Almost Broken

Part 18

"Y/n?" Tom asks, his voice soft and quiet as the coffee shop begins to empty out.

"Yeah?" I reply as I lift my head up from my empty mug, leaving my hands around it as I cling to the last bit of warmth that it has left.

"How did you get that scar?" He asks and my heart nearly stops. Ever since I had seen Tom in the hospital, he's always wondered about this small, fading scar that lays beneath my eye.

"I feel as if we've grown so close that we have no secrets, like we have a pure friendship, but the story behind it seems to be agonizing you and I want you to share it with me so I may take some of the burden off of your shoulders." Again, he takes my hand in his and brings it up to his lips as he places a gentle kiss on my skin.

"I think I'm ready to tell you now. It may even explain why I reacted so badly to how Philip treated me." I say after a long sigh.

I try and keep my head up as I recall very clearly, the day that scar was placed on my cheek.

"I used to date this guy named James. Everything was perfect in the beginning, but as the months went by it all changed. He kept coming to my apartment drunk and he would scream at me and accuse me of cheating on him when I had done nothing other than open the door for him to come in. I would always be able to calm him down and he never laid a hand on me, but one day I fought back. James had left his phone at my place once and a text popped up from a girl who was telling him to come over and that she missed him. It was that moment that I knew he was cheating on me and not the other way around." Tom's eyes are fixed on me as he listens carefully and as I speak, I try desperately not to cry.

"That night he was accusing me as usual, but this time I accused him back and showed him the messages between him and this girl so he knew that he couldn't lie to me. I screamed back at him and he got angry with me for trying to defend myself. He wore his usual high school ring and when he slapped his hand right across my face, the ring cut my cheek." I couldn't help it, one tear fell from my eyes. Tom reaches up his hand slowly and rubs his thumb over the scar and looks into my eyes.

"I kicked him out that night and I've never seen him since." I finish with a deep breath as I try and calm myself down.

"You didn't deserve that. You didn't deserve any of the bad things that you have received. I promise that I won't let you get hurt again." His eyes are fixed on me and I can't help but get out of my seat and cling onto him as his arms wrap tightly around me.

"No more secrets?" Tom asks as my face is buried in his shoulder.

"No more secrets." I reply with a muffled voice before his phone begins to blow up. I reluctantly pull away from him as he glances at his phone before going into Instagram.

"Damn it." He says and I glance down to see a photo of us at the coffee shop as Tom and I are holding hands and the photo was taken at the right moment that it looks like we were on a date.

"Crap."
~ ~ ~
Wow, some stuff is going down! Also, I honestly want to give y/n a hug so bad even though I created her backstory :'(

Please read, vote, and comment!
~Aoife