-Beth's POV-
I woke up and immediately realized I wasn't at home. I blinked my eyes sleepily, using my elbows to help me push the front half of my body up. I looked and realized I was on a couch, and some sort of black quilt blanket thing had been thrown on me.
Oh that's right.
Nathan had offered to let me stay with him last night. I sat up groggily, attempt ion to rub my eyes, but I immediately felt stinging when I attempted to touch my right cheek.
Everything was coming back to me now.
Dad. Dad hitting me. Mom. Mom falling down the stairs. Nathan. Nathan not answering. Nathan's friends. I began to rub my swollen and bruised cheeks slowly as tears came to my eyes again. If only August could come faster-
"Well look who's awake!" I jumped at the sudden sound of a second voice in the room, turning my head to see who it was.
Expecting to see Nathan, I was surprised to see Gerard standing there, Nathan's friends from last night. He was leaning against the counter drinking from a Starbucks cup while his eyes were staring intently at me.
I didn't know what Gerard was doing here, but I needed Nathan. I needed to go back to the house. I needed to pack my stuff. I needed to finally leave.
Seeing the panic in my eyes, Gerard continued. "Calm down princess, Nathan's not here right now."
Nathan's not here right now? Now what did that mean? I wanted to ask questions, but I wasn't blessed with social skills. I was a shy person and being in a room with a boy I didn't now was already making me anxious.
Avoiding eye contact, I stood up slowly. "W-where's Nathan?" I stuttered.
"Don't worry about it." He answered.
I just shook my head, not ready to deal with this right now. "I-I um- I have to go." I said again, attempting to get to the door, which was unfortunately located behind Gerard.
"Alright, where are we going?" He said as I got closer.
I snapped my head towards him in confusion. We?
He chuckled, looking at my panicked and confused expression. "Yes sugar, since Nathan couldn't be here today, he didn't want to leave you alone, so I'm your designated babysitter. And do you know what that means?" He asked, eyes twinkling with amusement.
I just stayed silent, trying to process what he's just said.
"It means I don't let you out of my sight." He winked, drinking more from his Starbucks cup.
Babysitter? Babysitter? Why would Nathan do this to me? I'm fine. I'm fine. Can't they see that I'm fine?! I thought furiously to myself.
"I-I'm fine." I looked up meeting his eyes, hoping he'd believe the lie as much I did.
Gerard shook his head. "Go look in the mirror princess and tell me that's the face of someone 'who's fine'!" He frowned slightly, looking me over and making me even more uncomfortable. "Bathroom's on your left." He nodded to a small hallway with a closed door on the left. I didn't want to look at myself; I hated looking at myself, but right now, all I wanted to do was get away from this boy's eyes. So I walked to the bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind me as I turned on the light.
I wish I hadn't.
I stood looking at myself in a mirror directly over the sink. I looked terrible. My face was smeared with black mascara and dried tears. My right cheek was swollen at the top, and it was bruised at the top, under my eye. My hair was an absolute mess, and my mismatched sweatshirt and sweatpants did little more than complete my 'crazy person' look. I quickly turned in the sink, splashing my cheeks with water and rubbing, ignoring the slight stinging. I grabbed the towel hung at the right and rubbed, drying my face.
I looked back up at the mirror; atleast the mascara wasn't all over my face anymore, but Gerard was right, I didn't look fine at all.
I opened the door and walked back to where Gerard was standing. He tilted his head slightly.
"You know, attempting to look fine on the outside doesn't mean you're fine on the inside." He finished his coffee, staring into my eyes.
That was a strange comment. I didn't even know this boy, who seemed like a jerk, and now he was trying to play therapist with me.
"It doesn't matter when nobody cares, now d-does it?" I crossed my arms, looking at the ground. "B-besides-" I started again, not giving him a chance to respond to my last comment. "I n-need to pack my things."
"Than I'll go with you." He said after awhile, picking up his keys.
"I don't n-need anyone to go with me!" I tried to sound angry, but my voice came out as weak and sad as it really was.
"I'm just doing what Nathan asked me to do princess. Do you think I want to spend my day with the likes of a hot mess like you?" He said sharply before smiling. "A real hot mess." He smirked, making me want to disappear into the ground. I didn't know if he was flirting with me, messing with me, or both, but I really wanted to turn invisible right then. Why would Nathan ever leave me with this boy? "Either way," he continued, taking a step closer to me, "Wherever you go, I go. I mean what's the worst that could happen? It's just for a day."
I realized that I wasn't going to get out of this, no matter how badly I wanted to. Wherever Nathan was, I hope it was a good enough reason to leave your little sister alone with a complete stranger. Gerard saw that I had nothing else to say, so he walked towards the door and opened it, gesturing out. "Ladies first!" He winked again. I shuffled out the door, and was relieved to have fresh air on my face. I closed my eyes and breathed it in. I looked back and saw Gerard locking the apartment, but I was a bit surprised. This was a nice place; how did someone like Nathan and his friends afford a place like this? I didn't dwell too much on the question as Gerard pointed the keys at the car Brendon had driven yesterday, unlocking it. Gerard got in the car, but I sat in the back instead of the passenger seat, earning myself an amused eyebrow raise from Gerard.
"Are you sulking now, sugar?" He taunted, making me want to disappear even more. The truth was I just felt really weird having a guy I didn't even know drive me around. He shook his head after I didn't answer before starting the car. "Alright, where to?" He asked, glancing at me through the front seat mirror.
"Home." I whispered.
He frowned and nodded before pulling out of the parking lot, getting on the road. I didn't know where we were, so I didn't know how long it'd take to get back home, but I wasn't going to stay anyway. The only reason I was going back was to pack everything I'd planned for college and to leave this place behind. I was going to call Eric and hope he'd let me spend the rest of the summer with him before school started back up again. The only other alternative seemed to be staying with Nathan which, right now, I wasn't liking at all.
It was silent for a solid five minutes before anyone decided to speak.
"Why are you being so fucking sad?" Gerard looked through the mirror.
I winced. I didn't like it when people cursed; it just reminded me of everything bad, so I didn't do it.
"Could you please not curse around me?" I said meekly, still facing the window.
"Excuse me?" Gerard laughed. "You're, what?, 18? And you don't like it when people curse around you?"
I didn't like how amusing this was to him.
"It's just-it's just a thing." I didn't feel the need to explain myself to this rude boy. He obviously found taunting me very amusing, so I de used I didn't like him.
"Well sorry sweetheart!" He chuckled. "But you're going to have to get over that fucking 'thing'!"
I just closed my eyes, I didn't have it in me to counter him. I didn't like being in this boy's presence. His hazel eyes always felt like they were bearing into me-in a bad or good way, I don't know, but I didn't want to think about things like that. He was obviously extremely attractive, I'll give that to him, but that only made me more shy. His attitude intimidated me though, and that's why I always felt the need to get away from him.
"Besides-" he continued, still smirking, "You never answered my question. What demons are you hiding princess?"
That comment made me look up.
Because the answer was more than I could take, but no one ever needed to know that, did they?
"No less than what you're hiding." I got the courage to speak up, remembering last night.
Gerard slammed the breaks, causing me to lunge forward. I gasped before realizing we were stopped at my-soon to be old-house.
"And what exactly-" Gerard glared at me, "Makes you think that?"
I stayed silent for a few seconds. I knew the answer, but I also knew he wouldn't like it.
"Well anyone that feels the need to drown themselves in alcohol is obviously trying to hide something." I answered, knowing from experience.
"Don't you dare think you know why I drink!You don't even know me! I only met your constantly crying ass yesterday!" He continued to glare, speaking sharply.
I just nodded at his response; it was what I was used to. But they were all right. Pathetic. Sad. Crying all the time. Maybe those things did describe me, but that's exactly what I was trying to hide- how much even I disgusted myself.
I got out of the car without even waiting for Gerard and walked up to the house. I used the spare key we kept in the dead potted plant to open the door. I saw Gerard beginning to get out of the car, so I took a deep breath and closed the door.
I was back.
For the first time since the incident, I was back in the house. I walked slowly over to the stairs, sinking to my knees as I liked at the evidence of what had happened. There were splotches and small pools of blood spread out in front of the staircase.
Mom's.
I immediately pulled out my phone from my sweatpants pocket, dialing furiously.
I brought the ringing phone up to my ear and prayed that someone would actually answer this time.
"Beth?" I heard a male voice answer the phone. I wanted to cry out of relief at hearing his voice.
"Eric-" I whispered relieved.
"Beth? Are you ok? You sound-"
"Please let me come early!" I finally let out. "Please, Eric! I know I wasn't supposed to come until August, but I can't stand this place anymore!"
"Are you ok?" He immediately sounded concerned and alert. "Beth are you ok? Of course you can come early! Just tell me you haven't done anything stupid!"
I stayed silent. I forgot just how much Eric knew about me. The real answer to his question was 'not yet', but I decided to keep that to myself.
"Can I be there tomorrow?" I asked.
"Will you tell me what happened?"
"Tomorrow?" I asked again.
"Tomorrow." He gave in.
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Yeah so I know this chapter might have been a bit boring and really long, but I'm still setting stuff up. When Beth gets to Eric's is when all this stuff is going to go down! I hope you continue reading to find out what happens! I really appreciate everyone that has taken the time to read, vote, and comment so far! So thank you all so much for that! STAY FABULOUS! *MUAH*
---Fabbyulous1