Bruised Angel (River of Lies #2) (15 page)

Chelsea looked down at her body and joined Kelly in laughter. She had completely forgotten that she had no clothes on and Kelly was topless. Kelly reached out to the blood soaked towel and lifted it.

“It’s stopped bleeding, I’ll go and get some antiseptic to put on it to prevent infection” she said standing and holding her hand out for Chelsea.

Chelsea took Kelly’s hand standing, wincing as the muscles on her leg pushed on the new wound.

“Yeah it’s gonna sting that one” Kelly said with a shake of her head.

Kelly put her top on and left. Chelsea looked down at her leg before going into the bedroom, she was just putting her shorts on when Mason came into the room. He frowned and had a look of concern on his face.

“You cut yourself didn’t you?” he said.

Chelsea dropped her eyes and nodded. Mason came towards her and put his arms around her.

“Oh Chels” he said sadly.

Kelly came back in with the antiseptic and Mason frowned when he saw the wound she had caused herself.

“It’s not too deep, not as deep as that one was anyway” Kelly said pointing at the scar beside her new wound.

Chelsea nodded and winced as Kelly dabbed the open wound with antiseptic.

“Sorry, well not sorry, this is what you have to get when we do dumb stuff like this” Kelly said with a smile trying to lighten the mood.

They both could feel the tension in Mason who stood beside them watching. Kelly stood and put her arm around his waist.

“She is going to be fine.” Kelly said to Mason with a smile.

Mason looked down at Kelly and nodded. Kelly leaned up and kissed Mason on the cheek and then bent down and kissed Chelsea on the cheek. Kelly took Chelsea’s hands in hers.

“If you ever feel the need to do this again, I want you to come find me, no matter what I’m doing, come get me. I unlike many others understand Chelsea. I don’t know what lead you to cutting yourself and if you choose to tell me one day I’d be honoured. But please don’t do this to yourself. You deserve better than that” she said with tears in her eyes. “Remember every time you hurt yourself you’re letting the person you’re trying to escape hurt you again”

Chelsea nodded and the tears started to flood her eyes again. She had never seen it like that before. She always saw it as relief. But scarring her body didn’t help her, it hurt her and it was letting Carl continue his torture on her.  Chelsea put her face in her hands and let her tears roll out of her eyes and down her cheeks. She heard the door shut and felt Mason sit down on the bed next to her. He put his arm around her.

“Did Kelly tell you what happened to her?” Mason asked quietly.

Chelsea looked up to see the sad look in his face, she nodded her head.

“Did she tell you I stood by and did nothing” he said with bitterness threaded through his voice.

Chelsea sighed.

“She said you froze from fear. I understand that Mason, being so scared you freeze” Chelsea said gently.

Mason shook his head and angrily wiped at his eyes.

“I’m not going to do that with you Chels. I’m not going to make that mistake again, I won’t freeze” he said.

Chelsea looked at him confused, she didn’t know what he meant. She hoped that she wouldn’t be put in the same position that Kelly was in order for him to take action.

“I know you won’t. I trust you” she said forcing a smile to her lips.

Mason put his forehead on Chelsea’s and kissed her lips.

“I love you” he said.

Chelsea’s eyes widened. They had only been together for four days, but it felt like longer, it felt like they had never been apart. They had been through so much together.

“I love you too” she said.

The words came out so easily. She had never said them to anyone, and she suspected Mason hadn’t either. He kissed her long and passionately rubbing her body. Chelsea hissed when he ran his hand over her wound.

“Oh shit, I’m sorry” he said with a frown.

Chelsea smiled and took his hand.

“It’s alright, it’s not that bad” she said.

That night they slept entwined in each other’s arms. Chelsea’s dreams were filled with men in patches and Duggar sneering over her ripping her body to pieces, swinging her limbs around celebrating. Chelsea woke up with a scream. Her body was soaked with sweat and she was shaking. Mason reached out and pulled her tight.

“It was just a dream baby, you’re safe” he cooed into her ear until she fell back into a dreamless sleep.

Chapter Fourteen

It felt like Chelsea hadn’t slept at all when she woke and got ready for school. Mason couldn’t seem to keep his hands off her either which didn’t help her want to go to school any. She wasn’t looking forward to having to deal with Maddison but she couldn’t put it off any longer. Chelsea glanced around the hall when they entered the school but couldn’t see Maddison anywhere. Chelsea sighed with relief as she put her books and bag in her locker and there was no nasty note or picture anywhere in sight. When she closed her locker she saw Lincoln walking towards her with a smile on his face.

“Hey Chelsea, are you going to come watch us at football practice tonight?” he asked.

Chelsea felt arms slip around her waist and the familiar chest of Mason press against her  back. Chelsea smiled and looked up at him.

“You wanna come and watch? It’s not that exciting but you get to watch me be all manly and run around with other manly men” Mason laughed.

Chelsea barked out a loud laugh and nodded her head.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world” she said with a grin.

“Awesome. Anyway I’ve got English up first” Lincoln sighed “Worst subject ever”

Chelsea smiled and nodded, although she quite liked English.

“What have you got first?” Mason asked.

“Life drawing” she replied.

“Well that explains the smile then” Mason laughed.

Chelsea shrugged her shoulders, she loved all her art classes but her life drawing class was her favourite, it was an opportunity to put a lot of detail into her work and get lost in the picture.

“Do you draw nude people?” Lincoln asked his eyes widening.

Chelsea nodded her head.

“Sometimes. Today it is going to be a Turkish tea seat, not quite as interesting”  she said.

“So are the chicks hot?” Lincoln asked.

Chelsea laughed.

“If you like fifty something old women with big sagging boobs” she said with a laugh.

Lincoln pulled a face and shook his head.

“Alright, you can keep that then” he laughed.

Mason shook his head and punched Lincoln in the arm.

“Come on let’s get going, you know how Mr Simon’s gets when we are late” Mason said to Lincoln.

They all said their goodbyes and Chelsea watched the two friends walk down through the hall. It was amazing to watch them. Both well over six foot tall and both built full of muscle, Mason with his long black hair that hung about his shoulders and Lincoln with his cropped blonde hair, they seemed to encompass the whole hallway. They drew attention wherever they walked, people stopped and stared and yet they seemed completely oblivious to it.

Chelsea was lost in thought when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She jumped and spun around to see Dylan standing beside her. He was like Mason’s polar opposite. He was tall as well but he was long and skinny, his arms and legs seemed to be too  long for his body and he hunched rather than standing straight with confidence like Mason did. Dylan smirked when he saw the look of shock on Chelsea’s face.

“Sorry I didn’t mean to give you a fright” he said covering his mouth to hide his smile.

“Lucky I’m not a ninja, I would have karate chopped your skinny arse” she laughed.

Dylan erupted into a fit of giggles that had his whole body shaking.

“You’re little enough to be a ninja” he said faking a karate chop.

Chelsea narrowed her eyes and gave his backside a quick kick causing him to jump.

“You didn’t see that coming now did you?” she laughed.

Dylan laughed again and attempted to kick her back but accidentally knocked her leg. Chelsea paled with the pain and sucked in a sharp breath over her teeth. Dylan’s face instantly dropped as he realised he had hurt her, he took her by the arm and held up.

“Oh shit Chelsea, I’m sorry are you alright?” he asked as she stooped down to look at her leg.

She saw that it was starting to ooze blood through the gauze that Kelly had put on it that morning. Dylan caught sight of the wound and his face went the whitest shade of pale she had ever seen.

“Chelsea what the fuck?” he said shock written all over his face as he looked at the wound but saw for the first time the other scars that dotted her thigh.

Chelsea tugged at her skirt and grabbed his hand dragging him into the art room. She looked around but Brenda hadn’t arrived, which she was grateful for.

“Dylan please you can’t tell anyone, especially Brenda” she pleaded.

Dylan shook his head and pointed at her leg.

“Who did this to you?” he said through clenched teeth, his fists were balled tight.

“I did” she said dropping her head and looking down at her shoe.

“Chelsea? Why?” he said his eyes softening with sadness.

“It was how I coped for years. All the time that Carl was doing those things to me. Brenda saw them one day and she asked me about it and I made a promise I would never do it again. That’s why I draw the pictures I do” Chelsea explained.

Dylan nodded his head as the door swung open.

“Well don’t I have two eager beavers today” Brenda announced from the door.

Chelsea smiled at her, but Dylan couldn’t seem to wipe the sadness off his face. Brenda looked between the two of them.

“Alright spill it, what’s happened?” Brenda asked folding her arms across her chest and tapping her foot.

Chelsea felt panic rise in her heart.

“My dog died” Dylan blurted out as he dropped his face to the ground.

Chelsea turned and looked shocked at him.

“Yeah he got hit by a car last night, I was just telling Chelsea about it, she got sad too because she loved him just as much” Dylan continued, gently nudging Chelsea’s hand to agree.

The truth was that Dylan didn’t even have a dog. Chelsea nodded her head and felt relief flood over her that Dylan was prepared to lie for her, however, she felt awful for lying to Brenda, she had been a great confident and Chelsea broke her promise.

“Oh Dylan I’m so sorry to hear that, what was his name?” Brenda asked coming closer to Dylan and resting her hand on his arm.

“Nigel” he blurted avoiding Brenda’s stare.

Chelsea had to bite her lip to stop from bursting out with laughter of all the names he could have chosen, he came up with Nigel. Brenda looked between them with sadness in her eyes.

“Well I hope Nigel rests in peace. It’s so hard when we lose one of our fur babies” Brenda said sadly.

Dylan nodded sadly and turned to face his work as the other students began to file into the room. She could see Maddison’s best friend Skye gossiping with their other friend Taylor, both girls stopped when they saw Chelsea and glared at her. Chelsea knew they were talking about her and tried to shake it off. She preferred being anonymous. No one bothered her. Now, however, she not only had the wrath of Maddison, but all her followers.  Art was Chelsea’s only escape and seeing as they were in here in her class too, even this she couldn’t enjoy.

“Alright everyone settle down and get your art supplies out, we are going to be doing the Turkish tea set that you see on the table and we are going to use charcoal as our medium” Brenda spoke as the students organised themselves.

Chelsea was lost in her drawing and Brenda was stalking around the class as she did, giving opinions on each student’s artwork, sharing advice on how to better their picture when she heard an eruption of laughter bubble out from Skye and Taylor. Chelsea glanced up and saw them laughing over a piece of paper in their hands. Brenda stomped over to the two giggling hyenas and snatched the paper out of their hands opening it up against their protests. Brenda looked up from the paper and glared at the girls, before making a quick glance at Chelsea. Tension seemed to flow out of Dylan who stood beside Chelsea watching the drama unfold. Brenda turned back to the two girls who had paled and were no longer giggling.

“My office right now” Brenda growled spinning on her heel and storming for her office.

Chelsea had never seen Brenda yell, she had never seen her growl; Chelsea didn’t think she was capable of it. The girls lowered their heads and slowly followed Brenda into the office. Brenda slammed the door causing the window to rattle; Chelsea watched as she was animatedly storming around the small room, her hands moving at a hundred miles an hour, her face contorted into a frown and reddening. The girls continued to stare at their feet only looking up now and then to answer a question being asked of them.  Brenda picked up the phone and barked something down the line before handing the girls the paper and reefing her door back open again. The girls scuttled out of the office and out the door of the art room without even so much as a second glance.