Damaged

Shopping

Jessica’s POV:  

              After showering and getting into blue plaid pajama pants, a white, wide strapped, tank top and a zip up hoodie. I slipped on my slippers as well. Daniel and David came in.

             They both stood in front of me looking down at me with concern. 

            “We talked to Jeremy and we’re going to leave it up to you, but we think we are going to postpone school shopping for a few days. Just until you feel your up to it.” I can tell they don’t want me to leave just in case I disappear. I pulled my phone out. 

            “I understand that you guys are just looking out for me, but I think we should go. I also wanted to know if Annabelle would come with me. What happened today was due to my cousin. She called me and I knew this was going to happen, but she was blaming me for her pain. It got to me because she wasn’t there to know what happened or even saw the aftermath of it all. But I made sure to block her number so she can’t call me or text me. I’ll be okay.” Their eyes softened to me and they both sighed at the same time. It made me chuckle internally.

           “Why do you want Annabelle to come as well?” Daniel asked.

           “When it comes to clothes shopping I don’t think I want to rely on a males opinions.” That statement held in the air. They didn’t realize not only picking up school supplies and shoes, but clothes will be also bought. 

           “Oh,” Daniel blushes and averted his gaze to the floor. David just chuckled. 

           “I agree Jessie. That’ll be a good idea. If you want her to go though you might want to be the one to ask. Like you she is in a house full of men. We’ll go let Jeremy know you guys are on for tomorrow and mention about Annabelle,” David then left. 

            “Annabelle is in Adam’s room at the moment. He seems to be getting pestered by his little sister,” he chuckled and left. 

          I waited a bit before venturing over to Adam’s room. I was nervous because other than mom, aunt Lily, and Jaime I’ve never spent time with another female before. 

          I knocked on his door lightly. I waited a couple minutes, before deciding to knock a little louder.

         I heard talking and shuffling in the room before Adam opened the door. He looked shocked that I was knocking. 

          “What can I do for you Jessie,” he asked smiling gently. I pulled out my phone.

          “I heard Annabelle was over here. Is she? I’d like to ask her something.” I was now nerve rackingly nervous now. He just put his hand on top of my head.

           “Yes she is. Pestering me to no end,” he looked annoyed. “Annie, you have a visitor.” He turned into his room and went to his closet. 

           “I’m not leaving here until you agree to my terms,” she yelled. She sounded quite desperate. She has been here asking something of Adam. I don’t know what, but she’s family he should help her out. I walked into the room and got close to the closet. 

           I felt an extreme wave of fear. I looked up at Adam and did something I would never have the courage to do to anyone. I shooed him away. He was in disbelief, but the look on my face told him to listen. 

          “I’ll be downstairs when your done.” He walked out gently closing the door behind him. I turned towards the closet. I opened my mouth without thinking and my raspy voice spoke. 

         “Why are you so afraid?” My voice so low, but not expecting anything to come out I was shocked when something did. 

          “Who is it?” She asked.

          “It’s Jessie,” my raspy voice hurting my throat. She heard me and slowly opened the door. Her true feelings showed. Her eyes wide with fear. She looked down.

          “I’m in a lot of trouble. I met someone a couple of months back. It was nice and we had a good relationship. But one day he snapped and turned on me. He hurt me, hurt me in ways I never knew could be harmed.” I feel her pain because I knew what it was like to be harmed in ways that was never thought of. “It only happened a couple of times until he physically hurt me. I tried to get away from him, but he would always find me and drag me back. I need Adams help to keep him away from me, but he won’t do anything here because of the guys here. Once I leave here though I know he’ll try something.” I knew what to do. We had to draw him out, but we needed Adam present to stop him. I sat there and thought about it. 

         “Why don’t you come shopping with Jeremy and I? I need to go school clothes shopping and I need another girl’s opinion. Don’t worry Jeremy won’t let anything happen to you and neither will I.” My phone spoke I smiled gently her way. She was shocked but thought about it. 

         “Okay I’ll go with you,” she whispered.

         “Also why don’t you spend the night in my room?” She smiled at me and nodded. 

         I texted Jeremy about Annabelle coming with us. I texted Daniel that she’ll be in my room tonight so none of them had to watch me. I dragged her to my room and sat her on my bed. I went to my nightstand and opened my drawer and pulled out the gun I had stashed in one of my boxes. 

         She looked at me with this wide eyed look. I sat it on the bed. 

         “Like you I was in a relationship. He treated me like a queen, but one time he snapped. He injured me and I had rushed to the hospital. He apologized multiple times, but I come to find his true motives. I carry this just in case he decides to show up again in my life. You can have this. I have another one hidden somewhere else. I will be right back. I’m going to get some stuff for us.” We did have dinner, but I think this calls for ice cream sundaes. Lucky for me I had my mini fridge and microwave from my home. I ran downstairs in search of one person. 

      I found Adam in the kitchen talking to Jeremy. We were alone. Good. They both stopped talking and looking at me. I felt determination surge through me. I had locked the kitchen door and the door to the dining room so we could have some privacy. I pulled out my phone.   

         “I need you to do something for me. No questions because it’s not my place,” I stopped for a moment and fidgeted. 

        “Adam, I need you to follow us around tomorrow. Please make sure Annabelle doesn’t see you. Please trust me when I say it’s for Annabelle’s safety. I can’t tell you why, but please do this.” Jeremy and him gave me this look. 

         “Can I ask why?” 

         “Would you protect her if you believed she was in danger?”   

         “Of course,” he states. I believe him.

         “That’s why I’m telling you this. I believe she is in danger and you are the only one who can protect her. Protect your little sister,” I looked into his shocked eyes.

         “Damn you seem very serious. I guess I’ll have to go along with this as well. You are also to smart for your own good.” Jeremy said looking at me with a smile. 

          “Only experience can create the wisdom to pass onto others.” Adam looked shocked at me like whatever his sister had gone through I also went through.

          Present: 

         Adam had followed us and Annabelle has eyed me suspiciously. We had a wonderful girls night and pigged out and talked.

        She’s helping me find some clothes for my first day. I want to impress these people and look confident. 

        I knew at any moment that guy that has been following us was not Adam. I noticed him for a while and so hasn’t Jeremy. He’s been staying close to pull me out of the way if anything happened.

         Adam was staying relatively close as well to make sure this guy can’t lay a hand on him. We did have my school supplies, backpack and shoes. They are sitting in the car. We came back for the clothes shopping and just in case the guy was going to ruin the mood. Well he already did.

         I looked at the dress. It had wide straps and was white. It looked like it could hug my figure, but the skirt part was flowy. It went to the tops of my knees. I picked it off the rack. 

         “Belle, what about this?” My phone spoke to her. Her eyes landed on it and she squealed. She nodded her head rigorously. Jeremy was frowning at it. It was not something he would pick out. Which was why I needed a woman’s opinion. I just smiled at him and he rolled his eyes.

          “Go try it on,” she was dragging me to the dressing room to go try on what we had picked out. I tried on everything else first. We ended up picking a couple of the outfits. 

         I wanted to wait to try the dress on. I pulled the dress off the hanger. I breathed and then pulled it on. I closed my eyes and breathed. I opened them and faced the mirror. 

        My breath hitches in my throat. I was never one to boast about my appearance because I had low self esteem, but this dress looked perfect on me. Mostly because I could now tell I had some golden tints in my hair and my eyes popped more than normal.

         “Jessie are you…” she stopped as she looked at me wearing the dress. “Wow,” she whispered again and then pulled me out of the stall and pulled me to the entrance of the fitting room. Jeremy stood there and then looked up at me. His eyes widened and his cheeks turned pink. 

        “How does she look?” Belle asked Jeremy.

        “Beautiful,” he whispered. He then groaned. “If I let her get that the twins are going to kill me. But I think I’m going to let her get it. It looks good on you,” he said. I blushed hard. I ran back in and took it off. 

            I put back on my blue skinny jeans, white camisole with lace on it and a long sleeved shirt that was thin and stretchy. I pulled my black ankle boots. I grabbed the clothes we’re going with and Jeremy took them to the counter to pay for them. 

          Belle went to follow him. I knew what I had to do and I know the guys would be mad but I had to get the guy to come out. 

          I grabbed Belle and headed for the exit to the outside. The guy following us and Adam following behind probably also letting Jeremy know what’s going on. I pulled her around the building somewhere secluded.

         We stood there for a moment facing away from the building when the menacing steps came from behind us. I turned around and glared at the man before us. He had sandy short blonde hair. Hazel eyes that glittered with excitement. His thick lips pulled into a huge smirk. He was built and he wore a body hugging tee and blue jeans and Nike sneakers. 

        “Gotcha,” he stated. I glared up at him. “You can run along squirt. This is between adults,” that’s when I smirked. 

         “You have no idea how much of an adult I am. I may be small, but I know what your doing to this poor girl here,” he glared back at me as my phone spoke for me.

         “She is mine and I can do what I want to her,” his tone turned dangerous. I should be scared, but to be honest I wasn’t afraid of him. There’s only one person I was afraid of and he’s not here. 

          “Wrong. She is not property, so she does not belong to you.” It was a mistake, because the man's hands started to glow. Belle looked scared. I pushed her out of the way as I jumped as the glowing shot from his hands.

         Belle and I fell to the ground in a heap. I pretending like I didn’t see him do that, but Adam appeared before the guy. The guy looked absolutely terrified.

          “Are you trying to hurt my sister!” He yelled in the guys face. “I want to know what you did to my sister. And I will get my answers.” I pulled Belle up and pulled her away from the scene going back around the building to find a very upset looking Jeremy. I looked down at my shoes thinking about how interesting they were, but Jeremy was upset.

          “I told you guys to trust me in this,” My phone stated.

          “Yes, but I didn’t think you would be put into danger as well,” he scolded me.

          “I’m okay Jeremy. I knew what I was doing,” my phone spoke. What he didn’t know was that I had my gun hidden on me if something was going to go wrong. But I looked into his terrified eyes. Then I became shocked.

          “What if something had happened to you? I know you wanted to help Annabelle, but I didn’t want to put you at risk. What if you had gotten hurt? You need to be more careful. We all care about you and what happens to you!” He exclaimed. He grabbed my arm and pulled me into his body. Squeezing me close to his body. Not to hard though. 

         “I was so scared something was going to happen to you,” he whisper cried into my hair. “Promise me you won’t do that again,” I was tearing up and started to think about the words he said. He was right and I just put myself in danger. I kept nodding my head. 

         When he finally let me go and we were wiping our tears Adam looked at me fuming as well. I was going to pull my phone out to apologize to him, but he had already pulled me into his arms.  

         “If you were my daughter I would have grounded you for doing that. In a way I already think of you as my daughter. My sons think of you as their sister. Maybe not Evan but the other two do. What would’ve happened if you had gotten hurt?” He also started crying, which in turn I started crying. When he let go of me, Belle grabbed me and hugged me. Then I ran back to Jeremy. 

        “Belle? Why didn’t you tell me?” Adam inquires. She didn’t speak, so I pulled out phone. 

         “Belle was terrified,” my phone spoke. “She was scared that maybe you wouldn’t help her, or that you would get hurt in the process. I don’t know what she was asking of you, but it probably was so she could be protected. She was also ashamed about the situation she put herself in.” My phone spoke because her and I share our fears.   

          “How do you…” Jeremy’s words hung in the air.   

           “Her and I went through something similar. But the difference was that she has someone to help her and be there for you. Me? I had no one at the time. I ended things with him, but he wouldn’t leave me alone. But now I have people to protect me.” I stopped for a moment to write more.

          “Belle. I’m sorry for hiding this, but you do have people who care about you. I want you to know that. Don’t hide things for the people you care about. It’ll only cause more pain. You should tell Adam everything about the situation, because he was worried about you. You may get on each other’s nerves, but he is your brother and he will always be there for you when you need him and vise versa.” I stopped because then footsteps pounded the concrete of the parking lot. 

          I looked up to see the guys with a mixture of anger and worry on their faces. I looked at Jeremy knowing he called them. I got a scolding from each and every one of them. Damon and Anthony were there too and I got one from them too.  

        David did ground me. I was grounded for the rest of the summer. I wasn’t allowed to do much and I had to stay in my room if they could they would’ve locked me away, but I knew how much they cared.