Jaxon's POV

I watched my girlfriend as she got a bite on her fishing pole and reeled in a fish. She had the biggest smile on her face. I can tell she's wearing makeup, but I don't want to push her too much.

It's been a couple of months since her birthday. It feels like she's becoming even more secretive. She doesn't talk about her dad at all anymore. At first, I thought it was a good thing, but now she's doing this.

She looked over at me and she had guilt written on her face. She's had that since a week after her birthday. I don't know why.

When we got home from fishing, I asked to talk to KC. We went to the treehouse.

"What do you want to talk about?" She asked me.

"Why have you been wearing makeup?"

"I'm not," she lied.

"Why do you keep lying to me?" I questioned her. "And every time you look at me, you look like you feel guilty about something."

"I don't want to talk about it," she stated. She went to get up. Without thinking, I grabbed her arm and pulled her back towards me. She started hitting me. "Let go! Let go! Let go!"

I let go of her arm.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't mean to."

She collapsed and I pulled her into a hug. She started bawling.

"Why do you feel guilty?" I asked her.

She pulled away and looked at me. I could now see the bruises on her face.

"I got or else," she stated. She still won't say it outright.

"That's not your fault," I assured her.

"No…" she corrected me. Nothing prepared me for what she said next. "I tried to kill myself."

Everything in my head disappeared except for those words.

"What?"

"I…I almost drowned myself when I took a bath," she informed me. "I'm so sorry!"

I had no idea what to say.

She started crying.

I hugged her.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I questioned.

"Because you'd hate me like you do now," she replied.

"I don't hate you, KC," I promised her. "I love you."

"I don't love me," she confessed.

"You should," I told her. "You're awesome."

"No, I'm stupid," she corrected me. "I'm worthless. I'm crazy. I'm just like my dad."

"You're not any of those things," I told her. "You're close to being a Straight A student, you're everything to me, you just have messed up wires in your brain, and you'll never be anything like him."

"Messed up wires?"

"You know what I mean," I said. "Your brain doesn't work like it should."

"Anyway, you're wrong," she responded, "I just hit you a bit ago and I broke Luke's collarbone a couple of weeks ago."

"It's not your fault," I stated. "You get scared and you're trying to protect yourself. You're not trying to hurt us."

"Don't tell anyone," she told me. "I don't want anyone to know."

"Can I at least tell my mom?"

She shook her head fast, then looked at me.

"No." I placed my hand on hers. "I never want her to know. She said to say 'see you later' not 'bye'. I promised her...I broke that...I almost said 'bye'."

Tears were filling up my eyes, but they didn't escape.

"I'm glad you're still here," I told her.

"Me too."

She moved closer to me. I leaned back onto the treehouse wall. She hugged me, laying her head on my chest. I looked down at her and it hit me:

I could have lost my girl because of that jerk.