Beauty & Her Bruises

Chapter Four

Walking out of the library, I felt a rush of humid air sink into my skin. Instantly perspiration was clear in my armpits and I felt a bit of sweat drip down from my forehead. I sighed a bit and gripped the book in my hands even tighter.

I would have to hide this from father. If he saw this, he would instantly rip it up and would give me a beating. He couldn't read very well so he didn't see why I had to read. He then would accuse me of trying to leave by getting smart.

I mean, sure I would love to leave home. I had no where to stay though. If I stayed out on the streets, I'm one-hundred percent sure father would have someone watching me all of the time. He knew everyone on the streets and if someone he knew happened to see me, they would report back to him. That would just lead to me going back home and then getting the worst beating of my life.

I shook my head at the thought and continued walking down the street towards Liam's house. I felt like my presentation wasn't going to be good enough for his family since they were extremely rich. His parents were very much snobs as far as I knew but I only caught glimpses of them every time I went over Liam's house. They were usually out working or they were working in the office.

I'm not even sure why they had a son if they weren't even going to spend time with them. Then I remember my father wouldn't even look at me without throwing something towards my face. I ruined his life.

 Thankfully, Liam didn't like his parents enough that he would judge me like them. Also, this time Liam had clothes for me to wear so I had to get in the house without them noticing. Hopefully, Liam would answer the door because if his parents did, they'd see a sweaty girl with greasy hair being friends with their son. Then I'd hear the lecture of gold digging and slowly roll my eyes.

Walking up to Liam's house, I still felt the breath knock out of my chest. No matter how many times I came over his house, I was always anxious at how big his house was. It would be a pain to clean but it was better than my old ratty shack of a house.

Waiting for Liam to answer the door after I rung the bell was so terrifying that I stepped back and felt my legs tremble in fear. Maybe I should've knocked instead just in case his parents heard the doorbell instead of my knocking. I gulped as both of the doors opened but smiled when I saw Liam's smiling face.

"Hurry, my parents heard the door," Liam whispered. I nodded my head and closed the doors behind Liam as I ran up the stairs with him. As soon as we made it to the top, we paused and smiled at each other before running to his room at full speed ahead.

Once we were safely inside, we gave each other a high five and fell onto his bed. I rolled on my side to look at him and he did the same. We laid smiling for a bit and then I couldn't help but laugh a bit.

"When's dinner?" I questioned. I sniffed the air but didn't sniff anything that had a distinct smell.

"In like four hours, you're early." My eyebrows crept up my face and Liam placed a finger on them so they wouldn't go any higher. "Don't give me the eyebrows, Zara. I need this to be one-hundred percent perfect."

"So why am I here so early?" I questioned. I sat up a bit but laid back down when Liam got up. He rummaged through drawers and threw some girl clothes at me. I looked at them and then realized that Liam wanted me to try them on. "Bathroom?"

Liam scoffed. "I don't care if you change in here." But I did. Seeing that I was going to be feisty and unchangeable with this, he sighed and pointed to the other room for me.

I smiled at him and laid my book down on his bed. As I closed the door to the bathroom, I sighed a bit and lifted my shirt off of me. There was a huge bruise on my lower back and there were two small but infected cuts where my bra barely covered.