"What happened?" I say in an almost whisper not wanting to disrupt the peaceful daze she's in.
"I kissed two guys that weren't Drake... I deserved everything I got for betraying him." she says again in a monotone voice still staring at the sky.
"That's why he hurt you like this? You need to get out of here Lex, you can't stay here! What if he comes back?" I say starting to panic.
"I can't go back to them like this, they will kill Drake when they see me...I don't want them to hurt him. I love him Chlo...even after he did...this." She says as she looks down at her body.
“You love him, even after this?” I ask confused.
“Yeah…I-I love him.” she whispers.
"Where's your car?"
"It's not outside?" she asks looking at me and I shake my head, "He must have taken it so I wouldn't leave." she says not fazed.
"Let's get those cuts cleaned up." I say as I help her up and hold onto her side as she leans on me for support up the stairs.
"Here, sit here." I motion for her to sit on the kitchen stool. She looks at the wooden stool and I see her swallow.
"I...I'd rather just stand." She stutters.
"You sure?" I ask and notice she looks down trying to avoid my face.
"Are you hurting?" I say looking sadly at her realizing why she doesn't want to sit down.
"Yeah, more than anything else..." she says desolately.
I give her medicine that will help with the pain then bandage her wrists up and clean up all her wounds leaving her with ice on her swollen eye.
"We’re supposed to go out for dinner tonight remember but I think you should text Ronny and cancel." I tell her but she shakes her head.
"No I think I can cover up my face. If I stay home tonight Drake may come back. I know he won’t hurt me in front of anyone.” she says.
"You can't hide the swollen eye and all these cuts! Sure you can cover up some of the bruising but these cuts are too big to hide Lex. It’s obvious someone beat you." I try to rationalize with her.
"I think I can help those heal but please don't pass out when you see what I'm about to do." She says looking at me cautiously.
Her revelations frighten me.
I watch her as she closes her eyes and lifts her bruised hand over the swollen eye. Her hand lights up and small little fire flying looking orbs float over her hand and onto her face as her face slowly heals. The tiny lights start flickering and all of a sudden her body falls and I quickly catch her. I don’t know what to say, im in shock. This shouldn’t even surprise me…I mean werewolves exist so there has to be so much more out there that I can’t even comprehend.
"I'm too weak, I can't heal myself completely. Does it at least look better?" she asks and I look at her face, the swelling is completely gone and the large cuts are just light scratches now. She still has bruising on her neck that hasn't disappeared, there's a couple of bruises on her jawline and one on her forehead where the cut was.
"Most of it has healed but your body is still weak Lexi, how did you do that? What are you?" I ask her trying to understand what just happened. First wolves now this?
"I haven't figured that out yet, I just know I can heal wounds. I have to do this, Ronny will know something's up if I avoid her. You better go, she will be out of school soon. I'll see you tonight." She says going back into that empty shell of hers and limping back to her room.
I stand in the kitchen for a while thinking about Lexi, I can't believe Drake has done this. I walk towards her room and look through the gap in the door, she's lying on her side on the bare mattress that's still stained with dry blood and she's looking out the window as if deep in thought.
How am I going to keep this to myself? How can I keep this huge secret from Ronny, if she found out I knew about this and didn't tell her, Ronny will never forgive me...
CHAPTER 35:
ALEXIA POV
How did I end up like this? Could I possibly be anymore broken? Is this what he wanted? Did he want to break me completely…?
He was right, I deserve this…I deserved everything he did to me for betraying him. How could I ever doubt my love for him? Of course I love him. I betrayed him more than he could ever know, if he only knew how I actually felt about the other boys…he’d probably kill me.
Death sounds pretty good right now…no more pain…just an eternal sleep.
I don’t think I can handle the twins touching me right now. Talon should never have put doubts in my head, I know I can’t blame him and I only have myself to blame. I should have kept my hands to myself, I should of kept some sort of restraint. I knew there would be repercussions for my actions but I still kissed them knowing I would have to deal with Drake. All of this is on me.
I tried again this afternoon to heal my wounds. I healed a few of the cuts on my back and bottom. I stopped trying to heal myself when the backlash pain of the healing process crept up on me and it was worse than the beating itself. Clearly it’s easier for me to heal others and deal with their pain than to heal myself because that pain was more excruciating.
I delete all the messages in my mail box and place my phone behind me on the bed. I lay there for a couple more hours and look out of the window at the perfect peaceful sky that is now darkening, I try to block out the flashbacks of last night. I don’t have any tears left to cry…I’m all dried up. I hear a car outside and my body tenses as I lay there staring blankly at the window.
I hear the door open and keys being thrown on the kitchen counter. The heavy footsteps coming down the passage confirm my fear as it gets closer toward my room. I see Drake in the reflection of the window looking sadly down at me as I lay stiffly on the bed.
He saunters toward my cupboard and I can hear him shuffling around in there. He doesn’t say a word. He throws something on the bed behind me and I flinch as it hits the bed. I see him from the corner of my eye freeze when I do this, as he’s about to leave he spots my phone lying behind me, he picks it up and I watch in the reflection as he puts it in his back pocket, then leaves the room.
I stiffly turn my body to look at what he threw on my bed and I see clothes. I let out a whimper as I push my body into a seating position, there’s still welting on my bottom and bruises where the belt left it’s marking, it’s throbbing and uncomfortable. He picked out a pair of skinny jeans with a long sleeve sweater. With great difficulty I managed to put the clothes on, the denim from the skinny jeans rub against the carpet burn I have down my one thigh from being dragged on the carpet by my hair last night. I grimace at the memory and swallow down the pain. The long sleeve sweat shirt covers all the bruises that cover my arms, the bra and my underwear don’t do much for the tenderness on my back and ass but it will have to do. The bruise on my neck still shows too so I find a soft scarf to wrap around and cover it.
I use makeup to hide the remaining bruises on my face but I can’t hide the purple bruise on my one eyelid so I decide to cover it up with a dark makeup. There are also a few scratches where Drakes ring on his hand grazed my face when he dealt his punishment.
“I deserved everything I got for betraying him.” I repeat out loud as I looked at my face in the mirror, my choice of makeup covered most of it up leaving only two scratches but that can be hidden by my hair. I brush my hair but squirm when the brush touches my raw scalp.
I’m surprised he didn’t rip any of my hair out with the brutality he inflicted when he yanked at my hair last night. I love him. I deserved everything I got for betraying him. I repeat in my head to remind myself that it's my fault that I’m in the condition I am. I can’t bear to look at myself in the mirror any longer, I’m disgusted and disappointed in myself for letting things get as far as they did. I stumble over to lean on the bed as I put my pumps on. I look at my hands noticing my knuckles are also bruised from punching and smacking Drakes hard chest last night, I know they aren’t broken or sprained, just heavily bruised.
I deserved everything I got for betraying him…
I grab my
handbag and slowly make my way to wherever Drake is. I try to walk without limping but I can only hide it so much. The pain worsens as I try to walk up straight down the passage. I spot Drake sitting on the chair in the living room with his head in his hands, he senses me coming and he quickly straightens. I avoid looking at him and make my way toward the door. He closes the door behind him and I wait by his car for him to unlock it. I notice my car is still missing but I’m too afraid to ask about it so I'm just going to pray he brings it back before I leave on Monday morning.
He leans into open the door for me. I try to move as far away from him as possible hoping he doesn’t notice. He opens the door wide but before I can move to slide in he grabs my face hard with his one hand. I flinch and back away until I’m leaning against the car with him tightly against me.
“Say it.” he grits out and I know exactly what he wants me to say.
“I love you.” I say softly looking directly at his chest.
His fingers dig into my jaw more roughly. “Look at me Alexia, say it and mean it.” He spits out.
I haven’t looked at his face once since he got here and I don’t think I have the courage to see if his eyes are still black. Truth be told I'm too scared to actually face him after what he did.
I deserved everything I got for betraying him…I remind myself.
I slowly lift my eyes to see his dark ones looking back at me. “I love you Drake.”
I watch as he visibly relaxes and his hand softens on my face. His thumb is now caressing my jaw softly and his eyes transform back to hazel.
“Good girl.” He steps away from me giving me room.
I slowly step toward him trying not to let one inch of my body touch his, he steps away giving me my space and I slowly ease my body into the car. I let out a moan as I finally get my rigid body comfortable in the seat, he slams the door and I flinch.
Drake climbs into the driver’s seat while I’m trying to put my seat belt on. All my movements are slow and jerky, my whole body hurts from the bruises and the torture it went through. He seems to notice me struggling with the seat belt because he quickly snatches it and snaps it into its latch. I let out a quick breath and pull my hands away so I don’t have to touch him. If he noticed my response, he doesn’t show it.
As we drive along the streets to the restaurant, I lean my head on the head rest and stare out the window. He puts the radio on but it doesn’t ease the tension in the car.
I let out a whimper as he puts his hand on my leg above my knee. I look at his big hand as he starts to gently rub my leg. I can see him looking at me from the corner of my eye so I quickly look back out the window trying not to move away from his touch or look him in his eyes, I'm too fearful of what he might do. I hear him let out a deep sigh and I shiver hoping I’m not making him angry.
We reach the restaurant by the beach. As he shuts the car off and steps out, I open the door and attempt to scoot my lower body out of the car trying to numb out the pain because the medicine that Chloe gave me obviously isn’t working since I can barely get myself out of the car. It’s not like the medicine Georgina would have had, well…not that strong at least.
I try and try as fast as I can to get out before Drake makes his way to my side but with every move I make it feels like I'm being ripped open and all the closed wounds are opening up. I grab the side of the door and use all the strength I have to pull myself up as I let out a small wail. I quickly limp away from Drake as he moves closer to close the door for me. I lean against the light pole trying to slow my breaths; just the effort I put in trying to get out the damn car took all the energy from me.
How am I going to get through this night?
I hear the cars sound for the automatic alarm and he starts walking towards the restaurant leaving me behind. I try walk as fast as I can keep up. He heads in as I follow him inside watching my steps as I attempt to walk without limping. I don’t look at the people around me, I only look at my feet walking trying to focus on everything else but the pain I'm in now…one step, two step, one step, two step…
I notice Drake has stopped walking a few steps ahead of me as I look at his red sneakers and the bottoms of his black jeans. I slowly raise my eyes and see we are near the table where my friends are seated. They’re sitting out on the deck facing the ocean. I notice Ronny and Chloe sitting next to each other calling me over, Rachel and Mark are also there smiling and waving. I see the back of Jax’s head and I internally groan…this night couldn’t get better.
I avoid everyone's gaze as I make my way to the end of the table as far away from Jax as possible, I choose the chair nearest to the wooden railing facing the water and I have the perfect view of the ocean, the drop from the deck is pretty high.
I hold the chair as I slowly ease my way into it without causing a scene and I eventually get seated. Chloe moves one seat up so she is at the other head of the table right next to me with Ronny opposite me.
I look around at my friends, they obviously noticed I haven't given them my usually hugs when I greet them. I feel Drake sit in the chair next to me and I immediately tense as I feel his arm brushing against my left one, I clench my fist trying not to think about it. I feel soft hands wrap around my hand that’s holding tightly onto the wooden seat. I look up to see Chloe looking sadly at me as she mouths “you okay?” And I nod quickly. Then she glares at Drake next to me who’s currently chatting with Jax that is seated at the other end of the table.
“Are you enjoying living with Alex?” Rachel asks me, I look up to her, she’s obviously trying to start a conversation but I’m really not interested in small talk right now.
“It’s fine thanks, I love it.” I reply giving her a fake smile, I notice Jax at the corner of my eye as he immediately stops talking to Drake and waits to hear my answer but I avoid looking his way at all costs.
Drake puts his arm over the back of my chair and I instantly sit up straight making sure my back doesn’t touch him. He uses his hand and pulls me back into him, I close my eyes and wince as my shoulder comes into contact with his body.
I notice Ronny hasn’t said a word but she seems to be studying me, I look at her and she nods her head towards Drake who's back to having a conversation with the boys at the end of the table. She mouths, “Everything okay?”
I look up to make sure that Drake still has his head turned away from me before I look back at her and reply. I nod my head and try to smile but the smile doesn’t reach my lips.
I look down at the menu in front of me as the waitress comes to take our orders. She is shamelessly checking Drake out, Drake removes his arm from my shoulder and smirks at her as he now takes in full view of her body, from head to toe, Ronny lets out a growl in front of me as well as Rachel.
“Hi there, can I take your orders?” she says looking at each of us but her eyes linger over Drake. Drake orders for me before I can open my mouth to speak.
“She can order her own food Drake.” Ronny scowls.
“I’m paying, so no she can't.” Drake says bitterly not looking at me once, making everyone at the table seam uneasy. I look out into the ocean avoiding everyone’s scrutiny, including Jax’s.
“How about you Drake, What can I get you?” the pretty blond waitress smiles and winks at him.
I wince as he flirts back, “How about you…later?” he says softly with a smile but I can hear him on my side and I’m pretty sure judging by the growls that the rest of the table heard him too. However he avoids everyone as she writes down what I’m guessing is her number on a piece of paper and hands it to him.
I feel everyone’s eyes back on me so I turn my head to look out into the ocean once again. I look at Chloe who’s looking at me with that sad pity filled look and I give her quick smile to make her see I’m okay…even if I’m not.
I’m trying my hardest not to cry and break into one huge sob fest.
What happened to my Drake, my perfect beautiful Drake? What happened to what we had? How can he do this to me? Is this how
it’s going to be from now on? If I wasn’t so afraid of the repercussions I would haul ass out of here and never come back.
I stealthily wipe away a stray tear with my one finger, careful not to get any more attention that I'm already receiving and continue to look at the ocean tuning everyone else out and try to get my shit together. There's a reason he’s acting this way. I deserve everything he-
“What the fuck Drake? Lexi is sitting right there!” my thoughts are interrupted when Jax yells at Drake.
“So?” Drake says not giving a fuck that I witnessed the plans he was making to hook up with another girl later. The thought makes me tremble.
I look down at my fingers on my lap, everyone must be confused as to what is happening right now and why I'm just sitting here not saying anything.
Truth is… I’m too scared….
“What is wrong with you? Why are you two so distant? What happened? You weren’t like this yesterday when I saw you two together.” Ronny says slamming her hand on the table making me whimper. She frowns at me giving me a confused look. Chloe puts her hand over my trembling one.
“Dude she couldn’t have been that bad in bed?” Jax blurts out randomly making me grasp and whip my head to look at him along with the other girls. I look over at him wide eyed but he turns his head away as he looks at a couple of the other people that sit around the restaurant clearly avoiding me.
Does he know what Drake did to me? Why else would he think something like that? Why would he even say something like that?
I pull my hand away from Chloe’s and fiddle with the bottom of my scarf. I can’t help the few tears escape when I think of how harsh Jax is to me; I never expected him to be so cruel. Then again, I never expected Drake to painfully force me to love him either.
Guess I deserve that too…
Alexia Eden Page 29
