Picture Perfect - COMPLETE - Clouis (high school AU)

Chapter 5 - Protect You

Clementine was beyond terrified. Her abusive/crazy ex boyfriend was in her house. There was nothing she could do. He forcefully grabbed her hand and threw her on the floor. She squirmed under his grip, but he was on top of her, her face being pressed against the floor. He took out a knife. She started screaming as she saw the sharp blade.

He pulled out her left hand and grabbed her ring finger. "Have fun putting a ring on this." He yelled. As soon after that he slammed the knife down on her finger. Blood was everywhere. He stood up, and walked to the living room. Clem grabbed her left hand and held it. She could barley feel the pain cause all the adrenaline, but right next to her face was her ring finger.

She stood up. Now, now she was gonna beat his ass. She grabbed a bat from next to the fridge and walked over to the couch. His lazy ass had got comfy in her couch and turned on the TV. She took no hesitation, she swung the bat, making him fall off the couch.

He stood up, his nose was bleeding. He started walking towards her until she kicked him in the groin. He wobbled back.... now she had to make a split second decision.

Kill him

Let him go

She didn't want to have to clean up the mess...

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. He didn't think twice. He ran out of the house. She chased him off with the bat. After he was running down the street, she fell to the floor. She looked at her hand, her finger was cut clean off. She started crying.

She felt a familiar pair of hands try to stand her up. She looked at who it was

Louis.

"What-what are you?" She said between sniffles.
"Clem, what the hell happened to your hand!?" Louis almost shouted. He took her hand in his, getting a better look at it. He looked at her again. "C'mon, we're going inside." He carefully helped her back into her house. He placed her on the couch and sat next to her.

Her crying had kinda stopped. There were still a few sobs but they were quiet. "Can you tell me what happened?" He placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Why are you here?" She said harshly. "I-I heard screams. So I came back." He lightly rubbed her back. She looked at him for a second, considering telling him or not. "My-my ex. He... I broke up with him because he would hurt me all the time. He said he would always come back... he showed up here when you dropped me off and he-he did this." She cried. Louis pulled her into a hug.

He had only met this girl today, though he felt like he had known her forever. He knew in that moment, he'd protect her as much as he could.

•••

AJ waited in the schools gymnasium. He wondered why it was taking so long for someone to pick him up. He and a few other kids were the only ones in there, and a few teachers. He frowned. Maybe they forgot about him, maybe they didn't care about him. Tears threatened to come but he closed his eyes to prevent it.

"Hello." A voice next to him said. He looked over, he saw a boy about his age smiling at him. "Hi." AJ said.
"Do-Do you wanna play?" The boy asked. "Okay!" AJ moved closer to the boy. He pulled out a fireman and a policeman from his schoolbag. AJ's eyes widened at the sight. "So, which one do you wanna be?" The boy asked. AJ looked at the boy, then back at the toys. "The fireman." AJ said. The boy smiled, he handed AJ the little red clothed toy and the two started playing together.

The two boys were laughing and playing together. AJ stopped playing to look at the boy. "What's your name?" AJ asked. The boy hesitated for a second. "Tennessee, Tenn for short." The boy smiled. AJ returned it. "My name is AJ."

•••

Louis' arm was wrapped around Clem's shoulders protectively as they walked down the sidewalk. He didn't want Clementine getting hurt again. He blamed himself a little bit for what happened. If he'd had gone in there with her then things might have been differently. She had 9 fingers now, well 9 1/2.

"Louis." Clem said, looking at the ground. "Hmm." He hummed. "Why are you doing this? Why would you help a stranger?" She now looked up at him. Louis looked back at her for a second then looked back in front of him. "Well..." he honestly didn't have an exact answer. He couldn't really tell her that when she walked into the classroom he instantly had a crush on her, that's just weird and creepy.

He placed his head on top of hers. "I just-" he was cut off. "Really... care about, strangers?" She laughed. He nodded, laughing too.

Clementine saw the elementary school and instantly started to fix the black cloth wrapped around her hand. She didn't want AJ to see her like this.

They walked up to the school. They were so late that all the kids were sitting outside. AJ saw his big sister and quickly ran up to her to hug her. Making Clem almost fall back if it wasn't for Louis.

"What took you so long!?" AJ asked. He noticed the black cloth wrapped around his sisters fingers. "What happened?" He pulled her hand closer to his, Clem instantly pulled it back. "Don't-don't worry about that kiddo. Let's just go home okay?"

•••

Clem unlocked the door to the house. The two boys behind her. She accidentally dropped her keys and out of instinct picked them up with her bad hand. "Ow! Fuck!" She leaned against the railing and held her hand. "You okay?" Louis asked. "Yeah, just-open the goddamn door. It's the brown key." She shut her eyes, trying to help the pain.
Louis opened the door. The three walked inside.

Clem looked at her hand, then AJ. "Hey goofball, could you go play outside please." She asked. AJ could tell by her face that it was serious, so he listened to her, and dropped the whole nickname thing.

Once AJ went outside Clem looked at Louis. The face she gave him made him gulp. "W-what?" He asked. She looked down the back up at him. "I-I need to Clean it... and it's... it's gonna hurt like hell." She said. Louis instantly knew what she was talking about. "You sure you don't wanna go to a hospital?" He asked for the fourth time. Clem stepped closer to him. "I can't let the cops find out about this... if they do, then I'll have to tell them everything... stuff you don't know." She furrowed her brows.

Her ex knew about the people she killed. She only told him cause she "loved him". If she told the cops about him then he'd tell them everything. He would tell the cops about even more than killing.

He'd tell them about the drugs, the alcohol, the kidnapping. Everything.

•••

Sorry this one was shorter than the other ones....

Don't really have anything else to say so bye!