learning to love again

chapter 7: monday

brontes pov:
i sat in ashbys room waiting for him to finish talking to our homeroom before we got to work on my work. yes i'm just on a walking boot but i'm still in a lot of pain and i lowkey just like working in here. he finished greeting the class and then sat down with me and we started on my trigonometry homework. "i have no idea how to do this" i groaned getting annoyed after 3 hours of trying to figure my trig out. "go to lunch in the cafeteria, take a break" i nodded and then walked to the cafeteria and spotted peyton, brooks, tyler and austin. i walked over to their table and sat down groaning. "what's wrong hon" peyton said scooting closer to me. "i'm in a lot of pain and i have no idea how to do the trig homework and i'm so tired and i feel like shit bc i think i'm sick so" i complained at once, "sorry i'm being such a pessimist" i sighed. brooks grabbed me and pulled me into a hug. "you're okay bronts." he then moved over so austin could sit next to me. austin smiled at me and grabbed my leg under the table and gently squeezed my thigh. i smiled at him and rested my head on his shoulder, "WOAH PDA" peyton yelled obviously being obnoxious. this is our first time at school since our date. we both got red and i sat up, "ignore her, lay back down" austin said. "i could've lived my whole life without seeing this" brooks rolled his eyes, "hey brooks you have seen much worse than this" peyton laughed and then immediately shut up bc she knew how ..awkward it was. "what happened?? what did you see?" tyler laughed. "not important" i shook my head, "nah bro tell us" tyler shook him, austin looked at me and knew something was up. "uhh okay one time i was with kyle and i walked in her room and she thought i was kyle and i saw her lying stark naked on the bed......" brooks awkwardly said avoiding everyone's eye contact. "Hahahaha for fucking real?? HAHAHA THATS HILARIOUS!!!" tyler yelled. "shut the fuck up tyler." i snapped at him. "that's not that all that happened that day though..." brooks said quickly wiping a tear that fell down his face, "brooks please stop" i cried in front of everyone. "that was the first day he raped her, that was the first day he hit her. that was an awful day" it suddenly got quiet. i stood up and ran as fast as i could with this boot on. i heard the door slam behind me and heard austins voice, "BRONTE" i kept running, my vision being blurred by tears, i ran into ashbys room and silently thanked god that there wasn't a class in there. he looked up and shot out of his chair when he saw me crying. "bronte what's wrong?" i just shook my head and fell on the ground and cried, "bronte i can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong" i shook my head, "NO that's the point no one can help me. no one understands the pain i feel when i look in the mirror" he sat down next to me and didn't say anything. that is how we sat for the rest of my lunch period. when the bell rang students began to file in for their ap chem class, ashby stood up and helped me up, me still not saying anything, he sat me behind his desk and then went to teach. once class was over it was his conference period but today sadly, he was completely free. "what's wrong?" he asked again. "i will never be free from kyles torment" i stated with a blank look on my face. "yes you will" he nodded, i just ignored him. when the final bell ran we stopped working and i walked out of his room. i saw austin, peyton, brooks and tyler all waiting by brooks car. i walked up to them not saying anything and sat in brooks car, they opened my door and stood staring at me. "what" i stifled my laughter. "we're sorry, that wasn't a good conversation, and we know you are trying to free yourself from kyle, we love you and we're sorry" brooks said hugging me. i smiled and then hugged the rest of them before austin walked up to me. "i'm sorry" is all he said before pulling me into a tight embrace. "you have nothing to be sorry about" i looked into eyes, "i know but i'm sorry" he then pulled me closer to him and kissed me, everyone watching. "nope no nope i don't want to see this" brooks said pulling austins shirt. i laughed and then said goodbye to everyone and headed home with brooks.

friday after school:
the rest of the week went by pretty uneventful but it was still good. austin and i are becoming pretty public, basically everyone knows about us. i had come down with a sinus infection and a severe respiratory infection which explained while i was feeling so crappy. brooks and his friends were going out and so i had the house to myself, thankfully. i was a little nervous about austin going out but trust. i ordered some italian food, a ceaser salad, tortellini alla pana, garlic bread and a dr pepper, i was clearly very hungry, and then i put on greys anatomy. around 1:30am i got a text from a unknown number. it was a picture, it was austin....and another girl. they were making out. what the fuck. the text read, "hey bitch, you might want to keep your dog on a shorter leash. looks like he found another hoe to fuck around with🤷‍♀️" i began to cry and knew it was obviously to good to be true. i turned my phone off then put it in my drawer and went to sleep.