The Story of Us

by Rebecca Harner

  “You let her go!” I started toward the truck but he drove off. I stood there for a moment, watching him drive away with the love of my life. I knew where he was going. There was only one place he would take her.

  I ran back to my truck and sped down the road.

  The old tree house. Ryder’s dad built it for him and me when we were younger. When we were still friends. It was on their property but set back in the woods. I haven’t been there since I was a kid, but I heard the stories of all the girls he takes up there. He was not going to do that to Violet.

  Violet

  All I could see was darkness. The left side of my face was hurting like hell. I could barely open my eyes. Where was I?

  I was in a very small room. Everything was wooden inside and there was a door in the middle of the floor. Why was I in a tree house? Then all of a sudden, the memories flooded back to me.

  I tried to get up but my hands were tied to a pole behind me. Me feet were tied together as well. I was trying to pull my hand out of the knot but it was no use. Tears started to roll down my face. Why is this happening to me?

  The door in the floor swung open and Ryder climbed into the room. He had a huge grin on his face and was laughing.

  “I told you that I had plans for you.” He walked over to the other side of the room and rummaged around in a drawer.

  “You can’t do this to me. Someone had to see you. You are not going to get away with this.” I was trying to sound strong and tough, but inside I was scared to death.

  “Trust me, I will. I never get caught.” He walked over to me and brushed the hair out of my face. He started to bring his hand down my body and I spit on him.

  He jumped back and I saw him getting really mad. He came over and slapped me, hard. I felt the tears starting to form in my eyes but I tried to stay strong.

  “Help! Help!” I screamed, but it was no use.

  He shoved duct tape over my mouth and proceeded to undress.

  All of a sudden the door swung open and I saw someone tackle Ryder to the floor.

  Nash

  After I pulled up to Ryder’s old house, I sprinted toward the woods. I heard screaming and I knew it was Violet.

  I threw open the door and tackled Ryder to the floor. I started punching him and then shoved him against the wall.

  “What the hell are you doing?! You will not touch her ever again.” I was pissed and he tried to hit me, but I was stronger than he was. I punched him one more time before he passed out.

  I ran over to Violet and ripped off the duct tape and untied the ropes. She hugged me real tight and was bawling her eyes out.

  “I’m getting you out of here. Let’s go.” She wouldn’t let go of me, so I carried her back out to the car.

  “Thank you. For saving me.” She was looking up at me, and even though her makeup was smeared and her hair was messed up, she still looked beautiful.

  After I got back in the truck she scooted over and sat right next to me. She had her head on my shoulder as I drove her back home.

  “Nobody’s home tonight. Can you spend the night?” she asked.

  “Of course. Anything for you.” She gave me a tight hug and we went inside. We went straight to her room and she just sat on her bed, staring at the wall.

  “Why don’t you go take a shower. Maybe you’ll start to feel a little better,” I said to her. She gave me a small nod and headed into the bathroom.

  I went on my phone to check my Vine, and saw that people at the party had posted Violet’s reaction to finding out about me.

  All the comments were terrible. People were calling her stupid and girls were calling her fat, ugly, and a slut.

  I threw my phone on the bed and put my head in my hands. I really, really liked Violet, and it killed me that people were saying those things about her.

  She came out of the bathroom and sat down next to me and ran her fingers through my hair. That felt so damn good.

  I picked her chin up with my fingers and looked her straight in the eye. “I’m sorry for everything. I’m sorry for not telling you about Vine. I’m sorry for what Ryder did to you. I’m so sorry. I know you already have a lot going on in your life and tonight just made it a thousand times worse. You didn’t deserve any of this and I feel terrible for everything that happened.”

  She just looked at me and I saw the bruises she had on her face. Her right eye was all black-and-blue and she had horrible bruises on her cheeks. I put my head back down in my hands but she grabbed my head and kissed me.

  Violet

  Nash was my hero tonight. Here he was sitting on my bed and apologizing for what had happened tonight. I couldn’t take it anymore. I grabbed his head and kissed him.

  At first he was surprised, but then he kissed me back. I felt sparks rush through my body. He was a really good kisser. He leaned back and smiled at me. “Violet, I—”

  I didn’t let him finish. “No. Before you say what you’re about to say, just listen to me. I really, really like you, Nash. After tonight, after what you did, I couldn’t hold in my feelings anymore.”

  “Violet, I . . .” He looked in my eyes and paused, and my heart sank. He doesn’t like me. “I like you too. A lot, actually.” My heart was racing again and he leaned in and kissed me.

  We didn’t make out. We just kissed. After that, though, we lay down and went to sleep. He wrapped his arms around my waist and put his head on my shoulder. Was it possible to fall in love with someone you just met?

  Nash

  I woke up with Violet in my arms. I started to smile but was suddenly dragged off the bed. Someone was beating the shit out of me and I couldn’t get up to defend myself.

  “What did you do to my little sister! You hit my sister? I’m going to kill you!” He started kicking me in the ribs and I began to cough up blood. What was going on?

  Violet

  I woke up to screaming and saw Hayden beating Nash nearly to death. “Hayden, stop! What are you doing?” I jumped on top of him to make him stop.

  “He hit you. You have bruises all over your face!” He went back to attack Nash but I stopped him.

  “Nash didn’t do this to me, Hayden! Nash was the one who saved me.” He looked up at me with confusion on his face. “Ryder kidnapped me last night and did this. I wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for Nash.” I told him everything that had happened. Hayden looked at me, then at Nash.

  “I’m sorry, bro. I thought you did this to her.” He helped Nash off the floor and sat him on my bed. He looked at me again, then stormed out of the house.

  I ran to the bathroom to get Nash a washcloth to clean his face.

  “Well, now we look the same,” I said. He chuckled a little bit and wiped the blood off his face. I could tell he was in pain.

  “Hayden is very protective of me. You don’t want to get him mad, either.” I started running my fingers through his hair to calm him down.

  “I can tell. I wonder if he is going to go look for Ryder.” He started to rub my back and I laid my head on his shoulder. We sat around for the rest of the day watching movies. Hayden hadn’t come back yet and I was starting to get worried.

  My parents texted me that they wouldn’t be back until Tuesday, which made me relax. Hopefully they wouldn’t see my bruises and I wouldn’t have to repeat the story again.

  Nash and I spent the rest of the weekend together at my house. We didn’t do anything; we just hung out. I felt so safe around him and I knew that he would always protect me. But we were both dreading Monday and what would happen at school.

  My brother had to practically drag me out of my bed Monday morning. “C’mon. You have to go today. Mom and Dad are going to be pissed if you don’t.”

  “I don’t care. Today is going to be awful.” I slipped back into my bed and pulled the covers up over my head.

  “If you don’t
go today, it’ll just be worse tomorrow.” Sadly, he was right. If I ditched, the next day would be a hell of a lot worse.

  “Fine. Where were you this weekend anyway?” I asked him. I forced myself up and headed over to my closet.

  “There were some things I wanted to sort out but it never happened.” I knew what “things” he wanted to sort out.

  Once again, my big brother was trying to come to my rescue and be my hero. Too bad Nash already took that title this time. “Just leave Ryder alone. Nash already took care of him and I don’t want this to become an even bigger deal.” I turned to him and was practically begging him not to do anything.

  Hayden just walked straight out of my room and slammed the door shut. I rolled my eyes and hopped into the shower.

  Nashty: Hey. Do you want me to drive you today?

  Violet-Boo: Sure. Pick me up in 20 minutes.

  I stood in front of the mirror and looked at the marks still on my face. My black eye was almost gone and I was able to cover up most of it with concealer. You could still tell that I got hit, though. And my bruises still looked pretty bad. Great. People were going to think I was abused.

  I heard a car honk and headed out the door.

  Nash was waiting in his truck with a smile on his face—a face that looked a whole lot better than mine did. Like with me, though, you could tell that he got beat up.

  “Hey, beautiful. Your face looks better.” I knew he was just trying to make me feel a little more upbeat, but it wasn’t working.

  “Please. It’s still extremely noticeable. My bruises haven’t even started to fade yet. How is your face already looking better?” He lifted up his shoulder and gave me that “I don’t know” face.

  “So what do we say, if people ask?” I glanced at him, hoping he would give me a good answer.

  “Just tell them that you don’t care about Vine because you liked me for me. Right? That’s what you told me yesterday.”

  “Well, I know that. But what about our faces and Ryder?” Just saying his name gave me chills, and the horrible memory flooded back into my mind.

  “Just tell them that some guys at our school are assholes and I’m your hero.” Wasn’t he just so cocky?

  We both laughed in the car and our eyes caught each other’s. He stopped laughing and his eyes moved from my eyes to my lips. He started to lean in and I closed my eyes until our lips met.

  Once again, I felt sparks and a surge of electricity rushed through my body.

  He pulled away and looked straight into my eyes. Running his fingers through my hair, he said, “Violet, when we kiss, I feel sparks fly. I know that sounds pretty cheesy, right? But I really like you. Will you do me the honor of being my girlfriend?”

  I gave him a huge hug and whispered into his ear, “Of course. A thousand times, yes.”

  Nash

  I grabbed her hand and we intertwined our fingers. We headed straight through the school’s doors and tried not to look at anybody.

  I could see out of the corner of my eye people glancing at us and whispering to their friends. When I would look at them, they would quickly turn away or they would give Violet and me dirty looks.

  “Everybody’s looking at us,” Violet said.

  I could tell she was getting nervous because she grabbed my hand tighter. “Just ignore them.” We headed straight to our lockers and stopped to glance at everybody around us. I saw Annabelle emerge from the crowd and walk toward us.

  “Hey, guys. I want to apologize for Friday night. I never wanted to cause an issue between you guys. I just thought, well, I thought you already knew.” No matter how much I disliked Annabelle, she was still a good person. Just because she and I had so many issues didn’t mean she would take it out on Violet. She was a kind and forgiving person, and that was why I used to like her.

  “It’s okay, Annabelle. We worked everything out,” Violet said. She smiled over at me and I grabbed her by the waist. Annabelle smiled at us when she saw my hand around Violet. “That’s good. I’m really happy for you guys.” She walked back down the hall and headed into a classroom.

  Violet

  Nash walked me to my first-period class, which was Geometry. He said good-bye and gave me a quick, tight hug. I wanted him to come back and stay by my side. Everything felt complete when he was with me.

  I sat down next to Annabelle, who was talking to a girl named Angelina. I had never talked to her and all I knew about her was that she was a cheerleader. Annabelle turned to me and smiled, looking at my face.

  “So, what happened to you?” She was examining my bruises and I winced when she touched my face.

  “Let’s just say some guys at this school can get a little too rough when they are drunk.” I saw Annabelle and Angelina’s faces go into shock.

  “One of the guys at our school did that to you?” Angelina shouted. The rest of the kids in the classroom turned around and stared at us. I looked down and I could feel their eyes burning straight through me.

  “Yep,” I said quietly, and pulled out my books. Luckily, the teacher came in before anybody else could say anything. When the teacher turned her back to us, Annabelle leaned over to me. “Nash didn’t do this to you, did he?”

  I looked at her with wide eyes. “Of course not. He was actually the one who helped me.”

  “I hear whispering back there.” The teacher turned her head toward us and gave us one of those not-so-friendly looks. I quickly looked back down at my books and she continued on with her lesson.

  The rest of the morning couldn’t end quickly enough. Annabelle stayed by my side the entire time because we had a bunch of classes together.

  I heard people talking about me and Nash, and they were staring at me when I walked down the halls. Rumors were spreading that after the party, Nash and I got in a fight, like an actual fight, about the whole Vine thing. Then, later in the day, a rumor spread that Ryder hit Nash and saved me from him. This was really hurting me. I knew Ryder was starting these rumors to upset Nash and me. Hadn’t people seen me and him this morning?

  I sat with Hayden at lunch like every other day. I had no friends in my lunch period and he was the only one I knew. He told me that some of his friends wanted him to sit with them, but he said that he would rather be with his sister. I thought he was so sweet. We had a very close relationship and I could tell him anything.

  Hayden and I were talking about track when a bunch of guys jumped into the seats next to us. They must have been Hayden’s friends because they started talking to him.

  “Guys, you know I wanted to sit with my sister today.” He put his arm around me and pushed his seat closer to mine. All of the guys at the table stared at me, and I looked at all of them one by one. You could tell they were typical jocks by their physical appearance. No wonder Hayden was friends with all of them.

  “Oh, I’ve been meaning to tell you something. I talked to Ryder today,” Hayden said. My face went expressionless and my heart started to race. Any time someone said his name, I would get nervous and start to shake a little bit.

  “He won’t touch you again. I promise. I set him straight.” I gave him a big hug. My eyes started to water but I held in the tears. When we pulled apart, all of the guys were still staring at me. I had forgotten they were there.

  “Wait, Ryder did that to you? Everyone was saying it was Nash who hit you!” one of them said.

  I shook my head. “No, it was Ryder, and Nash was the one who helped me.” The horrible memory flooded back into my mind and I grabbed Hayden’s arm tight.

  “Well, I am so sorry that happened to you. He is such an asshole.” All of the guys had sad looks on their faces. I was going to say something but the intercom interrupted me.

  “Would Nash Grier, Ryder Bass, and Violet Burns please report to the principal’s office—now. Thank you.” Everyone in the cafeteria looked at me. Hayden grabbed my arm a
nd walked me out of the room.

  “Just tell them the truth. People need to know what really happened.” Hayden gave me a hug and headed back into the cafeteria.

  Violet

  I’ve never been sent to the principal’s office before, so I was definitely nervous. When I got there, Ryder and Nash were seated outside the door.

  Nash was bent over and shaking his leg. It looked like he was nervous, too. I hoped we weren’t going to get in trouble. I mean, Ryder was the one who should be punished.

  Ryder was turned away from me, but when I walked closer he looked at me. His face was swollen a little bit and he had a black eye. You could also see he had a cut lip. Hayden had definitely sorted him out.

  I wanted to laugh at him so bad, but I knew now was not the time.

  The door swung open and the secretary stepped out. She told us that the principal wanted to speak to each of us privately and then speak to all of us as a group.

  She brought us into the outer office and sent me in first to speak to the principal. I’ve only met him once and he seemed pretty strict.

  I walked in and he motioned for me to take a seat. There was a woman there as well; she seemed a lot kinder than he did. She introduced herself and told me she was the guidance counselor.

  “Hello, Ms. Burns. There has been a lot of talk about you today. You are not in trouble.” I felt a sense of relief after he said that. “But I wanted to check in with you and clear up the rumors. We take violence very seriously at our school, but we have no control over it if it’s not on school grounds. Would you like to tell us who did this to you?”

  “Ryder, he did it, sir.” The principal wrote something down while nodding his head.

  “And what exactly happened?” he asked.

  Hayden told me to tell the truth, so that’s what I did. I told him everything: the party, Ryder trying to force himself on me and hitting me, the tree house, and when Nash found me. Talking about the horrible memory brought tears to my eyes.