Tattoos and Scars | Rewritten Version

Chapter 30 || Stories

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Adrian-

"They're nothing," She mumbles. Lies. She's fucking lying. That scar... it ran down the entire length of her stomach. There were smaller scars around it as well. They are not nothing.

"They're not nothing," I protest, standing up and moving towards her. "What happened there?"

Her faded blue eyes darken, almost as if they're reliving a storm. Almost as if they are the storm. "It's none of your business."

"Are there more?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," She sneers bitterly.

"Did someone hurt you?" My voice softens, as I lift her chin up to look into my eyes. "Because I'll hurt them."

"Not everything is about revenge, Adrian," She snarls. "Not everything is an eye for an eye. That's not how life works. Because sometimes, you would have done nothing and your entire body is at risk of destruction. Sometimes you just need to forget about it, because that's the most you can do."

She spoke with so much passion. As if she meant every word she said. She wasn't cheerful or bubbly like usual. She looked... scary. She looked scarier than Anna and it took me by surprise.

I'm used to her randomness and filterless mouth. But now, she looked like a lioness that's been kicked too many times. And she didn't let it ruin her. But instead, she let it become a part of her and that made her so much more beautiful.

"But revenge makes you feel better," I say.

"Not when the man you want to take revenge on is your own fucking father!" She snaps. Fuck, was she... abused?

"You mean, he abused you?" I ask, feeling slightly dumb but I don't want to jump to conclusions on a sensitive topic and do something irrational.

"I thought that much was clear," She grumbles. Her walls were up, and she was acting like she was angry to ward off any pity I might offer her. But I knew all too well how she felt, and I don't pity her.

"Bailey, fuck. How many times?"

"Stop asking me so many damn questions! I told you what you wanted to know, right? Besides, even if I did pour my heart out, reliving my past, what would you understand? You're just another spoiled rich kid-"

"Don't. Call. Me. That," I growl. I was far from spoiled. She doesn't know shit about him.

"Because you are! You have all this money, you have men that are ready to put their lives on the line for you and you have amazing friends! You think I had any of that?!" She shouts, her eyes getting darker and darker, clouding up with a storm that could ruin everything in its path.

Lucky for her, I was in her path.

I almost laugh at her words. Almost. "Don't call me shit when you don't know the first thing about me," I snap. "You think I want to be cowering from the police all the time? You think that I want my life on the line all the time?"

"Then tell me!" She glowers. "Tell me about you, so I know what you want," This time, her voice lowers, like she transformed from a lioness to a kitty cat pawing at me to give it something. "Tell me what's behind those tattoos. And I'll tell you what's behind these scars."

Quid pro quo. She was going to reciprocate what I did for her now. Was I really going to tell her?

"You tell me first, because I asked first."

She watches me for what feels like eternity before she takes a deep breath. "You do understand that you're asking me to relive eighteen years of my life that I never wanted to remember again, right?"

"Yes." There's no point in sugarcoating what I want. I want to know more about her.

She took a seat, her expression almost distant.

"I don't... I don't remember having a happy family. I just know that I did. My dad loved my mom, and she might have loved him back. But both of them took care of me well. One day, my mom just packed up and left. She fucking left us, Adrian. Not everyone is strong enough to cope with the fact that the love of their life is gone."

"My dad wasn't strong. He was angry, he was hurt, and he was broken. He took it all out on me. He resorted to alcohol and cigarettes to cope with it," Her voice begins to quiver, as she grabs a throw pillow and hugs it, digging her nails into it.

"I never wanted to call the police. I didn't want to be thrown into foster care. I didn't want to let it ruin my life. So I put up with him," Tears threaten to spill out of her eyes as she continues to speak. "I put up with his knives, fists and broken bottles. I tried to focus on making myself a future I can step into once I step out of my broken past. But then you... you came along. You took everything away from me and I felt lost. I felt hopeless because all these eighteen years I spent hoping and working, you threw it all in the drain."

Her words feel like a punch to the gut. I took away everything from her when she had nothing to begin with. The worst part is that I knew what it felt like to lose a dream you held onto like a source of life.

How could I have been so fucking blind?!

"Bailey, I'm so fucking sorry..."

"No, don't be. You didn't know."

"You tried to tell me!"

"So? It's not like you understood me. To you, I was just a girl that wanted to make her own life. You didn't know why." She moves her arms angrily, her lips curling into a snarl.

"Still."

"Don't beat yourself up over it. It doesn't change the way I feel about you," She says it so angrily that it almost makes me believe that she's mad at me for being mad at myself.

"But it changes the way I feel about myself," I mumble. "You don't deserve someone like me."

She scoffs, throwing her head back. "I think I should be the one judging who I deserve and who I don't," She squints her eyes, playfully scanning me. "I think I deserve you. When you grow bigger balls. Running from a spider. Pathetic."

I raise my eyebrows. "Do you want to see my balls?"

"Yeah, but not now," She narrows her eyes at me. "I told my story. Now it's time to reciprocate."

Shit. I thought she'd have forgotten. "I'm not sure you'd be interested in my past."

"I'm interested in you. So I'm interested in your past. But you tell me when you're ready. I'm not going to make you tell me, because sharing your past is supposed to help you not me. So you tell me, when you need that help."

As if on cue, the doorbell rings repeatedly. Goddamn! Who'd ring the doorbell this many damn times? "Thank you," I whisper to Bailey before marching over to the front door.

"I heard that you and Bailey were making out, and I came as soon as I heard!" Dylan pants.

"How did you find out?" Did I even have to ask? News spreads like wildfire within gangs.

"You know, a whisper here and there."

"If you came here expecting live porn, then no, leave," I grumble. I peek behind his shoulder to see Anna and Blake's car pull in.

"Anna ate my ice cream!"

"Luna's pregnant!"

"What?!" Bailey, Dylan and I shout at the same time. "She's pregnant?!" 

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a/n: an update! i'm not really writing much in the author's note today. 

and ayyy, luna's pregnant! how do we feel about that 😳

did you like this chapter? i hope you did ♥️ 

anyway, i love you! ♥️