Page 69 of Falling

I bite my tongue so hard that it almost bleeds. I take a deep breath in before turning around. I can do this. I can take the high road. I can walk out of here and leave him to crawl back into whatever hole he came from. If I mess up now, I could be off the team for good. I walk closer to the door before I hear him again behind me.

“Yeah, go home and cry to your little slut,” Jake shouts.

I turn back around.

Fuck this.

22

WREN

PRETTY BOY, DUMB GIRL

I'm standing outsidein the cold, shivering as I wait for Miles to come back from doing whatever he was doing. I’ve tried calling him, but he hasn’t picked up. I could walk home from here. He drove us here, and if something has happened, I don’t want to leave him alone. So the least I can do is be here when he comes out. I sit down on the curb outside the sports center and wait for him.

“Wren.” I hear a quiet voice from behind me. I stand up, turn, and I see him. Miles walks toward me slowly, limping like he’s been injured. “You waited.”

“Of course I did. You’re my ride back home.” He comes closer to me, and the bright street light shines on his face. That’s when I see the bruises. His right eye is shut while marks and bruises cover his face and neck. I reach out to touch his face, but he pulls his head back. “Jesus, Miles. What happened?”

“Can you drive? My eye hurts,” he murmurs, holding out his keys to me.

I nod and get into the driver's seat of his truck.

I’ve never been in this kind of situation before. I’ve never had to take care of someone like this. Me and the girls take care of ourselves fine, but when we do need each other it’s not because we’ve been punched in the face.

We drive in silence, and it eats away at me.

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” I ask. He shrugs and looks out of his window.

I want to ask him again, to get him to open up to me, but he clearly doesn’t want to speak, and I’m not one to push. So I focus on the road and drive back to his house.

It’s freakishly quiet as we walk up the stairs to his bedroom, and I wish I could do something to ease the tension.

He sits on his bed, resting his back against the headboard, his legs stretched out straight. He's barely said a word since we left campus. Which is worrying since I can never get him to shut up usually.

I run down into the kitchen, feeling helpless as I put some ice into a ziplock. When I get into his room again, he's still sitting there, his eyes closed, and he’s taking in deep breaths.

I put my knees on both sides of his legs, straddling him but still hovering as I press the ice to his face.

He winces. “Sorry,” I whisper. I put the ice down, touching and examining his face carefully. “What happened, Milesy?”

“It doesn’t hurt that bad. You should see the other guy. I’m fine,” he says, trying to be cheerful as his lip twitches. I tut and shake my head.

“Oh, you’re fine?” I gently prod my finger on his cheek. He hisses. “This looks really bad. We should get it checked out. I can drive you to the hospital.”

“I’m fine, really,” he argues, more convincingly this time. The tightness in my chest pinches as I look at him, opening and closing my mouth, trying to make my brain say something. “Can you stay tonight? I need you here.”

After what happened in the woods, I told myself to be more cautious around him, but then things like this happen. Where he says that he needs me in that whiny voice of his. Or he says “please” and flutters his eyelashes at me. Or when he convinces me to do things that I said I wouldn’t. Like wearing his jersey and straddling him as I tend to his face.

“Okay,” I say, and he smiles wide. “I’ll stay, but no funny business.”

“Funny business? What does that even mean?” He blinks up at me, trying to be as innocent as he can, but I know better.

“You know what I mean.”

I inspect his eye, trying to do my best to see what can help. It’s gone down since we’ve been here, but it’s still harsh.

I put the packet down again to give his eye a rest from the cold. It’s not swollen, just badly bruised underneath. He’ll probably have a black eye in the morning though.

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