Page 84 of A Hurt So Good

I glance over at Denz’s Mustang in the driveway. His precious fucking Mustang. That’s when I see the baseball bat and quickly pick it up. I stumble my way over to the car, and I scream out loud as I slam the bat down onto the hood. Over and over, I scream out my anger and take it out on his car.

“Fuck all of you!” I scream as I bust out the front window. I move to the back window next and do the same before the headlights go.

When my head is spinning and I’m out of breath, I glance at the door to see Sasha standing there watching me. She doesn’t say a word; she just backs up and closes the door.

My ribs ache, and my head is spinning, but fuck this whole neighborhood. I stumble my way down the street, knowing I couldn’t call a cab if I wanted to. I left my phone at home on purpose. So they couldn’t track me. So I walk.

Even though my head spins and the world around me shifts, I keep going. Once I cross the street, I stumble, trip over myself,and fall onto my knees. The rocks beneath me rips the skin off my knees as I sob a little. My whole body aches as I shove myself up and keep going.

It takes forever for me to make it back to the house. The same house I debated not coming back to. Why should I? No one wants me here anymore. My mom is gone, and they’ve done this to me.

Jarrod will help me, though, and that’s the only thing that has me dragging myself up the stairs and into the front door. I stumble inside, and as soon as the door closes behind me, I hear War.

“Where the fuck have you been?” He roars, the noise thundering through my already shaken skull. I raise my head so they can see my face. All three of them pale before anger takes over. I stumble further into the house when they try to come toward me all at once.

“No! Stay the fuck back!” I can’t take anymore. I can’t make it any further. I drop to my knees in the middle of the room.

“What the fuck happened?” Denz growls loudly. I don’t answer them. They start toward me once more, but I raise my hand weakly.

“Don’t you fucking touch me!” I scream at the top of my lungs. They stop moving at once when I hear someone else coming into the room.

“What’s going on?” I hear Jarrod’s voice. Now I look to him. His eyes widen as he takes in my face. I can only imagine what that must look like. His eyes turn to the boys before he quickly moves toward me. He leans down and scoops me into his arms, carrying me toward the steps. The guys are pissed. I can hearthem yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs, but I don’t care what they have to say.

Jarrod doesn’t take me to my room, and I’m grateful for that because I know the guys would only barge their way in. Instead, he takes me to his room and slams the door, locking it behind him. He walks over and lays me gently on the bed.

“I’m going to have the doctor come look at you,” he says.

“No. No doctors. You can look at me,” I tell him.

“Arya, you need a doctor. Something could be broken,” he tells me, but I shake my head. He sighs and turns on the light next to the bed so he can see better. He has me turn my head so he can look at my face. He presses on spots that make me wince.

“I’m sorry,” he says softly but continues. “I need to remove your shirt,” he tells me. He hasn’t seen them either. I didn’t want him to, just like I didn’t want the guys to see them, but right now, I’m hurting, in pain, and I’m too weak to say no. I sit up the best I can and let him pull my now blood-stained shirt over my head. Jarrod’s eyes move over me as he tosses the shirt to the floor.

“Your ribs are bruising already. You really need a doctor, Arya.” I shake my head once more as he reaches for me. Once again, he pokes and prods at me, trying to make sure nothing is broken. Sobs and cries rip out of me as he moves over my ribs.

“I don’t think they’re broken. They feel in place,” he says. I nod my head. That’s a fucking plus.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. I want to know who did this to you,” he growls.

“It’s a long story,” I manage to say.

“Then start talking, Arya. I have all night.”

“You have work to do,” I tell him. He smirks at me and shakes his head.

“That’s not happening. You’re not getting rid of me. Did the guys have anything to do with this?” he asks me. What do I tell him? The truth? Everything? I don’t know what to say and what to keep to myself. At this point, I don’t really want to tell him anything.

“I’d rather not talk about it,” I tell him.

“Arya, you wouldn’t let them near you. If they had anything to do with this, I swear to God!” He snaps, but I shake my head.

“Fine. I’ve been getting strange messages for a while now. I thought they were from Rachel, so I went over there and confronted her. I was outnumbered. She had her friends there.”

“What messages? What did they say?”

“They started weird. Like they knew where I was and what I was doing. Like someone was watching me. The ones I got today were of the guys. They … They were all with different girls,” I tell him. He sits back a little, running his hand through his hair.

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