Ten Things I Love (to Hate) About You

“Your nose is not broken. But your ribs are bruised.” Mom muttered, leaning back. I glanced at Hailey, who was leaning in the doorway. I studied her cheek, which was slightly puffy where her mom had hit her.

“Does he hit you like this?” I demanded. Her eyes snapped into focus, and then landed on me. “What?” I motioned to my face and my torso, which was black and blue where he had hit me.

“Does he hit you like this?” She shrugged, looking out the window into the front yard again. I gave mom a look, and after she nodded and left, I lifted my feet off of the couch. Hailey was there instantly, pushing my shoulders back into the couch.

“No, sit. I’ll answer your questions, but you stay put.” I gave her a glare, but she sat on the edge of the couch and pulled my legs onto her lap. She leaned back and rested her head on the back of the couch, sighing.

“So what did you want to know?”

“Does he hit you so hard you see birds twirling around your head like a cartoon?” I said carefully. She grinned, turning her head so it was facing me, eyes still closed.

“Sometimes. Most of the time it’s just a slap like mom. He hasn’t given me a good beating in almost three years.” I shook my head at her, but she didn’t see.

“What did you tell him?” her eyes flew open, and she gave me a wary look. “What do you mean?” she said in a weary voice. “ When we where leaving. You told him something, and he just let you leave.” Her face cleared and she closed her eyes again.

“Oh. That. I told him mom was inside waiting for him and that she wanted a money fix. He loves pleasing that woman.” I studied her expression.

“What did you think I meant?” I asked. She shrugged nonchalantly, and I went to get up again. Her head shot up and her eyes flew open. “no, Don’t! I thought you meant when he slapped me, ok!? I was mumbling under my breath and he heard me say something I shouldn’t have.” I laid back down slowly.

“What did you say?”

“… nothing, bad, but something he wouldn’t like. I said that he shouldn’t be yelling at the whore he wants to be selling out.” I shook my head immediately at her statement.

“Hailey, you are not a whore! Whoever told you that!?” she laughed dryly.

“My step father gets paid when he sends a friend up to my room after he sedates me so that they can have a good time. How is that not a whore?”

“the whole, sedating part, maybe!? Jesus, It’s more like rape! Why haven’t you left sooner!?” she turned her head away from me abruptly.

“Hailey?” I said after a minute in a softer tone. I took in her posture, and it took me a second to realize that the reason her shoulders where shaking was because she was crying. I bolted up, and in a quick movement she had me pinned to the couch again.

“Quit moving! The more you move the more likely it is that your ribs will break with the way he hits people! He does it every time he hits someone in the gut. So just sit still.” She pushed on my shoulders again, the whole time tears where streaming down her face. I studied her face, and she brushed at it angrily.

“What’s wrong?” I murmured, brushing her hair away from her face. She shoved at my hands, pushing away until she was standing a few feet away. She took a deep breath, and I saw her fist clench.

“You think I haven’t tried?” her voice broke as the tears came harder down her face, but not once did she make a noise. I gave her a confused look. “Tried to what, Hailey?”

“To leave! You don’t think I’ve tried to escape that hell hole before now!? Every relative I tried to run to has sent me back so I could get the beating of my life, each one worse then the one before. The last time I tried, I was out for four days in the hospital, and my mom refused for them to give me sedatives or pain killers because it cost more! They said I was in a car accident and that was the reason my arm was broken and my leg bent at such a freaking odd damn angle, and there was so many damn cuts and bruises and knots everywhere! Really that bastard got drunk, broke the bottle, and when he was done beating me with it, took a damn bat to me! I don’t have any damn friends that I can trust to run to that would believe me, thinking I was making up a story just to get attention. I don’t even know why in the hell you believed me!” her voice never rose above an aggravated, conversational tone, but it didn’t have to. Every word was like someone was hitting me in the gut again, until her last statement.

“Hailey! How could I not believe you!? You’d just jumped in front of my fucking car for God’s sake!” I said in a surprised tone. Her face went too blank, and that soulless look came into her eyes, which still had tears pouring out.

“So I’m just a charity case, am I?” I sprang up and ignored my screaming ribs to grab her shoulders and pull her to me tightly, wrapping my arms around her.

“What put that into your head!? Hailey, I want to take care of you, ok? I want to take your past and shove it in the deepest, darkest corner possible and never look back. But we can’t, ok? I wish we could, but we can’t.” she wrapped her arms around me, and it only took a few seconds for her to start sobbing.

“Ow.” I moaned, rolling away from Hailey and almost falling off the bed. She sat up behind me and yawned.

“I tried to tell you. You didn’t listen.” She said mildly, her voice raw. She’d cried for almost three hours straight last night, so I wasn’t surprised. I laid on my back and looked at her as she raised an eyebrow at me. I grinned up at her. “You have bed head.” I said, ruffling her tangled hair. She swatted my hand away, scowling at me.

“Shut up. Like yours is any better.” I grimaced. “You’re right.” I went to sit up, and groaned and flopped back down. “Holy Heck. How am I going to get around school today?”

“800 mg Ibuprofen?” she said, crawling over my legs to go through her bag a moment before producing a medicine bottle. I raised an eyebrow, and her cheeks went pink. “I need them every once and awhile. Not for what you think.” Mom popped her head in at that time, and I took the bottle as she raised an eyebrow.

“ Don’t ask me. They’re hers.”

“Cramps.” I gagged as I tried to dry swallow the pill, and mom nodded. “Oh. Ok. I used to have to do that too.” I gave Hailey a sour look, and she laughed at me. “I told you it wasn’t for what you thought it was for.” Mom came all the way in and raised an eyebrow at me. “Nice black eye.” I gasped, scowling at Hailey for real this time. “Why didn’t you tell me that I had one!?”

“For the same reason I wasn’t going to mention your bed head this morning- I’m usually a nice person.” I stuck my tongue out at her, and she turned from me abruptly and began to look through her bags.

“Alright Young man, let me see those ribs.” I peeled my shirt off gently at my moms command, and she frowned.

“These don’t look so good. I think you need to go get an x-ray.” Hailey appeared next to her. “They’re fine, just really bruised.” She murmured, brushing her hand over them so that I didn’t even feel it. Mom raised an eyebrow, and she blushed, looking away. “I’ve had broken ribs before. I had to determine if they where broken or not before my mom would drive me to the hospital. If I made her take a trip for nothing, things could get ugly. You learn to tell the difference.” Mom flinched, and Hailey walked away quickly to get the clothes she’d set aside.

“I didn’t mean to flinch away, I just-“

“No, I get it. Don’t worry about it.” She went to my bathroom without looking at us and closed the door firmly.

“Oh, what did I do?” mom murmured. I squeezed her hand gently before standing gingerly. “You didn’t do anything. She takes everything sensitive right now. She doesn’t mean to hurt you.” I went to my dresser and pulled a coca-cola tee shirt out of the top drawer, slowly pulling it on.

By the time it was on, mom was downstairs and Hailey was emerging from the bathroom, a black, tight long sleeved shirt on and a pair of sweats on. I gave her an envious look, and she smiled at me lightly. “do you need some help?” she asked sweetly. I stuck my tongue out at her and she grinned.

“Really though, I can help if you want.” I shook my head vigorously. I may hurt like hell, but no way on earth was she going to help me get dressed. She rolled her eyes. “Whatever then. By the way, your shirt is on inside out.” I looked down frantically to see she was right.

“Dammit.” I glared at the shirt a moment, then groaned. “Alright. With the shirt.” She slid on a pair of flip flops over the adida socks she had on, and then walked over to grab the hem of my shirt lightly.

“Arms up. I’m going to rip it off fast, just like a band-aid.” I snickered at the analogy, but obediently lifted my arms, wincing. In one quick move my shirt was up and off, my ribs stinging like hell. I groaned, dropping my arms, but she shook her head.

“Nope, up again. Got to get it on now.” I glared at her, contemplating if she was the devil a moment, then steeled myself and put my arms back up.

She was gentler this time. She had to step as close as possible and stand on her tip toes to reach my arms, so that her body was flush against mine. I watched as she bit her lip in concentration, and then I felt the shirt fall over my arms, then over my head. She tugged on the hem as she stepped back until it was pulled gently into place, my ribs barely tweaking from it.

“You couldn’t have done that when taking it off?” I asked softly, lowering my arms. She shook her head, going to the pile of stuff in a corner that was now hers. “Are you giving me a ride to school or are you dropping me off to get my bike?” she asked. I pulled a pair of sweats out of my bottom drawer- no way was I dealing with jeans at the moment- and turned to look at her.

“Considering I value my life, let me just take you to school today.” She nodded her agreement eagerly, then waved the bottle of Ibuprofen in the air.

“I’m taking this to school. They don’t mind me taking it, since I’m allergic to Tylenol. So find me immediately, and I do mean immediately when your ribs start to hurt more then they already do.”

“Yes mother.” I said sarcastically. I wasn’t expecting any retaliation, so I was caught off guard when her arm snaked around my neck and she pulled me back until I was pressed completely against her and her lips where pressed to my ear. “The last time I checked, your mom looked nothing like me.” she Whispered playfully, then let me go and went to the door, where she paused and looked back. “Oh, and hurry up. We don’t need to be late for school. You have a football game tonight, too, so don’t forget to get ready for that.” I groaned as she winked and walked away.