Nessa and Kian go back and forth between text until they get to school the next morning. The avoidance is less obvious. They make their way to their first classes and then have their free period. They sneak out to the courtyard where they talk in person.
"I'm really sorry. Thank you for meeting me here. You know what I did was wrong and so do I. It was not a reaction that I should have had and I have regretted it since I did. I'm so, so sorry. I know that you probably won't forgive me and for good reason but I had to let it be known that I'm sorry. It's been eating me up." Kian pleads. He lets the words flow out like water.
"Kian, I'm not mad at your reaction. I'm mad at what you said during the fight. I genuinely want to help and I can't if you push me away. Pushing people away has never gotten anyone anywhere."
"I'm sorry for that too. I'm stubborn, you know that. I was heated in the moment and just wanted to have something against you. I was wrong and I know."
"Do you genuinely want this to work?" Nessa asks and scoots closer to him.
"More than anything." He responds. He wraps his arm around her waist and tucks her hair behind her ear. She wraps her arms around his neck and the pull into a kiss. They break away from it with a hug.
"I missed you." Nessa says in the hug.
"Me too." They walk back into school all happy-go-lucky. They hold hands as they walk down the hall.
"Finally!" Roni exclaims. They both laugh and make their way to their classes.
Lauren meets up with Alex during her free period. She wants to know what happened last night. She finds him going into the gym. No ones in there so she sneaks into the bathroom beside the boys locker room with him.
"Woah, you scared me! What are you doing in here?Alex asks.
"I was trying to catch you during your free period. You didn't respond to any of my text and I just wanted to make sure you were all right." Lauren says. This seems like deja vu. This has happened before.
"I got my phone taken and I'm alright."
"Oh ok. You wanna talk about it?" Lauren looks at him sympathetically.
"I'm good" He says. Lauren keeps persisting though.
"Are you sure? You seem upset and you know I just want to help. I feel like this is partly my fault."
"I said I'm good!" He slams his bag onto the floor. She jumps back a little. She goes to walk out and give him his space when he starts to talk again.
"You know what? This is partly your fault. I got caught sneaking out from your house. I would have never been caught if a didn't go. You know that it was against the rules but you kept asking me to come."
"Wait a minute Alex, I tried to tel-."
"SHUT UP!" He interrupts her. His hand slaps across her face in a fit of rage. He sees her slide down the wall onto the ground. Tears well up in her eyes. He just realized what he did. He can see his hand print on her face.
"Lauren I'm so, so, so, so, sorry. Let me h-."
"DONT touch me!" She says. She musters up the strength to leave. She walks straight out of the front door of the school and into her car. Almost in shock, she drives home.
Aaron notices that Alex is not at lunch. That's unlike him. He would skip every other class but lunch. Kian takes a seat beside him.
"Where's Lauren and Alex?" He asks as he puts his tray down.
"I don't know. I hope they didn't skip to be together."
"I wouldn't be surprised if they did. You know Alex never learns his lesson." Kian says. Aaron shrugs and for the first time he doesn't go and find where Alex is. It takes a lot for him to do but he remembers that it's not his job.
Lauren gets home and before she can get in the house all the way, she breaks down. He has never hit her like that, at least not that hard. It seemed to be over nothing. She knew she should have went with her gut feeling and not have stayed with him. Her cheek stings but as the tears roll it makes it sting more. She grabs a frozen bag of vegetables out of the freezer. She can't believe what just happened. She wipes her tears. She goes into her school data base and erases her absence. That's the perks of your mom being the assistant principal. She changes clothes and crawls into bed. She doesn't want to do anything. She avoids touching or laying on the mark. She can see it starting to bruise around the edges. Alex hand is pretty big and his whole hand print is left there. The bruising starts to creep up to her eye. She can hide it as long as it doesn't start to swell up. As much as it hurt and as much as she's mad at him, she's not going to tell. She doesn't want to get him in trouble. That could wash a whole career down the drain. He already has so much going on in life that if she says anything he will for sure be overwhelmed. That's one of the reasons that she stayed with him in the first place. She knows that they had an abusive past and she has hit him before. All he has to do is bring that up and they both go down. She can't have that so she's going to have to hide it.
Everyone around Alex has a bad habit of sheltering. Saving him in situations that he shouldn't be saved. That has got to stop or the lesson will never be learned.
