Happy the Hard Way

Kallel tripped over a crack in the sidewalk and bumped into Logan. "God damnet Kallel, you just made me spill all over my shirt!" Logan yelled, his brown eyes filled with anger, looking like they turned black.
She put her hand on his arm "its okay, you'll get a new shirt, its just wet. its not ruined" she said laughing.
"your so fucking stupid! your such a klutz, dumb bitch" he said. His hand shot up and slapped Kallel right across the face, too fast for her to move out of the way or stop him.
The pain was overwhelming, she had been slapped harder than she ever had before, let alone on purpose. Her hand shot up to her cheek, covering it, the stinging extended from her upper jaw to her temple and everywhere in between. She tried to fight back the tears, feeling her face swell, the tears poured out of her eyes, falling on her hand. she had to get out of there, was all she could think. She ran back into nathan's house, her hand still on her cheek, pushing past people. She ran upstairs where no one would be and as she turned the corner heading to the bathroom she ran right into cameron.
"oh hey Kallel, sorry about that, i need to watch where I’m going....." he trailed off and getting quieter at the end "are you okay" he asked concerned.
Kallel nodded and pushed past him walking into the bathroom and sat down on the floor, Cameron appeared in the doorway and saw the huge red spot, that was starting to look like a handprint, on the side of her face. He sat down next to her, locking the bathroom door behind him. "who did this to you?" he asked sternly, gently moving her hand from her face, examining it.
Kallel just shook her head "don’t touch me" she whispered.
He didn’t listen, he put an arm around her shoulder. Kallel rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. "don’t touch me" she kept saying, she eventually got too tired to reply and the last thing she said was "don’t" then there was a knock at the door.
Cameron's head shot up towards the door "who is it?" he asked.
"Its nathan, open the door." nathan said, once the door open he stepped inside. "Have you seen Kallel? Colleen is looking for her.....what's going on?" he asked when he saw Kallel.
"I-I don’t know, she- she wouldn’t tell me" cameron stammered. Kallel had her knees pulled up against her chest, her arms wrapped around her legs and her forehead on her knees.
"Kallel" nathan said quietly, kneeling down in front of her "who hit you?" he asked when he saw her red cheek, lifting her head up softly.
She looked into nathan's eyes and saw concern, she glanced over at Cameron who had a pissed off expression on his face. she shook her head "just forget it, i'm fine" she said, slowly standing up, and walking out of the bathroom
"walk her home Cameron" nathan said quietly to him.
Kallel unlocked the door to her house and stepped inside, walking towards her kitchen. Cameron followed her in. "you're going to want to ice that" he said quietly. when she didn’t respond he said "i'm sorry" then left.
Kallel woke up the next morning, and remembered what happened last night. She quickly got out of bed and ran to her bathroom, examining her face in the mirror. Noticing that the redness and swelling had gone down. She checked her phone and saw a text message and a missed call from Logan. She got dressed and went downstairs, only to find Logan sitting in her living room talking to Elizabeth.
"And this ones name is Ruby" Elizabeth said, gesturing to a red haired Barbie.
"that’s nice, she’s a gem" logan said smiling.
"hi..." Kallel said, a little nervous.
Logan jumped up and walked over to her grabbing her hand softly "can we talk?" he asked, sorrow in his eyes. Kallel nodded and they went outside and sat on her porch. "last night" he started, putting his head in his hands "i don’t know what happened, I snapped for no reason, i shouldn’t have drank, it makes me loose my temper" he said, gently placing his warm hand onto Kallel's cheek. As his hand approached her face Kallel wanted to move her head out of the way, the flashback from last night stunning her.
She wasn’t sure why she did, but she forgave him "its okay" she said quietly, giving him a small smile.
"it'll never happen again" he said, kissing her.
Monday at school everything was back to normal between them. Kallel had convinced herself that it was the alcohol that made him do it, after all just like Jamie Fox says, blame it on the A-a-a-a-a-alcohol. As usual, Cameron followed her around in the hallways whenever he ran into her. Stalker much?
****

A few days later Kallel was at Logan’s house watching a movie "this popcorn is slightly burnt" she said laughing, logan always burnt the popcorn.
"jeez kallel, just do it yourself then next time" he said, not an ounce of humor in his voice.
"Logan, i was kidding, ha-ha. Laugh. don’t be a big baby about it" she said, giving him a playful nudge.
"I'm a baby?!" logan exclaimed standing up. "i'm not the baby, you’re the one complaining about the freaking popcorn kallel!" he said, picking up the bowl of popcorn and throwing it across the room.
Kallel sat up and slowly moved back against the headboard of his bed, bringing her knees up to her chest. "Logan...calm down" she said, frightened.
"don’t tell me to calm down!" he said, walking over to where she was sitting.
Kallel quickly moved to the other side of the bed, knowing what was coming next. Logan grabbed her leg and pulled her back towards him. He slapped her face "don’t tell me to calm down, kallel" he said sternly, shaking her. a few tears spilt out of her eyes. "oh, look who's the baby now, you're the one crying!" he said, letting her go.
Kallel fell to the ground and curled up in a ball on the floor. Logan sighed and sat down next to her, pulling her onto his lap. "i'm sorry" he whispered. softly kissing her lips. Immediately kallel forgave him. for some reason she felt safe in his arms, when truly, that was the most unsafe place for her.
Weeks had gone by and the abuse from logan had continued, he was stressing her out. he'd freak out if she was late for something, if she didn’t give him the right answer, or answer quickly enough. Logan only hurt her in places she could cover up with clothing, and after every time, he would hold her in his arms and apologize, and kallel forgave him.
"Cameron! stop following me!" she yelled one day in the hallway at school, turning towards him.
He stopped dead in his tracks, shocked. "i-i, i didn’t know i was bothering you that much" he said quietly, then walked off.
"cameron wait.." she said, having no idea why she snapped at him.
"ouch, that was harsh" a voice said from behind her.
Kallel turned around and saw nathan "I…….He just always follows me and tells me random facts...its annoying" she said quietly, avoiding his eyes.
Nathan gently grabbed her by her elbow and pulled her out of the way of the people passing by, sitting down on a staircase. "Cameron, he doesn’t 'lure' in the ladies very well. He trys, he really does. He hasn’t had that much experience so he doesn’t know what to do when he likes a girl. The girl, at the moment, being YOU. Kallel he seriously likes you. like a lot."
Kallel suddenly felt really bad. "oh" she said quietly "shit"
Nathan nodded then stood up "keep that in mind, I know you and Logan are whatever, but let Cam down easy." he said then walked off