Leave Me Alone

You’d think I would be used to having people stare at me where ever I go, and usually I am but today was different because I was walking beside a girl that I cared about too much to ever see her hurt again and I knew having all eyes on you all the time sometimes sucks. I nervously glanced over at Cori and was shocked to see that all the attention on us had not phased her one bit. She was just walking beside me, barely noticing that everyone was staring at us. This girl continues to shock me, not even I can keep that calm when my privacy is being interrupted everywhere I go. It looked as if she didn’t give a shit about what everyone was probably going to be saying about her, and about why she was in my clothes. I cannot believe how in such a short time she has made me like her so much. Without me realizing it she had caught me watching her and smiled, and that’s when I saw it again. That horrible scar. It was the type of scar that whoever was the person to make it deserved the worst punishment possible, especially if it was a guy that did it to her. I could feel the hatred I had towards whoever had hurt her clouding my thoughts and fought hard to keep it in check; I didn’t want to scare her off. But one thing was for certain. I was going to convince her to tell me about that scar and last summer sooner rather than later.

The hotel room was nothing spectacular, but it wasn’t horrible either. Two beds, a bathroom, TV, mini fridge, just the usual hotel decor. Glancing around, I noticed Cori was watching me out of the corner of her eye. As she went and put her bags on the bed closest to the window I thought I’d try to be funny.
“Whoa now, who said you get the best bed? I think we need to discuss this decision.” I said closing the distance between us and raising an eyebrow at her.
“Oh really now? Do you want to fight for it? We passed a gym on our way up, we could go box it out.”
“Your on, little one.” I replied as I turned my back towards her.
“Little one!? If that’s how it is then, turn around Frenchy.” I had almost turned to face her when she smacked me across the side of my head with a pillow.
“ Oh it’s on alright.” As I swung back at her with a pillow of my own.

We got so carried away with our mini pillow war neither of us noticed when Marc walked into the room and calmly leaned against the door.

“Wow. Biggest losers I’ve ever seen in my life, right here.” He joked.

With a glance towards Cori and a nod in Marc’s direction we both lunged towards him and started to beat him until he was begging for mercy from our pillow attack.
“Screw you guys.” He said with a laugh.
“I actually came up here to talk to you Cori.” He stated, turning his attention to her.
“Why?” she asked suddenly sounding very cautious.
“I wanted to apologize for being such an ass this morning. And I know Geno’s sorry about doing that, too.” He gestured to the stitched up gash on the side of her head.
“Well thanks for that and like I already told Max, I’m going to wait till my face heals before I try to make nice with Geno.”
“No problem, he’s kind of ass sometimes. Well. I’m going to go explore whats around this place. I’ll text you later with the plans for tonight bro, unless you have plans already made.” He glanced from Cori to myself with a smirk on his face and then left without another word.
“Well our fighting plan didn’t work out as well as I hoped so I think we should just rock paper scissors it out for the better bed. Sound good to you?”
“You know what; I’m in a giving mood, just take the bed. I’ll suffer all by my lonesome in the crappy bed, all because I’m such a nice guy.” I said dramatically making Cori burst out laughing.
“I know your reputation Superstar. I really doubt you’ll be having trouble finding company for that bed.” She said walking into the bathroom.

I was starting to unpack my bags when I heard her groan from the doorway.
“Well that’s attractive. A nice gash on the side of my face to start of the summer. How cute.” she said sarcastically as she pulled my hoodie over her head.

It’s not that I was intending on watching her get changed; I mean I was, but just right now. But what I saw when she took my sweater off had me in complete shock. She looked over at my when I went silent and then it suddenly hit her as to what I had seen. She immediately stepped back and shut the bathroom door and locked it as my brain suddenly started working again.

“Cori. Open the door. Please. You need to tell me what happened. I want to help you. Please open the door.” I was practically begging her.
“No. Max, just drop it.”
“I will not drop it! Whoever did that to you deserves to die. I will kill them if I have to myself. Please just tell me what happened!” I could feel that anger coming back; blurring my vision and making me see red. It was so bad right now I could barely keep it under control.

There was only silence that came from the bathroom, for what felt like the longest time. I was trying to calm myself down and plead with her again, when the door opened. She stood there facing me, with my hoodie back on and refusing to make eye contact with me. I went to touch her shoulder when she suddenly twisted out of the way of my hand.

“Why do you care about what happened to me? You’ve only known me for a day. You can’t honestly care enough to have a good reason for me to tell you.” She asked me, with what sounded like anger in her voice.
I reached out for her again and this time she didn’t move away.
“Cori. Look at me.” I said tilting her face to look at mine.
“I care about you. A lot more than I have ever cared about most people I’ve met. If someone has hurt you, I want to make sure that they never go unpunished. I want to be able to make you feel safe again. I want to be the one you run to when you’re scared, and need someone to hold you. I want to be the one you rely on to make everything right.”
“But why? We just met practically. ”
“We just met but, I think I’m falling in love with you.”
She finally looked up into my eyes and after a minute, sighed. She walked over, sat down on her bed and waited till I had followed before she spoke.

“I’ll tell you.”