Hard to Handle Part 2

The next morning, I awoke to a quiet, empty house. For that, I was grateful. They first thing that came to my mind was how on Earth I was going to hide this from Logan. Him and his uncanny knack for catching lies. I’d made a point of not telling him anything false anymore because, in the end, he’d get the truth out of me.

I changed out of the clothes I had worn yesterday, the same clothes I had slept in, too shaken up to change out of them last night. I put my bathing suit on, knowing full well I wasn’t getting into the water anytime soon. I suspected that some of my ribs were broken on the right side of my body, as there was a bruise beginning to form there. I slipped on a tank top and shorts. But as I passed the vanity mirror in my room, I noticed slight discolorations along my arms where my stepdad had also hit me last night. So I grabbed a light jacket and slipped that on as well, took a couple advil to ease the pain, grabbed my phone and headed out the door.

My immediate thought, walking to the elevator was that I should have stayed in bed, but I couldn’t risk anyone, especially Logan, thinking something was up.

I slowly made my way to the beach where I had met Logan the day before and sure enough, he was there. I smiled at him as he came to meet me half way.

“Hey,” I said as he changed his course to meet mine, and we fell into step together.

“Hey,” he said back with a smile, totally at ease. “What’s with the jacket?” he asked giving me a funny look.

“I was cold,” I answered, shrugging. He looked at me as though he saw right through my bluff, but didn’t say anything else about it.

“What do you want to do today?” I asked, trying to casually change the subject.

“Well, I was hoping we could go swimming?” the minute the words left his mouth my heart dropped, of all the days he chose to go swimming, he had to pick today?! I frowned and didn’t say anything, “Unless you don’t want to…” he added. I shrugged again, wincing this time. He looked at me funny, and I realized he had noticed my wince, thought, again, he didn’t say anything. It was almost like he was contemplating for himself that something was wrong before he brought his findings to the table.

“I’m not really in the mood to swim today,” I said quietly. He looked at me, and his expression changed to something along the lines of confusion and shock.

“You? The girl who has begged me to go swimming with her every day this week?!” he asked, again, shocked.

“Look, I just don’t want to go swimming today, okay?” I kind of snapped.

“Okay, okay,” he said backing off.

“Sorry,” I said quietly, embarrassed that I had gotten in his face about something so stupid.

“What’s going on, you’ve been acting really funny lately? Does it have anything to do with you hurrying off last night? Did something happen?” he asked. I wanted so desperately to be able to tell him but he really didn’t need to know, and I didn’t want to worry him so I told him ‘no’.

“Are you sure about that?” he asked, automatically assuming I was covering something up. But he didn’t know that the covering up could be taken both literally and figuratively.

“My stepdad and I got into an argument when I got home,” I gave as little information as possible and added a few stretches of the truth.

“The drunk?” he asked and I instantly regretted sharing about my family members with him. I was already getting a little annoyed with him being able to put things together so quickly. It most likely didn’t help that the sharp pain in my side put me in a bad mood. I sighed and he took that as a yes and continued, “Did he do something to you?” he asked, again, jumping to conclusions.

“No,” I said, then, “I don’t want to talk about it,” I added dismissing the conversation.

“Alright,” he said, but he didn’t sound like he was happy about it. “So…..” he said beginning to walk again. Unfortunately, this was the first time Logan and I had become uncomfortable together, and I hated myself for it. We were both quiet for a while, and, probably noticing my tension, Logan took hold of my hand. I smiled at him, glad that my behavior hadn’t completely changed his mind about me. I was beginning to realize that as the silence between us became longer, the less uncomfortable it became for me.

“Why are you still talking to me?” I asked, breaking the silence with my curiosity. He laughed at me, as though the answer was obvious and I was missing it.

“Why would you ask that?” he answered my question with another question, one thing that I couldn’t stand, but didn’t say anything.

“Because, I’ve been a total jerk!” I said matter-of-factly. He laughed again, “What’s so funny?” I asked, completely lost.

“Do you want the truth?” he asked, disregarding my statement, most likely already anticipating the answer. I nodded my head, and looked at him like he was insane for even asking me that; he just smiled.

“I can honestly tell you, that you are the most normal girl that I have ever met,” he began.

“That’s what you think,” I mumbled sarcastically and he looked at me funny but continued.

“I think you’re a really great person, and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you this week,” he said, “What I’m trying to say, is that I really like you, Abbey,” my stomach fluttered as I heard my name spoken, by him, in that sentence. That aspect was the only thing that made this real to me; otherwise, I would have thought that it was all a dream. I felt my face begin to get red, but I was hoping he wouldn’t notice because of my newly acquired tan from the Florida sun. I didn’t look at him, because I was sure that the expression on my face would give away the fact that I undeniably felt the same way. To me, it seemed that he took my unreturned eye contact as being unsure about how I felt about him. So he let go of my hand, and brought it to my cheek. Then before I could piece together the situation, he kissed me. His lips were warm and soft against mine, and I returned his kiss with a sudden excitement. I was very aware of his hand, once on my cheek, was now sliding past my ear. His fingers became entwined in my wavy dark brown hair. All of a sudden, I felt something cold and hard against my back, a wall that I hadn’t even realized was there. Logan seemed to sense my hesitation when I was backed up against the wall because, even the euphoria I was feeling couldn’t mask the pain I felt when my ribs hit it. He pulled away, “Are you okay?” he asked, concerned that he had done something wrong.

“I’m fine,” I said quietly, gently rubbing my ribs to try to ease the pain, but it had the opposite effect. He saw what I had done, and put his hand on my ribs, trying to figure out what the problem was. “Ow,” I mumbled, immediately regretting I had let it slip out. He looked at me as though everything was clear now.

“That’s it,” he said, “That’s why you’ve been acting funny lately!” he continued to feel along my rib cage, occasionally putting pressure on it. I continued to grimace as he did so. “Do you mind?” he asked, gesturing towards my shirt.

“A little,” I sighed, but I slid my shirt up to my rib cage, glad I had worn a swimsuit after all. I closed my eyes and waited for what he would say next. I heard his mortified gasp.

“What happened to you?” he asked meeting my eye contact as I opened my eyes. His expression made my heart sink; I wasn’t used to someone caring so much about me. At first I was confused as to why he was freaking out so much, because this morning it was just a small bruise. I slowly looked down and gasped when I saw that the bruise had gotten significantly bigger. It now spread across my rib cage, and was deep purple. It took me a minute to regain myself and answer him.

“I fell,” I lied quietly, which I understood at once, was a bad idea, I should have realized by now that I was a bad liar.

“I’m not kidding, this is serious,” he said, his sapphire eyes burning, making me wonder how such a breathtaking moment had gone so wrong. “Please,” he said, almost as if he was begging, “You know you can trust me, what’s going on?” I had never openly talked about my stepdad’s abuse towards me, so this was incredibly difficult for me to get out.

“My….my,” I stammered, my eyes beginning to well up with tears, “Stepdad,” I finished quietly. He didn’t say anything, he just opened his arms, like he had the first night I had met him, and I rested myself comfortably in his embrace. I felt his cheek on the top of my head as silent sobs shook through me. I tried to concentrate on something else, so I buried my face in his chest and took in his sent; one that I had come to be familiar with, but also one that never ceased to overwhelm me.

“So when you said you were abused when you were younger, that never stopped?” he asked keeping his arms around me. I nodded and he pulled away. “’I’m sorry’ is probably the last thing you want to hear right now, it’s too cliché, huh?” he said, and I couldn’t help thinking that he had hit the nail right on the head, I nodded and he smiled sweetly. “I do think you need to get that looked at though,” he said gesturing towards my bruise, “my dad’s a doctor…would you be okay with him checking it out?” he asked, and I was still in awe by how sincere he was.

“I don’t know,” I said cautiously, he reached up and whipped a tear from my cheek. Suddenly feeling self conscious I brushed my bangs from my face and ran a hand loosely through my hair. He chuckled at me, “What?” I asked, wondering what he found so funny.

“Nothing, just you being you,” he said smiling again, his smile made me want to melt, and I smiled back at him. “But really, you should think about letting someone look at that, what if you have broken ribs?” he asked rhetorically and I sighed. “Besides, you’d get to meet my parents,” he said lightening the mood. Logan had a strange way of making me feel comfortable and at ease. Because this worked on me, even now, I felt even more thankful than ever that I had met him. Before, after a fight with my stepdad, I felt unsafe, pretty much anywhere I went, almost like anyone could do to me, what he did. This was the first time in so long that I felt like I had nothing to be afraid of.

“Come on,” he said, taking my hand and leading me in the direction of his condo, which just so happened to be the building next to mine, “You’ll like my parents I promise.” I sighed, giving up because I didn’t want to argue. I also didn’t want to make Logan think that I didn’t appreciate what he was doing for me. I was okay with seeing a doctor to look at my possibly broken ribs, but seeing the doctor also brought up other problems I definitely wasn’t ready to face. Logan seemed to notice that I felt uncomfortable so as we took the elevator up to the fourth floor, he squeezed my hand for support and I smiled at him. “Don’t worry,” he said, breaking our prolonged silence, “They’ll love you!” We reached what I guessed was his room, because he stopped, let go of my hand, reached in his pocket for his key, and unlocked the door.