Accidentally Hurting You✓

Amelia

I walked into class and sat down at my desk. Mason hadn't been that aggressive before. Never would I have thought that he'd lay his hands on me like that.

And Hunter... Why did he save me? How did he even know Mason would hit me? Why did he care anyways? Nothing was making sense anymore.

"Mia, please tell me that you didn't cheat on Mason," Lyla said as she sat next to me.

"I didn't cheat on Mason." I said flatly.

"Good. Are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm great," I said, studying for science and math. Tomorrow Hunter had to come to my house for the science project. Fun.

"That's my girl. You wanna go shopping this weekend?" She asked.

"Sure," I shrugged and our English teacher shut us up.

**

A few classes later, a girl came up to me, showing me a video of Mason pummeling Hunter.

"Have you heard?" She asked.

"No," I shook my head, dumbfounded by the fact that Hunter wasn't even trying to fight back.

Enraged, I went to find Mason and he was at his locker with his friends, Romeo and Odyssey. He smiled at me but when he saw my angry expression, his turned confused.

"What the hell?!" I shoved Mason.

"Hey!" He grabbed my hands. "What's wrong?"

"This!" I shoved my phone in his face, the video playing. "THIS IS WHAT'S WRONG! WHY DID YOU DO THIS?!"

"Because..." He looked around. "Come with me." He walked me outside the school since it was our free period and I folded my arms.

"I've seen how he ignored you. I've also seen how you hated it. And when we started dating, he suddenly had an interest in you and..."

His sentence trailed off and he sighed.

"Okay. When I was sixteen, I dated this girl. She was really nice, funny... But then her ex came back. And he was awful to her. He beat her, forced her into stuff... But she saw a good side in him, apparently. He swooped in while we were dating and one day, he went too far and killed her. I'm not saying Hunter would kill you, but I can't lose you. I like you. You're the kind of girl my mom would've loved to meet. But since my dad is an out-of-town worker all the time, she left him. And two years ago, she died of cancer. So it's just my dad and I. So it's just me."

My heart broke for him. He'd never opened up like this before and to hear it all just made my heart break into a million pieces.

"That doesn't give you a pass to beat up my friend."

"I know, I'm sorry. I just don't want to lose you," he took one of my hands.

I retracted my hand. "Why were you gonna hit me?"

He raised a hand and ran it through his already disheveled hair.

"Before my parents split, their fights usually ended up in violence. It's what I grew up with. I know it's wrong, but I haven't learned how to fix it." he explained.

"Did you hit your last girlfriend?"

"No." he shook his head. So just me, I thought to myself.

"I need to process all this."

He nodded. "Okay, I just... I'm really sorry, Amelia."

I walked away and ditched school, not caring anymore. I needed to drive for a while, just to clear my head.