A Blink of an Eye

"Selena! Joe!" I scream running to Joe's lifeless body on the ground.

"Wake up Joe! Wake up!" I cry shaking him.

"Jess! I'm sorry." Selena's voice comes from behind as Justin runs up.

"Let her go!" I scream jumping up and heading to Selena's aid. The big guy pulling her along stops and motions his hand at the car. Out steps to big guys with huge muscles. I sallow and stand my ground.

"Jessica." I hear Joe mumble and I glance at him. He was awake but in a lot of pain. I could tell by looking at him. Suddenly, I was pissed. Like really pissed.

"You, big guy pulling my friend, let her go. I got a bone to pick with you." I growl glaring his way.

"John, don't. I know what you're thinking and please don't." Selena says tugging his sleeve.

"Red, hold Selena for a minute." John says pushing her to a big boy.

"What's going on out here?" Jason says as he and Josh step out.

"Just a little fight." I growl not taking my eyes off of John.

"Jess, no. You just got out of the hospital." Josh says coming up behind me.

"Oh did someone beat you up? Poor thing." John snaps egging me on. It worked, in a flash I was punching him. He was hitting back but I didn't seem to notice. One hit knocked me down and I winced waiting for more but someone was suddenly there pushing him away. Justin, of course, had come to my rescue. I took just one second to realize that Josh, Jason, Joe and Selena were also fighting the other goons. Then I jumped right back in helping out Justin.

"You stupid jerk. I have never met such a big goon. Who in the heck do you think you are? Who hits a girl? Who treats their girlfriend like that?" Justin was yelling at this guy hitting him over and over. Then this big guy hits his stomach and Justin doubles over.

"Jerk. Don't you hurt him!" I hear myself scream as I attack him and the guy turns back to me.

"John! Stop! Take your guys and leave! JOHN! Stop hitting her!" I hear Selena yelling. I knew I was on the ground. I knew the others were trying to get to me but it wasn't working. Selena sounded closer than the others.

"JOHN! Please, I'm begging you." Selena cries and I groan.

"Don't beg this jerk. He doesn't deserve it." I get out of my mouth spitting out some blood. That got another slap across my face.

"John please stop." Selena says.

"Yes, John please stop. You're hurting me. How pathetic. You have to make yourself feel better by beating up on a girl." I say spitting again and trying to stop from coughing. Didn't work. He hits me yet again and I start coughing.

"Stop hitting her you jackass!" Justin's voice yells. I grin to myself. Justin hardly ever cusses around people he doesn't know well because well, I don't really know why. But this guy really pushed his buttons and I know Justin is in a big rage. Or he would be if this was my coma dream. Come to think of it, I'm not sure if he is now.

"John! That guy got by us watch out!" One of John's buddies yell and I turn to see Justin coming my way. He's ticked. And I mean really ticked.

"Justin, don't. He's not worth it." I groan as John steps on me to get to Justin.

"You freaking asshole. Don't you ever come around here again and don't you ever bother any of us again. Got it?" Justin says pulling back and smashing John's nose in. John grabs his nose and starts heading to his car. Wimp. He calls the guys off and then grabs Selena.

"No!" I yell trying to get up from the ground quickly.

"Didn't you hear me? I say not to bother any of us. Including Selena. Now get out of her." Justin yells pulling Selena back to him. I make my way over to them and so does Josh, Joe and Jason. Justin helps support me and Selena supports my other side. Josh and Jason stand next to Justin and then Joe takes his place next to Selena. We all watch as the scum leaves and then I start to cough again.

"Jessica!" Selena says worried. I shake my head and spit up some more blood. He had messed up my face pretty good. I can tell.

"I got her." Justin says picking me up bridal style and carrying me into our house.

"Bathroom." I mumble leaning against Justin.

He sat me on the counter and soon we were all crammed in there cleaning up. As Justin wiped blood off my face I watched everyone else. Josh was sitting on the edge of the tub wiping his arm off and Jason was next to him examining his leg. They seemed to be okay. Selena was on the toilet with Joe sitting on the floor next to her. Selena was looking at his head patting it with a wet rag. He looked beat but he was wrapping Selena's ankle. She looked really beat and really hurt. I bit my lip causing it to hurt more then I whimpered slightly.

"Jess?" Justin says looking at me worried.

"Nothing." I mumble finally turning my gaze to him. He looked tired and his head was bleeding slightly but it wasn't anything bad. Then I recalled him getting hit in the stomach, I glanced down but couldn't tell anything with his shirt on. I'll have to ask later.

"Jessica. I'm so sorry." Selena says looking up at me with a sad face.

"It's fine. Honestly it's totally cool." I say looking back at her with a small smile. She winced and turned away.

"Lena? What's wrong?" I ask thinking she was hurting.

"Nothing...just...i mean...look at you. How can that be okay?" Selena says waving her arm at me. I look at her confused then slowly turn to face the mirror.

"Oh." I say quietly reaching up to my face. I slowly touch around my eye. it was swollen and I knew it was going to be black. My lip was cut up and swollen and I had a gash across my forehead. Bruises were everywhere. I looked at my arms and saw finger marks where I was pulled and many more bruises. Breathing in sharply, I could tell I also had bruises around my rib area.

"Jessica..." Justin says looking at my face in the mirror. I looked back and then smiled.

"I'm fine. And Selena, this is okay. I promise. You didn't do anything wrong. But I have to ask..how long has this been going on to you?" I say looking straight at her. Her face goes pale and she tries her best not to cry.

"How long Selena?" I demand staring her down.

"A while. I've been dating him for a year or more. And for the first two months this didn't happen. But then John caught me talking to this guy at a club we were at and he went crazy. He took me to his car and that was that. It's been happening ever since." Selena says tears rolling down her face.

"Oh Lena." I say getting up, ignoring my pain, and wrapping my arms around her.

"I just want to go to bed and sleep this off." Selena says standing up after hugging me. I nodded and let her leave to head into my room. Josh and Jason got up and both gave me a kiss on my forehead before leaving too.

"I want to kill him." Joe growls once they were gone.

"Joe, we fought him. He's not coming back. It's over." I say reasonably then I start putting a bandage on my forehead, or trying to anyways.

"Whatever. I still want to kill him." Joe mumbles storming out to his room. I groan then throw my bandage at the counter.

"This is useless!" I say mad. Justin grabs the bandage and leads me to sit on the toilet.

"Let me." Justin says softly wrapping my head up. I hold back tears then look at him and smile slightly.

"Guess we screwed up today huh?" I say smiling.

"No. We didn't. We did the right thing. Sure we got a little hurt but we did what was right." Justin says handing me a small bag of ice to put on my eye.

"A little? How bad are you hurt?" I ask really wondering.

"You see my face. It was bleeding." Justin says moving his hand to point the his own bandage. I shake my head and slowly lift his shirt up.

"What are you doing?" Justin asks warily stepping back. I roll my eyes.

"I saw you get his a bunch in your chest. Now stay still." I say stepping forward and taking his shirt off. I gasp slightly and slowly touch his chest in one of the few unbruised parts.

"It's fine. It's not that big of a deal." Justin says shrugging it off. I glare at him and then roll my eyes turning back to get my ice.

"What are you doing?" Justin asks as I place ice up to one of his biggest and ugliest bruises.

"Trying to heal you. You big macho fool." I say softly.

"And what about you? I know you have more bruises than just on your face and arms." Justin says quickly. I shrug then slowly lift my shirt off my stomach to where it only covered my bra. Justin closes his eyes as his hand goes into a fist. Slowly I undone his hand and he takes the ice and places it on my stomach. We both stand there for a moment then I breath in slightly and lay my head on an unbruised part of his chest.

"You need to sleep. You're exhausted." Justin says stating a face and I slowly nod. I lower my shirt as he puts his back on.

"Should I carry you or can you walk now?" Justin says making me glare and growl in his way.

"You better be glad you are hurt." I growl then give him a hug trying to be careful.

"Goodnight love." Justin says kissing my forehead then letting me head to my room. I look back once to see him watching me then he heads to Joe's room. I smile as I climb into my bed trying to forget the pain and just sleep. That's what I need tonight.