual table next to lunch, which was now between Harry and his friend Zayn. Across from us were Zayn's girlfriend Perrie and her friend Jade. There was someone missing, a certain Irish boy. I leaned into Harry and looked around the cafeteria. "Where's Niall?"
Harry chuckled. "Who knows. Probably flirting another free cupcake out of the lunch lady again." He took my hand and rubbed his thumb against the palm of my hand, and I smiled. He ran his hand up my arm and pulled me close, I flinched when he touched the bruise.
"Or smacking face with Liam somwhere. I swear, those two are never apart." Zayn chuckled. We all laughed as well.
The rest of my lunch was peaceful, I was laughing and talking with my new friends until I had twenty minutes left in lunch period. I picked up my tray, not that I are much, and squirmed out of Harry's touch, standing up. "I'm gonna stop by the library, damn project is due soon." They all waved and turns back to each other. I threw away my trash and slipped out the door to make sure a teacher didn't spot me. I ran into the library, dropping my books on a nearby table. I turned to the only open computer, only to see someone was sitting in it already. I huffed, and the boy turned around.
"Ashton?" Luke said, smiling.
"Luke, hi." I gave him an agitated wave and pulled up a chair to the side of his computer. He looked at the monitor and bit his lip.
"Were you going to use this? I can give it to you if you want.." He started to stand, but I pulled him back down.
"No, it's fine. You can use it." I flashed him a friendly smile and leaned against the desk. He worked on typing his paper as I pretended to write next to him, glancing at him occasionally. This went on for a while before he turned to me.
"Do you have my address?" He asked, now facing me. I had to turn to see if he was talking to me.
"Me? No. Why?" I answered, playing with the bent corner of my paper. He smiled.
"In case you wanna come over or something, silly!" He grabbed my hand, the one with Harry's bruise. I flinched and tried to pull it away, but it was too use. He pulled up my sleeve to reveal the handprint. He looked up at me with his mouth hanging open. "Ashton?"
"Harry didn't mean to-he was just trying to.." I whispered, my eyes filling with tears. Luke wouldn't understand. He jumped back in his chair a bit, still cautiously holding my arm.
"It was Harry?" He started to scream, but he quickly remembered where we were and it turned to a whisper as well. "Ashton.. Why did he do this to you? You need to tell me." He pulled me close to his chest, nuzzling my shoulder. I sat facing him, my legs thrown on either side of his chair. If I wasn't so scared, I might've been a little turned on.
I hesitated. "Can you promise not to tell anyone? I don't want him to find out I told you.." My voice faded. Luke simply nodded his head. I took a deep breath and told him everything, from the drug problems to the slap and the cuddling. I even told him this wasn't the first time, how he hit me before. His expressions changed throughout the story, from anger to love to sadness. After I finished with tears in my eyes, he held me close and I succumbed to crying silently into his shoulder. Luckily we were secluded from everyone else, no one could see the pain I was in.
Luke rubbed my back and wiped the burning tears from my cheek, just like Harry did. He whispered into my ear and rested his chin in my hair, just like Harry did. He even kissed my forehead and gave me a reassuring smile, just like Harry did. The only difference was when Luke did it, I felt more than just love.
A/N- This is a fairly short chapter, but I felt like it was the perfect place to end it. The feels were just too much.
