Heartbreaker

Don't Be Such An Ignorant Bitch (7)

Aiden

The phone goes dead but I'm frozen in shock. My body not comprehending what just happened.

She called me.

Me.

For help.

Snapping out of my reverie I dash towards my car, heart racing, my hands clammy. Speeding towards the road near the care home I followed her to last time, I see her familiar purple car and pull up in front of her.

I bail out, sprinting towards the driver door. Swinging the door open I see her broken frame slumped in the car, she's gasping for breath with tears streaming down her face. Her slim shoulders are shaking violently.

I'm scared to touch her.

Scared to make it worse.

"Layla?" I whisper, kneeling down on the concrete by her door.

"He's coming back," she says hoarsely shuddering.

"Who?"

"Him,"

"Who's him, Layla?"

"Please, don't let him get me again."

"Who?" I say, furrowing my eyebrows, who is she talking about?

"Kevin!" She screams I lean back. Nearly toppling over.

"What did he do Layla?"

"Bad things. He's coming back, he said I'd never get away. He makes me feel dirty." She sobs. I have never seen someone look so broken. And then It dawns on me, so painfully. It makes me feel dizzy and mad. Fuming. Raging. And it makes perfect sense.

She was raped.

No wonder she was so ... Bitchy.

Oh god, I kissed her. I fucking kissed her and made all of this happen.

"Layla, I'm not going to let him hurt you again. Why don't you come back to mine?"
She nods, "Can I pick you up, Layla?" I ask softly. She pauses then slowly nods again.

I gently take her in my arms, cradling her to my chest. And put her in my car, driving home carefully in silence. Both of us wrapped in our own dark thoughts.

Carrying her up to the spare room, again, I look at her peaceful pale face. So beautiful yet so damaged.
So perfect on the outside but on the inside a shattered mess.

All my plans of teaching her a lesson disappear. 

I put her on the bed and pull the cover over her, she stirs, shuddered and starts crying again.
"NO! GO AWAY, PLEASE, I DON'T WANT THIS. NOOOO"
She thrashes around, kicking off the quilt.

"Layla, he isn't here. It's just me. Focus on my voice, it's me. Not him. Layla." I soothe, she stills opening her chocolate troubled eyes. 

I sit there, on the edge of the bed. Watching as her breathing goes back to normal, her shaking stops and her eyes flutter close. 

I stand and walk towards the door, guilt eating away at me. I did this.

But why did she call me?

"Please don't leave." Her voice stops me in my tracks, I turn.

"What?" 

"Stay." She mumbles, half asleep. "Don't touch me." 

I take off my shoes and lay next to her on the bed, leaving lots of space. I lay flat on my back, staring at the white ceiling. I can tell she isn't sleeping, I know she doesn't want to. I understand that she would rather be tired than face her demons. I know.

I'm just dozing off when I feel the bed shift, Layla making herself comfortable, and her soft words that make my heart throb with emotions I never wanted to feel.

"I don't know what's happening, Aiden. What are you doing to me? I'm scared."

And then ... darkness.

Layla

The thing about nightmares is that you can't prepare for them. They sneak up on you when you're most vulnerable, wrecking havoc and mayhem when you're totally defenceless. 

So when I awake from terrifying memories, that regularly haunt me, sweaty and gasping for breath, my body is still grasping the fact that, yet again, I have been attacked when I least expected. 

Surely I have taken enough these 24 hours? 

I honestly thought my body was too exhausted to dream let alone torture me all night. 

Looking around I notice that I'm in Aiden's spare room again, but something's different. A steady heat warming the right side of my body, I turn slowly a see him sleeping peacefully. My usually frozen heart warms a little. 

I hate it. 

I get up slowly, trying not to wake his sleeping body and stop.

Wait.

Why am I here? 

I wrack my brain for any recollection of how I ended up with Aiden sleeping in the same bed as me.

Yesterday's events come crashing down on me.

My panic attack.

Calling Aiden.

 Asking for Aiden to stay with me.

What is wrong with me? 

I carry on my journey to the door, 

"Where are you going?" A sudden stab of guilt hits me, I feel so bad and embarrassed for him seeing me like that. I'm used to dealing with it myself. 

"Getting out of your hair," I replied, hand froze on the door handle. 

"What do you mean?" He says softly,

"You don't have to look after me, I can look after myself. I'm sorry for bothering you yesterday, I didn't know who to call. I don't want your pity."

"You don't have my pity. You are one of the bravest people I know, you don't need pity. I can help."

"No, you can't"

"Yes. Yes, I can. Don't be such an ignorant bitch." At that moment the phone in the nightstand buzzes, I realise it's mine when Aiden picks it up.

He freezes, going an abnormal shade of red.

"HE FUCKING HIT YOU?!" He screams, jumping off the bed, shaking.

"What?" I'm honestly so confused.

"Your own fucking dad hit you? I'm going to kill him."

"Oh, er. It's nothing, an accident. Chill out.Why do you even care?"

"I don't know why I care! That's whats so bad! I want to sleep with you, make you trust me and then break you so you know the pain your put boys through, to stop you being such a bitch but that plan has flew out the window with my self-respect. Now I want to help, make sure you don't get hurt again but I can't, can I?"

"See you are pitying me! You just said so yourself!"

"No, because I have felt like this before I kissed you, hence why I did!"

"I'm sorry"

"what?"

"I'm sorry that I can't be the girl for you."

And I truly meant it, he makes me stronger while making me weak. It's weird.

"You can be the right girl,"

"No, I can't, I'm not the right girl for anyone. Every time something bad happens I break, I then pick myself up and fix myself. But I have been broken too many times. I'm unfixable. Hollow. I'm too deep into the darkness and I don't want you to be dragged in too." With that said, I walk out the door.

I don't know if I heard his soft broken words or it was just my imagination, 

"I'm already in the darkness, I need you to get out."