Some Things You Can't Hide

Lealia �" a French name meaning loyal, loyalty and faithful

The follow morning Aspen awoke with the sun, as it cast the in a halo of light. Barely awake she pushed herself off the cold timber floor and winced, as her muscles ached with the strain

“Remember not to sleep on the floor again” Aspen muttered as she stretched.

But then she remembered. Remembered the feeling of her father’s hand clasped around her neck. Remembered the feeling of his hand tightening on her jaw. Remembered how it felt when his palm whipped against her cheek. For what seemed like that thousandth time, a salty tear trickled down her cheek to her lips, where she wiped it away. Hesitantly she glanced at the mirror sitting on the wall across from her, and winced at what she saw. A red mark covered her tearstained cheek, in the shape of a huge hand. Hopefully it will fade, Aspen thought, and nobody would notice.

But not the same could be said for the dark marks on her neck and jaw. Bruises lay in various sizes and shades of purple, blue and green. Small dents were also coated in drops of dry blood from her father’s nails that had sunk deep into her skin. Suddenly the memories and marks became too much and she couldn’t stay in the room for a second longer. As quickly as Aspen could she pulled on her uniform and school jumper. After shoving the necessary books into her bag, she ran from the room. Ran from the memories.

Aspen walked onto the dew covered grass and gave a sigh of resignation as the cold water seeped through a hole in her sneakers to drench her socks. Then she ran, ran to the only place she could think of. Delights.

The café opened at 6 o’clock for the workers who needed an early morning coffee or a quick bite to eat, so Aspen was able to walk through the café’s doors, sighing in pleasure as the familiar warmth and smell came over her. The silence was broken by a kind voice calling to her.

“Aspen?” Rae exclaimed “what are you doing here?”

“I had to get away” Aspen replied quietly, suddenly finding her sneakers very interesting

“Get away from what-“

The older lady’s blue eyes widened in shock and horror as she caught a quick glimpse of the bruises that Aspen’s collar barely hid.

“Aspen darling, what happened?” Rae urged, racing towards the Aspen, concern written all over her face

“Nothing” Aspen quickly responded “it was accident”

Rae raised her eyebrows, but said nothing, seeming to realise that Aspen would say no more. Then after a few more silent moments where Rae simply searched Aspen’s face she spoke

“Well then” she began “we’ll get you some medicine to get rid of the pain and then some breakfast”

“Rae don’t worry about it, I’m fine”

“Don’t talk such nonsense” Rae said sternly, turning towards the kitchen at the back of the café “I will not send you to school with an empty stomach anyway I have been waiting to fatten you up for years”

By the time a few more weak protests had escaped Aspen’s lips Rae had turned on the gas stove and bacon and eggs were sizzling happily on the frying pan. Minutes later a plate was in front of her holding crispy bacon and a fried eggs. Her boss smiled at Aspen fondly as she shoveled the hot food into her mouth, not even caring that she had burnt her tongue, filling her empty stomach.

After eating all that she could without her stomach exploding, Aspen helped Rae with the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen. Her kind boss refused to let Aspen help with customers during those few hours and forced her to sit on the couch with a television remote sitting softly in her palm. The 17 year old held it like it was an invaluable object that could break at any moment, and stared at it with wide eyes. For it was the first time in years that Aspen could sit in from front of a television idly flipping through the channels. After giggling loudly at a program that she used to watch when she was a little girl, Rae pushed her through the door with a school bag holding not only her books but also a plastic bag which held an apple, sandwich and apple tart from behind Delights’ glass counter. For the first time since she was going to school with a full stomach and packed lunch.

As Aspen entered the school grounds she pulled up her collar as high as she could, trying to conceal the bruises and cuts. But she was not fast enough, her Lealia was running towards Aspen, her friendly face drawn with worry and panic.

“Don’t bother hiding them from me, I saw them!” she snapped, than her voice softened “what happened Pen?”
“Nothing” Aspen lied quickly. Her best friend raised one pierced eyebrow and seemed to have an internal discussion as to whether she should press for more information.

More tears tickled her eyelashes as Aspen wished. She wished that she could tell Lealia everything; tell her how big her father’s hands were against her throat, how much it hurt and how scared she was. But she couldn’t.

“He was only drunk, it won’t happen again” Aspen reassured herself “he loves you and he wouldn’t hurt you on purpose”

Seeing the tears in Aspen’s eyes, Lealia wrapped her arms around her and gently pressed her face into the crook of her shoulder, hiding her tears from curious students. Pulling away Lealia spoke quietly “you would tell me if something happened wouldn’t you?”

Aspen nodded furiously, wiping the tears from her cheeks “I’m alright”

For the rest of the day the two girls were inseparable. Lealia had her arm wrapped protectively around Aspen slim waist and glared cruelly at those who gave Aspen and her battle scars a second glance.  But Lealia couldn’t protect her forever. In the last class for the day one girl went to Italian while the other went to music class.

Aspen had chosen Italian because she though it would help her at Delights and for fun. She loved how beautiful the language was. It felt like the, now, familiar words rolled off her tongue effortlessly, elegantly. Since she had begun to study the language when she was 14 Brodie Sangster had occupied the desk beside her. Brodie was one of the most popular boys in school, but he was different to the other boys. He was kind, intelligent and gentle. The way his thick, chocolate coloured hair fell over his eyes and the way his brown eyes twinkled when he laughed, gave Brodie an aura of innocence and excitement that Aspen had grown to love and find comfort in.

That day when Aspen reached the classroom she spotted Brodie easily, his shoulders standing high above everyone else and his boisterous laugh echoed off the walls filling the corridor. Seeming to sense someone watching him, Brodie turned and his grin widened as he saw Aspen. Ignoring his friends’ call Brodie began to walk towards her. When he was not too far from Aspen, his grin vanished and his pace quickened.

“Good God, Pen, what happened to you?” he demanded, sounding horrified “what happened to your neck, your jaw, your cheek?”

Surprised that he had even noticed the faded evidence of Mr Thomas’ hand against her cheek, she remained silent. Slowly Brodie moved his arm and placed his hand gently against Aspen’s cheek, caressing it softly with his thumb. The unexpected contact made Aspen flinch away from Brodie’s touch.

“Please don’t” she pleaded desperately

His eyes were filled with hurt and he withdrew his hand. But instead of swearing at her and stalking away, like she had expected, he remained in front of her and spoke to the frightened girl with boundless tenderness.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Pen” he whispered softly “but obviously somebody already has”

It was not a question, but a statement and that scared Aspen even more. She shook her head, causing the bruises on her neck to throb painfully “No, I’m fine, just tripped” she stammered uncertainly

Her feeble and incredibly stupid excuse did not fool Brodie and he sighed sadly and impatiently pushing his brown hair from his face

“You can trust me, you know”

“I know,” Aspen replied.

As she spoke Brodie’s brown eyes searched Aspen, searching for anything that could answer any of his questions. Seeming to find none, he contented himself with just looking at her. Since their first year of the class, Brodie had hide a huge, overwhelming crush on Aspen Thomas. For years he had been mesmerised with how her blonde hair seemed to fall perfectly over her shoulders to her waist, how beautiful green eyes seemed to shine whenever she laughed at him or one of his jobs and how her little nose seemed to scrunch up whenever she was working and didn’t notice that he was watching her. But it wasn’t just her looks that seemed to attract him, but also how sweet and kind she was to everyone, even those who treated her like dirt and how she dedicated she was to those whom she loved. Especially in the past year, Brodie Sangster had regularly tossed and turned in his bed hoping that his name was included in that list.

As Brodie stared at her, and small smile plastered on his face, Aspen became increasingly uncomfortable and began to fiddle with the straps on her bag. Finally seeming to notice this Brodie’s eyes travelled to the wall behind her and seemed to find something very interesting to look at there.

After awkwardly making quick eye contact the two began to walk towards the classroom, with Brodie’s hand placed gently on Aspen’s lower back protectively guiding her through the crowd in front of the classroom door, not even noticing that their peers were looking curiously at them and whispering to each other. The following 70 minutes, continued as slowly as paint dries as Aspen attempted to ignore the fact that Brodie kept on stealing glances at her, his eyes searching and questioning. When the bell rang she sighed in relief and quickly shoved her books into her bag, running out of the classroom before Brodie could speak to her.