The World is Ugly

They dropped me onto Gerard's bed, face down, and told me to hold out my arms. I did so, though it hurt my left side (I'm assuming that was that one she kicked) and I heard Mikey gag. I looked over to one of my arms and saw it was coating in blood. There were shards of glass embedded in my arm. I gagged too, and buried my face in the blankets.They flipped me back over and, once again, Mikey gagged. I couldn't see what was wrong with my face, but by the way I felt something smothering my skin when I moved my face I'm assuming it was covered in blood. I felt sick to my stomach. Next was to look at my side. Gerard grabbed the hem of my shirt, but looked at me first, as if to ask permission. "I-I'm in-in g-g-grea-great pain-n-n righ.... righ-t now, I-I-I coul-oul-ould care le-le-less about-t-t you s-seeing... seeing m-my boobs-s-s." He pulled my shirt up to right below my breasts and hissed. "We have to get her to an urgent care for the homeless, or somewhere that's cheap," he said.
"It's nothing we can fix here?" asked Mikey.
"No. Too many glass shards. Scar on her face is fine. But that bruise? It doesn't look good. She might have internal bleeding or a broken rib. She can die if that's left untreated." He touched the scar on my face. "Mike, go get her an old blanket. Not white, obviously."
I was still sobbing and babbling incoherently. I honestly didn't have a shred of hope left that this wasn't an extremely serious injury. Gee cooed and pet me while Mikey looked for a blanket. I heard approaching footsteps and the snapping of a sheet when you shake it. Someone wrapped it around my body and I was picked up bridal style, once again. I blacked out.

When I woke up, I was still someone's arms, and we were running to a white building. I couldn't tell what it said. My vision was blurry, but that perfectly well could be from crying. We ran inside and a nurse immediately came to us. She tried to make me stand up, but I immediately fell to the floor. Other nurses came over and picked me up and carried me into an office. Gerard tried to follow but the nurse said no visitors until they figure out what's wrong. A nurse placed me onto an exam chair. I was going to sit up but that hurt too much.
"Can you hear my voice?" the nurse asked.
"Y-yes..."
"Can you see me?" I shook my head no. "I-i-i-it's blu-blu-blurry."
He shined a light in my eyes. "What's wrong?" he asked. I stuck out my arms and lifted my shirt. He looked at my sides and arms for a good few minutes before speaking again.
"Who gave you this bruise in your side and how?"
"M-m-mom... kick-kick-kicked..." He poked and prodded it a bit.
"Okay, honey, here's what we're gonna do. You're fine, other than your arms. Your sides are simply bruised. Your face should be fine. We're going to sedate you, however, to take out the shards of glass in your arms. It will last a few hours. You'll be able to walk in probably 24 hours. Okay?" I nodded but really couldn't pay attention. I hadn't realized an IV had been placed in my arm. The nurse put something in the IV and I started to feel drowsy. My vision eventually went black.

When I woke up, I was in a bed. Not an exam bed, a regular bed. I let my vision adjust to the light and looked around. The 3/4 window wall gave away it was Gerard's room. I heard someone move around and looked to my side. Laying in bed with his back to me was a shirtless Gerard. I tried to say "good morning" but my voice came out as only a croak. I tried again. "G...d mor..ing." He turned his head until he could see me and sat up. He hugged me, being sure not to touch my left side, and smiled. When he pulled away, he realized I was completely oblivious as to what was going on. I must admit, he had a really nice body. "It's Saturday. 9 A.M. You got the shards taken out of your arm a few hours ago. They wanted to keep you to make sure they don't start profusely bleeding but they had a lot of people that night. Your sides are just bruised. It should heal very quickly; drunk people don't pack a punch when it comes to blows from their legs. You should be able to walk at this point. You have a scar going down your left cheek," I put my hand up to touch my cheek. "Don't touch it. The homeless hospital we took you to didn't cost anything. They said you told them your mom kicked you and want to know if you want to press charges."
"That's a lot of information to take in at once, Gee."
"You don't have to decide on the last part right now. Just... soon."
"I feel really gross. Can I take a shower?"
"Yeah, sure." He swung his legs out of bed so I could get out. When I tried to stand up, I actually could. That's some great improvement from yesterday. I limped a little bit but at least I could walk. I realized there were bandages over my arms and undid them. It was disgusting. My entire forearms were pink and sensitive and covered with scars. I turned on the shower and let the water wash over me. I sighed. What was I gonna do about my mom? I very quickly washed my hair and body before wrapping a towel around me. I found a change of clothes on the sink, along with a pair of boxers. "You kinda came home with clothes from the hospital down to your underwear and kinda guessed you would want clean clothes," read a sticky note attached to the pile. I laughed a little. It's kinda weird to offer your boxers to someone, but okay. I changed into the clothes and went downstairs. Everyone was in the kitchen, scarfing down pancakes. I sat next to Gerard and said stuttered out a good morning. No one paid any attention to me until Gee cleared his throat, which that time everyone stared at me and started asking me questions.
"PLEASE! Just... stop. Asking me questions. I'll tell you what happened once Mikey gives me five." Mikey grabbed a plate and put five pancakes on it, giving it to me.

"Okay so... when I got home from the movies, my mom was drunk. My dad said my mom used to be a violent alcoholic but quit when she found out she was pregnant. She started screaming that I was... was a whore and I was sleeping with all of you. She broke a vodka bottle and swung at me and cut me. I think she punched me somewhere along the way. I fell into the glass and that's how this happened," I held up my arms. "She started kicking me but fell and I ran upstairs. That's when I called Gerard and I assumed he called you guys?"

They nodded. They all got up to hug me. That was the last time I talked about it.

We spent most of the day playing video games and making eachother laugh (though when I laughed I felt some discomfort in my side). Eventually everyone either left or went to sleep and it was just me and Gerard.
"Hey, I just wanted to thank you for coming. If it wasn't for you, I'd surely be in a hospital bed."
"You're my best friend. Why would I not come for you?"
"I don't know. Wait, best friend?"
"Yeah."
"You have three friends you've known a lot longer than me."
"I feel like there's a sorta... connection, between us. One that's different from the guys.:
"Oh, really?" I said, in a really terrible "flirty" voice. I felt heat swirling in my cheeks.
"Yeah." And that was that. I don't know where he was going with that.
I fell asleep in his bed again. I tried not to turn and look at him shirtless. I didn't like him in that way but he had a fucking nice body.

Sometime in the middle of the night, I heard a phone go off. Gee complained a few hours earlier about leaving his phone in the living room, so I knew it wasn't his. I reached under my pillow and found my phone. The screen showed several messages from my mom. I felt sick. I didn't really bother to read them, the swirling in my stomach made me nauseous, but I caught words like "sorry", "never again", "whore", and "kicking". I just stared at my phone. From what I could tell she was still fucking drunk, her demeanor changed quickly between messages. Then, my phone buzzed. Another message from her.

"I'm right outside."

I threw my phone into the wall, my breathing becoming ragged. I was terrified she was, in fact, outside and ready to beat me again. I was so scared last night. I thought I was going to die, that's how much pain I was in. My bawling woke Gerard and he tried to ask me what was wrong but I couldn't breathe well enough to answer. I pointed at myself then my chest, but he didn't understand. Still sobbing, I pointed to me, and put my hands around his throat. He nodded and grabbed my inhaler, apparently on his night stand. I took a few doses and my breathing was fine, but I was still crying, Gerard still running his fingers through my hair and comforting me. I handed him my phone and he read through the messages my mom had sent. He hugged me tight and told me to come downstairs to prove she wasn't there, and though I was reluctant I got up and followed him outside. He led me down the stairs in front of his house and assured me no one was outside. "Now, let's go back to bed. There's crack addicts who roam the streets at night." God, he could cheer me up.
"Gee?" I said while he was locking the door.
"Yeah?"
"What dd you mean earlier, when you said there's a different connection b-between us?" Fuck act cool don't stutter.
He smirked. His smile was really fucking cute, I'll give you that. "I think you know." He wrapped his arms around my neck.

And before I knew it, we were kissing.

He tasted the way he smelled: nicotine and vanilla coffee. I didn't mind the coffee part. I don't know what I tasted like, probably like homeless hospitals and men's body wash. I felt a spark this time, as opposed to when we were forced to kiss for truth or dare. I had only know this guy for 4 days, but I considered him kinda hot and my best friend. And now we were kissing. I pulled away after about 30 seconds of kissing.
"Did I do something?" he asked.
"No, I just have to breathe," I laughed.
"So, Rose Harley, I may have only known you for four days, but I think you're very pretty and kinda...like like you."
"Like like?"
"I'm a kindergartener at heart. Anyways, I don't know you that well. But I want to. You wanna try this?'
"Are you asking me out?" He nodded. "Yes."

And again our lips crashed together.

Notes

Reupload because last chapter's format was fucked up for some reason.