No Matter Where You Are

8

Colby's P.O.V.-

"Can one of you go and get Aaron? He needs to hear this too." Shelby asked nervously. I jumped up and went upstairs to Aaron's room, where he was screaming at the game Fortnite. I was going to knock on his door, but I decided to barge right into his room and tell him to get his ass downstairs to the game room, since Shelby had something that she wanted to tell the whole house and Katrina. Aaron groaned at me, but he turned off the game and followed me back to the game room. Shelby and Sam entered the room a few seconds after Aaron and I did, and Shelby looked hella nervous. Sam pulled one of the luvsacs to the center of the room and patted the empty spaces next to him and Katrina sat down next to him, but Shelby did not. Shelby took a deep breath and then began to speak. "You all already know my name and where I'm from, but there are a few things that you do not know that you should probably know..." Shelby said before she launched into telling us more about her past and why she was actually in Los Angeles. 

~45 minutes later~

The whole damn room was silent for a good five minutes, we were so astonished at what she had endured for a long time, before Shelby basically collapsed onto the luvsac next to Sam, crying and shaking. Sam tried to comfort her, but she wasn't having it, so Sam and Kat got up from the luvsac and Sam motioned to me to sit down next to her and comfort her, which I did, and for some reason, she just melted into my arms after she looked up at me and I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into my lap and hugged her close and rubbed her back to calm her down. Aaron came up behind us and hugged Shelby behind and then everyone else came together and we gave Shelby a funny group hug until she stopped crying. When Shelby stopped crying, the group hug dispersed and everyone told her how proud they were of her for staying strong and enduring all of the abuse that had happened to her all those years. "I want to see your battle wounds." I whispered into Shelby's ear. "Okay" she replied before running to her room and then running back out to ask Devyn something. Devyn ran up to her and Corey's room to grab some kind of wipes and then Shelby ran back to her room and was in there for a good 10 minutes before coming back wearing a grey tank top and shorts pajama set. When I turned around and saw her, I gasped in shock. Her body was COVERED in all kinds of scars ranging from random scratches and remnants of black eyes to big ass burn marks and self harming scars. I stared at how badly Shelby had been beaten and battered and bruised for a few minutes before noticing that she looked slightly ashamed of her scars. I stood up and walked over to Shelby and wrapped her in a hug and whispered in her ear, "There's no need to be ashamed, we will never judge you because of your past. Your parents will never be able to hurt you again, as long as me and the rest of the guys are standing by your side to protect you." Shelby returned the hug, rather tightly and thanked me profusely, before we released the hug. We all stood around and talked until it was like 10:00 and Katrina had to go home and the rest of the guys, and Devyn, were tired. I wasn't quite tired yet, so I decided to stay and chat with Shelby for a little while longer in the kitchen. After everyone had gone upstairs, Shelby and I moved the conversation to her bedroom. We sat on her bed for two hours talking and laughing between each other. As I was taking off my shirt, since I sleep without a shirt on most nights, I told Shelby that she was much prettier without the makeup all over her face and hands, which surprised her. I knew that she was self conscious about her scars, but I thought that the scars looked kinda pretty and defined who she was. She took the compliments, and then told me that she didn't like how her face and hands looked, but I retorted that her outer beauty didn't matter and that her inner beauty shined through better when she wasn't wearing any makeup, which made her blush profusely. Shelby sat down on the bed next to me, holding a bunny, a Sesame Street character and a giraffe in her arms. Since she had her hands full, I pulled the covers back on the bed and she got up under the covers and got situated. I asked her if she didn't mind me joining her for the night, since my room was so far away and I was being a little lazy, and she patted the spot next to her on the bed. When I got into bed next to Shelby, she smiled at me before getting even more comfortable in the bed and putting her head under the pillows and falling asleep almost instantaneously. I laid there next to her, watching her sleep for a few minutes, before yawning and getting myself in a comfortable sleeping position so that I could go to sleep. "Good night, princess." I whispered as I closed my eyes and fell asleep.