Broken

Chapter 7: Greyson's Confession

I woke up to my alarm around 5:45am, I woke Trevor up with a kiss on the cheek, he wrapped his arms around me smiling and saying in a husky voice,

“Good morning beautiful.”

My heart skipped beats, he also sounded so tired still, which made me smile big, he called me names that made me happy, filled me with love and joy. I wasn’t looking forward to school, I was still unsure about Tanner, I was slightly on edge still with the way Landon and Greyson backed off so quickly when I returned. I hug back before pulling away with a smile,

“Gotta get ready for school Trev.” I say as I walk to my closest stepping inside it.

“I know babe,” he replies before I hear my door open and close.

I look around my closest, grabbing a t-shirt and jeans. I get dressed then put my socks and sneakers on. I walk out of my closest putting my hair up as Trevor is coming back into my room fully dressed for school. My phone chimes, I walk over to it, picking it up seeing a text from Natalia about a party Friday.

Natty-Hey party is Friday at my house. You coming?

Me-Yes I’ll be there Natty

Natty-Good you need some fun girl!!

Me- :)

Trevor looks at me, “Who was that?”

I look at him, “Are you one of those guys? Always asking?”

He shook his head, “Hell no.”

I laugh, smile then say, “Natalia about the party.”

He nodded, “Yeah, I’m not going I’m going away with family babe.”

I smile, “I hope you have fun.”

He smiles, “Yeah, I’ll text you while I’m away to see how you’re doing.”

I look at him, “I’ll be fine, you don’t need to check on me.”

He looks back at me, “I do, you’re capable of things and it scares me. I don’t know if you’re going too snap again, you seem happy I just hope its not fake.”

I frowned at him, “I wouldn’t fake with you, all the feelings you see are REAL with you. You don’t make me unhappy.”

He pulls me for a hug, “I’m sorry, but we got to continue talking in the car or we’ll be late.”

I nod hugging back, I grab my stuff and walk out with him. We get in his car after he unlocks it, I buckle up,putting my backpack on the floor, then I look at him. He starts the car before speaking again,

“I just worry about you Lucy, after finding you in the locked bathroom the way you were, you, I thought you weren’t going to make it, you also died on us in the ambulance and at the hospital. You are so broken, I want to fix you, show you how your life should have been all along, you just can’t ever do that again though, it’ll make me broken.”

I couldn’t speak, he really did love me, he wanted me to never hurt myself again, I scare people? Oh god, he cares so much, I never knew how he really felt until he confessed his feelings for me to me. My life was changing so fast, I’m trying so hard to hold tightly onto the good feelings, because I don’t want to ever feel like I used to, I want to be stronger, keep fighting back at Tanner. I had Trevor in my corner, what could Tanner possibly do to me?

Trevor placed his hand on mine, pulling me from my thoughts, I look at him,

“I never knew how much you truly cared all this time, all these years.” I said to him.

“Lucy, I cared the second I met you, in school I wanted to stop the bullying, but those 3 were never apart, they all attacked you at once, I had no back-up, I would have been hurt badly, but I was so weak until I tried, and they beat me up. That’s why that day in 7th grade, I had a black eye.” Trevor replied as he pulled into a parking spot.

I looked at him, pulled on his hoodie, then got out as he did too.

“You’re truly something else Trevor.” I say as he grabs my hand.

He pulls me close, then kisses me softly, when he pulls back, my hearts beating fast, and a smile is on my face. I know he wants me to be his for real, to make us real, to be official, I would love nothing more than too, but I’m not ready just yet, I’m still sorting through my feelings with everything going on. I still needed answers before I confessed to Trevor. He knew I needed time, so we could still fake date, kiss, hug, and cuddle. He was fine with it until I was ready for more, this is one of the many reasons I love Trevor. He is so caring, it makes my heart warm and he makes me so happy.

He walks me inside, walking by Tanner and Landon, Tanner goes to step in front of me, Landon pulls him back, I look at them and keep walking. Trevor walks me to class, I hug him goodbye as Tanner walks by bumping my shoulder. I roll my eyes,

“Bye babe, see you at lunch.” I say to Trevor.

He smiles, “See you then babe, have a good day.”

I smile as he walks off, I walk into class behind Greyson, I take a seat away from them. Tanner gets up, walks over to me and looks at me,

“What?” I say looking at him.

“Meet me after class, by my locker!” Tanner hisses softly.

I look at him, “Fine, now get away.”

He glares at me before walking back to his seat. Thank god a moment later the teacher walked in, class started, I focused and before I knew the bell was ringing. I grabbed my stuff, Tanner was already gone, Greyson was grabbing his stuff, he looked sort of upset. I went to walk towards the door, when I felt a hand on my arm, I turned and saw Greyson looking at me,

“Lucy, Can I give you a ride home? I need to talk to you.” Greyson asks.

I look at him, “Yeah, sure.”

I was sort of scared, but he didn’t look like he wanted to hurt me right now. What he said next shocked me,

“I am sorry for everything I ever did, Ill explain on the way to your house later.” Greyson says.

I nod at him, “Okay.”

He smiles at me, then walks out, I walk out and head towards Tanners locker. As I round the corner, Tanners closing his locker, I walk up to him placing my bag on the floor.

“Why am I here?” I ask annoyed.

“Watch the f*****g attitude s**t,” Tanner replies.

I look at him then shove him, “Don’t f*****g call me a s**t, I don’t sleep around asshole.”

Tanner got pissed, he shoved me back twice as hard, I nearly ended up falling backwards, but instead I hit a solid body, whose arms catch me. I look up, seeing Landon, he looks pissed, his eyes fixed on Tanner. Tanner walked over and punched me, Landon gently pushed me to the side, then he punched Tanner really hard, it almost sounded like he could have broken something with the hit. My head starts to pound, causing my head to hurt badly, then I black out hitting the floor.

When I wake up, a ice pack falls off my face, I groan and sit up. The nurse walks over to me,

“You feel better?” she asks.

I nod, “Can you walk?” she asks

I nod again and reply, “Yes.”

She smiles and writes me a note for class, handing it to me, then I head off to 3rd, I skip the counselor since I had therapy around 5. I walked into class handing my note to my teacher, then sitting in the empty seat next to Landon. I pull out my stuff, and quickly copy everything off the board as Landon slids a few papers onto my desk, I look at him after looking at the notes, I smile and mouth ‘Thank you’ he smiles back mouthing back ‘No problem’

Class continues, when it ends, I gather my stuff, Landon leaves, Greyson begins to argue a bit with Tanner, I hear my name and look over at them as Greyson walks by me pissed. I look at Tanner and shake my head before turning to leave, what the f**k is his problem? I needed to straighten this s**t out, it was driving me insane and causing me to have bad thoughts, which I am pushing away its baby steps, I’m trying my hardest, but when you felt horrible the thoughts clouded everything. I put my bag over my shoulder and begin to walk towards the door, as I step into the hall, Tanner shoves me, my face connecting with the wall, the pain is intense, I turn around dropping my bag on the floor, I punch Tanner right in the nose, hearing a c***k, then see the blood run, he runs at me grabbing me by the throat and squeezing. He chokes me as I try to fight him off, my vision begins to blur when I hear a voice yell,

“PUT HER THE f**k DOWN!”

It was Landon’s voice, Tanner gave me a final squeeze before throwing me into the wall. I hit it hard and land on the floor, coughing, gasping for air.

Tanner screams at Landon, “WHY THE f**k ARE YOU PROTECTING THAT s**t?! YOU f*****g HER OR SOMETHING?!”

Landon looks at him and yells back, “JUST BACK THE f**k OFF HER! IF I AM WHY WOULD YOU CARE?!”

I roll onto my stomach and try to push myself up, looking at them, then I feel a arm around me,

“Come on Lucy, let’s get you to the nurse again.” Greyson’s voice makes me look at him.

His eyes widen, gently pushing my head back, probably staring at the nice bruise Tanner left around my throat.

“He f*****g, fuck.” was all that came out of Greyson’s mouth.

His eyes were filled with anger, he put his arm around me, grabbing my backpack and walking me towards the nurses, I could still hear Landon yelling and Tanner yelling back as we rounded a corner and walked down the hall towards the nurse. We walked by the cafe, to get to the nurses, Greyson walked me inside, told the nurse what happened, the nurse checked it out before giving me aspirin and sending us to eat. Greyson carried my backpack to the cafe, we walked in together, Trevor spotted me and ran over looking at Greyson.

“It wasn’t me, here’s her bag, Tanners out of control.” Greyson says to Trevor.

Trevor nods as he checks out the damage Tanner caused, “Yeah he f*****g is.”

I sigh and winch in pain, my throat hurt a lot, Trevor hugged me, as Greyson says,

“I’m driving Lucy home, I have to explain myself to her, for why I did what I did to her.”

Trevor nods, “Just don’t hurt her and it’s fine,” he looks at me, “I’ll be at your house okay? You take the time you need for you guys to talk.”

He kisses me softly, I nod at him, Greyson says,

“I’ll never hurt her again Trevor.”

Trevor smiles, Greyson returns a smile before saying to me,

“Meet at my locker after the last bell.”

I nod, “Okay Greyson.”

He walks off to grab his lunch, Trevor and I grab ours then sit with my friends, they don’t ask what happened, they already assume Tanner hurt me again. They try to make me laugh, which hurts, but everyone was starring at me and the bruises, I felt very exposed, I hated the stares, people should really knowing staring isn’t so nice. I eat my lunch trying not to look at anyone, I try to focus on Natalia as she takes about the party, Trevor whispers to me,

“Stay close to Greyson and Landon at the party, don’t worry about anything they do or say, go along with it, they are trying to force Tanner into a confession on something, Landon fought with Tanner until they both got caught and given detention, Greyson’s cool, Landon is too, they told me everything and with time they’ll confess, you’re so brave baby.”

I nodded and smiled at Natalia who asked,

“Are you spending the night at my place?”

I nodded, “Yeah, of course especially if you serve booze, your parties are always different, sometimes there’s drinking and sometimes there’s no drinking.”

Natalia smiled, “Oh there will be booze, you know my brother.”

I laughed and nodded, “He’s home again, of course.”

She nodded, “Yes he is.”

I smiled at Trevor, grab his hand and squeeze it gently, he looked at me smiling back. He looks at Natalia,

“Does he like Lucy?”

Natalia laughs, “They are just friends don’t worry, they never dated, never will, it would ruin their friendship.”

Trevor smiled, “She values friendship,” he looks at me, “You have good friends despite it all babe.”

I smile more, “Yes I do, they helped me forget sometimes, until it stopped working and it resulted in my locked bathroom scenario.”

Trevor squeezes my hand softly, “Don’t think of that time, push it out, remember all the fun this party will be, I see the pain in your eyes baby, you can’t foul me.”

My face gives it all away, I thought I was okay talking about my distraction but, I mentioned the time I died, so it opened old wounds I needed to stop being negative, it wasn’t helping.

“I’m sorry,” I say.

“Don’t be, it’s fine.” he replies kissing my cheek with a smile.

I smile back at him, “You are amazing, I can’t tell you enough that you are.”

He kisses me, I kiss back and smile as he pulls away. He looks at me,

“You are beautiful and so kind hearted, I hope I have saved you.”

I just want to melt he says such sweet things! I smile even more,

“You know just how to make my day after it’s been bad,” I say.

He looks at me, “Good, that’s the plan.”

I smile again, “Your doing a great job babe.”

He laughs, “Why thank you baby.”

He gets up as the bell rings, he grabs his backpack and mine, he takes my hand and we walk to class together, sit together, focus and get through the class, we get piled with homework, the bell rings, we grab our stuff, head to the next class, sit together,

“I want to take you out on a date once you sort out your feelings you deserve to know what a first date feels like,” Trevor looks at me smiling.

The teacher walks in so I don’t get to respond, I pull out my notebook, pen and pencil, eraser, I begin to take the notes as the teacher writes. I focus on class, we get assigned to read 50 pages of our book, I start reading, taking notes, and peeking at Trevor once in awhile, locking eyes with him. I got lost almost, but snapped out before we could get yelled at, I focused back on reading and notes, then the teacher handed out homework, more reading, worksheets and notes.

The bell rang, we grabbed our stuff, walked out, went to drama, he posted our roles, I got leading female, Trevor was leading male. We worked on the play for the day, when the bell rung Trevor kissed me goodbye,

“I’ll see you at home Luce.” he says hugging me.

I hug back, “See you at home.”

He smiles, nods, then heads out of the classroom, I grab my stuff, taking a deep breath in and out, I walk out of drama, heading towards Greyson’s locker. This felt so strange, meeting up with one of my bullies, but I had to hear him out, he backed off and was willing to explain his actions the last 5 years, I put my backpack over my shoulder as I walked to his locker. He was pulling books out, putting them in his backpack as I walked up to him, I pulled the sleeves of Trevor’s hoodie up as Greyson turns towards me,

“Hey I’ll be good in a minute okay?” he says to me.

I nod, “Take your time Greyson,” I smile softly.

Then I hear Tanners voice,

“Hey s**t, trying to hook up with Greyson now too?”

“f**k off Tanner,” I reply.

He steps towards me, Greyson looks at him and moves in front of me, pulling out his keys handing them to me,

“Go to my truck I’ll be there in a minute Lucy,” he says to me.

I just nod and turn around, I walk away from them as Tanner is yelling,

“I hope you die again b***h!”

I take a deep breath in and out, trying to calm myself, I was trying to keep those bad thoughts out, he hit a cord he shouldn’t have, I was shaking a little as I walked out of school, heading towards the parking lot. I knew what Greyson’s truck looked like, Natalia had given me a ride once in it, I spotted his truck next to Landon’s, I walked over to it unlocking it and opening the passenger door, I placed my backpack on the floor, as I was about to get in, Landon’s voice stopped me,

“Lucy...”

I turned around looking at him,

“What’s up Landon?”

He steps closer to me, “I heard Tanner told you to die, you’re not going to hurt yourself are you?”

I just look at him, “Uh no,” is all I could say.

“Please don’t, he’s not worth it Lucy,” he says as he touches my arm.

I jump a little at his touch, usually if he touched me he was hurting me, he looked at me pain in eyes,

“I’m sorry Lucy, I don’t want you afraid of me anymore, I’ll explain everything when I’m ready, I promise you I’ll never hit or shove you again.”

I look at him shocked, “I’m still getting used to you and Greyson being nice to me, plus there’s some stuff I need to tell the 3 of you once Tanner knocks his s**t off.”

Landon nods, then hugs me, I hug back surprised, I heard gasps and whispers, then I hear Greyson and Tanner arguing, I pull away from Landon and look at them. Tanner spots me, pushes Greyson to the side, walks up to Landon pushes him away, grabs me, punches me, then shoves me against Greyson’s truck. I gasp as I sink to the ground, trying to breath, I look over at Greyson whose now punching Tanner, I fell an arm around me pulling me up and against a solid body, I’m shaking and still trying to even my breathing. I hear Landon’s voice in my ear softly saying,

“Lucy, we got to get you in Greyson’s truck now hun,” as he looks at me.

I nod at him as I look back at him, I start to feel dizzy, my knees give out, Landon catches me,

“Lucy you okay?” he asks.

I don’t respond, I still feel dizzy, he picks me up, placing me in Greyson’s truck, he lays the seat back a bit for me, he puts his hand on my arm as I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to stop feeling so dizzy. Tanner had hit my left cheek near my eye, Landon’s voice sounds faded,

“Lucy, are you okay?!”

I black out in Greyson’s truck, when I wake up I’m in a room I don’t recognize, I hear voices as I sit up slowly, looking around, I spot pictures of Greyson, Landon and Tanner along with pictures of Sasha and Greyson. I must be at Greyson’s, I hear the door open, my eyes look towards his bedroom door, Greyson walks in alone, seeing me awake,

“Hey you okay?” he walks over sitting next to me on his bed.

I nod, “Yeah, I was really dizzy, I blacked out.”

Greyson looked at me, “How often does that happen?”

I looked at his floor, “Whenever I get hit that hard.”

Greyson lifted my chin, making me look at him,

“Landon and I are trying to make Tanner stop, something isn’t right with him.”

I just nod at Greyson, his hand was still on my face making me look at him. He smiles softly,

“Okay now its time for me to confess, ” he says looking at me.

I nod. He faces me, I sit crisscross facing him, he stays silent for a moment, he looks like he’s thinking of where to begin, then finally after a few moments of silence, he finally spoke,

“Okay, I am going to start at the beginning as I explain my actions Luce, first day of 6th grade, Landon, Tanner and I spotted you alone, we all come from broken rich homes, I had a lot of pent up anger for these last 5 years, everyday got worse, when we first approached you, Landon started in on you first, than I did, than Tanner closed it off with the worst. My parents were in the middle of a divorce when we started middle school, I was angry all the time, so I took it out on you, you were so innocent, you didn’t seem like you had a rich lifestyle, you seemed like a normal girl, I admit everything I ever did to you was so wrong and I’m so f*****g sorry. You were an easy target being alone, something in my snapped, everyday I saw you I wanted to hurt you, I had such a huge problem for so long Lucy, everytime I hurt you, I’d go home and punch my basement cement walls, I hate myself for all the t*****e I put you through. You didn’t deserve anything we did, my dad and mom sat down with me the day you screamed at Tanner that you died, we talked long and hard about all the things I did, they blame themselves for how I treated you. They helped me get into private therapy, they also have me doing some exercises for when I get angry, to help calm myself. Lucy I promise you this, I’m never going to hurt you again, truthfully I’ve had a huge crush on you since the first day of 6th grade, I know I had a funny way of showing it, plus I’m dating Sasha, but f**k Lucy I still like you. I let my demons take over so much, what snapped me out of it was when you were gone for nearly a week, no-one knew what happened, Trevor had disappeared too so I got ahold of him, he had said you two were out of school for a bit but you’d be back. I still can’t forgive myself for all the pain I caused you hun, again I’m so f*****g sorry.”

I had tears in my eyes, this was the first time I ever cried in front of Greyson, I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around him, hugging him tight, he hugged me back tightly, I cried hard, he held me close rubbing my back and hugging me. He softly whispered,

“Shh it’s okay, I promise things will get better.”

Then he kissed my cheek, wiped my tears and smiled at me, I finally pulled myself together after a few moments of just looking at Greyson, processing it all,

“I forgive you Greyson,” I say looking at him.

He just stared at me, “That fast?” he asks.

I nod, “Greyson my therapist told me I should hear you guys out, forgive you if I can, I forgive you, I forgive Landon, right now I cant forgive Tanner, I’m unsure if I ever will.”

Greyson nodded, “That’s understandable, he hurts you so badly, somehow he keeps getting you alone.”

“He’s good at it, always has been.” I reply.

Greyson nods, “That’s true.”

Then there’s a knock at the door, Greyson gets up, opens the door, his mom is standing there,

“You guys hungry? Dinners done.” Miranda, Greyson’s mom smiles at us.

Greyson looks at me as I look at her, “I’m a little hungry.”

“I’m hungry mom, well be down in a min okay?” Greyson says.

Miranda nods, “Okay see you two in a few.”

She leaves, closing the door, Greyson holds his hand out to me, I take it getting off his bed, he pulls me into him for a hug again. He wraps his arms around me, I hug back, he kisses my cheek, then we head downstairs. We sit at the table, his little sister Tanya sits next to me,

“You’re Lucy right?” she asks me.

I look at her then Greyson, “Yes I am.”

She giggles, “My brother talks about you a lot.”

I c***k a smile at her, then look at Greyson with a smile, he smiles back, then his mom serves us all dinner,

“Thank you.” I say as she hands me a plate.

“You’re welcome.” she replies.

We eat, laugh, share some funny stories, I saw myself now being a friend of Greyson, despite his feelings for me, I think we could be friends, I know what everyone’s thinking, why would I be friends with my bullies? There’s good in everyone, he explained himself, he also likes me , which factors into some of the bullying, he says he likes Sasha, she does make him happy, but he’s always wanted me. After dinner, we go back up to his room, we talk until we both fall asleep, the next thing I know I’m hearing an alarm go off.