Empathy

16- It's a Werewolf Thing

I caught sight of my reflection instantly and cringed. I looked awful. My hair was crazy and my eyes were lined in dark circles, but those were the best parts. My right cheek had a huge bruise on the bone and my left cheek was scratched up. My lip was cut as well and tasted of Neosporin. Aiden must have cleaned my cuts.

As I undressed, I surveyed the rest of my body. I was covered in bruises and scratches. The worst one was on the side of my bicep on my right arm. It was bandaged which meant it must have been pretty scratched up. It was also hurting worse than my other injuries.

Only after I was naked did I realize the clothes weren’t mine. My cheeks flared a bright red when I realized someone must have changed me. It was irrational because they’d had to make sure my cuts were okay, but that didn’t help my humiliation.

I took a quick, and painful, shower. Even though the water had burned on my cuts, I felt much better after I was clean. I did my hair in a messy bun and got dressed in Aiden’s clothes. I wished I had makeup to make my face look a little better, but I didn’t carry it around with me like some girls. I usually put on a little in the morning and then trusted it to hold up all day. I was regretting that right now.

I sighed; Aiden had told me he loved me when I looked even more disgusting than I currently did, so why was I stressing so much about this? Because I was worried he would think I was ugly and a disgrace and that he would go back to Shelby. Even imagining it made my heart hurt. I was so in love with him.

I went back into Aiden’s room and found him lying in bed, writing something in a journal, his expression was thoughtful. I cleared my throat and he shot up, snapping the journal shut while giving me an embarrassed smile. He laughed awkwardly. “Hey…”

“Hi. You keep a journal?” I asked; eyeing the small leather bound book.

Aiden nodded hesitantly. “Yeah, it was my mom’s idea for everyone in my family to keep a journal. She says if we write about our feelings, we won’t act on them so much and it will help keep the peace in the family...”

“That sounds like something your mom would do,” I replied, thinking of the kindhearted woman. I sat on the bed as Aiden stuffed his journal between two books on his bookshelf. I wondered what he wrote about, but I would never go through his journal. That was way too invasive.

“Yeah, I expected you to be in the shower longer,” he stated, sitting down next to me. “How are you feeling?”

I shrugged. “It’s not too bad.” Okay so it was killing me, but he didn’t need to know that. The whole thing was my fault yet he would still feel guilty if he knew how bad it hurt.

“Do you want some pain medicine?” He asked, looking like he didn’t believe me. I didn’t blame him after seeing how messed up I looked.

“Sure,” I answered and he took my hand, leading me out of his room and into the too quiet house. With six other people living in his house there should’ve been more noise. “Where is everyone?”

We entered the kitchen and he grabbed a bottle of Tylenol from the medicine cabinet. “They’re at school or work. It’s one in the afternoon.”

“We missed school?” I asked, panicking. I always went to school so I wouldn’t have to go to tutorials. I dealt with everyone’s feeling for seven hours a day. I didn’t need that for another hour.

Aiden nodded. “Yeah, you were hurt. I wasn’t going to wake you up for school- you needed sleep to heal. I’m sure the teachers will understand.”

“Yeah,” I muttered. I would have to talk to them and tell them I missed school and get the extra work. I would have to try not to notice their terrified expressions. And then I would have to go to a tutorial.