A New Truth Pt.2

I wake up to Christopher at my bedside with his hand on my forehead and a troubling glance on his face.

"She's awake" Christopher says, sending a glance towards the twins.

I roll myself over to the other side of the head and let out a groan. Dorcas is on the other side of me and begins to caress my hair.

"How are you holding up?" Dorcas asks

I let out a painful moan. That should answer his question. Turning back around to Christopher and the twins, I stifle a small cry of pain. Instinctively, I go to touch my neck. It's so tender that I wince. I put my head back in the covers as my hair falls over my face, and I begin to cry again.

I'm so embarrassed. My ex-boyfriend just slapped me then choked the hell out of me for exposing the truth about my dislike towards him. My brothers saw it. Dorcas saw it. Perfect Christopher saw it.

I hear the downstairs door open, and I assume it's Mom and Dad. It sucks that I'm gonna have to explain this whole situation to them. It's going to suck even more than at school on Monday, I'm going to have to see Bryce. This entire situation is just so painful.

Christopher caresses my hair and gives me a small encouragement. I can tell he feels bad for me. I hate being pitied. There's a little knock on the door when Mom and Dad push through. Stifling a cry, she goes running by my side.

"Oh my God, what happened, darling?!" Mother says

"I'm fine Mom, it's okay, Christopher helped." I say

Mom turns to Christopher and embraces him with a big hug.

"Thank you! Thank you so much for helping my Bumblebee." Mother says

I put my head back in the comforter to cover up my embarrassment. Mom calls me her Bumblebee, and it's so embarrassing because she says it around all my friends.

I wonder where Christopher stands in all this. It's so lovely that he is still here. I owe him so much for doing what he did for me today too. Although I literally met him this morning, he's done more for me than half of my friends have done ever. He's helped me so much today, and I am so grateful to him. To be honest, I didn't expect him to protect me nor fight Bryce either. However, it just seems like he's the type of guy that does things for people. He is just a genuinely good person.

Christopher snaps out of his awkwardness and hugs my mother back.

"Yeah, it was no trouble at all, Mrs.-" Christopher stops.

"Carson. My name is Mrs. Carson. Again thank you so much." Mom finishes

Mom turns back around to me and gives me a pat on the head before she pushes herself off of my queen mattress. She gives a look at Liam and Lucas, and they follow her out. Outside of the door, I hear them trying to explain the situation to Mom and Dad. Why didn't dad come inside? Is he still furious with me? No matter.

"T…..Thank you, Christopher. Without you, I could have been more hurt than I already am now. You've been so nice to me, and I only met you this morning. You're a great person." I conclude

"It's no problem. That guy was a dick. He doesn't even deserve your tears. Listen, anytime you need me, I will always be there. It doesn't even matter if I only met you this morning. I will be there. Always." Christopher says with his hand on my cheek.

After planting a kiss on my forehead, just like the one he did and Waffle House, he stands up and walks towards the door. Before he can open it, Liam and Lucas come through.

"Thanks for helping our baby sister. You're a good guy. Hope you stick around." Lucas says

Taking this as his cue to say thank you, Dorcas stands up and walks to the other side of the bed to where the boys are.

"Yeah, man, thanks for protecting my best friend. While I was completely useless, standing in shock, you were out helping her. So, good looks, bro." Dorcas says

"Like I said, anytime, man. As long as she's okay." Christopher says before giving me a smile and leaving

Liam and Lucas start staring at me. They have questions. How well do I know this guy? Who is he? Where did he come from? But to be honest, I'm not really in the mood to answer any of their questions. They thought I was unreasonable when I was arguing with Bryce. They thought I would stay out all night without telling anybody for no good reason. But the reason was that I was hurt. That I didn't want to be in the presence of anybody. That I wanted to be able to cry in peace.

I turn away from the door and back to the other side of the mattress to avert their stairs. The pain of everything is just too recent for me to handle. Soon, I feel the weight of the bed go down from one of the boys sitting on it. I don't want to talk to them, but it seems like this conversation is going to happen either way.

"Princess, I'm sorry, we really didn't know. How could we? You should have told us. We would have been there for you. You have to know that we would have been there for you." Lucas says

The bed goes down again, and I know that it's Liam this time because Dorcas walks to my side of the bed.

"Yeah, princess, had we known, we would have done something about Bryce's bitch ass sooner," Liam adds

Thinking about it, I know that I won't be able to resist the urge to hug them. I always know that they want what's best for me, and that's what really matters. So my heart betrays my mind, and I turn around to face them. My lips quiver as I painfully get up to embrace them both and a hug.

"Guess I should explain this to Mom and Dad. Lord knows how much trouble I'm in." I conclude

"Don't worry about it, Princess, they already know what happened. I'm sorry that you went through that." Lucas says

"Princess, if I ask you a question, will you promise to answer honestly?" Liam says

I am curious, but I want to know what his question is, so I gave him a nod.

"Is this the first time he's hit you? Have there been others?" Liam asks

Yes. There have been other times. I wanted to tell somebody so bad. I didn't know-how. I didn't know if I should. Bryce convinced me it was my fault; he hit me. That I deserved it. So, I accepted it. I ignored my gut feeling. I stayed with him.

"Y.....Yeah, there have been other times." I said

Liam, Lucas, and Dorcas all wary exchange glances at one another.

"When was the first time?" Lucas asks

With a broken tone, I say," the first time was on my birthday. He got mad at me because James was making conversation with me. I tried to tell him that James is only our neighbor, but he wouldn't listen. He became paranoid with me cheating on him. So, in return, he hit me to show me what would happen if I did cheat on him."

I feel Dorcas come close to me, and then he hugs me from behind. He's hurt, he's upset that I couldn't tell him this. He's angry at Bryce for what he's done to me. He wants revenge. And the only reason I know all of this is because we're best friends. We can practically read each other's thoughts.

"Why didn't you tell us? We could have handled it. We could have given that bitch what he deserved for putting his hands on you. We're your brothers. We got your back no matter what." Liam says

I should have known that I would be able to turn to them in my time of turmoil. I just didn't know how to tell the truth. Not to them anyway. All three of them would have done something reckless for my sake, and I couldn't afford that to happen. I love these three boys to death, and I couldn't bear if something terrible happened to them.

We're all in a group hug when dad walks in and looks at me. Instinctively, I get up, and I go give him a hug. My dad's shirt gets soaked by my tears. He wraps his arms around me and holds me close. I'm surprised Dad is keeping it together. Knowing the current situation, I wouldn't be surprised if he was sending the whole SWAT team to Bryce's house.

I look up into my dad's face, and I see pity and sympathy.

The last thing I remember is everyone leaving and me drifting in and out of sleep