Bruised and Scarred.

My hair is now bright pink. Okay that is a lie, but it fades from brunette to a fuchsia and it looks amazing. I absolutely love it. When I showed the guys I’m not sure if they were keen on it at all. They kind of looked at me as I said, “What do you think?” all giddy like an 8 year old who just scored One Direction tickets. “It looks awesome”, Zayn spoke up first. “Couldn’t have thought of a better color myself” Liam added. Louis and Harry weren’t even in the same room. We’re still in the country, but by tomorrow night we’ll be on our way elsewhere in the world. Midway through this tour I’ll be flying back with Niall to get my bandages off and get an okay from the doctor to go back to work. I’m genuinely excited to go back to the work. I can already feel the weight that I’m putting on from not exercising. If I voice this to Niall he’ll say I look fine. If I voice this to Liam perhaps he’ll say I look fine. I’m pretty sure if I voice this to anyone they’ll say I look fine. I’m a fail at getting the guys to agree with me on this.
We have time after the show to go home and pack so that’s what the six of us did. I, naturally, am already packed while Niall is still fitting a pair of shoes into his bag. “Jess wanna sit on this while I try to zip it?” Niall asked with more than a little frustration. I walked over and sat on his large suitcase and waited as he tugged the zipper around the bag with much more ease than before. “Thanks” he said as I hummed in response. He then left the room dragging his suitcase and guitar case behind him. I skipped along behind him like the weirdo that I am. When he got to our front door he turned and looked at me like I’m nuts, but smiled after. “What’s got you all happy?” he asked. “Oh nothing. I just can’t wait to get these bandages off and get back into shape” I said excitedly. At this he frowned and went back to ‘Our’ room. I followed as my smile faltered a bit. “What’s wrong?” I asked worriedly since I have no clue what could be bothering him. He has seemed weird all day today. Ever since I got my hair done he must have read something or saw something that bothered him. “Have a seat” he said motioning to our bed. Status update: even more worried. “You’re not preggers are you? You’d tell me wouldn’t you Ni?” I asked with a straight face waiting for him to laugh, but he didn’t.
“Jessa, I got a call. It didn’t sound good at all. Management doesn’t want you to be our bodyguard anymore, because they think your father will hurt us. After I come home with you to get your bandages off they want you to stay and send me back. Neither of the guys want this and I especially don’t want this. They think you could stay back and make us safer for the sake of the band. I’m sorry Jessa I really am. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot that I can do about it”
He stopped talking and looked up at me and my tear stained face. I wasn’t even crying loudly I just sat there with silent tears running down my face. He looked down again and spoke once more. “They did arrange for us to meet with them and discuss options, but I figure I’d let you know now so you’re not surprised by it later. The meeting will be after your doctor’s appointment and before my or our flight back. I really am sorry Jessa” From there I started really crying. He wrapped his arms around me and rested his head on my shoulder while I cried. Of all the things to happen it has to happen to me. What about when I take care of Lux while they’re on stage? Or when I keep them out of trouble? What about the fans that are rude to me and I just straight up ignore it? Why would they get rid of me? What did I do wrong? Is it because I’m ugly? Do they want Niall to hook up with someone prettier? It just makes no sense.
After I stopped crying I was just pissed off. Niall knew this and let me be. He asked the guys to bring back a pizza and some movies to watch before we had to leave tomorrow. Being that it was pretty late we only watched one movie. By the time I woke up at 4:30 the next morning I rubbed my eyes and groaned remembering last night. I feel like I just got told that my puppy got ran over by a clown on a unicycle. It’s too early to think right. Before my mind starts wandering off into space or something, I got up and went into the kitchen to pour a bowl of cereal. No thanks to Niall the only cereal we had left is Lucky Charms. So I settled for that and ate my cereal while checking twitter and Instagram. Who am I kidding? I don’t even have a twitter or Instagram, but it’s never too late to make one right? I started with twitter and made my name @the_Jessa_giraffe. Ok it sounds stupid, but I couldn’t think of anything else. Then I made an Instagram with the same name and for my first picture took a selfie with my bowl of cereal and the box. By the time I had finished eating and rinsed my bowl and spoon I had almost 50 followers on both Instagram and Twitter. I didn’t even tweet anything yet and people still want to follow me? What is this madness?
“Jessa” Niall said while walking into the kitchen in just his boxers.”Yeah. What’s up?” I asked.”Did you make a Twitter?” he asked curiously. “Yeah” I said slowly. “Oh. Be careful. Oh and nice picture by the way. Real cute”
“Why thank you!” I said before skipping off into the bathroom to shower and get changed.

~
3 weeks later.
Our flight has been called twice now and there’s still no sight of Niall. He said he was getting a coffee and going to the bathroom, but it’s not that far away from our gate. A good few seconds later I could see him walking towards me with a coffee in hand. “Took you long enough” I said when he got back. “Why are you so grumpy?” he asked. “Why am I so grumpy? The nerve Niall. Just the nerve it takes to ask that” I said while squinting my eyes and looking like someone that shouldn’t be messed with. Which is true, and he knows that.
It turns out our flight was going to be delayed due to rain storms so we’re waiting for an hour at the moment. Half way into that hour the body guard that will be going back with Niall if I don’t came over to us and said we were going to a private room to talk to management. Instead of fighting it like I would have wanted to, Niall and I grabbed our bags and followed him to this private room.
Turns out this private room is more like an interrogation room. It gave me chills as soon as I saw it. The body guard stayed outside while Niall and I sat at the table hovering over Niall’s ringing phone. He answered like he would to anyone else, “Hello”. “Good morning, Niall. Gloomy day here, but when is it not?” the management guy greeted like this was going to be a happy phone call. “Have you decided anything different Rick?” Niall asked, totally ignoring the small talk Rick offered.
“Ahh yes. You see Niall we think this will be what’s best for the band. If Jessa is seen in magazines and newspapers, Twitter, Instagram, and anyplace possible that her father could find her, it’s putting a hit on the band” he started.
Now he’s saying that I’m the bad guy and am targeting a psycho to hurt the band. Lovely.
“We have thought of getting more guards and more security to each place you go, but there are just not enough people to fill the job”
“But Rick I’m a body guard. I’ve been through the training; I’m supposed to be protecting them. Plus, a rough looking guy showing up at a meet and greet or standing in line at a concert seems very sketchy. Unless he hires a fake 10 year old to be his daughter, security can’t possibly let him through” I fought. It was silent between the three of us.
“I see. As true as that is we just can’t risk anything-“
“What’s the risk? I don’t think anyone in security has their head screwed on loose enough to look past it” Another silence and a reassuring hand on my shoulder to calm me down.
“Jessa I know how you feel about this.”
I was about to shout at his phone, but Niall slapped a hand over my mouth to keep me from acting out. He knew how upset I was. He knew I was going to fight until I had it how it should be. Not that I wanted it my way just that my safety would be at risk. Next Niall spoke up:
“Rick, I agree with Jessa and I don’t think you really know how she feels. You know nothing about how she feels and you nothing about how she could knock someone out for a week if she wanted to. You also don’t know how I feel, or the other guys. You don’t know that she’s been keeping us out of trouble. We wrote a song about this Rick do you want me to sing it to you?”
Rick sighed loudly on the other end of the line. “Fine. We’ll get a picture of him to share with security so that they know who to look out for. If anything happens to put the band in danger we’ll be finding you someone to stay with. Is that clear to the both of you?”
“Yes sir” we said together.
“Good. I’ll see that we’ll be having a meeting with the band before you’re tour in the States”
“Fine by me sir” Niall said.
“Good. Have a good day you two”
Niall ended the call before I could say something more. We were then taken back to where our flight was now boarding. As usual I got a window seat with Niall sat next me, and our bodyguard next to him.
~
From our flight we literally went to the hospital to see the Doctor and that was it. No going home or anything. Currently we were sat in a small waiting room that I really am not happy to be in. The nurse put out a gown for me to change into. Niall raised his eyebrows suggestively trying to make a joke, but I didn’t really see it as funny. I know he was only trying to help, but it wasn’t. “Wanna help me with this?” I said referring to my shirt that had a couple of buttons at the top. He unbuttoned them and helped me get my shirt off wile dodging my bandages and stitches on my arm. We traded my shirt for the paper gown and waited as Dr. Flan walked in a minute later. “Ahh I knew you’d be in here just by the bodyguard standing outside the door. How are you feeling Jessa?”
“Better. Not as much pain now”
“Good. Now let’s start with your stitches. Nothing seems to have pulled out so we can start by taking them out” he said while inspecting my right arm. He then got to work on pulling the stitches out and fixing it up. I don’t really know how to explain this process, but it’s kind of painful. He placed some sort of strip on it and then wrapped it telling me to keep my arm elevated when possible; such as on the flight back. As far as my ribs he asked for me to hold the gown up to unwrap the bandage. Underneath was an ugly greenish yellowing bruise. “Just some bruising. You should be fine. If you keep taking you medication until it’s gone our halfway gone you should be healed by then. If you feel the tape on your arm getting loose, take the wrap off and see a doctor nearby” He said.
“That it?” I asked while dropping the gown to cover the bruise.
“Nothing much I can do. Heal. And have a good time in Europe” he said while grabbing his clip board and leaving. Without even saying anything Niall walked over and helped me get the gown off and my shirt back on.
~
Today ended with a flight back to Paris and new things I can and can’t do. It also ended with news that makes me happy, but scared all at the same time. At least we’ll be in Paris by tomorrow.