Chapter Sixty

Having had spent the better part of the day in the guidance office meant Lorna fortunately skimped out on dealing with Annalisa's wrath. Or so she thought as she made her way to her locker to gather her things before leaving for the day. It wasn't until she had already retrieved what she needed and had been halfway finished packing the books into her backpack that she felt another person's presence within her rather intimate vicinity. At first, without looking up, she assumed it to just be Nicky waiting on her. However, once she finished zipping up her bag and throwing it back over her shoulders, her eyes shifted up and realized it was not Nicky but Annalisa. And Annalisa looked anything other than thrilled to see her.

It wasn't long after that Annalisa's hands were grabbing harshly at her shoulders and pushing her backwards until the back of her body pressed against the cold metal of the lockers. Blue eyes pierced fiercely down into those of the shorter girl; the shorter girl who cowered and trembled within her grasp, she effortlessly noticed. Of course the sight formed a smirk upon her face. She kept one hand tightly gripped on Lorna's shoulder while using the other to reach for something in the pocket of her coat.

When Lorna's eyes were able to clearly focus on the object in Annalisa's other hand, she felt her legs wobble a slight amount. A lump was swallowed uneasily down her throat. The sharp, thin, nail could have passed for a prison shiv. Immediately her mind pondered with a rapid multitude of queries and scenarios as to what the blonde could be planning to use that thing for. None of them ended well for her. Her mouth opened a number of times but no words spewed out due to the incessant tremoring of her lips.

"Sharp, ain't it?" Annalisa ran the tips of her index and pointer finger over the pointed edge of the nail. The smirk on her face only intensifying the more her eyes witnessed Lorna's shakiness. She brought it nearer the girl's cheek but in a slow, drawn out, pace to extenuate the trepidation already seeping from her facial expression and brown eyes. "I bought it at the store yesterday," she whispered, letting the pointed edge of the nail touch lightly onto Lorna's cheek. "In case ya got us a shitty grade on the science project. Thought you could be the one to test it and see how sharp it is."

The sensation of the nail resting against the skin of her cheek made her entire body shudder out of discomfort. It hadn't dug inside of it but the sharpness of the nail's edge certainly wasn't the most pleasant thing. Not like the razor she cut her thighs with the other day as she showered in the bathroom of her foster family's house. Maybe it was because Annalisa happened to be the one in control of it and not her was why the feeling happened to be a lot less calming than when she had the edge of the razor excavating through the thick flesh of her thighs.

"You're not gonna do anything—we're in the hallway, how dumb are you?"

Lorna was even surprised with what came from her own mouth. Yet, she found it was only the truth. Annalisa had to be pretty dumb if she was going to cut her with that thing in the middle of their high school hallway, she deemed. Especially when it was the end of the school day, people would be walking through and notice. She sighed. She didn't know whether it'd be a good or bad thing for people to see Annalisa's sticking that nail through the skin of her cheek. Sure, on one hand, a teacher—if Lorna was lucky—might be the one to notice and stop her. On the other hand, though, if other classmates saw, it would only make things worse for her. There was a possibility it would encourage others to bully her, too, and that wasn't anything Lorna wanted or needed on her plate right now. Her plates was already overly stuffed as it was.

Dumb? Being insulted by someone as meek as the brunette held to the locker in back of her did not go over very well with Annalisa. She tightened her grasp tremendously, nails of her fingers scraping roughly through the cotton of her shirt and into the flesh of the shoulder underneath it. "Ya wanna say that again, Morello?" The words sputtered through a deeply menacing voice.

When her eyes witnessed the timid shake of Lorna's head, Annalisa gave a subsequent nod. Her other hand, which grasped onto the nail between two fingers, moved the sharp edge momentarily from her face so that she could harshly push her head against the locker behind it. Hard enough that it left a sting but not too hard that it happened to knock her out or anything of the sort. "Yeah, that's what I fucking thought," her mouth mere inches from Lorna's ear. The breath that came out heated the ear she'd spoken over.

She replaced the nail onto the flesh of Lorna's cheek and dragged it from the top to the bottom. It hadn't cut through the skin but was sufficient to cause a revolting flinch out of her. "You need to stop underestimating what I'm willing to do to you. I mean I shoved ya in that locker the other day, yeah? What makes ya think I won't let this lovely little nail glide through your plump big cheek, huh?"

An unnerving knot molded into the pit of her stomach. Breathing hitched. Eyes squeezed shut as she tried to mentally prepare herself for whatever the blonde teen was planning to do to her. She didn't have the energy, or stamina, to fight back. She was tired. Mentally, emotionally, physically. She reopened her eyes and averted them onto the slim nail that was only a few centimeters from her eyelids. In a dark and twisted way, she longed for it to be stuck right into the slit of her throat. To permanently take her out of this current quandary she was existing in. To allow her to rest—forever. Possibly reunite with her mother wherever her soul might be. Though, another part of her tried convincing her what having her life taken away like that would do to the people she loved who would be left behind. Either way she approached the thought, nothing good came of it. Even though, in the long run, she felt her death would be in the best for everyone who meant anything to her. They shouldn't be burdened with her—a dark, mentally insane, disgustingly fat person who only brought those around her down along with her.

Attention was brought back to what was presently occurring and brown eyes peered directly into blue ones right across from her. Blue ones which harbored a darkness to them—a perturbingly evil darkness at that. "What if a teacher sees? It's the end of the day, and um we're in the hallway. A good bully would not do this in plain sight," she flatly pointed out, her voice ever-so-faintly shaking even though she'd already come to terms with her possible fate.

"Ah-ah, you think you're real smart do ya?" Annalisa grappled a hand around the back of Lorna's head and pulled sharply on the hair cascading from its scalp. Hearing a rather boisterous yelp tremor from her mouth only had her pull harder on the clump of hair in her hand. She released it after another minute or two and took the nail right back to her cheek. This time she brought the pointed edge down against it and let the needle-like point dig into the flesh beneath.

Eyes watched as tears peeped from the bottom of Lorna's lids. The sight innately caused her to deepen the nail into her skin. "I know ain't no one gonna be catchin' us out here. Know why, Morello? Because I peeked through the classrooms before I found you and they were all empty. So, guess what? You can eat your words. Oh, wait, you don't eat do ya?"

Lorna gulped and used the sleeve of her shirt to wipe at the skin right under each of her eyes. It was too late, however, the tears had already started their descension along her cheeks. And she knew by Annalisa's movements that she'd noticed the tears before her little shirt wipe of them.

"Yeah, that's right—you're little bulimic Morello, aren't you? I heard ya in that bathroom puking. That's good. You could use the extra help to lose all this fat on you. Why don't ya try some laxatives too, yeah?" Annalisa smirked while scraping the nail down to right beside the corner of Lorna's mouth. She gave it one last, sharp, cut and finally removed it from the skin and swiftly threw the object back inside of her coat pocket.

The mixture of panic and unease which were melded on the younger teen's face only widened Annalisa's sneer. She slammed her back against the locker one last time and then pulled her by the collar of her shirt so that their faces were a mere inch apart. "If I end up with anything lower than a B in Mrs. Bell's class I'm holding you personally responsible, Morello. And I will make sure the next time I cut your face that you're left with a scar so ugly even Nichols will leave you. Ya understand me?"

A submissive nod was given from the shorter teen.

"Good," Annalisa muttered, letting go of Lorna so harshly that it caused her to fall backwards and collide into the lockers once more. A chuckle escaped the blonde to witness such and she waved mockingly at her. "See ya tomorrow, bulimic Morello. Don't forget to buy some laxatives."


Lorna didn't move from the floor until she watched Annalisa fade into the distance. It took a few tries but eventually she was able to push herself up into a standing position and held onto the wall behind her to regain her balance. Legs wobbled slightly from the trepidation which still poured through her. She stammered her way down the hall, not knowing where the hell her girlfriend could possibly be. Of course, she was grateful for Nicky's running behind because that saved her from having the bullying found out by her.

Tears blurred her vision as she continued on her path through the hallway. A hallway that, right now, appeared to never end. As if she were in some contorted funhouse at a fair. It just kept going and going. By the time she reached the end of it her legs were nearly ready to give out on her and she all but fell and unexpectedly collided with another person.

"I'm sorry—I'm sorry," the words stumbled fearfully from her vastly tremoring lips.

When her eyes looked up at who she bumped into, they were surprised to see it was none other than the school counselor who she'd spent nearly half the morning with earlier.

Picking herself up off the floor, Gloria squinted her eyes slightly to realize the culprit of her slip to be Lorna. Lorna who, as she peered her over with attentive and precise eyes, appeared alarmingly pale and shaky. Gloria acted quickly, bending down to pull her up by the hand and taking her face gently in her hands to examine closer. "Oh, Lorna—honey, you don't look so good. What's this bleeding from on your cheek, huh? What happened?" She brushed a thumb along the skin beneath where the cut rested and shifted her eyes over to Lorna's.

Lorna turned her head as if to make sure no one was after her. She turned it to the other side to do the same and then recentered it in front of the Hispanic woman. Her mouth opened but the words refused to escape it. She swallowed down harshly and looked down at the floor. Tears had yet to cease and Lorna was too panicky to even care enough to resist them.

"Hey, hey," Mrs. Mendoza softly called out, moving her hand to the bottom of Lorna's chin so that she could carefully lift her face onto eye level with her own. "How'd this cut get on your face? I need you to tell me, Lorna. This was not there when we were in my office this morning which means it happened during school hours. You need to tell me what happened, sweetheart."

The command was gentle, compassionate, and yet with a sternness that told Lorna she wasn't going to be able to worm her way out of it so easily. Such a conclusion only had her lips trembling even more. She wanted to speak but her mind wouldn't allow her. Eyes looked frantically into those of her counselor's. "I—I uh it, I don't—I don't um…I hit it on I was the bathroom. The bathroom, I scraped it on the uh—"

Gloria's head shook firmly. She took Lorna's hand and started leading her in the opposite direction, in route of the nurses' office. The way in which she was fumbling and stumbling with her words showed her the girl was in no condition to be going anywhere but to see the school nurse. Something needed to be done and fast, she acknowledged. "Have you had anything to eat today, Miss Lorna? Because you don't look well and you can't even form a coherent sentence right now. And I'm not saying any of this to be mean. I'm saying it out of concern for you, sweetie. You are clearly not okay," she questioned with worried lines creased onto her forehead, her grip on the other's hand tightened as she fastened her pace.

"Um, I, uh, yeah. Course' I ate. I just—I'm, I-I'm real drained is all. Got a lotta stuff to do and I'm clumsy and feel like I'm all over the place. Where, where are we going? I need to find Nicky, she's my ride home. I don't wanna worry her or nothin'," Lorna finally calmed herself enough to form a comprehendible response. Though her eyes still spilled out a string of tears from within.

"What did you have to eat?" Gloria stopped a few feet away from the door of Mrs. Reznikov's office and faced Lorna with her arms crossed over chest along with a stern gleam in her light brown eyes.

The bewildered look on Lorna's face and the tears that hadn't seem to stop rolling down sharpened a pang in her chest. Her maternal instincts were too great for her to resist from taking the blatantly disheveled child into her arms. She couldn't let her suffer in silence any longer; arms carefully wrapped around Lorna's upper back and brought her close so that her head naturally fell onto her shoulder. Fingers soothingly raked through thick dark waves of hair. "You worry me, Lorna. Ever since you've been coming to see me, I've noticed you getting smaller and smaller. And paler. You're so pale. Your skin is almost transparent. You're not eating right, are you? Why aren't you taking care of yourself, huh? You need food to function properly, honey. No wonder you're having a hard time keeping your balance and getting scrapes on your face. You're undernourished at the very minimum." Another disheartened head shake was given; hands continued to comb through dark strands of hair.

"I brought you to the nurses' office. You should have a rest before ya go anywhere, you're so pale and unwell."

Squinting her eyes, the short teen tried to make sense of what was said to her. Her eyes shifted away from Mrs. Mendoza and down onto her hand which rested on the side of her leg. The paleness that the older woman was so adamant in pointing out was not seen by Lorna's eyes as she observed her hand and wrist. All that was noticed was the fat accumulating around her forearm and fingers. She shook her head spitefully and returned her stare back up onto Gloria. "I told you I ate, I'm fine. I don't need to go in there—I need to find Nicky so she doesn't get worried," impatience and irritation inflected through her voice.

"Just cause you say you ate doesn't mean it's true or that I believe you," Gloria pointed out rather effortlessly. Eyes peered back, the sternness in them still there from earlier. "You do need to go in Mrs. Reznikov's office; you need that cut on your face properly cleaned and bandaged at the absolute least. And I can assure you that Nicky is already worried about you so there is no sense in ya stressing over that."


Despite Lorna's resistance, and the clear agitation seeping through her facial features, Mrs. Mendoza wasted no more time standing out there discussing the matter any further and instead pulled the handle of the door to allow the two of them to enter through. She walked Lorna over to one of the vacant office beds, gently laying her onto it, and then made her way to the small room where Red was gathering her things alongside Nicky who'd been sitting in the leather desk chair watching her do so.

"Red, can you take a look at Miss Lorna's face please? I was on my way out when she stumbled out in front of me. I noticed a cut on her face that's actively bleeding and figured it'd be best to have her checked out by you for safe measure. She was in my office for the better part of the morning and there were no marks on her face so it's definitely fresh. But she has not given me a straight answer on how it got there. Maybe you'll have better luck in that regard."

Hearing her girlfriend as the topic of the conversation, Nicky's eyes instantly perked up and through the window of the office out onto the very person who was being mentioned. Breath hitched immediately in her throat to catch sight of just how truly pale and frail Lorna appeared laying on the bed. Eyes sharply focused back on the guidance counselor and before Red had the chance to respond, Nicky took it upon herself to do so.

"She looks like a lot more is wrong than just a cut on her face. Did she say anything about what's going on? I'm so worried about her, Mrs. Mendoza. Please tell me you can help her?" Desperation seeped rather profusely from the expression which was etched on Nicky's face. It felt like no matter how hard any of them tried Lorna only worsened. Only hid deeper and deeper in the hole she dug herself. And watching how it all played out happened to be the hardest thing for Nicky. She loathed just sitting and not being able to do anything of significance to help the girl she loved. Nothing was more heartbreaking than observing her continuous downward spiral.

Gloria inhaled a sharp breath, turning from the other adult in the room and now facing the redhead teenager. The frantic worry expressed upon her face did not go unnoticed. It was nearly the same worry she felt for the young girl lying on that bed on the other side of the small room they were in. Albeit she sensed Nicky's worry was a few smidges stronger than her own. She couldn't blame her for such—Lorna was her girlfriend, after all, it only made sense that she would have the fiercest volume of worry for her.

As if out of instinct, Mrs. Mendoza reached a cautious hand to rest on the top of one of Nicky's shoulders. Eyes peered directly into hers and it wasn't difficult to absorb the amount of anguish that subtly oozed through them. A sigh escaped her. She knew she didn't have any true answers for the young girl. And even if she had, she wouldn't have been able to share without Lorna's consent.

"Not much was said to me, Nicky, I'm sorry. I have my concerns for her and I told her I'm reaching out to her therapist to let her know those. I think Dr. Washington can be of more help for her. There's obviously more she's dealing with than she's willing to share with any of us," Gloria paused to take a breath. As she did so, she moved her head a few inches to the right so her eyes were gazing through the one-sided window which looked out into the part of the office where the beds were. Lorna laid restlessly atop one, lying on her side and—from what Gloria could make out—was looking straight ahead into the void.

Her heart grew incessantly heavy at the sight. She swallowed thickly and gradually brought her attention back onto the older teen who stood before her with arms crossed over her chest. "I know it's hard seeing someone you love suffering in the dark like this," she carefully said, letting the hand which still rested over Nicky's shoulder give a gentle pat to it. "It's not the most pleasant thing to do. I'm sorry, Nicky. But right now I think what would help Lorna the most is patience. She's clearly not ready to talk about the issue and pushing her to would only make her more resistant towards you or anyone who tries to force it out of her."

Another breath of air exhaled through Gloria's nose. "I know none of this is what ya wanna hear. Probably not real helpful to you, either, and I'm sorry for that. I wish I had better advice for you, honey, but I just don't have much to go off of." Hands were thrown slightly upward in exasperation. She longed to do more for the two of them. But she was only a school counselor and her expertise only went so far.

A hand lifted and pushed back a good deal of hair from falling against her forehead. Nicky sighed, shaking her head. It didn't surprise her much at all that Lorna didn't bring anything up. Lorna was so hell-bent on keeping everything private that sometimes Nicky secretly wondered if there was some part of her which enjoyed suffering and hurting. And even just thinking such a thing made Nicky's chest ache rather tremendously. She didn't want any part of Lorna to feel pleasure over her own suffering.

Swallowing a bout of saliva that had formed at the bottom of her mouth, Nicky very slowly returned her attention onto Mrs. Mendoza. Just by staring her over, she was easily able to note the genuine care the older woman appeared to have for Lorna and that simultaneously caused her head to bob up and down briefly. It felt relieving to acknowledge other people like Red and Mrs. Mendoza were starting to take notice of Lorna's clearly unwell mind in the same way that she was. At least with more people seeing how not okay she was the harder it would be for her to keep up the charade, Nicky mentally concluded.

However, who spoke next was not Nicky but Red—who'd since finished her earlier task she was in the middle of when Mrs. Mendoza had first entered inside. She turned around to look between the two of them, having only heard bits and pieces of the conversation. The glasses that rested against her heart, from the chain tied around each of the temple tips, were picked up and carefully placed onto her nose and pushed up to the bridge of it. She peeked a quick glance through the window out onto Lorna then returned her eyes onto her daughter and Gloria.

Hands naturally folded over either side of her hips. "Did you get her to talk to you at all about how poorly she's looking after herself? I don't think that girl is eating—her body keeps shrinking and whatever foster family she's livin' with, I don't understand how they're not doing a thing about it," her accent thickened as she spoke, hands moving about in synchronicity with the words falling from her mouth. Red still had been unable to wrap her mind around the fact that the people Lorna currently resided with weren't taking any of the necessary steps to help her. Were they blind? They had to be to not notice her unconcealed feeble appearance. Her head shook the more she pondered over it.

"I'll just say this," Gloria held out a hand, "Whatever is going on with Lorna, I don't think I'm exactly qualified to help her with. She's struggling majorly with something and it's really beyond my experience level. But I know her therapist will be a good help to her so I'll be shooting her an email later this evening. I gotta head out but please let me know how she is later once ya get her all taken care of and cleaned up."

The door leading back out to the hallway closed signifying Gloria's departure. Both Red and Nicky took that as their que to finally go over to check on Lorna, who'd been lying on that bed alone for the past five minutes.


Only a matter of seconds passed through before Nicky was standing by Lorna's side, hovering over her with big, soft, concerned-filled eyes. Eyes that took in every inch of her face. And it hadn't taken too long until they landed on the very part of Lorna's face where the mysterious cut Gloria mentioned to her and Red inhabited on. Lower lip sucked in under the top one; Nicky shook her head sadly while reaching a hand to place right underneath it. She inhaled a sharp breath to distract herself from the emotions and thoughts swirling through her mind.

"What happened, babe?" The question came out rather brokenly. The bombarding emotions were too much for Nicky to properly keep in like she had previously planned. She swallowed and brushed the tips of her fingers delicately around the flesh of her girlfriend's cheek her hand cupped around. Dried up blood darkened the skin around where the cut was. Nicky moved her fingers towards it, caressing soothingly up and down its length. She squinted her eyes slightly, looking at it closely, but couldn't figure out a reason for why it appeared on her girlfriend's cherub face.

To Lorna, it felt as if an entire lifetime had passed that she'd been lying on the bed staring at the wall ahead as she waited for the presence of another human being to join her. The second she heard her girlfriend's voice her head twisted around faster than a cat to a mouse. Eyes scoped the older girl's face precisely and a lump formed at the back of her throat to see how panicked she looked. She innately brought a hand to frame around one of Nicky's cheeks, stroking it softly up and down its flesh.

Her other hand was used to touch the spot where she found Nicky's eyes to be staring at in a rather intense manner. It felt grittier than the surrounding skin against the flesh of her hand. A hard swallow was taken to keep herself from shuddering. She sucked her bottom lip inward and lowered her eyes onto the foot of the bed. "Oh, hon, you know me and how clumsy I am," was her muttered response followed by a muted shrug of her shoulders.

Nicky bit down on her tongue and turned towards Red so that they could share an uneasy look. She watched as the Russian school nurse gave a slight shake of her head, obviously not believing Lorna's words any more than she, herself, had. Drawing in a slow, sharp, breath, Nicky returned her attention onto the brunette and leaned closer to her until their foreheads naturally brushed up together. A loose strand of brown hair came a mere centimeter from Nicky's eye so she lovingly moved it away with the tip of her thumb.

"I also know you and how much you hate opening up about things," she gently pointed out, lips merely pressing onto the flesh of her cheek from the close proximity between the pair of them.

There was a sudden resistance Nicky could feel from Lorna's weak attempts to try and unravel herself out of the embrace they'd been sharing. Nicky squeezed her eyes shut, tightening her arms around her waist. She wasn't going to allow Lorna any more chances at avoiding the hard truths. It was certainly time she started facing them, Nicky silently determined. The only way Lorna would ever be able to fully overcome the obstacles her life seemed to be throwing nonstop at her, the redhead realized, was for her to acknowledge that they were there and talk through them. Because the way she was going by keeping all of it inside was leading her to a place of self-destruction. Or rather a place of further self-destruction since it was clear Lorna had likely been using self-harming behaviors well before Nicky had even entered the picture.

Lorna chewed down on the side of the inside of her mouth and closed her eyes for a moment. Since it was wordlessly established that Nicky wasn't going to be letting her go any time soon. She placed a hand on the top of her forehead and smoothed back her hair to calm her fraying nerves. A sigh pushed its way from her lungs. Nicky knew her too well. Too well for sure her mind echoed. She swallowed the building saliva under her tongue and worked her hardest to gather her thoughts.

Eyes reopened after several moments of silent thinking and yet, Lorna remained without the words to speak with. She was unsure of how much longer she could survive with all these secrets whirling through her core. They appeared to consume her wholly alive. She wouldn't be surprised if one day she just crumbled to the ground from the pressure of it all. In fact, right at that specific moment, she craved to crumble onto the floor. Craved to be whisked away from the reality of everything. She didn't want to face any of it—didn't want to deal with what was given to her. It was too much, it was all just too damn much.

It was Red who decided on breaking the quiet spell looming through the air, which concurrently interjected Lorna and brought her out of her thoughtful mind.

"Go on and tell us how the mark got on your cheek, Lorna. It looks deep, like it's been cut into," she commented while examining it with a gloved-covered finger. Her head shook solemnly as her eyes peered the flesh of her cheek over rather methodically. Whatever caused it was certainly done purposefully, she concluded by the deepness of it. And she certainly planned on getting to the truth of the matter.

Both sets of eyes melded into her own rather fiercely. So fierce that Lorna swore the two of them were trying to burn her with heat vision—as if that would somehow reveal all of her truths to them. But she wasn't about to allow that to happen. At least not everything all at once. She already felt incredibly overwhelmed, telling them the entirety of her secrets would be too much right now.

She felt Red's finger cautiously tracing the area near the cut and fixed her eyes on said spot. A breath of air escaped rather noisily through her windpipe. She swallowed thickly and shifted her feet out of discomfort with the situation. "I just, uh, scraped it when I was walking outta the bathroom earlier is all. I'm real klutzy and uncoordinated, ya know?"

Neither of the redheads were inclined to believe such an answer given to them. Nicky gritted her teeth to keep down her frustration while Red folded her arms defensively over her chest and gave Lorna a hard stare. A stare that nonverbally expressed there was no escaping the room without the real reason being disclosed. No more of this stammering over words and brushing things under the rug, Mrs. Reznikov made the mental decision despite it not being hers to make.

"Okay, no, you didn't just scrape it on anything. There are only two ways that cut got there—either you intentionally caused it or someone else did it. Which one is it, Lorna? Don't give us another bullshit answer, it's not helping you to lie about it. You're only hurting yourself more and more by constantly lying," Red sternly spoke, waving an adamant hand in the brunette teen's face. Something needed to be done. It was apparent to everyone—except for Lorna, herself—that she couldn't keep going the way she was. The lying, the secrets, the not caring for herself—it was all going to cause a domino effect if she didn't start opening up.

Brown eyes shifted back and forth between Red's and Nicky's. Red's—whose held a fierce sternness in them, one telling her there wasn't any possible way for her to talk herself out of it—and Nicky's, whose were gazing back at her with only the deepest amount of concern and apprehension. Air caught in her throat as she gradually came to realize there was no escaping the reality of how she received such a marking on her cheek.

Lorna took in a long breath as a way to procrastinate her response even longer. She closed her eyes, letting her ears focus on the ticking of the clock that was sat on the wall above the door which led back out to the hallway. It didn't assist her in figuring out what words to speak but did bring a slight calmness over her.

The clearing of a throat—presumably Red's—brought Lorna back from her mind and her eyes opened once more. They were still gazing at her, waiting for an answer. Adamantly waiting for an answer, she knew and bit down on her lip. She focused her attention on Nicky for a moment. Seeing the uneasiness, the frantic worry—her heart ached at it all. She had to give her some piece of mind. Nicky needn't worry so much about her. A hard swallow. "Nicky," she called out with a slight tremor evident in her voice.

Tilting her head, Nicky cupped her hand softly around Lorna's cheek and let their foreheads press onto each other once again. "Yeah, kid? It's okay, you can tell ma and I what happened. No matter what. Just tell us; we're here for ya," her voice lovingly assured as she used a finger to curl gently around a strand of Lorna's brown hair.

"Before I do," a pause was taken so that Lorna could inhale a sharp breath. She swallowed and placed one of her own hands atop the one resting on her cheek. "I need ya to promise me something, hon. Please?"

The nervous command formed an uncomfortable knot in Nicky's stomach. This didn't sound like it was leading to anything good; that was for sure, she thought. Regardless, she gave an encouraging nod to her girlfriend and brushed the tips of her fingers gingerly around the flesh of her cheek. "Of course, kid. What is it? I'll do anything for ya, sweet Lorna," words murmured gently as she pressed her lips to the corner of Lorna's mouth.

"Please don't get upset or mad when I tell ya who, uh, who gave me this cut, okay?"

"Who? Someonesomeone fuck—someone did this to ya, baby?" Nicky swallowed down the boiling rage. Her lower lip naturally sucked into the top one. Despite the anger, she gave a curt nod. Leaned even closer to her girlfriend, tightened her arms even fiercer around her waist. "Okay, okay. Just, uh, just tell me what happened. Tell ma and I what happened, yeah?"

Lorna swallowed anxiously but pushed past the sensation. Nicky didn't deserve to be left in the dark all the time, she reminded herself. "Anna—erm—Annalisa, she hadda nail with her and uh, she scraped it against my cheek."