Untouchable (Haven Falls 1)

I speak to dad for a good twenty minutes as he yells at me and I tell him over and over again that I’m ok. I confirm that I didn’t spend the night in hospital or jail, and I lie just a little when I tell him that I didn’t spend the night in a boy’s bed.

When he’s finally satisfied that I’m alright, he lets me go and I walk straight into the bathroom, desperately needing to relax. I turn on the bath, throw in a few bath salts, add some bubbles and pour myself a glass of orange juice. Then I grab a banana from the fruit bowl as I wait for the bath to fill and before I know it, I’m standing butt naked in front of the mirror desperately wishing there was some kind of magic trick to get rid of the markings that Spencer left on my body.

I mean, how dare he do that? I look like I’ve been claimed by someone. It’s disgusting.

I try and let it go in the hopes that the hot bath should help. I’ll add a little cream to my skin and in a few days, I should look like my regular self. I’ll just have to wear a scarf to school on Monday, but who knows? They might be gone by then.

I bring up my playlist on my phone and place it on the counter so I don’t accidentally drop the phone into the bath as it’s something that seems to happen to me quite a bit.

I turn off the bathroom light and slip into the water, excited by how damn badly I need this right now. I quickly scrub myself clean and finally get the chance to relax. Within the space of two minutes, my head is back on the edge and my eyes are closed, soaking in the peacefulness of the relaxing bath.

I don’t get out until the water starts to cool and I start looking like a prune.

I dry myself off, throw my silk robe around my body, and grab the blanket off my bed before trudging out to the living room which is exactly where I stay.

It’s not until after dinner that I pluck up the balls to check the message Noah had sent me earlier in the day. I let out a breath, hoping this doesn’t break me like everything else seems to have done today.

I unlock my phone and sitting right there is his unread text message, along with a few from Tully from this afternoon.

Noah – I wish things could be different.

I read it over and over again and find that I couldn’t agree more.

But what’s the point in telling me that? All it does it remind me that I’ve missed out on something incredible. I think I’d be able to deal with it better if it was because I’d screwed up in some way, but this is completely out of my hands and makes it that much harder for me to accept. We were so close to finding happiness. It was there, hell, I’m confident enough to say that we did have it for a moment before it was ripped away.

With that, I exit out of the message and focus on Tully’s, knowing this should help a little with my disastrous mood.

Tully – You get home ok?

Tully – Sorry I yelled at you.

I smile at the messages, thankful that she’s still talking to me. I hash out a reply.

Henley – It’s fine. I’m ok.

Tully – Thank god! Where have you been all afternoon? Should I come around? Are you sure you’re ok? That shit with Monica was brutal this morning. I thought for sure you were going to deliver a smack down.

Henley – No, I need to sleep it off. And believe me, if she wasn’t up the duff, I would have kicked her ass. Are we ok?

Tully – Tell me about it. I was worried for a minute!

Tully – Yes! Of course. Honestly, I was more pissed off because I was finally going to seal the deal with Rivers when he noticed you’d taken off.

Henley – Shit, you got clam jammed.

Tully – Uhhhhhhhhh….? What?

Henley – Female version of cockblocked.

Tully – HAHAHAHAHAHAH

Tully – HAHAHA

Tully – I can’t even…

Tully – I’m coming around. Movie night.

I put my phone down. There’s no point denying her now. She’s probably already on her way here. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was already pulling into the drive.

By the time I get up and pee, the front door is being barged open and as I walk out of the bathroom, Tully’s arms are thrown around my body. “Come on,” she says, dragging me along. “I brought ‘Paranormal Activity’ and popcorn.”

Shit. I guess I won’t be sleeping ever again.

Chapter 17

I stop by my locker on Monday morning, still struggling to forget the shitty weekend I just had. I guess that’s not entirely fair. Tully kept me up all of Saturday night, slept over, and refused to leave until the early hours of this morning, making sure I was fine with my aching heart.