Picture Perfect

I saw that along Emily’s arms, the color purple was everywhere. Bruises? Emily quickly got up and put on a different jacket; the blazer was still in my hands. How did Emily get all those bruises?

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Emily’s POV

The bruises, William totally saw them. What am I going to do? How will I explain it to him? A voice in my head told me that I could just tell him the truth. How am I supposed to do that? Just casually say it, build up to it?

Although I knew that Liam had seen the bruises, he didn’t say anything. Was he pretending that he didn’t see anything, or perhaps, was he just waiting for me to explain it in my own time? I’d never know. Not unless I asked him, which I so was not going to do. How could I? Would I just be all, Hey, William, so you seen the bruises? Yeah, I got them from my father…. Yeah, like I’m going to do that.

I was just about to ask William to leave, when he grabbed me, “You can tell me anything, Ems. You know that, right?”

“Err…Yes, I know that.” Now. I doubted that he really wanted me to tell him anything… Why would he? “Please, let go.” It hurt.

He didn’t let go, “Emily, I’m being serious, here. You can tell me anything. I promise that I’ll do whatever you want. If you don’t want me to tell, I won’t. If you do want me to, I will. Just tell me.”

“Please let go of me, William.”

He reluctantly let go and turned away and apologized. I told him it was alright. He made sure that I knew that I could still tell him whatever was on my mind, at any time. I’m sure he’d like that. Then he’d know how to “conquer” me.

Was that his plan? Is that why he wanted to know? So he could understand me better and have me? Maybe I’m over thinking things, maybe I’m not. I probably am, I seem to be doing things like over thinking a lot lately.

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William’s POV

I wanted Emily to know that she could tell me absolutely anything. Anything in her mind, all her thoughts, everything. I don’t think she believed me, but I couldn’t be sure. Emily is a complicated girl; I knew this now. She’d probably think I had ulterior motives or something. Yeah, maybe if she was any other girl, I’d have ulterior motives. I felt differently about her, than any other girl. Plus, if I hurt her, Melanie would definitely kill me. I knew that much for sure.

“Ems, please trust me. Tell me, I want to know.”

She didn’t respond. “Emily, please tell me, or else I’m going to use my imagination, and think up something, and then that won’t be good.”

“My father,” she said, looking up.

I was kind of confused, not difficult, “What about him?”

“He did this,” she mumbled, indicating the bruises on her arms, legs, and any other body part she’d readily show. I wasn’t sure if those were the only places he’d touched, and I certainly didn’t really want to know, one way or another.

Her father? He did this? This man should be shot, or worse. No man has the right to harm their daughter, or any other woman for that matter, in such a way.

I started towards her and was about to touch her again. She pulled away. Now I understood everything. She didn’t like to be touched, and now I knew why. Because he had hurt her. He didn’t deserve to be called a man.

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Emily’s POV

There’s no way he could ever want to touch me again. No way, at all. He wouldn’t want to touch me, why would he? I really couldn’t have blamed him…

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“Emily, hello?”

“What?” I asked, suddenly out of my daze.

“Why are you spacing out all of a sudden?” Melanie asked me. What? When did Melanie get here?

Oh, right, I was with her the whole time. I had been dazing out, thinking of that date with her brother. I didn’t know whether it was good or bad, but I hadn’t seen William since that day.

“Melanie, I have a strange question…”

“Yeah?”

“Has your brother…talked about me?” I asked.

She gave a look, her thinking look, and replied, “Well, no, not really. He asked if I knew anything about your father.”

“What did you tell him?”

“Well, I told him that I knew your father, not well, but I had met him, and he seemed to want to know more. I couldn’t tell him much, ‘cause, as I’ve said I don’t know much about him.”

I wondered if she thought it odd that she didn’t know much about my father. Of course, I’d never ask, ever.

“So, um, why do you think he’d ask about your dad?”

“I’m not sure.”

“That boy is strange, I’m telling’ you,” she said. Melanie seemed to notice that I wasn’t really in the mood to discuss her brother anymore. She changed the subject, “So, have you heard?”

“That depends. Heard what?”

“Kerrington Sinclair and Jerry Jones are official.”

“Seriously?!” I was shocked. That’s the only word I could think of to describe my feelings.

“Yes,” she said in a very casual voice.

“Wow, you’re quite the matchmaker, aren’t you, Mel?”

“How so?” she asked, grinning to herself…

“They started this relationship thing at your party,” I reminded her.

“True. I wonder if I could get others from my party together,” she said, evilly grinning to herself. What’s with her grinning so much lately?

Did she want to set William and me up? God, she better not.

I wondered if William would tell Melanie what he knew about me.