Best Years | l.h

thirty seven

chapter thirty seven

Mallie

     I wake up in the morning in my bed, wrapped in Luke's arms. My mind races as I think about what happened yesterday. From McKayla being drugged to me getting assaulted by Hayden to Luke literally almost killing him.

How could so much go wrong so fast?

I was going to go to the hospital today to see McKayla. I was glad that she was going to be okay. She only had to stay in the hospital for a few more days.

I also was going to talk to the police again about last night since I was rushed back here so fast.

I climb out of Luke's arms slowly so I could sit up without waking him but I hear him stop snoring and I turn to see his eyes opening.

"Hey," he says, his voice scratchy and his hair in disarray from how he slept.

"Hey," I say, looking down at him as he looks up at me from where he was laying on my pillows.

"How are you feeling?" He asks me, his eyes trying to read my face and he gently grabs my hand.

"Still a little shaken up." I decided not to lie about how I was feeling. I felt like shit.

He looks at me with sad eyes and squeezes my hand tightly.

"I'm more just in shock about everything that happened."

"I can't believe I let it happen," he says, a little angry in his tone.

"Luke-"

"You were sexually assaulted and almost killed, Mallie. And I wasn't there to protect you."

"It's not your fault," I say, shaking my head at him. It was my own fault, honestly.

"It is, god dammit," he says, sitting up so we were face to face.

"It's not though! Neither of us knew this was going to happen."

"I should have gone with you when you went to go talk to him. I always hated that guy. I should have read the signs. I am a fucking idiot," Luke says. He lets go of my hand and I watch him run a hand down his face in distress. 

"Luke. Please stop saying-"

He gets up from the bed and stands up in just his boxers. He looks at me and his cheeks are flushed and I notice the anger building up as he paces around the room.

"You don't know how bad I wanted to kill him, Mallie."

I stare at him, no words coming out of my mouth.

My mind flashes back to watching Luke beat the shit out of Hayden. It was scary seeing Luke throw Hayden around like a doll and punching him so hard in the face that blood covered his hands and clothes. And how I kept calling his name over and over again to stop but it was like he didn't hear me.

"That son of a bitch touched you Mallie. Seeing him pinning you against the wall with his hands around your neck-" Luke stops talking and I notice him lower his head. I hear whimpering coming from his mouth so I get up as fast as I can and run into his arms. "I've lost so much Mallie, I can't lose you too."

I wrap my arms around his waist and he holds me tight.

"I'm here Luke. I'm okay," I say, as I feel tears build up in my eyes. He was silently crying on my shoulder. I have only seen Luke cry one other time but this had to be the worst.

"I don't know what I would do without you Mallie," he mumbles.

My heart breaks thinking about him feeling like this. What if I had died? What would he have done? I don't want to know the answer.