Chapter 6 - Busted face

Aimee POV

I have spent all weekend in bed. I went to the hospital making up the excuse I fell down the stairs, but they obviously didn’t buy the story. They called the police, and I had to tell them I was mugged on the street. I couldn’t see their faces because they wore masks and all dark clothes. The police said that wasn’t enough for them to do anything, and I finally took a deep breath that made me cry in pain.

As soon as I got discharged from the hospital, I got home in bed, and I hadn’t moved beside the odd trips to the bathroom. I can’t believe my life has become so messy. Why do I always have to pay the consequences for everyone else’s actions? This is absolutely ridiculous. How am I going to get all of that money?

My phone starts ringing, and I answer without looking who it is, and I regret it immediately. As Arthur’s voice is the first thing, I hear. I close my eyes, not really believing he calls me on a Sunday.

“Aimee, where have you been all weekend?” he asks, and I try to sound typical, telling him I have been feeling sick and I have been home. I wondered if I could take the day off tomorrow to recover, and he tells me no because Alec Hardy wanted me to interview him. There’s no other way because Tuesday is the deadline for the article to be released. Fuck I can’t see Alec looking like this.

“I really can’t do the interview, I am sorry”, I say, and Arthur lets out a loud noise that I can’t quite figure out what it is, and then I hear something smashing. It makes me jump, and I open my eyes widely.

“You have no choice, you either do this, or you are fired”, Arthur says. I try to protest, but he keeps bringing back all the opportunities he has given me, all the times I did something wrong, and he let it slide, all the times he made an excuse for me because he has always had a soft spot for me. I closed my eyes and agreed to do the interview. I ask if it is possible to do it online, and he says no, it has to be in person, and because I have caused so many issues now, it will be a front-page article.

I take a deep breath ending the phone call, and I look at myself in the mirror opposite from my bed. I look dreadful with bruises on my face. How am I supposed to cover this? How am I supposed to walk straight if I am in a lot of pain because of the broken ribs? Fuck. I grab my phone and dial Stella’s number that, which answers straight away.

“Hey love, how are you?” she asks, and automatically I break. I start crying, and she tells me she will come around soon. I agree and ask her to use her key. She asks me why and I tell her soon she will understand. I had the door fixed as quickly as they tore it down, but it was quite an easy fix that my neighbour helped me with.

Not long after, I hear a key at my door, and I try to sit straight in bed, but unfortunately, I can’t. The pain is unbearable. Stella calls for me, and I tell her to come into my bedroom, I can hear her taking her shoes off and walking towards my room through the carpeted corridor and then she opens the door, and her face falls as soon as her eyes lock on mine.

“Fucking hell, what happened to you?”, She asks, walking towards me on the bed and sitting on the other side, looking at me with shock plastered all over her face.

“Long story”, I say, but she doesn’t care that it is a long story. She wants to know what happened and now. I start crying, and she wraps her arms around me, making me flinch. She pulls away, apologising, but I pull her back to me. I rather be in pain than not have this kind of care at all.

Stella goes into the kitchen and makes us some tea and brings biscuits with her, and she sits next to me while I tell her about my sister’s phone call and about my mother and then how two random guys just came in and gave me the beating of a lifetime. Stella’s face is pure shock, and she shakes her head, pulling away from the tears that threaten to spill.

“How much?” she asks me, and I shake my head. Stella has a better condition in life than I do, but not even her have that kind of money. “How many thousands?” she asks, and I take a deep breath telling her two hundred thousand, and she almost spits her tea out.

She looks at me shaking her head. “I don’t have all of that, but we can make it happen, we can find some people that will give us the money, and we will pay them back in instalments”, she says, and I thank her, but this is my problem, she doesn’t have to get involved. Eventually, I will figure out a way to get them away from me. And then she looks at me and says she had an idea. I hate when she says she has an idea, they are usually terrible ideas.

“You could ask the dickhead for money”, Stella says, and that actually makes me laugh. I look at her, and I see that she is serious.

“Oh, you’re serious”, I say, and she nods her head, telling me that she is. I can’t believe she thinks I can ask Alec for money. I could never do it. It would only increase his hate for me, which until today makes no sense. He was the one that didn’t believe in me and sided with his asshole of a friend.

“No, that’s not an option”, I let out, and Stella shook her head, telling me I am being stubborn, and it is a matter of life or death, my life or my death, they are not joking around, but I couldn’t do that. I could not ask him for money.

After a while of watching tv and just talking, she gives up on the idea of asking Alec for money, but I ask her if she can help me with my makeup tomorrow as I have to go interview him and I would like to cover my bruises.

“I am flattered that you think I know that much about makeup, but babe, to cover those bruises would have to be proper full coverage makeup, stuff that I don’t have”, she says, and I nod my head, avoiding eye contact with her, so I don’t break crying again. She pulls me towards her and tells me we will figure something out.

Stella stayed the night with me and cooked me dinner, and helped me have a shower so I wouldn’t have to rush in the morning. I washed my hair, and she did some fancy curls on me. I look at myself in the mirror and smile as soon as the makeup is done and I am dressed.

I almost pass as someone that is completely healed and didn’t go through something as traumatic as this. Stella nods her head, smiling at her work and helps me to the uber. She said she would go with me and wait outside in the coffee shop across the road. She is a good friend. She is the best of friends, to be fair, I don’t know what I would have done without her.

As I walk through the doors, the secretary greets me, and her eyes scan my face as she frowns, looking at my busted lip and then at the bruise that is peaking under my eye. I smile at her, and I can see pity all over her face. And that is something I don’t stand. I look down at my feet as we walk down the corridor towards Alec’s office, she opens the door, and we walk in. Before she has time to introduce us, Alec stands up, and his eyes go wide and dark as he looks at my face.

“What the fuck happened to you?” he asks in an angry tone, and I flinch at his voice that was raised. I look down at my hands and then up into his eyes. He is now standing in front of me with his hands cradling my face forcing me to look up at him while his secretary excuses herself and leaves.