Love Scars

Ch. 4: Jared

"Brianna, what's wrong?"

She didn't say anything.

"Brianna." When she looked up at me, her eyes were red and wet. We were sitting on my bed, my arm around her holding her close. She was like my little sister, I did everything I could to protect her.

"I'm fine."

"No you aren't, you aren't saying anything. I know you're not okay."

Her head dropped again, allowing her bangs to fall into her face. She held her hands together on her lap and messed with her rings. When she finally let her hands go, they fell to her lap. She flinched when one hit her thigh.

"Brianna, did you do anything?"

She looked at me blankly.

"Did you?" I grabbed her hands and held on to her. "Brianna, you know you can tell me anything."

"I'm fine."

She obviously didn't want to talk about it. "Alright, we can change the subject. How's school?"

Her head lifted and she wiped her tears. "It's okay I guess. English class is weird so far."

"What's been happening in English?"

We talked awhile about the myth that she and Daniel had been confused about. "-but I don't know what to believe."

I pondered on the idea for awhile. "Would that mean any scars and bruises?"

She didn't say anything for a moment. "I guess so. Why?"

"Bree did you do anything?"

"What does this have to do-"

"Did you hurt yourself." My heart rate increased.

She didn't say anything. Her hand just slightly ran over her thigh.

"You did didn't you."

When I got no response I lifted my shorts to show my thigh. There were a lot of cuts that I didn't give myself. Too many to count.

"Jared!!"

"I didn't do it."

"Jared, you know you can tell me before you do anything-!"

"It wasn't me."

She looked up at me. "What do you mean?"

"I have self harm, but I didn't do it."

Bree looked at it and examined what had been done.

"You don't think..."

"I don't know."

Her hand went over her thigh again. She looked terrified.

"Jared."

"..Yeah?"

"This isn't happening. This is a dream- I can't-" Bree stood up to start her worried pacing again.

I stood beside her, looking down at her green eyes. I took her wrists and held them at my sides. "Whatever happens, I'm here for you."

"But Jared, you can't be getting hurt from my pain! I refuse to believe- You did it didn't you? This is all too insane to be true, you did it right?"

"Brianna, I swear I didn't do it." I sat her back on the bed. "Let me see yours, we can compare. If they're the same, then we'll go from there. If not, then something must have happened. Okay?"

She slowly nodded and slipped her sweat pants down. We had known each other for so long that it wasn't weird, oddly enough. Her shaking hands slowly unwrapped her bandage.

When her pale skin was visible, I could see the uncountable cuts. Tumbling over each other, some in a line while others diagonal. I lifted up my pant leg again and compared the two.

Nothing was different. Every single cut was the same.

"Jared..." She started to cry. "I don't know what's going on anymore, and I'm scared. I'm insane aren't I?"

I held her to my chest to comfort her. "You're not insane, whatever is happening is insane. It's okay Brianna, I promise everything will be okay. Don't cry- shhh..."

Her sobs ached through my rib cage. She felt like she was going mental, and there was nothing I could do to help her.

"Brianna, no matter what happens, and no matter what's going on, I'm always here for you. You got it?" I pulled her closer to my chest. "I will always be here for you."

Her tears soaked through my shirt onto my skin. "Thank you..."