Roni and Nessa are just as surprised when they here the news. They are just as horrified also. Instead of getting mad and wanting to take it out on Alex, they go and check on Lauren. They can't imagine how she feels. They get to Lauren's house and rings the doorbell. She opens the door and doesn't seem as though anything is wrong. They don't see any marks on her. That's strange.
"Hey, what brings you guys here?" Lauren asks. She seems to be unfazed.
"Oh, we were just here to check up on you. We haven't talked in awhile." Nessa says. It's clear that Lauren doesn't want to open up about it right now so she doesn't push her to.
"Come in." Lauren happily says. The girls come in and sit on the couch. They look at each other and confusion. They come to the conclusion that Lauren may have just been trying to hide it. They start a conversation with her totally unrelated to the topic. They soon start to get deeper into the conversation.
"You know you can tell us anything, right?" Roni asks.
"We were friends before we meet our boyfriends and we will always be friends." Nessa adds.
"You know, don't you?" Lauren asks. The twins shake their heads. They go and comfort Lauren. She starts to cry. As the tears roll down her face, they can see the mark and the bruising through the streaks. They both gasp. It's big. They help her clean up her tears and she stops crying. They hear the doorbell ring again. Roni gets up to open it this time. It's Kian and Aaron. They walk in with their heads low. They don't really know what to tell Lauren. She looks around making sure Alex isn't with them. Aaron notices.
"He isn't here." Aaron says. Lauren sighs in relief.
"If you need anything, I mean anything, we're here." Kian says. Lauren feels so supported. She was hoping that this didn't divide their friend group. It's kind of sad seeing Aaron go against his own brother but he knows he's doing what's right.
"I'm sorry guys. This is not the first time this has happen it's just that I didn't want to say anything. I don't want to get him in trouble and I know that it's partly my fault." Lauren says
"Don't apologize. What do you mean it has happened before?" Aaron asks.
"He hit me the first time when we started dating after three weeks. It went on from there. I did hit him when he cheated and two other times out of defense. I'm not trying to make it seem like what I did was ok, I'm just saying what happened. This is the first time it's been this bad though." Lauren can feel the tear welling in her eyes as she says this.
"Do you mind if we see?" Aaron asks. She shakes her head no. The tears that stain her face already give you a window to see but she goes upstairs and gets a makeup wipe and shows them. Both Aaron and Kian wince.
"The bruising is getting worse. It's going to take a while to heal. I'm going to have to hide this from my parents."
"Speaking of that, we can leave. We don't want to get you in trouble." Kian says
"You guys can stay. My mom has a board meeting until 8:00 and they usually run overtime and my dad works the late shift as always."
"I'm so sorry that this happened to you." Nessa says.
"You didn't deserve this." Aaron says
"No matter what happens before, this was too far. We had to leave the house because we were both about to beat Alex's ass but seeing this makes me want to go back and do it." Kian says.
"I appreciate it but I just want to lay low with it for right now." Lauren says
"We don't want to force you to do anything that you don't want to but you know you can say something right?" Roni says
"I don't want to get Alex in trouble."
"Don't worry about that. It's hard for me to say this, but he needs it. His actions have gone to long without consequences. This is not the only thing he needs repercussions for." Aaron says.
"Ok, I'll think about it"
"Let us know if you want us to stay or leave or anything. We're here for anything." Roni says. Everyone shakes their head in agreement.
"Ok. I need a minute to think but thank you for checking on me." Lauren says. The rest leave. Lauren takes a minute to herself to just think. She's going to have to sleep this. She doubts she's going to sleep at all thinking about this. She looks at the time and hurries upstairs to put some makeup back over the mark. Her mom can't see. The beauty blender hurts as she bounces the layers of makeup onto her skin. She sets it in really good so it will last all night. She puts on her fake smile and waits for her mom to come home.
Aaron can't go home right now. He just can't look at Alex. Alex knows that he can't leave because Lear has the keys locked up. Aaron goes to Kian's house Sherry thinks nothing of it because it's basically his second home. Kian and Aaron sit in silence. Right now they're just trying to keep their anger down. They want their parents to find out when Lauren is ready but it's pretty hard for them to stay silent when the really just want Alex to face the consequences. For the first time Aaron doesn't feel the need to save Alex. He brought this on himself. Aaron just can't believe it. There has to be something else that mad Alex act out like this. He's been doing this for awhile. Alex has always been mischievous, but not like this. It's like his testosterone is high, like he has to prove himself. Whatever it is, Aaron hopes he snaps out of it quickly because he's ruining his own life.
