XIII

"What the hell?!" he yells once I shut my bedroom door behind him with my good hand and turn to face him.

"Yeah, I, uh, I told you about my parents. Did you come by my house earlier when I wasn't here?" I ask, avoiding eye contact.

"No, why?" he replies.

"My dad said a boy came here looking for me. I figured it was you. He wasn't happy about them coming here though." I sigh, looking him up and down.

He seems to ignore my answer as he quietly says "Oh my God.", his eyes scanning over my bruised face.

"Why didn't you call me?" he asks and I tell him the truth.

"Because this isn't the first time that this has happened. I've been through it a lot, so I'm sort of used to it. But this is new, and it hurts." I say as I raise my hand that is slowly leaking fresh crimson blood.

...

"You're sure you don't want to go to the hospital?" Calum says with raised eyebrows as he inspects my hand.

"No. They'll ask me what happened and I can't tell them." I say the last part especially quiet.

"Okay, well do you have a first aid kit?" he asks and I nod as I walk over to my closet and pull the kit from the top shelf. I've had it sitting in my closet for a long time in case something like this happened, but I've never been hurt bad enough to use it so the supplies haven't been touched at all.

"Here." I say, handing the red plastic box to him as I sit on the edge of my bed.

"I've never done this before." he says as he kneels in front of me.

"Way to make me comfortable. I have such confidence in you." I say sarcastically.

He pulls my hand down toward him and turns it slowly from side to side, inspecting it.

A look of blankness spreads across his face and his eyes display an incredible amount of concentration as he analyzes my hand. I realize that he's unusually calm under pressure - something I admire since I tend to just shut down under excessive pressure.

I notice for the first time what he's wearing - black jeans that are ripped at the knees, a Nirvana t-shirt and converse sneakers. He looks amazing in the most simplistic and wonderful way. 

"You're gonna need a few stitches." he states, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"I'll be fine. I don't want to go to the hospital." I tell him.

He sighs heavily then says "I'll stitch it for you, then."

What the hell?

"Uh, I don't think that's a very good idea. Your dad might be a doctor but you're not." I say, slightly panicked.

"You're right - I'm not a doctor. But I've stitched cuts like this before. Besides, you won't go to the hospital. Don't worry, you'll be fine." he says confidently.

"Why do you know how to do that?" I ask curiously.

"It's a good thing to know how to do." he says simply and I can tell that he doesn't want to be asked anything else about it so I stay quiet until a new thought dawns upon me - won't stitches hurt?

So I ask him and he tells me "Yes, of course it's going to hurt. But if you'd quit being so damn stubborn and let me take you to the hospital they can numb you so that you won't feel it. Your choice."

"I have a high pain tolerance." I say, letting out a sarcastic huff sound.

"Ready?" he asks as he holds the tweezers in one hand and my newly injured hand in his other.

"Mm-hmm." I say as I bite my lip and nod. 

Silent tears fall from my eyes as he extracts the pieces of glass.

This hurts more than I thought it would.

"Okay, that part's over. Do you have thread and a needle now?" he asks and I nod as I retrieve the materials from the bottom drawer of the nightstand with my good hand.

He threads it with ease and then lifts his eyes to mine and asks once again "Ready?" and I nod again.

If I thought taking it out was painful, this is a million times worse.

By the time he finishes stitching the final cut I'm about to pass out from the pain.

I've been breathing heavy and deep in an attempt to lessen the stabbing pains but it doesn't help at all.

"Holy shit. I need a break. Stop." I say as I pull my hand that has a needle and thread dangling from it away from Calum slowly and fall back onto my bed with my feet hanging off the side and resting on the ground.

"Are you almost done?" I ask.

"Yeah, c'mere." he says pulling my hand toward him and snapping the thread.

"Thank you." I say, sitting up once again.

"You're welcome. Where are your parents?" and I'm wondering the same thing.

"Uh, I don't know. They're usually here this time of day so it's sort of odd that they're gone." I say as he gets up and sits on my bed next to me.

"Do they work?" he asks.

"My mom doesn't. My dad used to work for a construction company so he was out of town a lot when I was younger but now he's home most of the time." and he just nods.

That's when I hear the yelling coming from outside my bedroom door.

I get up and run to lock my door as fast as my bruised body can manage.

I should've locked it behind Calum.

And for the second time today I'm not fast enough.

My fingers fumble with the lock just as the door flies open and hits my forehead, sending me reeling backwards while I lift my good hand up to my head.

Oh, bloody hell.

This isn't good.

My dad glares at me as he calls me a stupid bitch for getting in his way.

My eyes are trained on my dad and I'm completely absorbed in trying to anticipate his next move and figure out how to dodge it. So much so that I forget Calum's even here.

That is, until I see him step in front of me.

His back is facing me and his arms are pushing me back protectively.

"Cal, I'm fine." I say because I know that my dad won't think twice about beating the shit out of him and I'll go absolutely ballistic if he hurts Calum.

Why? Because I care about Calum.

Hell, I care about Calum more than I care about my parents. And I hardly know Calum.

"Oh, got yourself a buyer, huh whore?" my dad growls while glaring at Calum.

Calum's a good three inches taller than my dad is so he's looking down at him, which for some odd reason I find absolutely hilarious.

But my thoughts are interrupted when I hear Calum say "Fuck off. Leave her the hell alone." lowly and sternly.

"And what do you think you're gonna do about it, pussy?" my dad retorts as he swings for Calum's face. Calum catches his arm and twists it around behind him. I hear an awful popping sound, presumably his shoulder dislocating.

"You're a real piece of shit, you know that?" Calum says into my father's ear. 

"Look at her. I want you to see what you did." he says, his voice is laced with disgust as he grabs hold of my dad's shaggy blonde hair to force his eyes on me. "What the fuck's wrong with you? Putting your hands on a woman like that." Calum says quietly to my dad.

I stare blankly at him, refusing to cry although I can already feel the tears forming. I refuse to cry in front of my father. I always have.

"You. Are. The. Scum. Of. The. Earth." Calum says, enunciating each and every word crisply.

"Now, she's gonna come with me. And you're gonna stay far, far away. Sound like a plan?" Calum orders and my dad nods aggressively, willing Calum to release his arm and hair.

But before Calum lets go completely he grabs my dad's shirt collar, just as my dad did to me earlier today and he pulls him to his feet, only to force him to fall again once Calum's fist connects with my dad's jaw.

That's gonna bruise.

"Come on, pack yourself a bag." Calum says to me as he sighs and sits down on the edge of my bed, close to my dad who's sprawled across the floor, one hand firmly attached to his jaw that's surely aching as he grapples to get up.

I look down at my dad reluctantly, worried that he'll come at me when my back's turned.

Calum sees me eyeing him and says "Don't worry, I'll watch him."

So I nod and walk over to my closet, pulling out a suitcase then begin to quickly toss some clothes into it.

I'm leaving.

I'm actually leaving.

Finally.

A/N: Turns out Cal-Pal's kinda a badass, huh? How sweet of him to take care of Jackie though, right? Anyways, thanks for reading! Vote and comment, please!