"Awaaaahhhhhhhhh!" you let out a wail. You clutch your jaw, it's throbbing. "Oh my gosh! Chandler, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"
Your best friend, Luke, rushes to you and lays you on the couch. He pries your hand away from your jaw. "Oh my god, Luke, what did you do?" Calum asks, rushing into the kitchen to grab a bag of ice.
"I was just messing around with Michael. And I accidentally collided my fist with her jaw." Luke says. Cal rushes back in with a jar of Vegemite. "This is all we had," he explains, gently pressing it to your jaw. You whimpered and clung to Luke's hand, squeezing it tightly.
"Why does your mother have frozen Vegemite?" Ashton asks, looking at Cal and laughing, breaking the tension. "Mate I don't know, but it's a good thing she does, we were all out of frozen crap," Cal replies.
"Here, Cal, move the jar," Luke says, moving it out of the way so he can see your swollen jaw and cheekbones.
"Oh my god, it's purple and black! Chand, it looks like my hair!" Michael exclaims, jumping back a little. Your face crumples, and you feel tears threatening to spill out of your eyelids. "Michael. Will you please shut up? Go find something useful to do. Go grab the first aid kit," Ashton orders, looking at you sympathetically. "Aw, Chand, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. I-It doesn't look too bad, I promise."
"It's okay, Michael," you say. Except with the Vegemite jar against your jaw and Luke hovering over your mouth with his hands and the pain and numbness, it came out like, "Mits jokey rifle," and Luke and Calum laugh at you. Michael leaves and returns with the first aid kit, pulling out some gel for swelling and bruises. "Here, let me put this on. Chand, this is gonna hurt a little bit," he says.
He rubs the gel gently onto your jaw and you let out another wail. "Oh, god, please don't make noises, I feel like I'm killing you. I feel terrible."
Michael quickly finishes up your jaw job and you sit up to go lay on the guest bed, but Luke holds you down and all four of them refuse to let you move. "Vut myn so bummunforble," you garble.
"What?" Calum asks you, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "She said she's so uncomfortablene," Luke explains, and you nod. "It's a good thing you can speak broken jaw, because I sure can't," Cal responds. You giggle, then groan. It hurt to move your mouth.
"Here, I'll drive you home. Ashton, can you grab her and put her in the car?" You begin to protest, then stop. It hurt to move your mouth and you needed rest. The guys seemed to think your jaw affected your legs, though, and that wasn't the case. You let Ashton slip an arm under your knees and one behind your back. You wrap your arms obediently around his neck and he carries you to Luke's beat up '74 BMW.
You wrinkle your nose at the car that Luke loved so much. It was so ugly. "Here, be careful," Ashton says as he sets you in the car. Luke follows you in and starts up the car. He drives you to your house and you hurry and make it to the front door. He runs up and stops you, gently pulling you into a hug.
"Chand, you gotta know that I didn't mean it, I'm really sorry." You try to smile at him, to let him know all was forgiven. He left, and promised to see you at school the next day. You step inside the house, and look at your mom.
She was sprawled on the couch, probably in a hangover. A bottle of aspirin was on the coffee table, and beside it were at least eight beer bottles. You tiptoed up the stairs to your room, and lay on the bed. You fell asleep, your head throbbing in time with your jaw.
You woke up to hear your mom whimpering loudly. You stumble downstairs, and sit beside her on the couch and begin to hold her in your lap and massage her temples. Your mom was a wimpy drunk, much to your relief. She wasn't abusive. She was needy and whiney and very vulnerable. Her hangovers happened at least only once every three weeks.
You retrieve a water bottle from the spotless kitchen, and help her drink it and she finally looks closely at you and her mouth gapes open at your jaw.
"Chandler, sweetheart, what happened?" You opened your mouth to respond, but you see your mom's eyes take on a horrified look, they film over with tears and she whispers, "Chandler, I didn't do that to you, did I?" You violently shake your head and your mom sighs in relief. She asks you what happened.
You form the words carefully with your mouth, exercising your still very swollen jaw. "Luke a-ahand Michayl were plahing around ahand Luke got me. By accidahnt."
Your mom chuckled sympathetically and gently strokes your jaw with one finger and then tells you to go back to bed. You nod and retreat to your room, falling into your bed.
You looked at the ceiling and contemplated on what you were going to do about Derek. You shook your head, and images flashed behind your eyes of Luke's fierce, angry expression and the way his blue eyes turned to ice whenever Derek was around or mentioned.
You couldn't understand what Derek had ever done to Luke, but it was obviously something terrible. Luke tried to protect you from your boyfriend as much as possible, and it honestly worried and annoyed you. You fell asleep shaking your head in confusion.