I stepped in the house, dumped my bag by the stairs and went into the kitchen. I put my right hand to the fridge door and realised it was highly bruised, oddly deformed with little dots all over it. I opened the fridge with my good hand, got a bottle of water and opened it with my teeth,
"What were you thinking?" He shouted.
"Has she come back?" Tracy asked, sounding disappointed. Mike said nothing. I ignored them both and headed for the stairs, shoving the water in my blazer pocket so I could drag my bag upstairs.
"Don't you dare!" Mike warned. 5 stairs up, I stopped and turned back to look at him.
"What do you want me to say? I'm sorry? I won't do it again?" I asked.
"I want to know where you've been, and why it was more important than curfew. You're usually home by 4 it's gone midnight!" Mike emphasised. Tracy was analysing me, looking for clues of my disappearance.
"Have you been in a fight?" She asked. I said nothing.
"Why'd you ask that?" Mike asked her. I said nothing.
"Just look at her!" Tracy emphasised. Mike scrutinised every detail of me; the dried blood on the back of my head, the deformed hand, and the dots of blood all over my uniform. I said nothing. Mike looked at my face, as if it was going to reveal everything. I got bored and went upstairs.
"It's not just today is it?" He asked. I stopped briefly, thinking whether I should say anything, but decided against it and carried on.
Next morning, I really didn't feel like getting up and going to school, but there'd be too many questions asked if I didn't, and I needed something to take my mind off things. I was downstairs, trying to do everything with 1 hand. I spent about half an hour upstairs trying to cover up the bruises on my face with Sapphire's make-up which she hadn't wanted anymore.
It was just me in the kitchen, eating breakfast and Tracy came in and sat next to me.
"Talk to me Bella." She said.
"Hello Tracy, sorry I was late last night, how long am I grounded for, it's a nice day today, what's your opinion on this country's government? Look at the time! I have to get to school, bye!" I said quickly. For me this was a lot of talking, considering where I was.
"Different kinda talking. Why were you late last night?" She asked.
"I can't tell you." I said four words, Tracy seemed baffled by my answer and didn't stop me when I left the house. I saw Alexa waiting for me at the end of the driveway; my face lit up and I ran to hug her – realising how achy I was.
"You feeling better?" I asked, still on the end of the drive.
"Yeah. All better!" She smiled and we hugged again. We walked further down the drive and turned left.
"Hello, Bella." Luke greeted me.
"Yeah, why's he waiting for you?" Alexa asked, she'd obviously been standing with him, presuming something was going on between us.
"I don't know." I answered.
"I wanted to see if you were ok!" He said, giving me the excuse.
"And how did you know where I lived?" I asked. He blushed, looked at the pavement and kicked a stray pebble from the drive.
"Why'd you follow me home?" I asked.
"You looked faint, and Mum wanted to talk to your parents, but," He trailed off, not wanting to say the words, so gesturing to the care-home sign.
"Bells, what happened last night?" Alexa asked.
"Ash," I started quietly.
"Ashley? He beat you up outside of school?" She shouted, surprised.
"Lamp post on Bannerman Road." Luke pointed out, I was still glaring at him.
I looked at my hand and Alexa's eyes followed my quick glance and her eyes widened. She pulled my hand up for closer examination.
"You can't let this go on!" Alexa protested.
"I'm alright!" I disagreed. She waved my hand in front of my face and I pulled it back. It was painful.
"You were unconscious for 8 hours!" Luke emphasised.
"Could you go tell Mike and Tracy that coz if not I'm grounded forever!" I said, pushing past them both and walking to school.
"Mike and Tracy?" Alexa knew them pretty well.
"Yes, now they're on my case." I moaned, Luke caught up with us.
"Bella, your hand is really badly broken, you're not alright and who are Mike and Tracy?" He asked. I had Alexa on my left, Luke on my right and the three of us barely fit on the sidewalk.
"Care workers and who are you, Doctor Smith?" I asked.
"Look I'm getting there with the Uni, ok!" He whined.
"You want to be a Doctor?" I asked.
"Bells, me and Sarah will come with you to come see Mr Chandra," Alexa started, ignoring my question for Luke.
"And me!" Doctor-to-be Smith chipped in.
"Until yesterday you didn't care what Ashley did to me." I said to Luke. Why was I arguing with him? I had the biggest crush ever on him!
"Because I didn't know, I've been watching you for a long time," I trailed off, thinking he'd said the wrong thing, was this music to my ears? I was glowing inside but I couldn't be too obvious. We rounded the corner and weren't too far from school.
"Stalker much?" I said quickly.
"I think you're really pretty and you'll get your GCSE results soon and you'll probably get all A*'s too!" He knew I was clever?
"You think I'm pretty?" I asked.
"Sarah!" Alexa called; Luke and I were having a 'moment' and we'd promised each other to leave said momentee alone.
"Yes. You're beautiful, but not quite so beautiful with broken hand, cracked ribs, bruised arms and battered face!" He told me.
"Maybe I should go see Mr Chandra, but it'll only get worse!" I said.
"Stay with me, Ashley might leave you alone." Luke thought logically.
"He already saw that coming, he's prepared to pummel you." Explained.
"I won't let him pummel either of us. Do you wanna go see a movie tonight?" He asked, looking embarrassed. Was this really happening?
"Of course!" I smiled and nodded discreetly at my girls, I heard them squeal excitedly but ignored them.
"Then would that mean I could do this?" He asked, tenderly taking my hand. I nodded.
"Yeah. Does that make you my boyfriend of my knight in shining armour?" I asked. He seemed unsure what to pick.
"I reckon both." I smiled and saw the school in the distance.
"What subjects are you taking?" He asked me; it was quite sweet that that's all he could think to say.
"English, drama, music, maths and art." I answered.
"My friend Clyde's taking art. He's phenomenal." Luke told me.
"I'm no good at it, I just enjoy it, it's relaxing," I admitted, I'd never told anyone that.
"That's a good way to look at things." Luke told me.
"Thanks. What are you taking?" I asked.
"Science, maths, English, history, technology and psychology." He told me.
"Wow, your taking a lot of difficult subjects. I bet your Mum's proud," I told him, he smiled at me.
"When we went to options evening, she said she didn't mind what or how much I took as long as I could," He stopped mid-sentence.
"As long as you could what?" I asked.
"Nothing. She doesn't want me buried in homework." He lied – it was obvious. I didn't pressure him for the truth.
"I couldn't go to options evening. Gina was out, Tracy's not old enough and Mike didn't want to leave everyone else with Tracy and assured mayhem. So the school let me come to yours. Depending on the GCSE results, they said they'd consider letting me skip year 12." I told him.
"That would be great!" He enthused.
"Didn't they offer to let you skip 6th form?" I asked. He nodded. "I'd have to get all A's at least in every subject, and I fail at science." I laughed.
"Surely you only have to pass the subjects you're taking?" He inquired. I shrugged, we walked through the school gates, his lips gently touched mine and my expression changed to one of surprised.
"Did I do it wrong?" He asked innocently. He was so sweet!
"Yeah, I think it's more like this." I said, putting my bad hand behind his neck and pulling his lips closer to mind. After a couple of seconds he relaxed and put his hand on my hips. A minute later we pulled apart, our eyes met and I smiled. He seemed unsure.
"That was good Luke, you did it right!" I emphasises and he smiled too.
"I'll see you at break." He whispered, walking to join his friend Clyde, who hi-fived him and kept looking at me. I was in a trance, I didn't move, unsure if I could. Sarah and Alexa came and stood in front of me. This was 'Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging' all over again! Except with the fall outs, pants and arguments. Georgia (me) gets Robbie (Luke)!
"You've been crushing on him, forever!" Alexa coo-ed.
"I know! He's such a good kisser! And so cute! Sarah don't look now but Clyde's looking at you." I pointed out.
"Really?" She asked, snapping her head round.
"What part of don't look now don't you get?" I asked.
"Oops," She cringed.
"Eye rolling!" Alexa and I smiled at the same time. Yes we have weird little phrases like that. We laughed into registration, walking in as the bell went.
It wasn't long till we were in our second period; Drama. Our drama teacher is so cool!
"Today students, we are going to learn about acting from the best, anyone up for a Bond film?" A cheer went up and Alexa, Sarah and I settled down for a good old natter.
"Alexa had obviously told Sarah about last night while I'd been with Luke. Both of them wanted to look at my hand again and took it all the way down the other end of the table, I pulled it back and cradled it with my other hand.
"I don't want Mr Knight to notice!" I protested. We had an hour break after periods 2 and 4, I couldn't wait to see Luke again. Mr Knight was in a good mood and let us out before the bell. Ashley was outside waiting for me, he gestured for me to go over to him with one finger.
"I'll meet you in the usual place. I need to go to my locket." Alexa and Sarah smiled and nodded, they hadn't noticed the irritating year 13. I went over to him.
"I'd look out for your friend Luke," He started.
"Look, do whatever you want to me, kill me if it makes you feel better, just leave him alone." I defended.
"Ooh, now this makes things a li'l more interesting. I ain't done no killing before." The double negative scared me but I Ashley wouldn't be clever enough to realise the mistake in his sentence.
"Your time is comin Bella." He threatened. Slapping my face before walking off in the opposite direction. I felt someone take hold of my good hand. I looked up and Luke was standing there.
"Come with me," He said, smiling, leading me somewhere. We went to what I presume was his locker.
"Clyde took this from the nurse's office earlier. He helped me last night, he saw you by the lamp post but he had to go home at 10." Luke explained, pulling some sort of bandage out his locker. He picked up my hand and starting winding it round my hand, around my thumb. I didn't protest, his gentle touch barely making contact with my skin. He pulled out a small pair of scissors, cut the white material and pulled out some special tape and stuck it where the bandage ended. He pulled my hand up to his face and kissed it. I smiled at him and Clyde came up to us.
"Don't let me interrupt, Bella, my name's Clyde," He said happily.
"Yeah, thanks for the bandage," I started.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, no probs, I was wondering," He started.