Crys' POV

I've had a pretty good holiday since I got to my brothers place.

Jeremy and James have been really supportive and understanding about me wanting to start fresh and keep to myself for a while. I told them that I've cut all ties with my old life in every way possible.

The truth is that the few friends that I did have at my old college, knew that my ex had anger problems and wanted me to leave him. I told them that I planned on leaving when the time was right. We were all pretty upset that we wouldn't see each other anymore, but they all agreed that it was for the best.

The morning after I showed up on their door step, James and Jeremy had tried to limit their prying about what happened to me but failed miserably.

They never were good at subtlety. 

As kids, their puppy dog eyes used to work on everyone. Not so much now as grown men though. 

All I've told them is that my ex-boyfriend, Travis, got drunk and we had an obviously bad fight before I ran away from him. They can tell I have no desire to talk about it, but I think they're also making their own assumptions to some extent too.

I haven't told them that it wasn't the first time our fights ended that way. Nor have I told them how bad my injuries actually were the night that I arrived. Though I don't doubt that they have a few of their own assumptions.

They knew of what they could see, and that was hard enough for them to cope with. I wasn't about to tell them about everything under thin long sleeved shirts or my leggings. I just stayed covered while they were home until I healed up.

Today I'm in a really good mood though. I've woken up with the last of my bruises finally gone and it's almost like one of the chains to my old life has been broken.

I tie my long dark brown hair up and apply a small amount of eyeliner on to highlight my blue eyes. After spending a few weeks needing to wear makeup, I can't help but only have a little on now. Walking to my wardrobe, I grab my 3/4 leggings, a sports bra, and tank top. After dressing, I have a quick breakfast before deciding to head towards the gym.

So far I haven't heard from Travis, which was the plan after all. I cut my phone off and got a new one. I created a new email and I stayed off social media. He never knew a lot of personal information about me because he really just didn't care. That used to really upset me to be honest, but now it's definitely a blessing in disguise.

If I'm not working, I'm at the gym around the corner from our place. I started to go their as a way to distract myself from my mind and get into better shape. It worked for a little bit, though I eventually started to get self defence and boxing lessons taught by the owner, Lee.

He saw me trying to box one day with tears in my eyes. I was feeling helpless and wishing I could have just defended myself against him. After seeing my horrible attempts and my distraught face, he offered to help me out. 

~~~~~~~~~~ Memory ~~~~~~~~~~

Why couldn't I just defend myself, even a little bit?

*Punch*

Why do I feel so damn weak all the time?

*Punch* *sob* *Punch*

Why am I always so scared now?

*Punch* 

"You're more likely to break your wrist, hitting the bag like that." A husky voice behind me, breaking me from my thoughts.

When I turned around with a yelp and backed away, I saw a tall and shaved man. He could see the fear in my eyes, the bruises on my face, and the need I had to have some control again. 

"I won't harm you." He promised with his hands up in surrender. "I'm Lee, I own the gym. I can see you've had a bit of a rough time, perhaps instead of this method-" he waves his hand at the boxing bag "-you'll allow me to teach you? I've had plenty of experience and I wont charge you for it." His face only ever showed compassion and concern.

"Why would you want to help me?" I croaked out, not realising how hoarse my voice was from crying so much lately.

"Because you look like you'll do this no matter what. At least if I teach you, you'll learn to fight properly and won't break your wrist in the process. What do you say?" He offered, extending his hand to me with a warm smile.

~~~~~~~~

From that day onwards, Lee and I trained together. He's shown me some self defence techniques, like getting out of a hold and when a hit is aimed at a certain area and how to react to it. He's also started teaching me how to properly throw a punch, being very patient with me while I slowly got comfortable with him. Lee is the only person to see the most of my bruises, after I started training in a sport bra. 

He told me after a week of us training, that my bruises were partly why he wanted to help with training me. "If a fella ever tries to do that harm again, I want you to be able to do it to him first." Those were his exact words to me. I don't doubt that I could inflict pain, but I still needed to keep at it.

Walking into the gym, I yell out a quick hello to him before heading over to the treadmill. After half an hour on it, I go to the boxing bag. Having actually been taught how to throw a punch now, I can practice alone when I want to.

Finally I finished at the gym and yell my goodbyes to Lee before heading back home. I train with Lee on Mondays and Wednesdays, and any other time I'm there, is for me to do as I please. I work as much as I can, but when college starts back up, I'll have to limit it to weekends and nights. So finding a balance between work and gym time will be harder to do.

Over the holidays, I got a job at a karaoke bar and have been working as much as I can to keep busy. I met the owner, Dave, when the twins took me their one night to try and cheer me up. The twins and him apparently are friends, so he said he'd love to give me a job. It's been a really good place to work and the people are really friendly. At night I'm a bartender and during the day I'm a waitress, I even sing on occasion to try and get people started with karaoke. 

I have work again later tonight, so I plan to just chill out at home and get everything in order before college starts back up on Monday. I have loads of washing to do, as well as cleaning up the kitchen. Thanks to Jeremy and James never lifting a finger, I do most of it. They live with someone as well but I'm yet to meet him, since he's apparently spending the break with his family and girlfriend's family a few states over. 

Hopefully, Jeremy and James are awake so I can actually get them to help me with the kitchen. Those lazy buggers have been enjoying me cleaning when I need to distract myself, but that can stop right now I think. 

As I get closer to our door, I can hear yelling from behind the door. I recognise Jeremy's voice instantly but I don't know who he's arguing with. It certainly isn't James, despite them being twins, I've always been able to tell the difference between them.

"You didn't think to perhaps give me a call and see if I minded the room being taken by her?!" The unknown voice snaps at Jeremy.

"I didn't think that we'd have to ask our best friend, if she would be allowed to." Jeremy retorts back, clearly angry. I don't hear him get angry very often, so it's weird to hear him like this. 

"It would have been bloody nice. The last thing I want right now is to be stuck living with another woman, given how my break turned out!" He yells at the end.

I can hear Jeremy sigh before James decides to speak up.

"She's all we have Harv. If you saw the state she came to us in, you'd understand why we want her close."  I can hear the pain in his voice as I feel a lump form in my throat. "If it was your sister, we wouldn't even hesitate. Can you at least try to live together and see how it goes?" James pleads. 

After a while I hear someone sigh before hearing a faint "Okay". I decide It's time to actually go in and meet my other housemate before I'm caught eavesdropping. I don't want to cause friction in their home, they're doing me a massive favour letting me live here on such short notice. If we can't get along, I think It'd be best start looking into a different place to live. 

My brothers are my world and they already have done so much for me in life, I'd hate to make their lives hard just by being around. Though It's not like I'm home all that much.

Finally putting the spare key into the lock, I open the door to see them all standing there staring at each other. My brothers look over, shocked I guess at seeing me actually show skin. Where as 'Harv' seems to just be in his own little trance. He's definitely a handsome man, with his chocolate brown eyes and hair. Not to forget the muscles he's clearly sporting under his t-shirt. It's only after the weird amount of staring that I realise I'm still sweaty and in my gym gear.

"Umm... Hey guys. How's it going?" I start off, trying to break the ice.

"Hey Crys, we're good. You remember us saying we lived with our mate too, yeah?" James probes.

After nodding, he gestures with his hand towards to unknown man in the room.

"Well this is Harvey, our other room mate. You have the room that's next to his. He just got back from his trip home." James tries to introduce us, knowing I've likely heard at least some of their argument.

Walking closer to the previously annoyed man, I offer my slightly shaking hand before introducing myself properly. "Hi, I'm Crystal."

My insides don't really like being so close to him when he was clearly very annoyed by my living here moments ago, but I refuse to show my anxiety with someone I need to live with. I know that If I had anything to worry about, my brothers would have told me long before he had returned. I trust them completely.

After looking at me for a moment straight in silence, he takes me hand gently before properly introducing himself too. "Hey, I'm Harvey but just call me Harv." He tries to offer a small smile but it comes out as more of a grimace.

With that he walks off to his room that's closest to the bathroom on that side of the apartment, shutting his door with a bit more force than needed. As I look over to the twins, they give me sad smiles. I decide it's time to wash off my gym session and that uncomfortable feeling that's lingering around me now. 

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

[A picture of how I vision the dorm/apartment looking]

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Edited 07/06/2018  

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