Bruised and Scarred

Derek and I continued to text after I had left so suddenly, mainly because he was worried. But I had to go to bed early since I had a long shift at work in the morning. But while I lied in bed, trying to fall asleep I couldn't help but think about the unknown number, what the message had said.

I'm watching you

That freaked me out, and kept me up most of the night. Around one AM I fell asleep, and woke up around seven in the morning. I forced myself out of bed and made my way to the shower, quickly washing my hair and body, not bothering to let myself have time to think. Once I was dried off, I dried my hair and started on my make up, heavy on the concealer and foundation, then put cream satin blush on my cheeks, and pink lipstick on my lips. I put on some light lengthening mascara, and left my make up at that. For street clothes, I decided on a floral tie back tank top that popped with colors, dark wash skinny jeans, and a yellow peacoat since it was going to get colder through out the day.

I slipped on my white crochet TOMS and went to fix my hair, since it was required that female employees have their hair up while working. I put it in a high loose bun, and wrapped a headband around my head, keeping my bangs and loose strands of hair in place.

I went to my jewelry box, and decided to wear Jason's bracelet again, then slipped a taurus ring on my finger, and I was ready to go, only problem was I had another hour until I needed to clock in. So, what better to do than do my nails? Normally I didn't paint them, because Jason hated it when I did, he hated the smell of the nail polish and the mess it could make. I went into my bathroom make up caddy, and found my OPI turqouise nail polish, and to add a little flare I grabbed my blue glitter nail polish, and relaxed on my bed as I delicately painted my nails. No mess was made, and once my nails were completely dry I put the nailpolishes back and checked my phone.

One text message from Derek, saying we should hang out after my shift. I texted him back, telling him when my shift ended and that we should go out for dinner, which he happily agreed to.

When I looked at the clock I knew I had to get going, so I grabbed my keys, locked the door behind me and drove to work.

-----
After my long, boring shift full of drunken college boys and middle aged men, I packed up my things and went outside where Derek was waiting. I had forgotten to take down my hair, so when I got in the car and after I was buckled up, I flipped down the mirror, first making sure my make up was covering up the slowly fading bruises, and started to take down my hair.

"What are you doing?" Derek asked as I was fighting to get the first bobby pin out of my hair.

"Taking down my hair," I told him, only to recieve a frown in response.

"Why?" I looked over at him.

"Because, I only wear my hair up for work since it's a dress code requirement." That was only a half-truth, the other part of it was because Jason didn't allow me to have my hair up. It was harder for him to control me by grabbing my hair that way.

"Please leave it up, it looks nice." I frowned, I was so close to getting the first bobby pin out, and now he had his old puppy dog face on, staring at me as he pleaded for me to keep it up.

"I don't like it up," Correction: Jason doesn't like it up.

"Well I do, so please? I'll take you to our old hot spot," A smile grew on my face at the mere mention of our old favorite hang out.

"You're joking, do you know how many teenagers go there every day? What if someone recognizes you?" I asked, and he smiled, and shrugged.

"That's what sunglasses are for." I gave him a look of annoyance.

"Really? Sunglasses at ten o' clock at night?" He shrugged.

"Why not?" I sighed, I was dying for one of their overly greasy and horribly overly porportioned burgers. I gave in much to Derek's excitement. I left my hair up, and he was going to buy me the best burgers in Tallahassee.

When we got to the little diner it was surprisingly packed, it was ten thirty at night on a monday and it was packed with teenagers, much to our surprise.

"Shouldn't they be at home studying or something?" I asked him quietly. He laughed and shrugged as he walked next to me while the hostess led us to our table. We sat down, ordered our drinks along with our food, not even bothering to look at the menu. The hostess simply smiled and took them back, and walked away.

"You look ridiculous wearing those sunglasses in the middle of the night," I told him with a laugh. He was wearing hot pink sunglasses with giant flamingos on the sides, which was hysterical, but ridiculous.

"Oh, don't you mean I look sexy?" He said, striking what was supposed to be a sexy, masculine pose. I busted out laughing, louder than I normally did, recieving us a few awkward glances and stares. We just doubled over the table top, trying to contain our laughter, which made our giggles come out as little snorts.

Even though Derek and I had been separated since post-graduation, we acted as if we hadn't stopped talking for so many years, we acted as if he had just moved across town, and as if I had just gone to college and lived at home. Nothing had changed between us.

"Here are your drinks, and, sorry if I'm mistaken, but are you Derek Sanders from Mayday Parade?" The waitress asked. She looked a like she couldn't be older than seventeen, but Derek cocked his head to the side, and looked over at me with his crazy flamingo sunglasses.

"I don't know, am I Emmeline?" I tried to restrain myself from laughing, and tried to keep a straight face.

"I don't know, are you?" We finally both burst out into gut busting laughter, and he finally told her we were just joking, and he would love to sign her order pad. She left with starry eyes and a big dopey grin on her face. And soon after than girl after girl came up to him, asking for his autograph. Eventually he decided to take off the sunglasses, and put them on me instead. I even let him take a picture of me making the duck face and doing other weird, funny poses on his phone for his twitter.

After the little photoshoot, I excused myself to the bathroom to 'powder my nose' and quickly checked on my make up. I reapplied it as much as I could without it looking like it was caked on, then went back over to our table where I noticed our food had arrived, and noticed a massive dent in the pile of fries they give with each burger.

I sat back down, smiling over at Derek, knowing he had stolen them, considering he was attempting to act aloof.

"Did you steal some of my fries?" He shook his head back and forth quickly, which made me laugh because his cheeks were puffed out since his mouth was full of food, which reminded me of a hamster.

"Oh? Then why is there a big ass dent in my pile o'fry?" I asked, and we both started laughing again. This happened everytime I left my food unattended with him, he would eat as much as he could handle, in hopes that I wouldn't notice. Even though I always did.

"Maybe a little fry stealing gnome ate them." I began looking around, under our table, under the tables around us, and in my bag.

"Well, did you see a fry eating gnome? I don't see one around here,"

"They're invisible."

"Oh, likely story." We chuckled quietly and decided to leave the subject alone, and just shut up and eat.

-----

After our main entree and a lot of desserts, it was close to midnight when we left the diner. I was trying to refrain from yawning every five seconds, and I was needless to say, ready for bed.

"So, are you sure you're ready to go home?" I nodded.

"Yeah, I need sleep." I said, finally taking down my hair since Derek said it was okay. And much to my dismay, my hair was in even bigger waves than it was on saturday night. I groaned, looking in the mirror, seeing all the voluptuous waves.

"Wow," I looked over at Derek, who was caught between trying to look at the road ahead of us and staring at me.

"What?" I asked him. I saw bright lights coming towards us and screamed. Derek quickly moved around the incoming car and got back on the main road, but in that moment my heart was beating out of my chest.

"Oh my god, watch the road!" I was yelling at him, but I didn't mean too, he just grabbed my hand and squeezed it comfortingly.

"We're okay, I'm sorry, I just got distracted by how beautiful you are," I grew wide eyed, and quickly retreated my hand from his.

"Are you okay?" He asked, and I nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Was it something I said?" He asked, I looked over at him, and shook my head.

"No, it wasn't."

"Then what was it?" He asked, and I sighed.

"Who was the girl from high school you were in love with?" I suddenly asked. I didn't know why that was what I ended up saying, but I guess it had haunted me in a way.

"She was my best friend."

"What was her name?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because, I know how it feels to never tell someone your true feelings, and having to sit back and rot as they go off with someone else."

"You do?"

"Yeah," We looked at each other for a moment, only a moment. That was all it took to see the answer. The answer was clear, and it was in his eyes.

I smiled to myself, and was about to say something when another car was driving toward us.

"Derek watch out!" But it was too late, the car crashed into the front of our car, the sound of screeching metal, the smell of burning rubber. I was in pain, alot of pain. But the air bag and inflated and left me a few extra scratches on my face and arm. I looked over and saw that Derek was unconcious. I quickly grabbed my phone and was about to dial 911, when I saw another text message from Mr. Unknown Number.

I told you I was watching you, now you must pay for what you've been doing behind my back.

After reading that, I felt queasy, and light headed. But I knew I had to call 911. But thankfully before I could do so, I already heard sirens in the distance, and that's when I decided it would be okay to faint.