Straight from the academy

21.

a/n: Don't know if I've mentioned this but in the apartment there is a bathroom connected to Beth, Leah and Ellie's bedrooms so they all have their own. The one that Ellie and Leah were in before was Leah's bathroom and the one Gio and Ellie are in now is Ellie's bathroom.
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When I walk back into my bedroom Gio is in the bathroom taking off her mascara. I quickly change and then go into the bathroom to do the same. Then we brush our teeth before we get into bed. We decide to have an early night since we have training tomorrow and we are tired from the game.

Gio intertwines our legs under the covers, I move closer to her and rest my head on her shoulder. She wraps her arms around me, holding me tight.
"You okay?" she asks quietly.
"Yeah, happy that your here" I say, putting my arm across her small torso.
"Me too, Els" she says before kissing the crown of my head. I lift up my head and look up at her, and I'm met by her big brown eyes once again. She gently puts a hand on my cheek and rubs her thumb back and forth over it.
I reach up and connect our lips, holding Gio's face in my hands. When we break apart, Gio and I smile wide, toothy grins at each other. I kiss her one last time before I tuck my head into the crook of her neck.
"sleep well els" she whispers. I smile again before letting myself drift off to sleep.

My whole body is in pain. My ribs are bruised and broken, my stomach is so sore I can hardly move. But what hurts the most this time are my cheeks. He slaps them over and over again, harder and harder each time. My cheeks are burning and stinging but there is nothing I can do to stop him. He has complete control over me. I scream at him to stop but he cant hear me. I scream for someone else to help me but they can't hear me either.

I wake up, my chest pounding and my palms sweating. I can already feel the tears falling down my face. I sit up and touch both my cheeks almost as if to check it was just a dream.
"Hey, you okay?" Gio says quietly. I shake my head.
"Can you get Leah?" I say in between sobs.
"Sure, give me one second" she says before getting out of the bed and walking to Leah's room. Through the crack of the door I watch as she knocks on the door and waits for Leah's response.

Not long later, Gio comes back into the room with Leah following closely behind her. Gio gets back into bed and Leah walks around to my side of the bed.
"Hey, did you have another nightmare?" I nod my head. "The same one or a different one?"
I didn't tell Leah what my last nightmare was about. When she asked about it, I just said I couldn't remember. She didn't really buy my lie, but she could tell that I was uncomfortable so she just left it.
"the same" I say quietly. Leah gets into the bed and lies down beside me. I move up so that I'm in the middle of the bed, and in the middle of her and Gio.
I'm still crying and my hands are shaking.
"Your okay" she says wrapping her arms around me. "Your safe now, you've got me and you've got Gio. We've got you" she holds both my hands to stop them from shaking as much and kisses the side of my head. "Try and go back to sleep"
"No, please, I really don't want to"
"I know but we have training tomorrow and we have meetings which you can't be falling asleep in. You need to get some more sleep. Just try, please."
"Fine" I say quietly.
"I'm going back to my room, okay?"
"No wait, can you stay until I'm asleep? Please?"
"Okay." Leah says tucking a piece off my hair behind my ear.

Eventually I do fall back asleep. Although later on I have turn over to let Leah go back to her room so I cuddle into Gio. I bury my head in her chest and she puts her arms around me.

The next morning we wake up around 8, we have to be at the training grounds by 9.
"Ellie? You need to get up, it's 8 o'clock" Gio says quietly, playing with my hair. I stretch my arms and legs out before we both sit up and rest against the back of the bed.
"Sorry about last night" I say fiddling with my fingers.
"Why are you sorry?"
"Well it's just that my stupid bad dream kept you awake."
"Oh don't be silly, it's okay. And there not stupid."
"They are, there pathetic. I'm 18 and I'm still having nightmares."
"Ellie they are not pathetic. And I don't care if they keep me awake, I'm just glad I was here to help. And I always will be"
"Okay" I say sighing.
"What are they about?"
"Oh, uh.."
"It's okay, you don't have to tell me if it makes you uncomfortable. But it also could help stop them."
"Yeah I know. Uh..they're about Luke." I say keeping my head down, not daring to make eye contact with Gio.
"Oh Ellie." She says putting her arm around me. "What happens in them?"
"It's just him hurting me. In the first one it was him kicking me and in the last one it was him slapping me. I scream for help or for him to stop but no one can hear me." Tears are starting to form in my eyes and they are threatening to fall. Gio lifts up my head so that our eyes finally meet. Then, without saying anything, she just wraps me in her arms, leaning her head on mine.

We sit hugging for a bit before I wipe the few stray tears that fell.
"We should probably get breakfast" I say.
"Okay. Can I tell Leah about this? She kind of needs to know."
"Yeah, okay."
"Thank you. And thank you for telling me." Gio says before we both stand up and walk to the kitchen to get some breakfast.

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a/n: thanks for all the support!
let me know if you have any requests for ideas for the story x