Her Scars

Chapter 6

What happened to her? Is she okay? Did she hear anything? Is this my fault? These questions run through Rosen's mind as she sits in the hospital bed.

A few minutes later, Nevaeh's eyes start to flutter open. "Where am I?" she squeaks out. "You are in the hospital...you passed out while Becky and I were talking."

Rosen looks away, thinking it was his fault. Nevaeh knew what he was thinking and said, "It is not your fault. It is just that, I was eavesdropping on your conversation with Becky and you told me you were not a player. But you used her. And I felt betrayed when you lied to me. My entire life, I have been lied to. By my parents, my friends, my sib-" she stops where she is before she says too much. "I am just used to being lied to and you are the last person I expected to lie to me," Nevaeh says disappointedly.

Rosen understood what she meant. He understood that she was hiding things from him. And he understood that lying to her was not going to make her feel like she can trust him. And he wants her to trust him.

~~~

About three hours later, after visits from Henley, Ryder, and Harrison, and with Rosen never leaving her side, she is finally able to leave the hospital.

Everyone was still asking a lot of questions, so she told them the truth. "My entire life I have been lied to. So when someone I trusted lied to me, some...bad memories came back to me..." she started thinking back to the time when she was twelve and her family told her she was going to be living with a family friend. Turns out, the 'family friend' was her new adopted family. The police were finally called and her mom was taken away for good. 

~~~

Nevaeh knew she could not keep her secrets a secret for much longer. She does not want to ruin friendships with her friends but she knows that her secrets are the kind to ruin relationships.

Rosen knew if he did not tell Nevaeh his secrets, things would go very badly. He does not want to put Nevaeh in danger. He is trying to hold out on telling her for as long as he can, but the more they are together, the more that is revealed.

~~~

Nevaeh and Henley get home before the boys because Ryder, Rosen, and Harrison went out for dinner. Nevaeh was too exhausted to stay out so Henley agreed to take her home.

When Nevaeh got home, she knew something was not right. She could...feel it. The air, it was...off? The next thing she knows is that she and Henley have clothes over their mouths and blindfolds over their eyes. No, no, no, not ag- she starts to think to herself, however, the chemicals she breathed in knocked her out before she could finish her thought.

~~~

Rosen, Ryder, and Harrison get home around eight o'clock. They do not hear anything, which is strange. Not a laugh, not a creak, nothing but silence. They give each other confused looks but dismiss it thinking they went to bed early.

While Ryder and Harrison go to their rooms to watch TV, Rosen has a bad gut feeling about the silence. He gets up and goes up to the girls' room door that is on the other side of the dorm. Rosen brings his hand up, knocks, and hears...nothing. Should I open the door? What if they are just changing? Or in the shower? No, that would be weird if they were both in the shower...?

His bad gut feeling has gotten worse; he knows something is wrong. He busts the door down, not finding anyone or anything but a note on the nightstand between the girls' beds.

The note says,

"Rosen. What a pretty name. No wonder Nevaeh finds you attractive; a pretty name for a pretty face. Guess it is too bad she will not be around much longer to see it.

XOXO,

C."