Between Love and Hate

Change of Plans

*Violet's POV*

As I walk up the stairs to my room with Kane, I feel this giant void opening up inside of me. 4 years. 4 years I was with Jace. I gave everything to him. And I thought he had done the same for me. I guess I was wrong.

I unlock the door to my room and find it empty. I'm not surprised. Stella went to a party so I didn't expect her to come back tonight.

Kane drops my bag and then turns on the lights. I turn around to look at him and his face looks way worse in the light. I walk up and examine the cut on his forehead along with the dried blood that sticks to his neck and continues underneath the collar of his shirt.

"Kane, this looks really bad. Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me. It'll heal." I'm glad to see that he at least has stitches in it.

I sigh and go over to grab a towel and say, "Come on." He doesn't say anything as he follows me to the bathroom. When we get there I instruct him to sit on the counter and he says, "What are you doing?"

"I'm cleaning all the dried blood off of you."

"Oh, no, you don't-"

"Please. Let me do this. Please," I ask him, begging him with my eyes. He nods once and I run the towel under the water and then move to stand in between his legs to clean off his cheek, being very gentle around his eye. I can see the purplish shade starting to form underneath it. I can feel his eyes watching me intently even though I'm not looking directly at them. I start to move lower, cleaning off his neck and then moving down to his chest.

"This would be easier if you took your t-shirt off," I say quietly.

He stiffens and says, "No." Something in his tone tells me I would lose that argument so I just move his collar out of the way and wipe off as much as I can.

"Here," he says softly as he unzips his hoodie and then lifts up his t-shirt from the bottom to reveal the parts of his chest I couldn't reach before. My mind flickers briefly to when I touched his back last time and he freaked out. This time he refuses to remove his shirt but lifts it up, giving me a full view of the muscles underneath. Clearly the issue is with his back. But why?

I only have a few seconds to contemplate this before my brain starts to drift to the way his muscles form a V pointing into his pants. I snap myself out of that thought and drag my eyes back to the cloth which I lean over to rinse in the sink and then bring it back up to his chest and continue wiping up the blood.

I'm trying very hard to ignore the feeling of his eyes on me and focus only on the task at hand. When I'm done, I release his shirt and go to step back so I can rinse the cloth in the sink but his hands snap to my hips, holding me in place. I look up at him and his eyes are even darker than usual as they hold my gaze.

I see indecision flicker through them and then he averts his gaze and drops his hands. I can't help but feel hurt by this action but I take the hint and step away to rinse the cloth. He hops down from the counter and I follow him back to my room.

When we get there I walk over to my closet and grab a t-shirt and a pair of pajama shorts.

"Could you-" I start and he rolls his eyes but turns around for me. I change quickly and I say, "Okay, I'm done." He turns back around and asks, "Is your roommate coming home tonight?"

"No, I don't think so." He moves towards her bed and I say, "Wait!" before I can stop myself. He stops walking and turns to me, raising an eyebrow. I look down and twist my fingers together anxiously. "Can you- um, can you stay with me? Here?" I ask, gesturing to the bed with my eyes. His eyes soften and he walks back towards me.