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***

"I swear if you ever go near her again, you will have me to deal with!" Leo warned, his forearm forced against Luke's throat removing the ability for him to breathe.

I shuddered, just moments ago that was me – a split second away from losing my life. For once the tables were turned - Luke was shaking with fear, and as wrong as it is I actually felt happy that he was finally getting a taste of his own medicine, and boy did it feel sweet.

It took every ounce of strength I had left to push myself off the dirty floor, and take tiny steps towards a huffed Leo. His muscular shoulders stanced back in a protective manner, and his breaths seemed deeper than normal. This was wrong, a part of me still loved Luke somewhere deep down and seeing him suffer just would eventually lead to me suffering too. I had to stop this, stop Leo from hurting him. After all, two wrongs don't make a right.

"Leo stop!" I screamed, grabbing his bicep and pulling him back. 

As our skin gently brushed together, his posture relaxed. Each panted breath that escaped his lips, slowly turned back to normal. He wasn't completely calm, but it was close enough. 

"Men like you make me sick, how can you live with yourself knowing you hit a girl?"  Leo retorted, his eyes narrowing into Luke's.

My eyes connected with Luke's pools of charcoal, wanting and hoping for an answer – some form of explanation as to why he'd put me through all of this. But he stood quiet, wordless proving he was a coward who could not face up to his own actions. He didn't even have the balls to apologise, yet alone explain himself to Leo. 

Leo grabbed my hand before whispering, "Come on, let's get you out of here and checked over by the nurse." 

My whole body ruptured with tingles as Leo wound my arm over his shoulders, gently holding me up so I could walk. 

"Grace please," Luke's regretful voice filled the air, "Please don't leave me." 

In that moment I could of chose to turn around and walk back to him, forgive him all over again. But that would of once again continued the vicious cycle of the abuse. The endless circle that began with apologies and ended with them too. Each time he'd say sorry, but never truly mean it because if he did he wouldn't continue to behave the way he did. 

Leo held me tighter as I squeezed his hand, I wanted to be as far away from Luke as possible. I dreaded to think what would of happened if Leo hadn't of shown up, I could have been severely injured or maybe even dead. In that moment of spitefulness Luke didn't care about me, nor did he love me. He enjoyed seeing me suffer, seeing the sparkle slowly disintegrate from my eyes. 

For the sake of my own safety, I allowed my feet to continue walking away from him, away from his anger, violence and bad moods back towards the school. With each step my legs began to feel like jelly, Leo held onto me tighter as if he knew I was close to collapsing to the floor.

My heart shrivelled inside my chest as I began to realise I was walking away from the one person who had ever loved me, and stayed with me despite all my baggage. Luke had seen the good and the bad sides of me, but loved me despite my flaws. 

A massive part of me never wanted to leave him, but another part of me told me it was for the best. 

***

"Grace, are you okay?" Olivia whispered, her face creased in tiny lines of worry.

Olivia looked breathtakingly beautiful today, but then again she did everyday. Her hair was lightly waved, and today she was sporting glittery orange eye shadow – crazy as it sounded she somehow pulled it off, whereas if I had of worn it I would of looked like an oompah loompah ready to hit the town. 

Every two weeks on a Wednesday Olivia and I shared a free period together, sometimes we'd spend it gossiping and other times we would spend it completely focused on course work. Today was one of those days where I focused on work, staying silent – avoiding conversation at all costs. Liv had always had the ability to detect if something was wrong with me, and today her radar couldn't of been anymore accurate.

"I'm fine Liv." 

I wasn't, truth is I'm feeling the worst I've ever felt. The events that had unfolded a few hours ago had truly baffled me, after Leo took me to the nurse he offered to ditch the rest of the day with me but I refused. School took my mind off things, and I needed to be around my friends. I had to make some silly excuse up when the nurse asked how I'd sustained neck bruises, as if it was normal 'I got into a fight' blurted out my mouth. Excuses were the norm, and I was scared of what life would be like without having to make them.

"You've barely spoken for the last 95 minutes. Have you and Luke had an argument or something?" Olivia whispered, her soft voice barely audible over the room full of students tapping on their computer keyboards.

I scoffed, an argument – this was far, far worse than a stupid argument. I wanted to shout at her, but I couldn't; it wasn't her fault that Luke was a psychopath. Luke had continiously rang my phone for the last 2 hours – a total of 62 calls in total. He'd left voicemails, texts but I refused to answer or listen to any of them, he didn't deserve the time of day and I owed him nothing.

"Yeah, just a silly argument about relatonship stuff. Nothing big." I lied, once again.

Why? Why am I still making up excuses for him after he nearly killed me – for the second time!?

"You two will sort it out, you always do. I mean you've been together for 2 whole years now, I'd love to have a relationship like yours one day." Olivia gushed, her eyes sparkling with her dreams of the future. Knowing Liv that would involve a big, white wedding and four children with Mr Right.

Apart of me wanted to laugh, apart of me wanted to cry. If she knew the truth she'd never want a relationship like mine, Luke and I are practically a living not to do list in a relationship.

I fought back the tears, swallowing the lump in my throat before whispering, "You and Liam will have your own unique relationship. You don't want to base a relationship on another one, otherwise it will never get anywhere." 

"I guess you're right. You and Luke are so happy though, and I'm so happy you have him in your life." Liv smiled, before turning back towards the computer and continuing to type out her coursework.

All of a sudden my heart seemed to ache inside my chest, I felt crushed – her words floating round my mind. Happy? I wish we were happy. I wish things were the way they were at the beginning, back then it was easier – everything was. School was a breeze, friendships were easy to maintain, and each day I felt strong having Hunter by my side. 

I'd fought for mine and Luke's relationship for years now, attempting to keep it stable and seeing it through. I loved him, I always did right from the beginning but maybe the problem was that I wasn't in love with him. He made me happy, but then again he also makes me miserable. Love isn't easy, there's no doubt about that – and if you have true love then it never will be easy.

But love shouldn't be as hard as the one I have with Luke, love comes with complications and bumps in the road that you can overcome with your partner. You face those minor hitches head on with them, sorting out a solution and the next step forward together. In the end you come out stronger than you ever were, and the way you were before all of it happened seems to have never existed. You can't remember a time where you and them were not strong. A unit, together as one.

Luke and I were like that in the beginning, sure we had our problems like every couple does. But they just got worse, the very first day he physically hurt me I thought maybe this is just a hitch – maybe we can solve this together like we have solved everything else. The truth is I was being naive, I was a young teenager in love and in ore of the perfect relationship everybody seemed to think we had. All the compliments we received on our Anniversary, Valentines Day and Christmas sometimes made me believe for a short period of time that we were perfect. But the evil, tormenting side of Luke always pounced back – reminding me of the mess we truthfully were. 

In reality Luke and I can never be fixed, I've tried so hard to fix him but it always fails and after two years I've learn't I cannot expect any different. A man who does this to a woman will never change, they will always be evil no matter what help they receive or how much you beg them to stop. They'll apologise but they will always go back on their word, repeating the same actions over and over again. I've let that continuous cycle continue for too long, and if I could go back to that very first day he hit me – I'd walk away, and never look back. So all I can do now is hope it's not too late to escape.

"Grace? Hello?" Olivia's voice filled my ears, bringing me back to the computer room.

"Are you coming to lunch?" She added, her blonde eyebrows scrunched together in a frown.

"Er.. Yeah sure." I quickly logged off the computer, grabbed my bag from underneath the desk and began to walk with Liv towards the canteen.

The corridors seemed uncomfortably quiet considering the time of day, normally they are heaving with students rushing out of lessons towards the school kitchen to get first grabs on all the food. Most people say their schools food is disgusting, but the food at my school is always delicious. Each day of the week was a dedicated meal day, Mondays were Pizza Day and Friday were the good ol' English classic Fish and Chips – both of them quickly became my favourite days of the week once I started high school. 

"Are you thinking the same thing as me?" Liv asked, scanning each corridor for some sort of human life.

"If you're thinking it's too quiet round here, then yes." 

"Maybe everyone is just outside considering how sunny-"

"Grace! Grace! Thank goodness I found you!" Megan began shouting, her feet thudding against the floor as she ran through the doors of the English block. 

Liv and I glanced at each other confused, Megan and I had been close friends during Year 9 and 10 but we drifted apart after she fell into bed with Hunter at a party. Hunter had told her it was nothing serious, although Megan was convinced otherwise. I told him to deal with it nicely, and he did but Megan wouldn't let it go – in the end I had to tell her to back off, and that was the day our friendship ended.

Breathless, Megan hunched herself over placing her hands on her knees breathing in and out quickly trying to regain her breathe.

I reached out and placed my hand on her back, "Are you okay Meg?"

"Y-Y-Yes, just give-give me a minute." She panted back between short breathes, in the corner of my eye Liv continued to stare at her completely baffled.

After a few sips of water Megan seemed good as new, but her face continued to stay in a concerned frown. 

"What's wrong?" I asked quietly, slightly afraid of the answer.

"Don't freak out, but Hunter and Liam are in the canteen right now preparing to kick the living daylights out of Luke...." Megan continued talking, but before I could hear the rest I bolted out of the door towards the Canteen. 

The muggy, summer air brushed against my red cheeks. Butterflies ruptured inside of me, realising that Liam and Hunter somehow finally knew my secret. My two best friends, who were prepared to risk life and limb to protect me knew my boyfriend had been physically abusing me. Even I knew the mixture of both Hunter and Liam's anger against one person was volatile. Luke would never stand a chance against them both, and stupidly I still didn't want him to get hurt.

"Grace! Wait up, stop running!" Liv shouted from behind me.

But nothing, and nobody was going to stop me – I had to get to Hunter and Liam, I had to stop them from doing this. I froze in place when I finally stood in front of the dark blue doors, that behind could potentially stand the end of Luke. There was no going back now Hunter knew the truth, he'd never let Luke near me ever again. Mine and Luke's relationship was officially over, giving him one more chance was no longer an option and the thought of losing him made my heart shatter to tiny fragments inside my chest. My clammy hands gripped onto the cold metal bars of the Canteen door, I took a deep breath before proceeding to fling them open.

***

A/N
Hi everyone.
Hope you are having a great weekend!
What did you think of the chapter?
- Do you think Hunter and Liam fighting with Luke is a good idea?
- How do you think Hunter will react knowing the truth?

If you are going through anything similar to Grace, please speak to somebody you trust and get some help. You are not alone.