"Wait, so he hit you?"

She hadn't meant to let it slip. She'd done so well hiding the cause behind the bruise on her cheekbone for the past few hours, passing it off as nothing. She couldn't even remember what she'd said that had revealed the truth... something about getting into a fight over something stupid. Shannon had put two and two together and, well, there was no denying it now.

Lacey waved a hand through the air, discarding it as if it was nothing. "He didn't mean to," she sighed, turning to the mirror to examine the extent of the damage. It wasn't TOO bad... nothing a little foundation couldn't cover.

"What do you mean he 'didn't mean to'?" Shannon raged, narrowing her eyes in disgust and shaking her head. "You don't hit somebody like THAT and call it an accident!"

Lacey began to recall the events of the previous night and it took all she had to not break down and cry. Of course he'd meant to do it, and it wasn't the first time. She shouldn't have put up with it, but she'd grown so used to his excuse of 'not meaning to' do it, that she was using it herself now.

"Just... leave it, Shan," she said in almost a whisper. She didn't want to talk about it.

She loved him. She couldn't help but make excuses. He always swore that it would never happen again, and yet it did. Whenever he had a few drinks down him, that was it. He changed.

But she loved him, and she couldn't walk away.