*EDITING*
Peyton Grace has always wanted to be a lifeguard ever since the tragic incident with her brother, but when her two trainers are TikTok stars, Ace Akers and Jacob Day, she can't help but fall for them. Both of them, but who will she choose...
I run up the stairs and scoop Maisey into my arms. "What's happening?" She cries into my shoulder. I hold her tightly to me and we go into Jacob's room. I sit on his bed and rock her back and forth. "I'm not sure, baby." She cries harder and holds on to me tightly. "I'm scared." I rub her back and caress her hair. "Don't be scared. Your brother has everything handled. Wanna listen to some music?"
/\/\/\
Йой! Нажаль, це зображення не відповідає нашим правилам. Щоб продовжити публікацію, будь ласка, видаліть його або завантажте інше.
"Oh look, Sharon, your knight in shining armor came to save you." He puts on a sympathetic face and holds his heart. "Shut the fuck up and leave. No one wants you a part of this family. You're tearing us apart." The man dares to roll his eyes at me.
"And how am I doing that?" Is this man that dumb? "My mom is constantly out with you so she never catches a break because right after work, you pick her up and take her to some dumb bar that she doesn't even want to be at and then you bring her home all bruised and scratched up. You make Maisey terrified of grown men because you can't keep your pedophile friends away from her and then the one time I feel comfortable to have my friend stay over, you decide to beat my mother with a broken beer bottle!" I didn't realize how close I was to him until my fist collided with his face. I hit him right in the nose and he fell to the ground and his eyes were watering. I sat on his chest and continued swinging at his face until his eyes couldn't stay open any longer, my knuckles were, without a doubt, broken, and my mom, who was a bloody mess, was pulling me off of her psychotic boyfriend. "Jacob that's enough!" My mom screams at me before collapsing to the ground.
/\/\/\/\
"She'll be okay, she'll only need a few stitches and for her nose to be snapped in place, but due to the other bruises on her we may run a few other tests to make sure everything else is okay internally." The cops came to collect Frank, I took my mom to the hospital, and I assume Peyton is watching Maisey.
Speaking of Peyton, she's trying to call me right now. I answer the FaceTime call and she gives me a sympathetic look. "How are you holding up?" I let out a shaky breath and run my fingers through my hair. "I'm alright. I just had to get my hand wrapped and they're thinking about running some tests on my mom. Stitches are necessary though."
"Well, I was just calling to tell you that we decided to go to my house." She gives me a tight-lipped smile and I return it. She hangs up and I shut my phone off. I sit in the waiting room observing the white walls that have limited paintings. The table to my right has pamphlets about being a first-time parent and the table to my left has centers for cancer treatment. I anxiously rub my fingers together and my leg bounces up and down. I need something to distract me, so I grab the parenting pamphlet.
This is actually kind of interesting. I didn't know newborns weren't supposed to sleep without blankets.
"Uhm, Mr. Day?" My mom's doctor stands in front of me. I stand up and shake his hand. "We're going to keep your mom overnight for observation and we'll run more tests tomorrow. You may come and tell her good night, but then you have to leave." I follow him through the two big brown doors and through the hallway where monitors are beeping, nurses are laughing and it smells like a multi-surface cleaner. We take a sharp left into another hallway, then a right and we're in my mom's room. She looks awful.
"Hey, baby." She croaks out, rubbing her face. The doctor pats my shoulder and walks away.
"Hey, mom. I just came to tell you good night. If you need anything, I'll have my notifications turned up." She grabs my hand and gives it a tight squeeze. "I'll be fine. Now tell me about that girl." Wasn't she the one who hired her?
"That's just Maisey's babysitter." She gives me a skeptical look.
"She'd be good for you," I swear if one more person says that... it's off with their head!
"Thanks, ma." I kiss her forehead and walk out the door.
Oh shit. I don't have a ride. I rode here in the ambulance.
I call Peyton and she answers almost immediately.
"Hello? Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, I just need a ride to your place. I'm not ready to go home quite yet."
"Of course, I'll be there soon."
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Halfway to her house, I realize Maisey isn't with us.
"Oh my god! Where's my sister."
"Jacob, she's fine." She places her hand on top of mine. "A few of my friends came over. They're all babysitters and my mom is there." I relax a bit.
We pull into her driveway and holy shit. It's huge! Her house is enormous, I thought my house was big, but geez! She took being rich to a whole new level. The driveway is like a mile long and there are three black BMWs in her driveway. One of those is Mike's.
"Oh I hope you don't mind, Ace was complaining about wanting to see Maisey to make sure she was alright and then he brought Mike with him." That little bitch.
"I don't mind at all." My eye twitched.
"You mind. I know you do, but you're gonna suck it up. Kristian is coming over soon." She gets out of the car and walks up to one of the three doors.
~/\~/\~ TRIGGER WARNING~/\~/\~
"Hey guys, we're home."
Something doesn't feel right. My chest is tight. I feel like I can't get air past my throat. My body is starting to tingle and my eyes flood with tears.
"Jacob. Jacob, it's okay, look at me." I slide to the floor and Peyton goes down with me. She grabs my hands and pulls them to her chest. Her hands are soft. I try to focus on that, but it doesn't help. My hands are sweating like crazy and I still can't breathe. My arms and lip are trembling and no matter how hard I try to stop it, it doesn't work. My legs feel numb and my head is spinning so fast.
"Look at me." I can't. "Jacob please look at me." Her voice is soft, causing me to give her my attention, or as much as I can give her. "I want you to name five things you can see." I swallow a lump in my throat. "Y-you. I struggle to form words. "That hu-huge staircase." I'm trying to catch my breath.
"Good, that's two things, name three more." I swallow again.
"House plant. Black d-door. Your finger na-nails are bl-blue." I gasp for air and she runs her hand through my hair and tucks a piece behind my ear. "Good job. Name four things you hear." I take a deep breath. It's a little easier. "Your rings rubbing ag-against mine, my breathing, your sniffling, and di-distant chatter." She gives me a small smile.
"Three things you feel."
"Your hand whi-which are soft." I need to stop crying. I don't typically cry. "The hard floor, and the cool wall." She gives my hand (the one that isn't wrapped) a tight squeeze. "Good. Two things you smell."
God, she smells so good. "Your perfume." She smiles, it's a light smile, but she still smiles. "And coconut." She chuckles a bit. "Hm, okay, and one thing you taste."
"Mint." I can breathe again! I'm still crying though.
She scootches in between my legs and hugs me. She's so tiny that I'm scared I'll hurt her if I hug her too tight, but I still hold on to her and sob into her shoulder. She rubs my back soothingly and gives me head scratches. "Shh, it's okay, darling" We rock and forth and I eventually calm down.
"I'm sorry," I say, pulling away from her sweet, comforting, warm embrace.
She grabs my face and looks deeply into my eyes. "Don't you dare be sorry? You didn't do anything wrong." She puts her forehead against mine and we stay like that until we hear someone walk by.
