Beauty & Her Bruises

Chapter Twenty-One

"Hey, Zara." I felt a light poke to my cheek but I just moved my head away from the physical touch. "Time to wake up." I groaned away and tried to get into a comfortable position to realize that there wasn't any. "We have to go to school." I peaked out of one of my eyes but was met with blindness from the shining light. When my eyes adjusted to the lightness, I saw Malcolm standing in front of me. "There you are."

"Why are we at school?" I asked.

"Well, you had to attend after we got your stitches," he answered. My eyebrows scrunched down and I touched my forehead. I flinched at the pain and Malcolm swatted my hand away. "It's going to hurt, they gave you a pill but—"

"When did I get stitches?" I asked. "I remember going in but I don't remember the pain of getting it done."

"Oh," Malcolm said. He smiled at me and got me out from the jeep. "You were sleeping on Liam and he carried you in. You didn't wake up so they didn't want to bother you. You slept through everything. You're a heavy sleeper," he said.

"Did they... Did they find anything?" I asked. Malcolm pointed at the school and motioned for me to follow him. I did as he said and he stuck his hands in his pockets. "Where's Liam?"

"He's already in the school," Malcolm whispered. "He's pretty upset."

"About what?" I asked. Malcolm stopped suddenly and looked at me with seriousness. Usually I wouldn't notice this personality difference but it was so random and so severe, that I felt like I had to be concerned. "Malcolm, what's wrong?"

"Liam and I are being checked out to see if we've been hurting you," he said quietly.

"What?" I asked suddenly. Malcolm just nodded his head solemnly. "Where would they get that idea from?"

"The bruises all over your body," Malcolm said. I felt myself shrink at the comment but Malcolm didn't notice. Instead, he began walking towards the school again. "We couldn't answer any of the questions of how you got them and they thought we were covering up that we were hurting you."

"Well, did you try telling them that you didn't hurt me?"

"We did but they didn't believe us. Who would believe someone they thought was abusing someone?" he asked. He held the door open for me and I walked in with him. We signed in with the secretary and before we parted different ways, Malcolm touched my shoulder half-heartedly. "We do have our suspicions on who's doing it."

I didn't do anything but Malcolm was the one to walk away. I stared after him but not because I wanted to say something to him, but because I had so much on my mind. So many people are being blamed for me being injured except the person doing it. Why does nobody blame the one person who deserves all of the blame?

I put my hands in my pockets and walked to my class. It was basically the end of the day so I'm not exactly sure why I had to come to school. Malcolm and Liam take more personal days than anyone I know so I'm not sure why they didn't take one today. As soon as I thought that though, I immediately knew why.

If they thought father was the one hitting me—which they should since Liam saw it first hand—then they would want me to stay as far away from my house as possible. Since they live so close, it would be so easy for father to come and find me. Not only would he injure me, but it would mean that they get hurt too. I already had Malcolm get hurt because of me, I didn't need either of them to get hurt again.

When I knocked on the door to my calculus class, I wasn't surprised when Dustin opened the door. His eyes immediately darted towards the stitches on my face but he didn't say anything. It was easier to see it now then before because I had to have my hair pulled back. This way my hair wouldn't get stuck in the stitch mark of my forehead and tear them out. I already caused so much money for Liam and Malcolm that I didn't want to have them redo my stitches.