Jane

Tuesday we were back in school and I was patiently waiting for a phone call for a job.

We had to present in class and I was nervous. I sat in my seat a little bit earlier than usual going over my speech, Harry sat beside me doing the same. After a few people walked in, I eventually saw Olivia, but something was off. I decided to wait until after class to talk to her.

My speech went well and luckily the class went by quickly. I packed my stuff while Harry stood to wait for me at the door. "Go ahead, I'm going to talk to Olivia," I told him, he agreed to wait outside. I walked over to her where she was shoving her stuff in her bag looking upset. "Hey."

She looked up and then back down in embarrassment. "Oh hey, Jane." I looked at her and she was all covered up and looked exhausted. "I have to go." She walked past me making me quickly run ahead of her to stop her before she left. I stood in front of the door, luckily everyone had walked out.

"I need to talk to you," I told her sternly.

"About what?" She crossed her arms.

I let out an annoyed sigh. "I think it's really messed up you would ditch me for your boyfriend and you didn't even have the kindness to call me. I waited for you and you didn't call. I was worried." She looked down at her feet and I realized she was crying.

"Well, you don't have to worry about him anymore because we broke up." She tried to get past me but I stopped her. "Jane move-"

"No! What happened? I'm your friend Olivia I care about you so much." She shook her head sitting on one of the chairs covering her face.

After a minute she looked up and said something that made my stomach drop. "H-he hurt me last night." Before I could talk she lifted her shirt and that's when I saw it; Her pale skin was covered in large bruises. "I-I didn't want to have sex with him a-and he got upset and told me to leave. We s-started arguing and he slapped me and beat me up and I couldn't fight him off." I didn't feel sad, I felt anger; a fit of painful anger that was making my skin boil. The type of anger that made you want to throw up.

"That son of a bitch," I said through my teeth. "We're going to the police."

She cried. "He sent me a bunch of messages saying if I went to the police no one would believe me, and he waits at my apartment Jane, I don't know what to do." She sobbed. I went to hug her and she held on to me. "He said he loved me."

"Olivia, we have to go to the police," I told her. "You have the bruises, and the texts, that's enough to write up a report."

"No, he'll get out of it, his family has money, they have lawyers." She shook her head. "He'll get out and he could do something to me or-" she spoke frantically.

"Okay, okay we can go in the morning but we should take photos of the bruises before they disappear okay. We can go in the morning, I'll go with you and we are going to get him arrested." She nodded."I'll go home with you-" she shook her head.

"He has a key to my apartment, what if he shows up." She spoke frantically.

"Okay we'll go and get some clothes and you can stay at my house." I helped her up picking up her backpack. "Come on."

As she walked beside me she limped and held on to me. I didn't notice it when she came in earlier. "He knows where you live Jane, what if he comes there?" Clearly, she was frightened. I tried to think of what to do. I didn't know what he was capable of and I wasn't willing to find out. We walked out into the fresh air and Harry sat on a bench waiting for me. "Don't tell him anything." She begged.

In an instant, I knew I had to tell him, or he would figure it out on his own. "Harry's sister was a victim of domestic violence, 'liv. Believe me, he'll figure it out."

"Oh, I didn't know that." She said. "Okay just tell him not to look at me with pity." We reached Harry and he looked up at me and quickly looked worried.

"What's going on?" He stood.

Olivia looked down and told us she needed to use the restroom before we left. She walked over to the restroom and I took a deep breath. "Carter beat Olivia up last night. Right now I'm going to drive her home to pick up some clothes. I need you to drive the car behind me because she is scared that he has a key to her apartment." Harry's eyes darkened and I could physically see him get angry. "Baby, look at me." He began breathing heavily, pacing for a moment, cursing to himself. "Harry."

"She has to go to the police." He pointed a finger at me. "Make her go, Jane because if not he'll do it again." His voice cracked and he was shaking. I reached up to hug him. "Is she okay?"

"No, she doesn't even want to stay at my house because he knows she could be there." We pulled away from our hug and he groaned loudly in frustration. "I need you to relax, I know this is hard for you but you need to calm down until we're alone and then you can freak out." Olivia came out and we looked over at her.

"Olivia, if you would feel safer you can stay at my apartment with Jane and me." She looked down nodding. "Okay then let's go."

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Olivia pulled off her jacket and then her shirt. I did everything in my power not to gasp or cry. She looked like she had been thrown against a wall a dozen times, or hit by a car. Her arms and her legs had bruises scattered around. Her face was covered with makeup, but as she took it off I couldn't help but stare in shock. "Are you ready?" She nodded. I lifted the phone and snapped the picture of her back, arms, and face. She got dressed again and sat on the edge of the bathtub.

We had made it back to Harry's house and he was currently talking to Louis outside.

"Jane, why did this happen?" She cried. "Why me?"

I reached over to hug her as she sobbed into my shirt. "I don't know, but everything is going to be okay," I promised her. "Do you want to call your parents?" She nodded so I handed her my phone and gave her some privacy going back out to the living room.

"-the piece of shit is going to pay for this I swear to god I'll kick his fucking teeth in." Louis cursed. Harry sat back on his couch with his eyes closed.

"Louis violence doesn't solve anything, that's how we end up in jail and that asshole goes on living life," Harry warned him.

"She's calling her parents, so they might come to get her. Knowing her mom she'll probably want to press charges tonight." Louis nodded and Harry stayed in the same position.

"I'm going to make her some tea." Louis offered walking into the kitchen. I went to sit beside Harry. He didn't move but I needed him to react now.

"Can you hold me for a minute?" I asked. He looked up and put his arms out let me lay my head on his chest. "I don't feel well." I had a feeling of nausea and it was from so much anger.

"You need to let it out, Jane." He showed me his hands and I gasped at how they looked. His knuckles looked like he had just punched the living hell out the glass.

"What did you do?" I whispered.

"Nothing bad, I smashed the headlight of Louis car, I'll pay for it." He said quietly.

"Jesus." I put my head against his chest and inhaled his scent trying to calm myself.

"Let it out Jane, you're pissed off." He told me. "Do you want to go outside for a minute." I agreed going out to his backyard where we stood in the corner. I placed my head on his chest again and I let out a loud sob. "That's it, baby love, let it out it's okay to be angry." He rubbed my back. Suddenly nausea made it's way into my system again and I couldn't handle it. I turned away from him throwing up onto the ground. The bruises still fresh in my mind, and her face. I felt Harry hold onto my hair as I caught my breath. "It's okay let it out." He patted my back.

We were like this until I finally couldn't cry anymore. I went back inside with him and went straight to the sink in the kitchen to place some cold water on my face and brush my teeth. We went back into the living room and Louis was sitting with Olivia talking.

"1975 is a good band, but you really can't understand their lyrics until you read them first and then it's like, 'yeah I knew that'," Louis said making Olivia smile.

"That's true." She wiped her tears. He was distracting her so she wouldn't cry. She looked at me and sighed. "My parents are on the way here, my mom wants to take me to the emergency room and then the police station." She told me.

"Okay, well we can go now?"

"I'll just wait for my mom, I hate hospitals." She drank her tea. "It's okay if I stay here for a while right?" She asked Louis.

"Of course, do you need anything?" Louis asked.

"Just a friend." She told him.

I looked at Harry's hand and it was bleeding. "We'll be right back." I pulled him to the bathroom and sat him down to clean his hand. "You know, you're going to have to explain what happened to your therapist tomorrow." I frowned.

"What a lovely way to start your second session." He gasped as I put hydrogen peroxide on his hand. "That fucking hurts!" He gasped.

"Shh, this is what happens when you punch things. Your hand was just starting to heal from the last time. Do you feel the glass in there?" He shook his head. I ended up finding gauze and wrapping his hand. "I should probably call my parents and let them know I won't be coming home anytime soon."

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It was around one a.m. when Olivia's mom and dad showed up. They were furious and asking so many questions. They took Olivia, and I decided to stay with Harry. Louis sat on the couch and looked upset. "You okay Louis?" I asked him as Harry and I cleaned up the cups of tea and coffee to stay up.

"How can a man lay their hands on such a sweet beautiful girl like Olivia." Harry stopped in his tracks to the kitchen and his back tensed up.

"It's shit like that, that really fucks with your mind," Harry said turning around to face us. "How can someone hurt someone like that and live with that on their conscience every day?" He seemed disappointed. Louis sighed getting up.

"I'm sorry Harry, I can't imagine going through that." Louis crossed his arms walking towards his room. Harry turned again back to the kitchen where I followed him. He cleaned the counter and looked back at me.

"I need to go to bed, and try to sleep." He told me. "I work tomorrow at nine."

"Hmm, I'm probably going to go see Olivia." I had promised her mom I would. "Let's go to bed." As we walked back into his room and I told him I needed a hot shower. He grabbed me some clothes and a towel but I had an idea. I put my arms around the back of his neck and leaned up to kiss his jaw. "Do you want to join me?"

"Okay." He smiled.

Once we were in the bathroom I got completely undressed while Harry adjusted the water. I could feel his eyes on me as I got into the small shower. The hot water instantly made my mind go blank and I couldn't hear anything because the water was hitting my ears. It was peaceful not to think about everything. How today started with me worrying about my homework and now I was worried about my best friend.

Harry's hands slid up from my hips to my waist turning me around to face him. "This is so stupid," I told him. "I hate everything right now."

He went under the water listening to me go on about what was wrong with the world when suddenly I found myself very distracted. As I looked down I realized that this was the first time I was seeing Harry completely naked. I had seen him briefly naked before, but it was dark. Harry kept his eyes trained up at the wall mostly and I understood why. In the midst of my anger, I was distracted by my very attractive boyfriend, but then I saw closer seeing his scars. "What is it?" He wondered as I got quiet.

"Nothing just thinking," I said still looking at him. It was like my mind was going blank; it felt nice not to be angry. "I think too much," I said grabbing some shampoo.

"What are you thinking about?" We switched positions so I was under the water.

"You would never hurt me like that." He stopped to look at me. "You would never do that to me."

"Never my love." He promised.

"You hurt yourself." I ran my hand along the skin. "Promise you won't ever do that again because that'll hurt me too."

I put my arms around him and cried again kissing his bare chest. "I promise."

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Thank you for reading.Xx

-k