The Story of Us (6 page)

Violet

I sighed and
sat down on Hayes's bed.
I give up. Obviously the comments are terrible if neither of them will let me read them.

I looked up at his TV and saw that he'd been playing Call of Duty. I grabbed his remote and started playing for him. My brother and I used to play this game all the time, so I was pretty good. I was so involved with the game that I didn't even notice them walk back into the room. I jumped when Nash put his arm around my shoulder. I ignored him and went back to playing the game.

“Are you mad at me?” Nash started to rub my back but I kept on ignoring him.

“Can I have my phone back? I need to text Hayden,” I said.

“Do you promise you won't go on Vine?” I rolled my eyes and paused the game. I tossed the controller on the bed and walked out of the room. I just wanted to be left alone. He could have my phone. I was going home. I passed Mrs. Grier while heading down the steps.

“Is everything all right, honey? You look pale.” She was so sweet.

“I actually don't feel too good. I was going to go home and lie down. Can we reschedule dinner for another time?” I didn't want to hurt her feelings, but I didn't want to see Nash right now.

She pulled me into a hug and rubbed my back. “Absolutely, honey. Call me if you need anything.” I gave her a small smile and headed out the door.

I walked quickly back to my house so Nash wouldn't come after me. I ran inside and locked the door behind me. I fell to the floor with tears rolling down my face.

I put my head in my hands and continued to cry. How was it that I managed to pick up a boyfriend in the first couple of weeks that I'd been here and there were already issues in our relationship? This was just added to my long list of problems I had going on. This past year had been the hardest year of my life. With my parents thinking about divorce, my brother leaving soon, the car accident, moving again, and now this with Nash, I was sick of everything. Nothing in my life was ever easy.

Nash

“Do you promise
you won't go on Vine?” I asked her. I was just trying to protect her.

She rolled her eyes at me and tossed the controller on the bed. Then she walked out of the room. I stood up to go after her but Hayes stopped me.

“Just give her some space. Hopefully she'll be calmed down tonight.” I hoped he was right.

I reached in my pocket to pull out my phone and saw that hers was in my hand instead. I still hadn't given it back to her. Our mom stepped into our room with a furious look on her face. “What did you guys do to her?”

I looked over at Hayes. We both were confused. “What are you talking about?” he asked.

“Violet just left. She said she wasn't feeling good and asked if we could reschedule dinner. She looked like she was about to burst into tears.” I didn't say anything and placed my head in my hands.

“Whatever happened, you need to fix it and apologize to her. I will not allow my sons to treat a young girl that way.” She glared at us and slammed the door shut.

Violet

After about fifteen
minutes of sitting on the floor, I finally dragged myself up into my room. It was eight o'clock already and I hadn't even started my homework yet.

I called Hayden from the home phone to ask him if he could pick up my bag and phone from the Griers' house. I wasn't planning on walking over there anytime soon. I had to tell him I wasn't feeling good and didn't want them to see me. I wasn't completely lying to him.

After we hung up, I fished through my dresser for some clean pajamas. I finally decided on some Nike shorts and a regular T-shirt from my old school.

I tore off my clothes and threw them in the hamper in my bathroom.

I stopped to look at the scars on my body in the mirror. One of them started from underneath my armpit and went all the way down to my waist. I turned around to examine the one on my back that started at my shoulders, crossed my back, and traveled down to my waist.

I remember that night like it was yesterday.

Hayden and I were coming home from the movies and we were singing along with the radio at the top of our lungs. It was really late so it was extremely dark outside. A deer ran out in front of the car ahead of us and the driver slammed on the brakes. Hayden slammed on his brakes, too, but he wasn't quick enough. I had taken off my seat belt for a second to grab my purse behind me. I remember flying through the windshield and landing outside on the road. The glass from the windshield cut me extremely bad and I lost a lot of blood.

Since then, I'd lost all my self-confidence in my body. I wouldn't go swimming because I didn't want to wear a bikini. I made sure nobody saw my back or my side. That accident changed me. It was hard to believe that it only happened five months ago.

I forced myself to walk away from the mirror and pulled myself into the hot shower.

Hayden dropped my bag and my phone on my bed. I didn't have much homework so I finished really quickly.

I grabbed my phone and my fingers hovered over the Vine app. Without thinking twice, I opened it up and created an account.

There were some suggestions of people to follow. I scrolled down the list until I saw his name: Nash Grier.

He had 5.3 million followers now and was the most followed person on the app. I watched a couple of his videos and they were really funny. I wasn't going to lie. He and Skylynn were so cute together and made me smile.

I saw a video he was tagged in and it was my reaction video. I scrolled through the comments, trying to hold back tears. Fat, ugly, whore, skank, bitch. All these comments clouded my mind and I threw my phone to the floor.

I burst into tears. Nash and Hayes were right, these comments were terrible.

Hayden walked in and saw me crying my eyes out. He ran to my side and pulled me into a tight hug. I cried into his shoulder, which reminded me of the night I was crying into Nash's shoulder.

“What's wrong? What happened?” Hayden started rubbing my back and placed his chin on my head. I pointed to my phone. I saw his jaw drop as he scrolled through the comments.

“Who are these people? How do they know you?” He was furious and looked like he wanted to punch something. His face softened when he looked at me and I saw the caring big brother I loved. “They are Nash's fans. They don't like me hanging out with him, apparently.”

Hayden went into utter confusion. “Why in the hell does he have fans? Is he famous or something?” he asked.

“Yeah. On this video app called Vine. He is the most followed person,” I responded.

He rolled his eyes and hugged me again. “Don't listen to these people. They don't know you. You are so much better than them. You are the most beautiful girl in the world, Violet.”

“What would I do without you, Hayden? I love you so much.” I hugged him back even tighter.

“I love you too, li'l sis. Now let's go watch a movie.” He pulled me downstairs and popped in
Pitch Perfect
. He knew me too well.

I literally had the best older brother in the world. What other boy would watch this movie with his little sister?

Nash

No new messages.

I'd been checking my phone like every five minutes and I still hadn't heard from Violet. Her brother came over earlier to grab her bag and phone. I didn't ask about her. I just gave him her stuff and he left.

“Dude, just give her some space. She obviously wants to be left alone if she asked her brother to pick up her stuff. Just wait until tomorrow at school or something,” Will said. He'd always been good with advice about girls, so I figured I should listen to him.

“Yeah. You're probably right. Thanks, Will.” I slapped him on the back and headed upstairs for a shower.

I knew she'd probably read all the comments already. I tried to stop her. I tried to warn her. I hoped she was strong, because I knew a lot of girls who would fall apart if it was about them.

I checked my phone one last time before going to bed. Still nothing from her. I sighed and pulled the covers up over my head.

“Good night, Violet. I love you,” I said to myself before closing my eyes.

Violet

Hayden drove me
to school the next morning. I knew I was going to have to talk to Nash today, but I wasn't quite ready just yet.

I managed to go through my whole morning without bumping into him.

Today was calm. Nobody was staring at me as I walked down the halls. No guys tried to stop me when I walked near them. It seemed normal.

I had become really good friends with Hayden's friends at lunch. They all loved me and I loved spending time with them because they were so funny. Hayden didn't mind me hanging out with him and his friends as well.

The whole day I was dreading Music class because I would have to see Nash. I heard him and his friend walk through the door and sit behind me. I kept my head down, trying to avoid eye contact.

All was well until he tapped me on my shoulder. I turned around and gave him a fake smile. “Hey, Nash. Haven't seen you today.”

“Yeah, same here. I missed you.” He looked nervous and sad. His eyes didn't sparkle like they usually did when I looked at him.

“Yeah, I—I missed you, too.” I stuttered a little bit because it was true. I did miss him. The truth of the matter was I wasn't mad about the whole Vine thing. I mean, yeah, I was hurt by those words, but it was just like what Hayden said. They didn't know me. Only I knew me, and I knew that those things weren't true. They were just words. So I wasn't mad at Nash over that; I was mad that he took my phone and was trying to control me.

I saw a smile form on his face and his eyes started to shine again like they always did. “That's good. Hey, can we talk later? I can take you home today.”

“Yeah. I would love that.” This time I gave him a real smile because I really did love him.

Nash

“Yeah, I—I missed
you, too.” I felt a sense of relief spread throughout my body when she said that. She missed me. Or was she just saying that so it wouldn't be awkward?

“That's good. Hey, can we talk later? I can take you home today,” I said to her. I was nervous to talk to her but I wanted to fix the situation. She was too important to me and I wasn't ready to lose her so soon.

“Yeah. I would love that,” she replied. She flashed me that beautiful smile of hers. All I wanted to do was take those lips and kiss them with all the power I had.
Stop it, Nash. Control yourself.

After Music, I walked her to English. Ryder wasn't there anymore, only his friends. They didn't say one word to Violet or me.
That's right—keep your mouth shut, assholes.

English was extremely boring as usual and seemed like it was taking forever. The bell finally rang and Violet and I walked to her locker.

“Let me just text Hayden that I got a ride.” She pulled out her phone and the incident of last night flooded back into my mind. I was being such an asshole to her.
Damn, Nash. Why did you have to do that? I'm so stupid.

We sat in the car for what felt like thirty minutes in silence. I couldn't do this.

“Violet . . .” I said, breaking the silence. “Violet, I'm so sorry. I was acting like a complete asshole last night. I don't know why I was acting that way. I was just trying to protect you because I care about you and I didn't want you to get hurt by them.”

I grabbed her hand and saw tears forming in her eyes. She looked away so I couldn't see her face.

“Nash, I read the comments last night. And yeah, it was hurtful. Those comments made me feel like I was being shot in the heart. But Hayden told me something that made me realize the truth. They are just words. And at the end of the day, you, me, Hayden—we all know that those words aren't true. I know that what they are saying isn't true. So it shouldn't matter what they say, because I know in my heart who I really am. They don't.” She looked over at me and I didn't see a hurt Violet staring back at me. I saw an extremely strong, beautiful girl I was in love with. She was right, though. They were just words.

I pulled her into a hug and held her tight. “I'm so sorry, Violet. I—I love you. I love you so much.”