The bad boy and me

School

Lunch ended quickly after that and I went to the rest of my classes.
The same thing happened where everyone swarmed me and I ignored them in my next class which was biology, and finally it was time for the last class of my day, math.

A lot people hate math, but I like it. It's easy to me. When I walked in, I scanned the room, ignoring the people asking me questions, and my eyes landed on River. Since when does he have this class?

I made a B-line towards him and plopped down next to him. By the look on his face, he's just as surprised as I am.

"You have this class?" I asked and he nodded. "Why didn't I see you on Thursday?"

"I skipped," he answered. Ahh that makes sense. Typical River.

"Hey you know what I just noticed?," I asked after a moment of silence.

"What?"

"Our names, River and Cove, go together. They're both about water."

He took that into consideration, then answered, "I guess we're meant to be."

I nodded and turned to the teacher.
🌊 🌊 🌊

After class, River took me to the back of school to this area with a tree over it and a wooden table.

"I need a smoke before we go," he said.
I nodded and sat at the table. River lit a cigarette that he grabbed from his pocket, then came to sit next to me.

I looked around the scenery and noticed some people walking behind the fence that separated the back of school from the neighborhood behind it. The people were walking on the sidewalk closest to us, there looked to be about 4 of them.

Suddenly, one of them dropped something, but he kept walking. I don't think he realized that he dropped it.

I got up to tell him that he dropped something, but River stopped me by grabbing my arm. My bad arm.

"Those are bad people bab-" he started saying, but stopped when I hissed in pain.

"What is it?" He asked with a bit of concern in his eyes. "My arm," I replied weakly.

River immediately let go and pulled me into his lap. He started pulling up my sleeve carefully, but I stopped him.

"I-it's okay, I'm fine," I said. I don't want him to see how badly my arm is bruised, that's partially the reason I put on a sweater even though it's still summer.

River didn't listen though and pulled up my sleeve completely. He froze and his jaw clenched angrily as soon as he saw it. This is exactly why I didn't want him to see.

River's POV
All day people have been staring a whispering about Cove and I. I can tell that it's stressing her out, so it's stressing me out and I really need a release. I need a smoke.

After math class where Cove surprised me by showing up, I took her outside to one of the spots I like to smoke at. It's the one with a table and a tree shading it over.

While I was smoking, Cove started looking around. She noticed some people walking, and I tensed a little when I realized who they were. They're part of another gang, and although we get along well, they're not good people.

I guess it's fine though since they're over there and we're over here. Or so I thought until one of them dropped something without noticing and Cove went to tell him. I stopped her by grabbing her arm, and she winced in pain.

When I asked her what's wrong, she said it was her arm so I immediately let go. I needed to check it out still though, so I pulled her in my lap and started pulling up her sleeve, that's until she stopped me.

She said that she's okay, but that made me even more worried. I pulled up her sleeve anyways, and froze.

Her arm is completely covered in purple bruises.

I clenched my jaw and balled my fists. I know exactly who they're from. He won't get away with this.

"Cove, baby," I said once I calmed down a little bit. She just whimpered and buried her head in my chest.

I sighed and flipped her so that she was straddling my lap.She moved her head to my shoulder and wrapped her arms around my neck. I moved my hands from her hips to around her back to complete the hug.

A few minutes later, I took one of my hands and lifted her head up so she was looking at me." Baby, do you have anymore bruises?" I asked.

She nodded and pulled back from our hug so she could move her hands to her sweater. Slowly, she pulled up the back of it up and turned around.

I could barely see any of it, so I pulled her sweater up more and was met by some very large bruises. These bruises are darker, so I knew that they're older.

"From Hector," Cove spoke for the first time in a while. I nodded even though she couldn't see me, and started to softly trail my fingers up her back. I was careful to not touch any of the big bruises, those ones looked painful.

I felt her shiver at my touch, and I smiled to myself at her reaction. I then remember how Hector threw her against the wall, and afterwards she was icing the back of her head.

I moved my hands to her head and felt a bump on the back of it. Cove whined when I touched it, so I quickly removed my hands and opted to wrap my arms around her waist instead.

She leaned back in my touch, and started to close her eyes. "Are you tired?" I asked, and she nodded without opening her eyes.

I chuckled and in one swift movement stood up and placed her on the ground.

"Let's get you home then," I said and took her small hand in my bigger one.

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