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“I can’t go home yet,” I tell her breathlessly. I drop down on her bottom step, no longer able to stand from the pain in my ribs. Grabbing the bottom of my shirt, I gently wipe away the small trickle of blood still flowing from my nose. When I pull the shirt away, I find more blood on it than I expected. “Mom will freak out.”
Aislin nods and sits one step up from me. Her eyes look pained when she looks at me.
“I was so scared,” she whispers. For the first time since the whole thing started, her age is shining through with her terrified expression. Her eyes begin to water.
I grip her hand in mine. “I was too,” I admit. “I was scared they would do those things to you, and I wouldn’t be able to stop it.”
She throws her arms around my shoulders and buries her face against the back of my head. I ignore the pain in my side from her jostling my body. I’ll go through any pain if it helps Aislin with hers. Hot tears land on my neck.
“What are we going to do?” she asks, sniffling.
There’s no need to ask her to clarify. Denny won’t let this go. If anything, he’ll stop at nothing to get back at us and get what he wants from Aislin. We’re in deep shit with no way out. Even so, I’ll do what’s necessary to protect Aislin from him.
“I don’t know, but we’ll think of something.”
It’s the truth. I’ll do anything to make sure Denny doesn’t get his filthy hands on her.
She pulls back and wipes her eyes. She nods twice then lets her eyes wander down to where I’m clutching my ribs. Fresh tears appear in her eyes.
“They hurt you.”
Her eyes next fixate on my nose, which feels like it’s starting to swell closed. She reaches out and gently touches my cheeks. I wince at the contact, which intensifies the pain in her eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” she says softly. “You got hurt because of me.”
I bring her hands down from my face and lean closer to her. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you, Aislin. No amount of pain would stop me from protecting you. They may hurt me to keep me away, but as long as I’m still breathing, I’ll fight for you.”
“Oh, Niko,” she cries. “I love you!”
“Love you too,” I say, meaning those words with all my heart. This girl is my North Star. She means the world to me.
“You still have one of my shirts?” She sniffs and nods. She’s stayed over at my house multiple times because of the shit her mom was doing at her house and has borrowed my shirts to sleep in. “I think I may need to borrow it. I don’t want Mom to see me like this. I won’t be able to hide the bruises and cuts on my face, but she doesn’t need to see the blood.”
She nods again and stands, reaching out her hand to help me up. I cringe when the muscles in my back work. I’m going to be sore as shit come tomorrow, but it was worth it. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
Aislin’s mom’s car is in the driveway, so we’re quiet when we walk inside, not waiting to bring attention that we’re in the house. There’s no telling what her mom would do. She’s a bitch and doesn’t like me. I think it’s because her daughter and I have such a close relationship, and she hates it because she doesn’t have the same thing with a man. None of the men she socializes with cares for her; they’re only using her for her body.
On our tiptoes, we walk down the short hallway to Aislin’s room. As we pass by her mom’s bedroom door, moans can be heard. I bare my teeth at the door. At least it was closed this time. I’ve been over a few times when the door was wide open. Aislin doesn’t show any reaction, long since used to the noise.
We stop by the bathroom so she can grab a wet washcloth and then head to her room. Closing the door behind us, Aislin turns around and tells me to take a seat on the end of her bed. I do so, and she gets on her knees beside me.
“Can I clean your face?” she asks, her voice timid, a tone that sounds foreign coming from her.
I nod and stay still as she gently wipes away the blood on my cheek and chin. The cut on my lip stings when she brushes the rough cloth against it. Her eyes track each movement she makes, trying to be careful as not to hurt me more than necessary.
Once she’s done, her hands drop to her lap and she just stares at me.
“How bad is it?”
Her brows pull down, and she bites her lip. “Your mom is still going to freak out. She’s going to hate me when she finds out why you’re all beat up.”
I scowl at her. “That’s stupid. She could never hate you.”
Her head falls forward, and she fiddles with the corner of the cloth before she gets up from the bed. Walking over to her dresser, she hangs the wet cloth on the side of a plastic clothes basket. She pulls open a drawer and takes out one of my old shirts. It’s white and so worn that the black letters have almost faded away.
I stand, and she hands it to me. When I pull my blood-soaked shirt off, she turns around and walks over to the window, peering outside. I slip the thin material over my head and meet her at the window. We stand looking outside for a long time.
That wasn’t the first time I’ve had to protect Aislin from the assholes of the world, and it wasn’t the last. I was her protector, and she was my North Star, lighting up my world and making it seem less harsh. We may live in a shitty neighborhood where the people are too scared to help each other and are willing to let an innocent girl get raped and beaten, but as long as I have Aislin by my side, I’ll be okay.
Denny never bothered us again. Not because he didn’t want to, but because he was found dead two weeks later. The talk of the neighborhood was that he was shot in the back of the head by the brother of the girl he was raping at the time. Dragged outside and left in the streets, his face was gone from the blast of the gun.
I won’t lie and say I felt anything other than peace that he was gone.
