There was complete silence between the two of us as Jess cleaned and dressed the wound on my head; she was unsure of what to say, and I just simply didn't want to say anything.
She finished and placed the equipment back into the small blue tray that she had brought them in. "I'll be back in a minute." She said quietly, as she also left the cubicle.
Once again, I was alone; and very scared. My head throbbed and my body ached, but I tried to hide it so that no one would find out; and my parents wouldn't hate me even more. I sat back and closed my eyes tight shut, hoping that it would all just end there and then; I wouldn't have to put up with the pain and misery any longer.
Thinking just made my head ache more, so I sat up back up and opened my eyes; I could just about hear Jess and Adam talking.
"Have you finished?" Adam asked.
"Yeah," she paused, "you know she's not going to let you anywhere near her..."
By 'she' I guessed that they meant me.
"She's going to have to!" He replied.
"Forcing her to do something is the last thing we need at the moment! She's needs someone who she trusts to do it..."
"Jess, she doesn't trust anyone!" He exclaimed.
"Maybe not, but she trusts me more than anyone else! So, why don't I check her over and then if I find anything I think needs looking at I'll come and tell you!" Jess replied
"Okay, fine," he began, "but if there's even the slightest thing wrong with her, I want to know about it!"
The talking stopped and I heard footsteps coming towards the cubicle. I hid myself again; although the chances of her not seeing the scars and bruises that covered my body were now shallow.
Jess walked back into the cubicle, shutting the curtain behind her. I kept looking at the bed, avoiding eye contact with her.
She perched on the end of the bed and placed her hand on top of my own. "Look," she began, "I need to check you over to make sure that you haven't got any more injuries. It won't take long, okay?"
I nodded slightly; I really didn't want her to see the scars and bruises covering my body, but I knew that I had no choice...
Jess stood up and walked around to the side of bed so that she was next to me. She took her jacket from my shoulders, placing it neatly onto the end of the bed.
I held my arms close to my body in hope that she wouldn't notice them, but currently, she was more interested in my neck...
It was covered in hand-shaped marks and bruises of all shapes and sizes from my Father grabbing me; pulling me up from the floor when I had little energy remaining in my body.
I felt her fingers pressing against the bruises. This brought back the memories in which these 'accidents' had occurred, and I let a single teardrop fall silently down my cheek.
Unfortunately, Jess noticed this; though luckily she stopped and moved onto another part of my battered and bruised body...
She looked at my body for a while; pressing the bruises, making me wince, and flinch in fear. I just hoped that she would forget to check my arms...
She didn't.
She could obviously see that I was trying to hide them.
Jess sat next to me on the bed, facing me, looking at me as if she knew what was coming next.
Slowly, she placed her hands on my arm; one on my hand, the other placed gently on my wrist.
I stared at the bed below me, closing my eyes every once in a while, allowing a single, silent teardrop to fall.
Calmly, she turned my arm over so that she could see the under-side of it.
I had no idea what she must have been thinking, as she stared at the bloodied and uneven skin covering my small, fragile arms.
I had no idea why I did this, but most of the time I just couldn't stop myself. Whenever my parents saw them, they only beat me more; they thought that I was trying to end my life, to make life hard for them...
It felt so good though; the way that it released all of the pain, and any energy that might still remain in my body. I did it rarely - most of the time I was in enough pain anyway - but when I did it, I dug deep.
I wanted to look up at Jess, to say I was sorry for all of the trouble that I had caused her; but I couldn't bare to look at her.
My cheeks were becoming red from the tear stains, my eyes burning, as I sat wondering what would happen next.
Jess was the first to look up.
She stared at me in a confused manner for a moment, before asking the question that I did not want to answer.
"Did you do this?" She asked quietly, referring to my scar ridden arms.
More tears.
There was a moment of complete silence before I did anything. I nodded slowly; Jess sighing as I did so.
"Why?" She questioned softly.
I wanted to tell her the truth about it all, maybe she would be able to help.
But I couldn't.
Gingerly, I shrugged my shoulders.
I desperately wanted her to know the truth; after all, she could be my way out of it all!
But she probably wouldn't believe me. She'd probably call psych, not that she wouldn't anyway after she'd seen the scars, and I'd end up in some mental institute somewhere.
But I didn't want that. I really didn't want that...