The next morning was hell trying to get out of bed. My left hip was bruised and it hurt to walk. A new series of bruises had formed around my wrist too. Thankfully, my face hadn't bruised, but it was slightly red. I tried to even it out with blush, which worked to an extent. As long as no one focused on my face for very long, it would go unnoticed.
I trudged down the stairs after getting ready to find Mark in the kitchen.
"Good morning," He said cheerfully, making me want to scream.
"Hi," I mumbled, knowing what would happen if I didn't reply in some form. I was beginning to catch on to what not to do to get hurt. I grabbed a banana and left the kitchen as quickly as possible. I decided to leave early since my ride was now too busy making out with his girlfriend.
I was surprised to see Jack's familiar blue car sitting in the driveway as I walked out of the house.
"What're you doing here?" I asked getting in.
"Well, since Alex is basically tied to his girlfriend I thought I'd pick you up instead," He smiled.
"Aw thank you." I smiled as he started towards school. I would be lying if I said I was mildly disappointed Alex hadn't even tried to escape from Emma to come get me, but a ride is a ride.
I shifted uncomfortably as the morning sun beamed down on me through the window, but there was no way I was taking my blazer off until we got to school. There I'd just pile on bracelets and hope for the best. I silently prayed mom got rid of Mark before I became a walking bruise.
Once we were at school, we parted ways and I sighed in relief that he wasn't insistent on walking me to class. I grabbed my books and gym bag and went into the closest bathroom. I set my stuff down on the counter and pulled off my blazer as I heard the door open. I scrambled to pull on the thickest bracelet to cover the bruise as a head of bleach blonde hair approached the counter.
"Well, well, well." Katie said, "Looks like the new girl doesn't know how to listen."
I glanced at her in the mirror, "Well, well, well, looks like the self-proclaimed bitch of the school doesn't know she can't control my friends. Honey, there's 900 other guys in this school, go try and fuck one of them. I'm sure at least one of them has to be slightly interested."
Her face started turning red from anger. "Look bitch, like I said, I will make your life a living hell."
"Really, balls to the face? That's what you consider a living hell? I thought it would be your paradise." I snickered.
"I can do so much worse," She said, ignoring my joke.
"Well, I'll believe it when I see it." I said before gathering my stuff and walking out.
-x-
As Friday rolled around I was stressing about the party, and what to wear that wasn't going to reveal fresh bruises Mark had given me after I told my mom I was late for class Thursday morning. Apparently punctuality is important to Mark and is worth another slap in the face that caused a swollen lip, and a couple punches to the back and shoulders.
Katie was also pretty terrible at keeping her word at making my life a living hell since nothing had happened since our exchange in the bathroom. Emma was still hanging off Alex like a leach, and Alex still was barely talking to me. We texted a couple one word messages for a bit, but that was it.
Jack and I were getting closer, and by closer I mean spending more time kissing than studying. I had gone to his house again on Thursday, and we had barely gotten through the lesson before his lips were attacking mine. I really didn't mind it, but every time we kissed, I imagined it was Alex instead.
Let's recap this love triangle, shall we?
I like Alex, who's dating Emma, but probably doesn't actually like her. Emma's best friends with Katie, who's creepily obsessed with Jack, who is Alex's best friend and basically friends with minimum benefits. And we're all going to be at the same party tonight.
I had agreed to go over to Carmen's with Tara to get ready. It got me away from Mark and gave me time to mentally prepare for tonight. It was probably going to get messy.
"What're you going to wear?" Tara asked. The three of us were spread out across Carmen's room, doing our own thing to get ready.
"What I'm wearing now?" I said, referring to my jeans and plain shirt.
"Not likely," Carmen said, tossing a shirt at me from her closet. I held up the red fabric and inspected it. It was low cut and looked like it would fit perfectly with a corset-like tie up in the back. Before I could say anything, a pair of black skinnies came flying at me too.
"You're going to wear that." Carmen grinned and turned back to the mirror before I could protest. I got up and headed towards the bathroom.
"You can change in here," Tara said.
"I know, but I'm self-conscience." I lied.
"Really? You always seem to have such high confidence." She said, looking surprised.
"It's easy to fake," I said before disappearing into the bathroom. I really didn't like lying to all my friends about it, but I also didn't want them jumping in and getting all worried and making a fuss. It was no big deal, and I didn't want anyone to make a big deal out of it.
I pulled on the shirt and jeans, and arranged the shirt so 98% of my bruises were covered, and what wasn't covered by the shirt was covered by my hair. As long as no one focused on my back very long, no one would notice.
-x-
An hour later we were on our way. My anxiety grew as we got there and entered the house and the reason I never went to these things slapped me in the face as a cloud of smoke tinged with alcohol. It was the most disgusting smell ever, but I but on a brave face and followed Tara and Carmen around to the kitchen. Piles of alcohol and cups were strewn all over the place already.
"Brooke!" Someone called my name and I turned around to see Jack pushing his way into the kitchen with a red cup in his hand.
"Oh, hey," I smiled.
"How long have you been here?" He asked.
"I just got here."
"Awesome, get a drink and come dance with me?"
Before I could answer Carmen shoved a glass with dark liquid in my hand and smiled, "Have fun, and don't forget a condom when needed."
I laughed at her comment and took a sip. I may have hated the smell of alcohol, but the taste was a different story. Jack took me by the hand and pulled me into a crowd of people dancing. Jack pressed himself up against me as we moved to the beat of the music blasting from somewhere in the house.
Eventually Tara and Carmen came and joined us and I actually started to have fun until I saw a familiar grey beanie. I pretended not to notice and pushed myself closer to Jack who didn't hesitate to put his hands on my hips. I was pretty sure he saw Alex too and just wanted to rub it in, but hey, it's basically what I was doing.
"Brooke?" Alex yelled over the music, making his way over to us.
"Oh wow, you actually detached yourself from your little leech," I commented, letting my bitterness get the best of me.
He gave me a really? kind of look before saying, "Can we talk?"
"Are you sure it's okay with Emma?" I asked. He reached out and caught my wrist, the same one with the slowly fading bruises, and pulled me away. If it wasn't for the fact I was in mild pain and wildly curious, I would've tried to resist. He led me through the house and out the back door to the patio that was deserted.
"So you're here with Jack," Alex stated.
"No." I said. "I'm here with Tara and Carmen, and just happen to be dancing with Jack. Don't assume what you see is the full story."
"Okay," He nodded.
"So is there a reason you brought me out here to talk after a week of barely any contact." I asked.
"I'm sorry," He said.
"You seem to say that a lot."
"I really am though. I didn't think I'd have to cut off contact with you when I started dating Emma."
"Why are you even with her, Alex?"
-x-
Alex's POV
I didn't have an answer for her. How were you supposed to tell the girl you liked that you were only with someone else for sex and to make her jealous without her getting the wrong idea?
"It's complicated," I answered which got me an annoyed eye roll from Brooke. I wanted so badly to just walk over to her and kiss her and tell her how I felt, but no one would make it out of this party alive if that happened. We stood in silence, avoiding eye contact until I broke it with a question that had been burning in my mind all week.
"Do you have feelings for Jack?"
She looked indecisive, as if there was a right or wrong answer, when really, both yes and no was the wrong answer. Yes meant she was soon going to be completely off limits. No meant she was still off limits since I had a girlfriend who posed more as a fuck buddy with way too many strings attached.
"Yes," She answered finally and my heart hit the ground.
"Oh, well, he likes you too."
"I know," She said. "I'm not dumb."
"Then why aren't you with him officially?" I asked.
"It's complicated." She said and grinned, making me grin back.
"Alex!" Emma's voice rang out from the door way. "What are you doing out here with her?"
"We were just talking," Brooke said, turning to leave. I wanted to stop her, I still had so much more I wanted to talk to her about, but as Emma came and attached herself to my arm, I knew my chance was gone. I watch as she walked towards the door. Just as she stepped into the light of the doorway, she turned her head, moving her hair from her back, revealing bare, pale skin. But there was something off about her back. There was a series of dark spots scattered across it. I thought it was just the shadow from her shirt, but as she walked further into the house, a few didn't change like the rest of them. It took a minute for it to click in my mind, but once it did, I almost dropped the drink that Emma had handed me.
-x-
Brooke's POV
Lying to Alex about my feelings probably wasn't the best idea ever, but if he wasn't going to give me straight answers, he wasn't going to get any either.
I found Jack and Carmen in the crowd of people again.
"What was that all about?" Carmen asked.
"Nothing," I sighed, "It was just a useless conversation."
"Do you want to dance again?" Jack asked.
"Sure, why not?" I answered, following him back into the group of people after Tara came back from wherever she disappeared to and handed me another drink. I took a long gulp, glad this drink was stronger than the last one.
As Jack and I danced, Tara and Carmen supplied me with drinks until my head was spinning one way and the room was spinning the other. Soon, Jack's hands were wandering, and so were mine. I knew where this was headed as we slowly inched out of the crowd and towards the stairs. I gave him a quick peck just because I could before turning around to be stopped by Katie, Emma and some chick whose name I didn't care about.
"What do we have here?" Katie asked.
"A bitch, a slut and a nameless wanna-be." I answered, pointing at each one. Jack whispered something in my ear about the bathroom and quickly left.
"You're really not as funny as you think you are," Emma said, "Alex even agrees."
"You're not as great in bed as you think you are," I shot back, "Everyone else even agrees."
A group of people standing by oh'd and laughed at my response. I joined in on their laughter, looking around and seeing Alex in the crowd watching. Emma took the drink from someone's hand and threw it at me, drenching me in sticky liquid. The laughter stopped as everyone waited for my next move. I considered throwing a punch or two, but one against three were bad odds no matter who you were, and I doubted anyone would back me up. I went to walk away, but apparently that didn't fly with Emma as she reached out and grabbed and handful of my hair, pulling me back and pushing me into a wall. With the alcohol in my system working against me, I slide to the ground as the group snickered, and walked away.
I tried to pick myself up off the ground, using a table to steady myself as everyone else went back to what they were doing.
"Are you okay?" Alex asked, coming over to me once it was sure Emma wasn't coming back, and offering me a hand.
"Don't touch me," I said coldly, "I can do it myself."
I finally was stable and on my feet.
"Brooke, I'm sor—"
"I don't want your apologies." I snapped. "Don't apologize when you didn't even try to stop her. She's your girlfriend, you obviously could've said the word and she would have stopped, but no. Instead you stood there and watched."
"What's going on?" Jack asked, reappearing beside me.
I was suddenly pissed off at him too for leaving me.
"Nothing, we're done here," I said, giving Alex one last cold look before walking away from both of them.
"Brooke, wait!" I heard Jack yell after a few moments. I assumed Alex had filled him in on the scene that he just stood there and watched.
"What?" I turned around just as I got to the door?
"I'm sorry. If I had of known she was going to physically attack you I would've stayed." He said.
I was sick of hearing people apologize.
"It's fine," I mumbled. "Take me home?"
"Alright," He nodded, opening the door for me. I walked to where his car was parked and waited for him to unlock the door. It was nice to sit down after standing for so long. The world was still spinning and I felt like I was going to be sick. We rode in silence, my anger still lingering.
"Thanks," I mumbled, getting out of his car and walking up the front steps to my house. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked the time. My head spun even more when I realized it was an hour past my curfew.
I opened the door quietly, hoping that the house being dark meant everyone was asleep, but I was mistaken when I went into the kitchen for Tylenol to find Mark standing there.
"You're late."
"Sorry," I said quietly. He back handed me across the face so hard I stumbled to the ground. He grabbed a handful of hair and pulled me back up only to repeat the same thing. I tried not to scream out in pain as I took a swift kick to the ribs before he left the room.
I laid on the floor for a few minutes, wishing this night had ended differently. My night could've ended with having sex with Jack, but instead I ended up on the kitchen floor in pain. I finally pushed myself off the ground and dragged my still half-drunk ass to bed.