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“I’ll talk to Ky,” I sighed. “But I can’t promise if anything will come of it. I don’t think you get how much what you did destroyed her. She’s terrified of you.”
Translation: I was damn sure going to tell her about that video. But I was also going to make it clear to her that the only talking I wanted her doing was to the police – and my father, if she wanted to get some legal advice first.
“I get it. Thanks for listening, man. Um, do you need some help getting to the nurse?” he asked. “Looks like they roughed you up pretty bad.”
“I’ll live,” I muttered as I stood up, groaning when I felt the sharp pain in my side.
Yep, at least one rib was definitely broken. I lifted my shirt to survey the damage, and the skin was already starting to darken around the swollen spot right above my stomach.
Without another word, I grabbed my gym bag and backpack and headed in the direction of my Pre-Cal class. As I approached the door, I ran into Braden and Kyler coming from the opposite direction.
“Ian!” Kyler exclaimed, running over to me. “Oh, my God! What the hell happened?”
I groaned as she pounced on me with a hug, but I still wrapped my arms around her and kissed her head. I would’ve had to be in a coma to not want a hug from her. Hell, even then I still would have wanted one. And I’d probably still have felt it.
“Take it easy on him, Ky,” Braden said, then glared at me. “Heshouldbe at the nurse’s office.”
“I’ll survive,” I sighed. “B, can you give me a minute with my girl? I’ll fill you in later.”
He looked back and forth between the two of us, then sighed and nodded.
“I’ll see you two later,” he said as he walked off.
“Baby, listen,” I said as soon as he was out of earshot. “We need to talk. Badly. But we’ve got a test to take right now, and I don’t want anything to distract you. Can you trust that I’ll tell you everything as soon as we get out of here?”
“I always trust you,” Kyler said, standing on her toes for a kiss. “But are you okay? Really? I hate to say this, but you don’t look so good.”
I sighed. I couldn’t lie to her. I’d never done it before, and I sure as fuck wasn’t about to start now.
“Max and Tucker roughed me up pretty good,” I admitted. “I took a couple of knees to the family jewels and a few blows to my stomach, and I’m pretty sure one of my ribs is cracked. But I’ll be fine. I just need some ice, painkillers, and rest.”
“You sure you don’t need to go see the nurse?” she pressed.
“What I need is to be in that classroom with you and make sure you’re safe,” I insisted. “That’s the only thing that matters to me.”
She sighed and wrapped her arms around me again. I could tell she didn’t buy my attempts to downplay my injuries, but the problem was that if I went to see the nurse, she would have had to send me to the hospital for scans and she’d have had to get the administration involved since this had happened on school property. And that would have spelled disaster.
My dad had seen more than once where schools swept things like felony assault and rape under the rug because they didn’t want to lose their funding. I even remembered one situation in Wichita where my high school’s biggest rival school had essentially ignored a rape that had left the girl in the hospital. And then they’d actually punished the student body for protesting, taking away things like prom and grad night, while allowing the guy who’d done it to return to school without consequence.
I wasn’t about to let any of that happen to Kyler. This school wasn’t going to get involved in her case until it was too late for them to even try to do any kind of damage control. Because I refused to watch them try to sweep this under the rug just because the guys who had hurt her were three of the most popular kids in school and she was one of the outcasts.
* * *
It was the longest hour and a half in history, but eventually, Kyler and I were freed and able to go to the courtyard for lunch. I found a secluded area where we could talk without ears on us and had her sit down on my lap so we could whisper just as an extra precaution.
“Listen, after Max and Tucker beat the shit out of me, Drew found me lying on the floor in the locker room,” I told her.
“Oh, my God, Ian. Why didn’t you tell me it was that bad?” she said, giving me a look that told me she wasn’t very happy with me for keeping the extent of my injuries from her.
“Because you’re more important,” I said, kissing her forehead. “You’ll always be more important. And if it comes between choosing myself or you again, I’ll choose you every time.”
“Before you tell me anything else, I need the truth. Do we need to get you to a doctor?”
“No, baby,” I assured her. “I’m hurting, but I’ll be fine. I promise.”
“Okay. So what happened when Drew found you?”
I sighed. “I want you to promise to listen to everything I’m about to tell you and take time to process it before you say anything. Can you do that?”
