Monday was a complete drag.

On Saturday night I was fearlessly dancing around a front room packed with people and making out with a guy in public. Now, I was once again hiding in a bathroom stall to avoid having the shit kicked out of me.

I pulled the hoodie I was wearing around me, breathing in the familiar smell. Will and I had been texting now and again, getting to know each other more. He was a really sweet guy. We didn't have as much in common as Felix and I did, but opposites attract, right?

The bell rang and I strolled out of the toilets. Time for detention. Yay.

I had been dreading this moment since our interaction in the bathrooms on Saturday. I don't know if he even remembers what happened, but if he did, then this was about to be incredibly awkward. I doubt the big, macho guy would take kindly to me having seen him at his breaking point, bawling into my chest.

I entered the usual room and dropped into my seat, waiting. I saw his head bobbing up and down through the classroom window as he walked towards the door. He stopped suddenly- standing there for a while. What the hell was he doing? I wanted to get this over with. After a few moments, it dawned on me that he was preparing himself to walk in and I frowned. Was he really that embarrassed about it?

He finally walked in and his eyes went straight to my jumper, scowling. He sat in the seat across from me and took out his books, avoiding eye contact. It had been like this since I had called him out for asking questions last week. It was really awkward. I had stopped being so scared of him, he hadn't once made any move to hurt me. He just allowed other people to do it instead. I realised Jimmy Wellot was all bark and no bite; now he was just rude and annoying.

I opened his textbook to the page we had left off at and set him some tasks. I sat watching him do them for a while, before realising he was working twice as slow today. I sighed, closing his textbook. He was going to get nothing done today if he kept this up. He looked up at me, alarmed, before ducking his dead. His usual cocky demeanour had been replaced with that of a kicked puppy.

"Let's talk." I stated, my voice sounding confident, despite the wobble.

"We've got nothing to talk about." He snapped, opening the textbook again.

"Clearly we do." I sighed, closing the textbook again, "You wanna end this. I wanna end this. If we talk about it, you can focus and we can finish this tutoring nonsense. This is your chance, talk away."

The room fell silent for a minute or two. I let him think about what he was going to say as I studied him. He looked rough. His general look was usually a little rough around the edges- typical bad boy kind of charm. Right now, however, he just looked rough. His usual stubble was now a beard, his hair looked messy and the bags under his eyes suggested he hadn't slept.

"How come you never told anyone what I did?" He asked meekly, finally meeting my eyes.

His eyes looked pained. They were filled with confusion; he was confused as to why I never told anyone, despite all the pain I was put through because of his actions.

"It's not my place to tell." I stated simply, "You have to come to terms with it. Besides, I wouldn't wish what I went through on anyone. Even you."

"Sometimes I think it would have been easier if you had told people." His voice was so small, it sounded like a whisper.

"Trust me. It wouldn't have been." I shook my head.

More silence. I couldn't even guess what was going through his head right now. He was certainly conflicted with himself. Despite wishing I didn't, I felt a trickle of sympathy for him. What he's done has been awful, but if I were in his place, would I have done anything differently?

"Is he your boyfriend?" Jimmy asked out of nowhere, shocking me. Why did he care so much?

"No. I've not known him long."

The silence was deafening at this point. The tension in the air was horrible. Jimmy was so unpredictable, he was like a wounded wild animal. Any sudden moves or careless words could set him off again or make him defensive- closed off to me.

"You keep wearing his jumper though." He pointed out, glaring at my jumper.

I couldn't help the thought at the back of my mind. Was he jealous? He hadn't stopped asking about Will and why was he suddenly reaching out to me now, right after he saw me with a guy? I pondered over this- the more I thought about it, the more sense it made.

"Jimmy, why do you care so much?" I asked cautiously, my voice soft.

"What? I'm not gay if that's what you think!" He exclaimed, bolting up out of his seat with a crash.

I spooked the wild animal.

"Whatever Jimmy." I sighed, shaking my head.

I was over it. I grabbed my bag and started to leave, heading towards the door. He was still stood where I left him- staring at the floor- when I looked over my shoulder. I give up. I walked through the halls, heading to my car. I was only about ten metres away when I was pushed to the ground violently.

My head hit the concrete hard and I grunted from the impact, feeling dizzy. Before I could push myself off of the floor, I felt a foot come crashing down on my back, pushing me back down again. Another foot came out of nowhere and made contact with my eye. I wailed out in pain, covering my head with my arms and sobbing as their attacks rained down on me.

At first every kick made me scream out in pain, but then they all merged into one and I became numb. I couldn't hear anything over my own sobbing, but then everything stopped. I didn't dare peek out from under my arms, just in case they started again. My whole body was throbbing in pain, begging me for help.

A hand rested gently on my arm and I flinched. Once I realised they weren't going to hurt me, I peaked out and saw the concerned face of Jimmy Wellot. Everyone else was gone. I was left confused and hurt.

"I saw them beating you up. Told them a teacher was coming and they fled." Jimmy explained gently.

I would care more about why he did that if I wasn't so hurt right now. I squeaked out a thank you and allowed him to help me off the floor, the pain coming from my ribs too much for me to handle. Jimmy's face was painted in concern. I limped over to a bench and he went to lift up my shirt, making me squeak. What the hell was he doing?

"Relax. I'm just trying to check your ribs. Drama queen." He scoffed, checking my ribs over with a delicate hand, "Does it hurt to breath?"

I nodded and he frowned, wrapping an arm around me again to help me walk. He took me to his car and opened the passenger side door, helping me in. I wasn't going to protest since I was clearly in no state to drive right now. He jogged back to where I was attacked to grab my bag and came back, slipping into the drivers seat.

"Why are you helping me?" I asked, studying his tense frame as he drove, "You never have before. Why now?"

He was silent, presumably ignoring me. I was relieved mostly, although a bit confused. I can't imagine what they would have done or how long they would have kept going if Jimmy hadn't shown up.

"I presume I'm taking you to Daxx's instead of your mums?" He asked, already driving towards our street.

I nodded, thanking him. We fell into silence and it suddenly dawned on me that I was going to have to explain this to Daxx and Connor. How the hell was I going to do that? I groaned and let my head hit the window, holding my ribs since they hurt so much. I flipped down the car mirror and grimaced at what I saw.

I had a black eye developing already and I had a small cut right under my eye, blood and dirt smeared across my face. My nose was bloody and I had another bruise on the side of my head with a gash from where I hit the floor. I didn't want to know what the rest of my body looked like.

"When we get there, can you tell Daxx I was being mugged?" I asked, still looking out the window.

"Won't he want to call the police?" Jimmy asked, alarmed.

"He'll report I had the shit kicked out of me, but they didn't actually take anything. Police are useless, nothing will come of it." I shrugged.

"Does he not know?"

"Nobody knows."

Jimmy went quiet at that, biting his lip. I hated everything about today. I could tell from the second I got out of bed this morning that it was going to be a bad day. Now I had busted ribs, a busted face and I was in a car with Jimmy Wellot. I wish I could go back and re-do everything- I'd stay in bed.

Jimmy drove straight past his house and up the hill towards Daxx's place. In a street filled with tall, white suburban houses, Daxx's house certainly stood out. It was a large modern-looking building made out of mostly tinted glass and black beams. It sat right on the edge of the woods, surrounded by quite a few trees around the property.

We pulled up outside and Jimmy got out, jogging round to open my door for me and help me out of the car. He wrapped one arm around my waist and helped me towards the front door. It wasn't long before Connor came rushing out, gushing about whether I was okay.

"What happened?" He demanded to know, looking from Jimmy to me.

"We'll tell you, but he needs to sit down first- he's in pain." Jimmy pointed out, with a nod of agreement from me.

"Oh, of course. Could you get him to his room?" Connor asked, stepping out of Jimmy's way.

Jimmy silently nodded and with his help I made it to the bottom of the stairs. I was in a lot of pain- every breath was sharp and felt like a stab to the chest. I was whimpering a lot, shaking my head. There's no way I could get up all those stairs. Connor rang Daxx, telling him to get home immediately, before ringing Mum and Angel.

Jimmy shook his head and just scooped me up in his arms, carrying me up the staircase. I pointed out my room and he went inside, him laying me down on the bed. He helped me take my shoes off and Connor ran off to get me a flannel to wipe down the mud and blood. I bit my lip, looking at Jimmy be so caring. How was this the same guy? Sure, he had never actually seen them beating me up like that before, but he often saw them trip me or call me names and had never stopped them before. So, why now?

"Have they done that before?" He whispered to me, concern etched onto his face.

"Quite a few times."

The answer seemed to trouble him.

Jimmy took the wet flannel from Connor and began to wipe down my wounds, much to my protest since it stung. He was always gentle with me, though. He helped me take my shirt off and the full extent of the damage was shown- including all the scars on my back. His eyes widened and grew cold. I quickly covered up to stop him from looking and before Connor could come in and see.

I heard the front door burst open and Daxx came jogging up the stairs, flying into the room. He decided to occupy the only seat near my bed, with Connor on his lap, and demanded to know what happened. I bit my lip and looked at Jimmy, who was perched on the bed next to me.

"A group of guys tried to mug him."