Four Reasons (ON HOLD)

Chapter 6

-Elena's POV-

I was laying in bed on the brink of slumber, when I heard my doorknob rattle a little. There was a slight brushing sound as I assumed the door opened. I didn't move, not knowing who it was, and pretended to be asleep. A moment later I felt the edge of the bed sink under the weight of whoever it was. I couldn't breathe and I was starting to panic, but I still didn't move. At least I didn't move until whoever it was clamped their hand over my mouth and turned me around onto my back in one swift motion. My eyes shot open and I saw dusty blonde hair and piercing blue eyes.
"Mmfff!" I exclaimed behind his hand over my mouth. I was panicking and I had no idea what he was going to do.
"Shhh, it's aaallll good love," Harrison slurred, and realization hit me. He was still drunk. And now he was in my room in the middle of the night. "I've been watching you tonight, and I can tell you want me."
He leaned closer to my ear to whisper in it. "And I want you too."
"Mmfff!" I shook my head and attempted to wriggle out of his grip, but he was too strong for me. Fear clouded my eyes as I grew terrified of what I now knew he had planned for me. "MMFF-MM!!"
He started moving and he was quite clumsy about it, yet he still managed to hold me down even as I thrashed and writhed underneath him. He moved on top of me so that he was towering over me while I was on my back. I struggled and strained my lungs to try and get a loud enough noise out that someone would hear me.
"Shhh, don't struggle darling. I know you want this, so why are you fighting me?" He had a smirk on his face as he pulled the covers off of me and tossed them back on the bed, exposing my singularly T-shirt covered body. I struggled to cover myself and pulled the shirt down as much as possible. But Haz was fighting me. He pinned my arms down with one hand while the other still covered my mouth. Now there was a pause, because, I figured he didn't know what to do because he only had two hands and both of them were occupied.
And this is where he made a mistake.
I had no clue what was going through his head, but because he wanted this to continue, he took the hand that was covering my mouth off of me and reached for his belt. That's when I screamed.
"TOM! HELP-!"
He quickly clapped his hand back over my mouth and glared at me. He was mad but it no longer mattered because that scream was loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear. Tom had to have heard it. He had to. I continued to struggled under Harrison before I heard a loud crash and I saw Tom burst through the door between our rooms.
"WHAT THE HELL HARRISON?!" Tom yelled and in an instant he was by my bed hauling Haz off of me.
Once he was off of me I shrank into a ball, curling into myself in absolute terror. Tom still had a hold of Harrison and he had him pinned to the wall. Just then, Kate burst into the room, right as Tom punched Haz in the face.
"Tom!" Kate yelled, running over and attempting to pry a furious and heated Tom off of a cowering Haz who was getting the crap beat out of.
I only stared and when everything finally started being a realization to me I started sobbing, hugging a pillow to my chest. When my sobs got loud enough for the others to hear, Tom's head snapped in my direction from where he was on the floor on top of Haz beating him to a pulp, everything froze. I continued to sob, and the only thing I could hear was my own crying and three people panting from the struggle that just happened. I barely cracked my eyes open when I heard another thud, and I saw Tom had Haz pinned to the wall again.
Kate was still trying to pull them apart, but it wasn't working.
"What the hell Haz?!" Tom repeated, his tone was deep and so deadly calm he sounded like he wasn't even angry. Which meant he was so angry it was getting dangerous. "Get. Out."
Haz only whimpered and I saw him nod through my blurry tear stained vision. Tom held him another moment before giving him another shove as he let go. Harrison bolted out my door and the moment he was gone I started sobbing harder. I shut my eyes tightly and tried so hard to get the images from the last ten minutes out of my mind, with no result. I didn't even notice when the edge of my bed sunk, and I only realized there was someone next to me when they touched my arm lightly. My eyes shot back open and I saw Tom, quite close to me on the edge of my bed. I jerked backwards, flinching away from him in fear as I sobbed even harder.
"Hey, hey, it's okay," Tom's voice was soft as he tried to calm me. "I'm not going to hurt you. You're going to be fine. No one's going to hurt you."
I was breathing hard as sobs wracked my body, but I no longer backed away from Tom's slightly outstretched arm. I took a moment to process what he said, look at how he was acting towards me, which was only gentle, and lock eyes with him and only see sadness and a gentle kind heart behind them; before I leaped forward and into his arms. I sobbed into his chest as he moved to be leaning against my headboard, holding my tightly.
"Shhh, everything's going to be fine. No one's going to hurt you. Ever again."
His voice was quiet and gentle as he held me in his strong arms, stroking my hair gently with one hand.
I continued crying, burying my face deeper into his chest as I clutched at his shirt with my hands, sobs still wracking throughout my body, making my whole world shake. I felt a little movement and I figured he was mouthing something to Kate who I knew was still standing by the bed, before I heard the door shut and there was only my sobs and Tom's warm body and strong arms around me.
What felt like hours went by, my sobbing finally slowing down as I listened to Tom's steady heartbeat beneath my head, and his continuous calming strokes through my hair. His gentle hushing voice soothing my freaked out nerves.
My tears eventually slowed down to a slow trickle as ragged breathes were sucked in and then exhaled from my body.
We stayed like that until my breathing was normal and my tears had stopped. But even then, neither of us moved. Neither of us wanted to... or at least I didn't, and several minutes passed in the silence of our breathing.
"Elena?" Tom finally said, his voice quiet and calming, almost a whisper.
"Mm," was my reply, because I still couldn't form actual words.
"I... I-I'm s-sorry," his voice became shaky, and I lifted my head to look him in the eyes. I could see that his eyes had begun to fill with his own tears as he looked right back at me.
"W-why?" My voice was hoarse and it cracked a little because of all of the crying.
"B-because, i-it's my fault! I should have known better than to let him get that drunk. He does really dumb and irresponsible stuff when he's that drunk, and I knew it! I should have left him downstairs! He wouldn't have been able to make it up the stairs on his own and he wouldn't have been able to-" I flinched and he cut himself off, one tear slipping silently down his cheek. "To... h-hurt you."
"I..." I had no idea what to say. So my only thought was to hug him. I wrapped my arms around him and put my head back down on his chest, more tears slipping silently down my own cheeks as I held onto him tightly. He hugged me back, holding me just as tightly as I was holding him.
"I'm sorry," he whispered again. I only gripped him tighter.
We stayed there for what I'm pretty sure was at least a half an hour, while both of us calmed down.
"You should sleep," Tom eventually said, resting his head on top of mine as we continued hugging each other.
"I know," I croaked out.
Tom loosened his grip on me and shifted like he was about to get up. "And so should I."
I reluctantly let go of him and sat up, a few tears returning to my eyes as the fear came flooding back because I no longer felt safe without his arms around me.
He made his way to the edge of the bed, and I grabbed a pillow and hugged it. When he was standing he turned around and looked at me.
"I'm going to go back to bed, but I'm going to lock your door before I go."
I nodded and he went over and locked it, then went over to the still open door between our rooms. He looked back at me again as he stopped at the door.
"Are you going to be alright?" He asked, guilt and sadness still glazing his eyes.
I didn't say anything for a moment as I stared into nothing at the bed in front of me. "No," was my reply after a moment of silence. My gaze snapped up to him and met his own. "Please," the sobs were returning to my voice. "D-don't l-leave me a-alone!"
"Oh God,"I heard Tom mutter before he ran over to the bed and scooped me back into his embrace.