Page 101 of Broken Bonds

Crouching in front of me, he sneered, “Stop making a scene, Celine.”

“It hurts, Julian. I’m not making a scene!” I shouted at him, sobbing. Helping me to my feet, he swayed as he led me to the front door.

“I’ll take you to the hospital. Now shut up already. I wasn’t holding it that tight.”

I just continued to cry, biting back as many sobs as I could so I wouldn’t anger him further.

Three hours later, there was a white cast on my hand, and I was lying in bed with Amber. “How bad is the pain?” she asked, handing me a glass of rum and Coke.

“Ten out of ten,” I said, taking one long sip, finishing the drink. “Another, please?” I slurred. We had been drinking for the last hour. She nodded and got up from the bed. Mom and Dad weren’t home since they went on a week-long trip to the newly restored beach house. I didn’t want to tell them my boyfriend broke my wrist anyway. I didn’t want to tell anyone.

Julian cried in the hospital when the doctor confirmed the break, drunken tears and apologies tumbling from his wobbling lips. “I didn’t mean to. I’m so sorry,” he repeated over and over, his head in his hands as I cried, pain radiating from my bruised and swollen wrist. “How can I fix this? What can I do for you to forgive me?” he pleaded, landing on his knees at my bedside as they put the white cast on my wrist after giving me a high dose of pain medicine.

“Stop hurting me, please,” I whispered to him, my voice cracking.

“It was an accident; I promise.” He kissed my lips, then my wet cheeks, tenderly wiping away the tears.

My buzzing phone pulled me from the memory, and I looked over to the bedside table. Picking it up, I saw another text from Julian.

Julian: I’m sorry baby. I love you; I don’t want to hurt you.

Julian: How will you ever forgive me?

Julian: Does it hurt?

Julian: Why didn’t you tell me I was being too rough?

Julian: Baby?

Closing the messages, I set my phone down and stared up at the ceiling. Ace would never have hurt me like this.

A hot tear rolled down my cheek at the thought of him. Pulling up his number on the messages app, I quickly typed out the three words that had been on my mind for weeks now.

Me: I miss you.

chapter thirty-five

CELINE

The next morning, it hurt to open my eyes. With a groan, I sat up and blearily looked down at my heavy hand and the white cast covering it.

Julian… I sighed and reached up, rubbing sleep from my eyes. I really hoped I didn’t see him today at school. I wouldn’t be able to handle it.

Amber was falling off the bed, her hair standing up as she loudly snored. On the table beside her head were two empty crystal glasses. How much had we drank last night? A glance at the Captain Morgan bottle told me we’d emptied it.

“Wake up.”

Nudging her with my leg, she grumbled out a response but didn’t move. “Shh, sleeping over here,” she mumbled, her words almost unintelligible.

“We have class in an hour. Now, get your butt out of bed. Someone has to drive us.” I held up my cast-covered arm with a scowl.

Getting Amber out of bed took another ten minutes, which then made us late for class with no time to shower or have breakfast. I hadn’t taken the pain pills on the kitchen counter,and the continuous throbbing in my wrist reminded me of my mistake all morning.

I took the long way to my class with Julian, trying to prolong the confrontation I knew was going to happen, but to my surprise, he wasn’t waiting for me outside like usual. I sat in my seat in the back and waited, trying to ignore the curious looks from the rest of the students. The professor was late today, so everyone mingled until he finally walked in twenty minutes later.

Still no Julian.

The class whizzed by, and then everyone filed out of the room with a scowl after the professor announced another quiz would take place tomorrow. As I was gathering my things, a shadow loomed over me. I looked up, expecting Julian, but saw one of his teammates instead.

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