Mom looks at me and says, “Baby girl, I have to go to work. Call me if you need me. I love you.”

I nod and whisper, “I love you too.” After she leaves and I hear the front door shut, I turn to Alla and whisper, “Get out of those clothes and come snuggle with me.”

“No worries, Andie, I already planned to do just that. Can I borrow a nightgown?” I nod and Alla pulls a nightgown out of my dresser, then begins to undress. Although, perhaps a bit slower than would otherwise be justifiable as I eye her from top to bottom. She looks at me and chuckles at the lustful look in my eyes. “No, Andie, there will be none of that today. Not until you are better since you’re in no shape for that kind of activity.”

I puff out my cheeks in a pout in response, then sulkily tell her, “Aww~, come on, you know you want me.”

Walking over to me, she bends down and lightly kisses me, then says, “I do, but I’m not willing to hurt you either, and it would definitely hurt.”

Kissing her back, I nod, “I know, I’m just trying to be cute. I still feel like shit and I’m certainly not up for that, as much as I may want to.” I nuzzle Alla’s neck for a moment before asking, “Hey, why don’t you let Mia and the others know that we’re back at my place and that they can come by to visit after school?”

She says, “Sure,” and climbs into bed beside me. Then I snuggle against her and get comfortable. She picks up her phone off the nightstand, sends the text, and then sets her phone back down. She looks up at the ceiling for a few moments and lets out a deep sigh before turning her head to look at me.

She is silent for a while before giving me a weak smile, “I’m so glad you’re alright, Andie. I don’t know what I’d have done if he’d killed you. I don’t know if this will come out right, but you mean so much to me and I couldn’t take losing you after we just found each other.”

My heart flutters as I look at her with a serious expression and say, “Alla, I’m fine. A bit bruised and battered, but I’m right here and I’m not going anywhere. In a couple of weeks you won’t even be able to tell he touched me,” I hold up my left arm, “other than my arm being in a cast.”

She states strenuously, “You are most certainly not fine! Damn it! He almost killed you!”

I take her hand in mine, look into her eyes and say, “What do you want me to do about it? It’s done, he’s in jail and I most probably won’t ever see him again, outside of a courtroom. Look, if I let him beating me dominate my life, he wins, and I don’t want, nor will I allow him to do that. I’d much rather spend my time thinking about us, cheerleading, going out with our friends and generally having fun with you. No one, and I do mean no one, is going to take that away from me.”

I let go of her hand and sit up. “Lay down.” She lays down, I crawl on top of her, and lay down on her to snuggle, which if I’m honest, is a little painful for me, but so worth it.

Alla slips her arms around me and worriedly asks, “Are you okay? This isn’t hurting you is it?”

“A little, but you can’t cuddle on top of me right now because it would hurt too much and I want to cuddle like this, so it’s this or nothing and I’m not accepting nothing.”

She sighs, “As long as you can tolerate it, I’m more than willing.”

Several minutes later, I raise up enough to look at her and murmur, “Alla?”

“Hmm?”

“Stop worrying so much. Now, what do you say we watch some anime and cuddle?”

She gives me a tender kiss and says, “Sounds good to me.”

I sit up, grab the remote and turn on Akagami no Shirayuki-hime. Snuggling against Alla, we settle in and watch. At noon, I ask for my meds because I’m starting to hurt fairly bad. After I take them, I snuggle back against her and we continue watching until the doorbell rings at 3:45.

I sit up so that Alla can go answer the door. When she stands, she says, “Be right back.”

When she turns to leave, I murmur, “Nuh uh, you’re forgetting something.”

She grins, bends down and softly kisses me. “See you in a minute.”

[Alla’s POV]

Downstairs, I open the front door to find Mia and the rest of the cheerleaders there. I smile and say, “Hi. Come on in.”

They reply with a chorus of, “Hi.”

Once they are inside, I shut the door and announce, “Okay, listen. Andie is in fairly bad shape. I don’t know what Mia told everyone, but her father tried to kill her. She’s badly bruised and swollen, so don’t be surprised by how she looks. That said, the doctor only allowed her to come home on the condition that she stays in bed to rest and recover. He doesn’t want her stressed out or becoming overly tired either. When it’s time to go, I don’t want to hear any arguments, understood?” They all nod. “Good. Just remember you can come back to visit as well.”

Hannah asks, “Why did he do it? Andie is so sweet and she doesn’t seem like the type to disobey her parents.”

I shake my head. “She’s not. I think her father just took things too far when they argued.”

Mia asks, “Why are you in a nightgown?”

“Because I’m staying here to take care of her while Mariam, Andie’s mom, works and Andie wanted me to snuggle with her while we watched some anime. Now, how about we go see her?”

Everyone nods and follows me upstairs to Andie’s room. Everyone says some variation of, “Hi” as they enter. Andie’s sitting up in bed, holding her teddy bear, smiling and waving at everyone.

Mia sits down on the foot of the bed and says, “That’s a really cute teddy bear.”

Andie nods and whispers, “Thanks. Mom got it for me when I was in the hospital.”

With a concerned expression, Mia asks, “How are you?”

Andie gestures so-so and whispers, “The doctor has me on pain pills, so I’m not hurting too badly. Don’t worry, I’ll be back at school fairly soon and in a few weeks, I’ll be right back cheerleading with everyone.”

Mia frowns and says, “That’s the least of our worries. All we want is for you to get better. If that means you can’t cheerlead with us for the rest of the year, then so be it. Umm, why are you whispering?”

Andie unbuttons the top of her nightgown. When she opens the collar of it and shows them the bruises around her neck, they gasp. “My father choked me as well, so it’s hard for me to talk. The doctor said he damaged my vocal cords. Whether the damage is permanent or not he doesn’t know yet.”

Bethany growls out, “I hope they throw him in prison and lose the damn key!”

Andie smiles. “I won’t be seeing him anymore, outside of maybe when this goes to court. My mom took out an emergency protective order against him and she filed for divorce.”

They catch us up on everything going on at school, until Mia changes the subject, grinning and saying, “Guess who’s been wondering where you’ve been for the last two days.” Andie shrugs. “Daniel Richards. He’s asked about you several times. That boy really has a thing for you.”

Andie grins and says, “I would be surprised if he didn’t since he did ask me out.”

Everyone chuckles and Mia says, “I suppose we ought to be going so you can rest. I’ll make sure at least a couple of us come by to see you every day.”

Andie tells her, “Thank you. Would you bring by our assignments when you do? I’d rather not have a huge stack of homework for us to catch up on when I’m released to go back to school.”

Mia smiles and nods. “Sure, no problem at all. Okay, Andie, get some rest. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Andie leans forward and catches Mia’s arm. “Can you and Bethany stay behind for a moment?”

Mia nods. The rest of them, except for Bethany, say “Goodbye” and head downstairs to leave.

Andie looks at me and pats the bed beside her. I sit down beside her and she says, “Okay. On Saturday we went to the Supercon and I stayed over at Alla’s house that night. When I got home, my dad was already pissed that I wasn’t there to greet him Saturday evening. Then he accused me of being a lesbian because I spent the night with Alla, we argued and that’s why he tried to kill me.”

Mia frowns deeply and says, “I’m so sorry to hear that. Trust me when I say, I don’t agree with people that think that way. Love is love, no matter what.”

Bethany chimes in with, “You’re right there and it shouldn’t be anyone else’s business either.”

Andie looks at me and smiles for a moment, then looks back at Mia and says, “Well, he doesn’t know it, but he wasn’t exactly wrong.”

Mia looks confused and asks, “Huh? What do you mean?”

Andie tilts her head and smiles. “Alla is my girlfriend,” which catches me by surprise and makes me worry. If it gets around about us, they’ll kick us out of school. Andie looks at me, squeezes my hand reassuringly and murmurs, “Trust me. It’ll be alright.”

We look back at Mia and Bethany when they chuckle. Mia grins, takes Bethany’s hand and says, “She’s right. I don’t know how you knew, but Bethany and I are together as well.”

I blow out my breath in relief and say, “Well, I suppose we’re lucky since both of our mothers know and are supportive of our relationship.”

Bethany says, “Yes, you are. If our parents ever found out about us, they’d probably ship us off to one of those re-education camps. They are both super religious.”

Mia looks at Andie and asks, “How did you know about us?”

Andie shrugs and says, “I just had a feeling that you were like us. Plus, at the very least, I thought that you two would be supportive of us, Mia. You’re both good people, so I felt safe in coming out to you. I can’t really give an exact reason, it’s just…” Andie pauses and then gives a wry smile. “I simply had a feeling that it would be okay, so I decided to follow my intuition and I was right.”

Mia smiles and says, “Thank you for trusting us. That’s not exactly easy to do in our situation with our school and families. Sorry, but we need to go. We have to pick up my little brother.”

Andie tells her, “Why don’t you two bring us our assignments tomorrow?”

Mia says, “Sure. No problem at all. Get some rest and get well soon. We miss you at school.”

Andie smiles beatifically. “I miss all of you too. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

They tell us, “Goodbye,” and leave.

I look at a smiling Andie and say, “You almost gave me a heart attack when you told them about us.”

Andie shrugs. “Sorry, like I said, I just had a feeling that we could trust them. Anyway, now we have two more people we don’t have to hide our relationship from.” She leans over and kisses me. Then says, “Come snuggle with your girlfriend and lets finish watching our anime.”

I slide over and wrap my arm around her as she resumes the anime we were watching.