Trouble and I

Bruises

I spend the rest of the day in the room I’ve been given, I finished my breakfast plate long ago but I’m too anxious to leave the room.

I didn’t mean to burst at the table, it just happened, my emotions got the best of me like usual. I can practically hear dad scolding me for my behavior but she started it!

To distract myself, I unpack my clothes which doesn’t take as long as I thought it would. I don’t have many belongings to my name and the few that I do have don’t even take up four drawers.

At the bottom of my bag is my black hand taser my uncle bought for me a year ago. The memory brings a smile to my face as I remember him wanting to see if it can really electrocute someone.

Shaking my head at his logic I place the taser the nightstand next to the bed. Reading the time, I figure this will be a good time to try to sleep, though I’m sure sleep won’t come anytime soon.

After a relaxing shower, I dress in a tank top and sweats before finally deciding to come out of the room. Knowing it’s late at night I try my best to be quiet while climbing down the stairs.

Not being familiar with the house just yet it takes me a while to find the kitchen but once I do, I’m surprised to find Cole munching away on cookies.

“You’re caught.” I chuckle from behind him.

Jumping at the sound of my voice he turns around mid-way of putting another cookie in his mouth.

“Huh?”

Shaking my head at his silliness, I find the fridge and bottled water taking a sip of it.

“You missed dinner.” He points out after swallowing down his food.

Leaning against the counter I sigh, “I know, but I couldn’t sit through another awkward meal.”

“It was still tense from this morning,” he added, “what happened, Ki?”

Hearing the nickname, he came up with as kids bring a smile to my face. I remember arguing with him on how the nickname doesn’t even resemble my name.

“I don’t know, what she said really got to me,” I admitted.

Cole nods in silence before picking up another cookie and standing, “Well, it’s in the past now.”

Capping the water bottle I roll my eyes, “That helps a lot.”

He pouts clearly not enjoying my sarcasm. “Get some sleep, Ki.” He mumbles taking two handfuls of animal crackers with him.

I grab my water and walk after him turning off the light in the kitchen on my way out.

A small light from the living room catches my attention, walking over I see Boots laying on a dog bed. This has become his thing now, sleeping in the living room like a guard dog. He has done this for years now, I mean I wasn’t living in the best of neighborhoods.

Squatting down I rub his head which he loves because he instantly closes his eyes.

“Get some rest Boots, I doubt there has been any crime here,” I say getting up and walking up to the room.

Closing the door on my way in I flick the light off before getting under the covers and moving to the right side of the bed. I found it weird if you slept in the middle of a bed.

Knowing sleep won’t come, I stare up at the ceiling that I can see from the moon shining right outside the window.

“It’s going to be a long night.”

~

~

~

After hours of lying awake, I finally feel my mind let sleep come but that all stops as soon as I hear the house creak. I frown at the sound knowing this house is nowhere near old enough to creak.

Straining my ears, I hear a small groan before something slaps against the glass of the window.

Frowning I sit up and reach for my phone but I’m met with my taser instead. Hurrying, I grab it and quickly but quietly untangle myself out the covers before running to the wall the window is on.

My heart races fast in my chest as my body stands flat against the wall. All too soon the window slowly lifts open from the outside and it takes everything within me not to squeal.

Biting down on my lip I stop any chance for me to make a sound just as the window stops to its limit and a leg steps onto the room floor.

My heartbeat pounds against my ears as the body pulls itself in with a low groan, a tall figure now stands a few inches away from me.

Taking a calming breath, I remind myself that I’ve made it out of worst situations before. Clicking on the taser in hand, I don’t give the tall figure a chance to turn around.

Charging at them I let out a cry/scream as my hand extends aimlessly to their body. The taser makes contact with them sending electroshocks through their body.

“Ah!” The sound of their screams sounds like it belongs to a man.

He falls to the ground holding the spot I tased only a few seconds ago. Seeing my chance, I try to run to the door but my leg is caught causing me to fall.

Just as I hit the floor the lights flicker on and all movement stops from the both of us, “What hell is going on in here?!” Cole shouted running over to me.

Cole helps me up off the floor but my eyes are immediately drawn to the groaning man on the ground. Though I can’t see his face from his hoodie being on I can at least tell that he is in pain.

“Seven?” Cole asked shockingly letting me go to attend to the intruder.

“H-he tried to break in,” I say breathlessly as my heart tries its best to slow down.

Cole either ignores me or doesn’t hear what I say as he helps the intruder he called “seven” up on the bed.

Sitting him down Cole instantly interrogates him, “What are you doing, it’s almost three in the morning?”

Seven tries to catch his breath to answer and Cole is patient enough to wait. Seven pulls the hood of his hoodie down exposing his bruised face, this seems to give Cole all the answers he needs.

“Oh.” He nods understanding, meanwhile, I’m completely lost.

Cole returns his attention back to me but it doesn’t last long before his eyes drift to something on the floor.

Eyes widening, Cole stares at me in shock, “Did you tase him?”

Not trusting my voice at the moment, I only nod to his question.

Cole takes a moment before his face turns from shock to humor. The edge of his lips curves up into a smile as he tries to hold back a laugh.

“Why would you do that?” Cole asked covering up another laugh.

My eyes widen at his stupidity, “Really, you ask me that after he just broke into your house?”

Cole sighs running a hand through his hair clearly frustrated, “Look this is my best mate, Seven and he usually crashed here before it became your room.” He explained.

Seven?

What the hell kind of name is that?

“Look if you don’t say anything about tonight, I won’t say anything about that taser of yours.” Cole bargained

Before I can agree to his deal, the hallway light flickers on interrupting us.

Mumbling a few curse words, Cole leaves the room saying, “I’ll be right back, try not to make any sound.”

The room grows tense, a tension stronger than the one from breakfast with Marissa. The guy sits on my bed completely still other than the movements of his chest.

I stand frozen to my spot not knowing what to do, I mean I just tased this guy!

What amazes me more is that he still able to function, I’ve heard stories of people going as far as soiling themselves.

“Um.” I try to apologize but my words get stuck in my throat as his head snaps to me.

Our eyes lock and I find myself staring into blue- no grey- eyes. His stormy eyes swirl in anger but his face remains solid and composed.

“You.” He grits out from his locked jaw.

“Me?” My eyes widen in surprise.

The tension in the room and his furious gaze sends chills down my spine, everything about him screams danger.

The thought of feeling vulnerable under his gaze humors me as I’ve come across some scary people in my lifetime. None of them ever had me react the way I’m doing now.

Maybe I feel guilty about tasing him, he’s obviously a friend of Cole’s or maybe it’s from his icy glare towards me.

Shaking my head from my thoughts I pull myself together, “Look, I didn’t know who you were but if I did I wouldn’t have tased you.”

Seven stares at me for a few moments more before he breaks into a smile. I stare in confusion but it only causes him to smile more.

Before I can say anything more, he stands to his full height, that being something of six feet, definitely taller than my five-seven height.

“Is that an apology?” he asked curiously, “if that was then you need to work on that.”

His voice is deep, deeper than Cole’s tone almost matches to Nathan’s but I don’t think anyone is scarier than Nathan, not even this guy.

“I’ll do that while you work on using the front door of people’s homes, instead of their windows,” I say mindlessly as if the comeback was just sitting on my tongue.

Surprise takes over Seven’s features before a smirk form on his face, “I see you have a spine.”

Slowly he takes threatening steps towards me and my eye instantly looks down the taser before back to him. His smirk widens knowing what I am thinking about doing and though he has his smirk, his anger never vanished from the room.

His body leaked anger and danger, two things I’m familiar with but this guy is on a different level, a level I don’t want to be on.

“What are you doing?” I frown seeing as he wasn’t stopping his steps.

I think about backing up but I decide against it, I don’t want to show him he had anything on me. As soon as he stops an inch away from me his smirk falls and his face becomes blank.

He stares silently never breaking eye contact as I am once again frozen in time. I can only scan his face and the sight isn’t bad at all, except for the bruising of course.

His jaw is sharp and well-defined which is the complete opposite of his nose. The bridge is wide and crooked like it has been broken before. His skin seems to be almost flawless and smooth, unlike mine.

As I continue to trace his face with my eyes, I take notice of the ugly purple and black bruise on his jaw cheek but even then, he still looks good.

I stop my gawking the moment he grabs my chin with the curve of his index finger and thumb. My eye snaps to his and it feels like he’s staring into my soul.

“Now that I have your attention, I want to say…”

I hang onto his every word while my heart and stomach do backflips from his touch.

Leaning down, I feel his minty breath fan against my lips, and they instantly part in disbelief and shock.

“Nice bruises.” Is all he says before backing away just as Cole enters the room telling us the coast is clear.