WARNINGS: depictions of violence, you being a hopeless romantic
lasencinasoneshots i hope this lives up to your expectations!
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Memories.
They're a funny thing. The way your mind can capture moments in time and keep them stowed away somewhere in your mind.
We all hope to have good memories stick with us. Highschool dances, first kiss, first dance. Core memories. The good ones.
Memories can be beautiful. Draw you into a capsule full of recollections of time. But not all memories are good memories.
Abuse is something that no one should have to experience. Maddy was one of the very unfortunate people in the world that had to experience the toll it took on a person.
Abuse sticks with a person. The feeling that you were just somebody's puppet always nagging at the back of your mind. Forever. Abuse may stop but the memories don't.
Maddy never knew how she had ended up in this unfortunate situation. When she met Nate, he was just a normal guy. He treated her like a princess, bought her stuff, acted like a gentleman.
But Nate was never normal. There was always something wrong with him. Everyone can testify to that statement.
Nate had been known to overreact. His anger issues were known to explode at times. Nate never could really help it, it was like he was hardwired like that.
Maddy was the one person you thought he would never put his hands on maliciously. Oh boy, were you wrong.
You had always had a crush on Maddy. You never knew if you wanted to be her or be with her. Turns out it was the latter. So when she knocked at your door at 12 in the morning sobbing, you took her in with open arms.
Literally.
She knocked on your door, her vision clouded by tears. After a few minutes, you opened the door.
"Maddy?"
"What took you so long?"
"I-It's 12 in the morning. Are you ok?"
Her gaze, which was previously fixated on the ground, was now on you. Tears started spilling from her eyes as you stepped out in the cold and wrapped her in your arms.
She clutched your shirt in her hand as she sobbed into your shoulder. She hated feeling like this. But if she was gonna be vulnerable, you best believe it wasn't gonna be with anybody other than you.
"Mads, Maddy what happened?"
You moved your head to where you were facing her. You cradled the side of her face with your hand as her hand slowly reached for the collar of her hoodie. She pulled down the fabric revealing a deep purple bruise wrapping around her neck.
"Jesus, Maddy! He did this?" She nodded and buried her face back into your shoulder.
"I'll kill him. I'm gonna kill him."
"No, please Y/N. He might hurt you too and I can't let that happen."
She pleaded for you not to do something stupid. In all honesty, Nate could squash you like a bug. You weren't that tall and you certainly weren't strong enough to beat Nate.
You quickly led her inside and to your bedroom. You locked the door behind you and turned to the distraught girl who sat on the edge of your bed.
She discarded her hoodie and tossed it onto a chair that sat in the corner of your room. You grabbed a flashlight and knelt in-front of Maddy.
"Can I look?"
She nodded slowly. She didn't have the energy to cry anymore. You lifted her chin with your finger and turned on the flashlight for better lighting.
Deep purple finger prints outlined by green patches of skin lined her neck. The imprint of Nate's thumbs pressed up her neck was a deep maroon color. He choked her hard for sure.
"I tried to fight him. I just remember tying to hit his arms away which only made him grip my neck tighter."
Her voice was scratchy and her throat raw. You crawled onto your bed and rested against your headboard. You patted the spot beside you, gesturing for Maddy to sit by you.
She crawled over to the empty spot beside you and rested her head against your shoulder. She fiddled with your hand, examining every detail of it. She needed something to take her mind off of Nate so you sat there admiring her.
Even in her most vulnerable state, you hadn't seen anyone more beautiful in your life.
"You're gonna stay with me tonight. Do your parents know where you are?"
"Like they even care."
You glanced at the clock that sat on your bedside table.
1:15
"We should get some sleep."
She nodded against your shoulder as you pulled the duvet out from underneath the two of you.
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"Thank you."
The two of you were laying side by side on your bed. She turned her body to face you as you did the same.
"For what?"
"For being you."
"Who else would I be?" She let out a soft chuckle.
"I don't know. I don't want you to be anybody else."
She rolled over to face the wall and allowed sleep to consume her, you doing the same.
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She was suffocating. Or, at least that's what it felt like.
He was all over her, touching her, kissing her, hitting her. She couldn't breath. A burning sensation came over her body as she let out an agonizing scream for help.
She could feel herself slipping from consciousness. She could feel her body being pulled from reality.
And it scared her.
She finally let her body slip away and she sprung awake in a dark room. The sudden action causing you to wake as well.
"Maddy? What's wrong?"
Her heavy breathing only increasing when the question was asked. You sat up quickly and rested your hand on her forearm. She flinched away from the touch as she tensed up.
"Maddy, you're sweating. What happened?"
"He was, he was there. He was a-angry."
"Ok, ok. Calm down, I'm right here."
She broke down at the last statement. No one had ever been there for her. Not Kat, Cassie, her parents, she though she had no one.
But she had you. And that was enough.
As long as you were there, she was ok. Her parents barely talked but they fought, she was used to it. She had a fight with Cassie a while back and she had seemed fine.
But when she fought with you, she was a complete and total wreck. Skipped school, wouldn't eat or sleep. And you not being able to go more than two days without seeing her always apologized first.
You two always had each other and you planned to keep it like that. Even if she was with Nate.