Chapter 35: Stop It

It's cold.

I don't know why I agreed to this—I don't know why he wanted to meet outside at the begining of December—but here I am.

I could walk back home, but this bench—though it is cold—is too comfortable and I'm not really looking to, you know, exercise right now. It's bad enough I walked over here on crutches, and I'm not exactly looking to do it again.

Kyle is late.

We texted some more, and we agreed on one in the afternoon, and it's two-fifty right now, and the park is empty. He was always late everywhere, though, even when we were dating.

It was one thing about him that always pissed me off, to be honest.

"Cassandra."

Fucking finally.

I turn my head to the right to see Kyle standing there, his hands in his pockets.

I want to smile at the familiar sight of him, but I force myself not to.

I sigh. "Let's just get this over with. What did you want to talk about?"

He hesitates, and I have to stop myself from rolling my eyes. "I just...wanted to apologise. Again," he adds. "Apologise again. I didn't mean to say what I did on the phone the other day."

"Great. Is that it?"

He narrows his eyes at me. "Why are you being like this?"

"Being like what?"

"You know like what."

"I really don't."

"Cassandra."

"Kyle."

That was the wrong thing to say.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" he yells, taking a step closer to where I'm sitting on the bench. "Why are you being like this?"

Getting kind of scary here.

On the side of my body facing away from Kyle, I take my phone out and unlock it with my thumb, sneaking a glance at the screen to go to my contacts.

"What are you talking about?" I ask him calmly, trying to not freak out. Or make him angrier. He always did have a short temper.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," he yells, taking another step towards me.

I click on what I hope is Aaron's contact, and I hit the picture of a phone to dial his number.

"I really don't," i say, and, completely out of nowhere and for no reason at all, I'm transported back to the day Aaron yelled at me that day I had detention.

Not fucking now, brain.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see the screen of my phone displaying the call screen, meaning Aaron picked up.

Kyle takes another step forward—I quickly put my phone on speaker and flip it over so he can't see—and he grabs my arm, yanking me off the bench, but not before I manage to grab my phone.

"Let go of me, Kyle," I say firmly, hoping my phone picks up our conversation.

"No," he says. "Not until you listen to me, actually listen to me."

"Fine. I'm listening. Happy?"

He shakes me, and, even though it was only for a couple of seconds, it causes my ribs to start aching the slightest bit.

"Would you stop?" I ask.

His grip on my arm tightens to the point where I feel my circulation is getting cut off, and I can't stop myself from crying out.

"Kyle, you're hurting me," I say, my voice small and vulnerable.

I hear a thud come from through the phone, and I hope that Kyle didn't hear that.

Thankfully, he doesn't, but he grabs my other arm, holding it with the same force he's holding the first one with.

My crutches fall to the floor, and he lifts me up so my feet are a foot or two off the ground, holding me up, putting more pressure on his grip around my arms.

"Stop it, Kyle, seriously."

I struggle in his grip, but all I do is wiggle in the air—like a slug—and make my ribs and leg hurt.

I hear a car pull up from behind Kyle, and when I look over his shoulder, I see a cop car parked, an officer getting out.

He holds a finger up to his mouth and I redirect my attention to Kyle, not wanting to draw attention to the cop.

"Let go, Kyle, please."

He drops me on the ground, and most of my weight lands on my broken leg, and I scream, pain shooting up my leg.

I mean, he did what you told him to, right?

My brain needs to shut the fuck up.

My scream must have snapped Aaron out of whatever silent daze he was in, because he calls my name.

I look up to see Kyle on the ground a distance away from me—meaning the idiot tried to run—with the cop on top of him putting handcuffs around his wrists.

The cop drags Kyle to a standing position and walks closer to me.

"You alright, miss?" he asks, and I fight a sob, trying to not start writhing on the floor. Jesus, my leg hurts.

I shake my head. "No," i sniff. "I think I broke my leg again."

He looks down at my hurt leg and winces before looking back up at me apologetically. "Let me put him" —he shakes Kyle slightly— "in the car and I'll come back for you. Alright?"

I nod my head, and when he walks away, I allow the tears in my eyes to fall as I'm left alone with the pain.

I hear someone calling my name, and I look around to see my phone laying face-up on the ground, not too far away from me.

I stretch out, resting on my side, and reach for it. I manage to grab it and i take it off of speaker before putting it to my ear.

"Cassie," Aaron says, sounding panicked. "What's wrong? Why did you scream? Cassie?"

"I'm fine," I say through a sniffle.

"Where are you?"

"Um, I'm at the dog park. I went to meet up with—" My throat closes up when I try to say his name, so I change my sentence. "I broke my leg again."

"You what? How? I'm coming, stay there."

"There's an officer here," i say, and I look up to see the officer walking towards me, without Kyle. "He's going to take me to the hospital."

"Why is there a cop with you?" I try to answer, but he continues speaking. "Put him on the phone."

The officer kneels in front of me, and I hand him my phone. He eyes it, putting it to his ear when I nod.

"Hello?" He pauses, and I know Aaron is saying something, and I'm trying to focus on what that could be to distract myself from the pain. The officer shoots me a glance. "She is?" Another pause. "It looks like she broke a leg that was in the process of healing." Pause. "Someone was grabbing her when I arrived, and he dropped her on her leg."

"What?" Aaron yells through the phone, loud enough for me to hear him and the cop takes the phone away from his ear.

"Someone dropped her on her leg," the cop repeats calmly. "I'm taking him down to the station after I take your girlfriend to the hospital."

Girlfriend? When the fuck did that happen?

"Yes, that hospital. Okay, sir."

The officer hands me my phone back, and then he lifts me up, causing me to grunt as I wrap an arm around his neck.

He tries to keep my leg at the same position, not wanting to jostle it too much, but when he starts walking I have to dig my nails into my palm.

"Cassie?"

I lift the phone back up to my ear. "Aaron?"

"Cassie," he sighs in relief. "You okay? The officer is being careful, right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why does this hurt so much? It didn't hurt like this when it was broken after the accident."

"It probably hurt less then because you were on pain meds and the leg was already starting to heal. Now, it's broken again and you're not on any meds and, you know, it's broken."

"Makes sense," i say through gritted teeth as the cop starts to place me in the front seat. "Jesus."

"I'm going to meet you at the hospital, okay?"

I nod, but then remember that he can't see me. "Okay."

Before I can tell him to stay on the phone with me, a beeping noise comes from my phone, and I pull it away from my ear to see that the call gas ended.

Didn't expect him to hang up on me, but, okay.

The car jumps, causing my leg to shift, and I let out a groan.

"Sorry," the cop says, glancing at me. "Speed bump."

I want to yell some not-so-nice things at him, but I manage to keep my cool, partly due to the fact that, you know, he's a cop, and I could get in trouble.

We get to the hospital, and the cop gets out to open my door for me.

"I'll see you around, Cassandra."

I shiver at the tone of Kyle's voice, but I don't look back as the cop takes me out of the car and starts to carry me into the emergency room.

He didn't sound malicious, or like he was making a threat; he said it like he was just making a comment about the weather. Casually.

For some reason, it has a creepier effect than if he would've said it threateningly.

Way creepier.

---------

Boom, chapter 35! At this rate, the book will end up being more than forty chapters. It's my fault; I like to drag things out. But, this book will be finished before the month is up. Or maybe, like, the first week of February. One of those.

I'm trying to start a new book, like I have the idea and everything, and most of the plot, but I'm still working on the ending and some of the characters, and some other small, but somehow still really important, things. And I'm not really trying to start that book before this one is finished, so, yeah, could take a while.

Well, anyways, thank you so much for reading!

--Rose