Bruised and Scarred

I woke up around 11am the next morning, since it was my day off. I sat up, stretched and realized how bad of an idea it was. I was feeling the after affects of being pushed up against a wall. I groaned, and looked over to the side, and noticed Jason wasn't in bed. I sighed in relief, knowing this would give me some time to myself without the fear of being beaten. I got out of bed, and went into our bathroom and decided to take a shower.

I showered quickly, knowing that if I was still in the shower when Jason got back I'd be as good as dead. Once I got out, I slipped into my robe, wrapped my hair in a towel like a turban and began to brush my teeth. Once I was had spit and rinsed, I decided to chill out in my robe for a bit, even though Jason hated it when I did that. I walked into the kitchen to get something to eat, and like every morning after a beating, I saw a large vase of flowers, an apology note and a gift. I thought about not reading the card, but decided to anyways.

My darling, I'm so sorry about last night. I promise it won't happen again. But unfortunately, I must leave you for three weeks. My job is sending me into New York for a special project, but I'll be back sooner than you think. I love you, my dear Emmeline.

- Jason

I almost squealed in delight. I had three weeks without him! Oh the possibilities of what I could do! I rushed to open the gift he had left me. It was in a small, rectangular black velveteen box. I quickly opened it, and gasped. It was a rather pricey looking diamond bracelet. I knew it had to be expensive, since every little diamond was real. I excitedly fastened it onto my wrist, and smiled happily as I stared at it. It was beautiful, and it made up for everything that happened last night.

I practically skipped back into my room, and decided to get dressed. After putting on a clean bra and panties, I went back into the bathroom and put on some deoderant, then went back into the bedroom where I decided to pick out my clothes for the day. I decided on a white floral babydoll top, and light wash destoryed jeans. I went back into the bathroom barefoot, and ran a brush through my long brown hair, and blow dried it. It was back to its natural waves, unlike last night where it was crazy wavy.

I went back into the bedroom, and checked my phone. No missed calls or text messages from Jason, so he was probably too busy in New York to check up on me. Which I was completely thankful for. But when I was about to put my phone down a notification popped up. I smiled when I saw "Deana" Sanders name.

Hey, u free rn? I bit my lip, knowing I was totally free for the whole day.

Yeah, y?

Want 2 hang out?

This offer was too good to refuse, but I was unsure if I should accept it.

Depends, wat r we gunna do?

Go out 4 coffee, catch up. Mayb hang out w/ my band.

Jason was out of town for three weeks, he wasn't going to check up on me, what could go wrong?

Sure.

I gave him my address so he could pick me up, and I went to the bathroom and finally noticed all the bruises on my face and neck. I got out my emergency make up kit, and caked on the concealer and foundation to hide all the bruises on my neck and cheeks, then I swiped on some hot pink lipgloss onto my lips, and sweeped on some light golden eyeshadow on my eyelids along with some mascara on my eyelashes. I went to my jewelry box and got out my favorite zipper ring, and slipped it on my right ring finger. Now it was time to fill up my purse. I put the emergency make up kit in my tan leather purse, along with my cellphone and after applying a little bit, my Japanese Cherry Blossom scented lotion from Bath and Body works.

I was just slipping on my gray TOMS when I heard honking from outside, signaling that Derek was here. I did a last minute check on my make up to make sure I didn't miss any obvious bruises, and rushed out of the house, almost forgetting to lock up after myself. I saw the familiar face of Derek Sanders leaning up against his car, making me smile.

"Hey!" I called out, running down the stairs.

"Hey yourself!" He called back, making me laugh. When I was finally on the side walk I rushed up to him and allowed myself to hug him briefly. Once we let go, we took in each others appearances. He was taller, had darker hair and looked more grown up, looked more wise, where as I didn't look any different from high school.

"You haven't changed a bit," He told me with a smirk, making me laugh.

"Well I see you have," I told him, making him smile.

"Thanks,"

"Only telling the truth, Sanders." He shook his head and nodded towards the passenger side.

"Get in Jax." I smiled and went towards the passenger side, and he went back to the drivers side and we both got into the car, buckled up then he started up the car and drove out of the parking lot.

"So, how've you been?" He asked as we were driving towards starbucks.

"I've been good," It was a lie, I haven't been good. But that's what you're always supposed to say when you're asked that question, you're supposed to say it even if it's a big ass lie. So, of course I told him I've been good, even though it wasn't true.

"How about you?" I asked him, and he smiled.

"I've been crazy." He told me, then he went into a story about how the band has changed his life, how he loves all the traveling, how he loves all his fans and how they love the music he gets to make, how he just loves his life in general. After his story ended, his mood seemed to go down three hundred notches.

"But," I added, knowing he wasn't completely happy at this point.

"I was with what seemed to be the most perfect girl, but she broke my heart Emmeline. I don't know how to get back up from that. Especially after what happened in High School," I furrowed my brow at the mention of high school. But I didn't mention it until we had gone through half of our coffees.

"What happened in high school?" I asked him as we sat on the couch in his basement, which was filled with a full band set up and endless amounts of instruments, vinyls, cds and band posters.

"I was in love with a girl, who was defintely the most perfect girl, she was funny, out going, out spoken, and not to mention very beautiful."

"But?"

"But," He sighed.

"But we both graduated, and I never got the guts to tell her how I felt. Especially after the band got the attention it did." I frowned.

"I'm sorry," He shrugged.

"Hey, if it's meant to happen it will, right?" I nodded.

"Right."

After two hours of talking, he told me his band would be coming by for practice, and that I was welcome to stay and watch. And soon enough, they arrived rather loudly. We could hear them from upstairs, and he just laughed.

"They're kind of rowdy," I nodded, not really having a care. They came downstairs not bothering to quiet down, and stopped when they all saw me, and just stared. I didn't think anything of it, but I heard a girls voice telling them to move out of her way, and from the boys out came Krys Askew, a girl I never thought I'd have the pleasure of seeing again. She wore a gray aysmmetrical over-sized tee, a pair of dark wash jeggings, combat boots, and she had a necklace with multiple chains with different keys dangling from her neck, a pair of dark shaded sunglasses over her eyes, a black crochet beret on her head, a black leather bag hanging on her shoulder, and a smug smile on her face.

"Well, if it isn't Emmeline Jax." I laughed.

"I can't believe I'm staring at Krys Askew right now!" I stood up, and walked towards her and she roughly threw her arms around me in a tight hug, making me feel massive amounts of pain considering I was still sore from last night. When she let go she pushed her sunglasses ontop of her head, and I noticed she hadn't changed much from high school, aside from multiple tattoos all over her arms.

For make up she wore a smokey eyeshadow on her eyes, which made her look extra edgy, and a light pink lip tint on her lips. She wore black plugs in her ears that had little white lightning bolts on them, and she wore a silver lighter shaped ring, and a silver slytherin crest ring on her hands. She started rifling through her bag, and pulled out a poloroid camera, and quickly snapped a photo of me, and smiled when the poloroid came out of the front of the camera.

"I can't wait to see how this turns out," We both laughed, knowing it was probably going to be horrible since I wasn't picture ready.

"You two know eachother?" Derek asked, we simply nodded.

"We had a lot of classes together in middle school and high school, why?" I asked. She blushed.

"She's dating my bandmate, Alex." My jaw dropped, and a smirk formed on my face.

"Ooo, lucky you." I said, poking her arm in a teasing matter. She rolled her eyes and shoved me playfully. I almost flinched at the gesture, but reminded myself she was being playful, not abusive. We both sat down on the couch, and let the boys set up for practice. Derek didn't bother with introductions, and I didn't want to introduce myself when they were busy, so Krys and I just talked amongst ourselves. We caught up, me lying about my not-so wonderful life, and she boasted about her actual wonderful life. Everything for her was going perfectly, she worked as Mayday Parades merch girl, she was totally in love with Alex, and she couldn't get any happier.

"So, are you still with that Jason guy?" She asked, and my whole face dropped.

"Uh, yeah." She frowned.

"You don't sound too happy about that." I shrugged.

"I love him and everything, but I guess the relationship is getting old." She nodded in understanding.

"I get that." She excused herself to check her iPhone, since for some odd reason it kept buzzing even though it didn't show she had any notifications, so I let myself watch Mayday Parade play a few songs. When they took a small water break, I decided to check my phone. Still no texts messages or anything, until all of a sudden I got a notification from an unknown number.

I'm watching you This freaked me out, and Derek seemed to notice.

"You okay?" I nodded.

"Yeah, just got a weird text message from someone who had the wrong number." He nodded, then raised an eyebrow.

"What's that on your neck?" He asked. The boys looked at my neck, and when Krys came back, she looked at it too.

"Yeah, it looks like ha-"

"I've got to go," I said quickly, standing up.

"I thought you were free all day today?" I bit my lip.

"Something came up, I'm sorry. I've really got to go."

"Okay, uh. Krys can you take her home?" Krys nodded, and took the keys from Alex and I told her I had to go to the bathroom before we left. After following some directions from Derek, I went into the bathroom, locked the door and looked at my neck. There was a dark purple hand mark wrapping around my neck.

"Shit." I whispered. I was having so much fun, that I had forgotten to touch up my make up. I quickly touched it up, and flushed the toilet and ran the water on the sink, getting my hands a little wet and drying them to make it look like I had washed them.

"Okay, I'm ready to go," Krys looked at my neck, and was obviously dumbfounded.

"What's wrong?" I asked her as we walked to the car.

"It's just, I saw a hand mark on your neck, all the boys saw it too, and now it's gone. And I don't think we all were hallucinating about the same thing," I stayed silent the whole ride home, but before she would let me out of the car, she said she had to ask me something.

"Emmeline, Jason isn't hurting you is he?" I grew wide eyed.

"NO!" I shouted, and she flinched. I quickly got out of the car, and slammed the door shut, and ran to the staircase and rushed up to my apartment. I didn't bother to apologize for over reacting, but I didn't want her suspecting anything, even though any suspicions of hers would be pretty accurate.