Page 26 of Protective Love

"Honestly, I'd be surprised if he isn't trying to force himself to move so that he can do it without any help right now," she replies quietly as her footsteps sound across the room.

I stay silent as I grab the make-up bag and then turn away from her, closing my locker and walking back towards the bathroom.

"I want to apologise!" Sophia blurts, stopping me in my tracks. "I need to apologise on Jaylen's behalf, because obviously he can't, but I know him well enough to know that he's currently lying in his hospital room right now beating himself up because he's upset you."

I sigh and push myself to move forward.

"Well, you can go back and tell him that he hasn't upset me," I tell her. "I'm fine, and I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Girl, come on," she says, hurrying behind me and pushing her way into the bathroom with me. "It's obvious you're not okay."

Our eyes connect through the mirror in front of me and she raises her brows, cocking her head to the side.

When I don't say anything, she sighs and moves to stand beside me.

"Are you in some sort of trouble?"

I busy myself with pulling my make-up from my bag and shake my head before I start applying it.

"Do you need any help?" she asks, her eyes flitting down to the bruise I'm currently covering back up.

I shake my head again as I clamp my teeth together and continue applying make-up to my face, hoping that she'll leave me alone and stop prodding me for answers.

"You wouldn't tell me anyway if you needed help, would you?"

I huff and turn to face her.

"I'm okay and I don't need any help. Thank you for being concerned, but really, there's no reason for you to be. What happened was an accident. You said yourself, it's dangerous for us women out there when we're alone," I tell her, hoping that she'll accept that as an answer and leave.

She analyses me for a minute before she nods.

"So, it was just an accident that happened here in London then?"

I gulp and nod, turning back to the mirror.

"Okay," she sighs, shaking her head slightly. "I'll go back to Jaylen and tell him you're okay."

As she walks away, I breathe a sigh of relief.

There's no doubt in my mind that she doesn't completely believe me, but now that I'm no longer going to constantly have bruises marring my skin, it should be easy to stick to that story and convince her that I was telling the truth.

Chapter Fourteen

Jaylen

Ipretended to be asleep when Rory came back to my room and finished cleaning me up and putting my bandages on.

I'm too much of a coward.

I didn't want to have to look at her after making her upset, and after being left alone for a while as I waited for either her or Sophia to come back, I couldn't stop my mind from spiralling.

So instead of waiting for her to come back and ask if she was okay, I pretended to be asleep and I focused on her warm touch against my skin to distract myself from the haunting memories that played inside of my mind.

Once she left, I must've actually fallen asleep because I'm suddenly jolted awake by the sound of my door slamming open and Kaleb's gruff voice as he enters my room with Sophia and Jess following behind them.

"You know, normally, girlfriends would be annoyed when another woman is obviously flirting with their man."

"Yeah, well normally, boyfriends don't stalk their girlfriends and try to put tracking devices inside of them," Sophia retorts.