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thirteen

Niall: Vio, where are you? I'm worried.

I close that and see that Mere texted me to take care and keep safe. She also texted me that she has a bad hangover. I just send back laughing emojis. Some other texts appear but I ignore them. Then I just go through all of the Instagram tags. It's nothing special, just some pictures from yesterday with people I know. I put my phone away again soon and decide to start editing the picture of Mere I took when we were skating together and she fell. I get my laptop and open the picture in photoshop. Mere agreed to us using the picture for our project, which is very nice of her to do. I edit around Mere's face, being unhappy with the sun from behind her making her face and front dark. I'll lighten that and darken the background to make it seem like the sun is coming from behind me. And I'll make it that you can't see my shadow on the ground. Soon enough the doorbell rings, so I push my laptop off of my stomach. Wesley's at the door quicker than I am. He lets Niall in before looking at us sternly.

"Door stays open", he demands, looking at me.

"Oh my god, chill", I speak.

Wesley gives us another look before we move up the stairs. Niall enters my room first and sits down at my desk with his laptop in his hands. I close the door behind me, being a little provocative against Wesley. I sit back down on my bed and continue editing.

"What are you doing?", Niall asks.

"Editing that picture of Meredith", I answer.

"Okay, I'll edit the picture I took of you", he explains.

My fingers pause as I look over the laptop to Niall looking at me with a smirk.

"What picture?", I ask, sitting up a bit more.

"I took some at the café, while you were looking through your folder to find some pictures of skaters", he answers.

"Good to know that, show me first", I smile.

"I already started editing yesterday before the party", he says.

He turns his laptop around to me, standing up and sitting down on my bed next to me, also leaning his back against the headboard. The picture shows me, looking at my laptop with a straight face but you can see a little smile on my face. The sunlight is shining in my face and my chin is rested on my fist. My one arm is propped up to hold my head while the other is on my laptop. My hair looks a little messy. The picture is taken from the angle of the table, so you can see a piece of the cup of coffee in the bottom left edge of the picture.

"It's nice. We can use it", I admit, never thinking that anyone could ever take such a nice picture, especially, of someone working and concentrating.

I go back to editing the picture of Meredith. Other groups probably didn't even start yet but it's good that Niall and I know how to edit. The others still have to learn in class. Those are most likely going to be the most boring lessons ever since I know how to work with photoshop. Hopefully, our teacher can give us the time to work on our projects while he explains the basics to other people from class. I edit Mere's front lighter, making it seem more realistic. She looks more alive now and her beautiful laugh is now showing more.

"Are you feeling okay?", Niall suddenly asks.

I continue working and just give him a small look from the side. Is he really asking me that? He should know the answer.

"Seriously, Violet. How are you?", he asks again, pushing the screen of my laptop down, so I can't see it and have to look at him.

I sigh and look over at him. He smiles lightly but his eyes look a little demanding. When I changed my clothes earlier, I saw a couple of bruises on my arms and my stomach and my thighs and a few bigger hickeys on my neck and chest.

"I have a few bruises and I still don't feel very clean", I say, not daring to look him in the eyes, as I explain what's really up with me, "He left some hickeys and I feel really embarrassed. I just want to change my skin and change my name to Esmeralda and move to Spain to leave and never see Grayson again. I don't understand how I was so stupid. I should've listened to you and went straight to bed at Mere's place."

He just shrugs, not answering. His hand still lays on my laptop, so I can't open it again to continue working. I try to push his hand away again but he doesn't move his hand. I groan quietly.

"Could you p-", he stops me mid-sentence.

"Can you show me?", he asks.

"What?", I question, now looking at him.

His eyes find mine.

"The bruises", he states.

I just look at him for a few seconds. His eyes leave mine soon, looking back at his computer screen, letting mine go. I open my laptop again, just staring at the screen for a few seconds, not working at all.

"Sorry for asking, Violet. I didn't mean to make all of this awkward", Niall mumbles.

"It's okay. Let me just put on some shorts and a top", I tell him, standing up from my bed.

I go to my closet, taking a pair of lilo and stitch pajama shorts and a random tank top. I don't want him seeing me only in my underwear. Pajama shorts aren't the best option but better than my underwear. Wesley went out as soon as Niall came to meet Jake and Lilian, so he won't jump in on Niall looking at my bruises and make it even more awkward than this whole thing already is. I quickly leave my bedroom and get changed in the bathroom. I don't even know why I'm showing Niall the bruises. Probably just to have another opinion that it isn't that bad. I look at myself in the mirror again, finding several bruises on my hips and some on my upper arms. My thighs are also bruised in fingerprint shapes. I take a quick look at my neck, not only seeing hickeys but a huge bite mark with teeth marks being prominent. I'll be wearing my hair open for quite some time and I'll be wearing scarves. I quickly put on the short clothes. On my way back to the bedroom, I look down at myself again, realizing that it is actually really bad and looks pretty brutal. It seems as if I was actually raped and not just almost. I open the door to my bedroom, seeing Niall looking down on my computer. He looks up as soon as he sees me. I look down at myself.

"I think my neck is the worst", I explain.

I turn my head, so my neck is in full view. Out of the corner of my eye, I see him just shaking his head.

"That looks really bad. You should sue him", he says.

"What would that help? He probably has rich parents that can bail, I have no proof and it'll be bad that I drank and you drank and so our testimony wouldn't be acceptable for the jury. It doesn't matter anyway. Nothing happened and I can cover all of this", I answer.

"Maybe you should at least show him what he did to you. You should wear t-shirts and not cover all of that up, not wear make up. Just seem like he hurt you so badly or you let Wesley and I beat his ass", he chuckles.

I glare at him a little. I actually don't care that much.

"We'll see", I say.

I decide to go back to the bathroom to change into my long clothes again. I'll just try to push this out of my head for as long as possible.