3Trees, bushes, buildings, and every other item that was placed along the sidewalk rushed by in a blue as one girl ran down the street, her footsteps pounding in her ears every time they hit the ground, but she kept running. No longer did she care what direction she was running in; no longer did she even recognize the place that she had managed to lead herself. Everything was unfamiliar, but she gave no notice and just kept running through the sheets of rain that were pouring and soaking her to the bone; all that mattered to her at the moment was that she got as far away as possible from her home. Her clothes were soaked completely through and were sticking to her body, causing her to slow down because of the extra weight that she was now carrying, the boots on her feet not helping much either. Finally she slowed to a stop and bent over double with her hands on her knees in order to catch her breath before she continued running again; all of the pounding automatically left her ears and she was left with absolutely no sound except for the pitter-patter of rain hitting surfaces.
"Keep…running…" she told herself, panting heavily as she straightened up and began walking, slowly beginning to run again, but not at the same speed as before. Her eyes darted to and fro, trying to suck in every detail of where she was while still at a slow speed in hopes of being able to find her way back home, but nothing was registering. Without a second thought, she took off in a sprint down the street, her steel gray eyes glued to the ground and remaining there as she ran, not caring if there were people in the way; if they cared, they'd move. Don't stop, Kaelea, she told herself as she started taking in deep breaths in order to keep at the pace that she was running in and so that she wouldn't need to disobey the orders that she was giving herself.
"What the hell is your problem, you ungrateful bitch?!" a male had shouted as he turned a corner in the hall and spotted the frantic girl, advancing on her. "Don't you understand that your mother and I have been supporting you since that son-of-a-bitch father of yours went and got himself killed?! I didn't have to take you in, so you should fucking understand that I can easily kick you out of my house." A grin tugged at the corners of his lips as he watched the young girl in front of him press herself up against a wall with a whimper, staring with panicked eyes towards him. "Don't tell me that you're afraid, Kaelea."
He stopped when he was only two feet in front of her and he raised a hand, gently caressing her paled cheeks as he stared down into her eyes. His thumb moved and softly brushed away her tears before he roughly grabbed her chin into the same hand and forced her to look up at him, a snarl forcing its way to the back of his throat. The whimper that he got made him laugh a deep, throaty laugh and he quickly tossed the girl's head down, as if touching her much longer would disease him. "You're a pretty girl, and maybe if you learned some fucking manners you wouldn't get this sort of treatment," he said, a smirk tugging at the right side of his face as he shook his head, laughing once more.
"Y-You would do this…even if I did listen to you…" the girl stuttered as she swallowed hard and kept her eyes towards the ground, afraid to look back up at him. When her head had been thrown, her ebony hair had been pulled out from behind her ear and moved so that it was covering the left side of her face, and she left it there, grateful of it. She knew that she was going to earn herself one, if not more, beatings because of that comment, but she didn't care; she was sick and tired of just listening to him put her down and she was finally going to take a stand. "Y-You do this for your own sick enjoyment!" Her head snapped up and a fire was burning in her eyes as her lips curled into a snarl, glaring daggers at the older male staring down at her, a look of shock on his face.
"What did you say, cunt?!" he snarled, spittle flying from his mouth, as his hand quickly lifted from his side and entangled itself in the female's hair, yanking her head down. "Only for my 'sick' enjoyment, huh?" He shook his head and let go of her hair, but then grabbed roughly at her upper arms, digging his fingers and nails into the skin as he glared down at her, breathing on her face. "Get the fuck out of my house. Get out and stay the hell out." His grip on her shoulders tightened for a minute or so before he threw the girl up against the side wall, his footsteps bringing him into his and his wife's bedroom.
She hadn't needed to be told again because right after that she had found herself running down the street, and deciding that she would only stop permanently when she collapsed from overexerting herself. Slowly, she could feel the point of which she was going to be unable to run much longer coming, but she kept pushing herself to move her legs and keep moving forward. What she didn't expect to happen was getting stopped, and that's exactly what happened.
Slamming into someone, she stumbled back several steps and her head quickly snapped up to look at the person who had gotten in her way, her eyes hard and full of hatred, but automatically softening when they landed on the person's face. She quickly and vigorously shook her before turning to run back in the direction she had come from, only getting three or four steps before the person had grabbed a hold of her arm to keep her nearby. The reason for running that far and to places that she didn't know was to escape everyone that she did know, especially since she had believed that she had known where this person in particular normally went. He had been the last person that she was expecting to run into, although everyone else was also one of the last people that she thought that she would run into. It had been miles from where her acquaintances normally occupied, and the fact that they had known where she was going sent her into a frenzy as she tried to pry the male off of her arm.
"Don't run from me, Kaelea," the male said soothingly as he stepped up to her, making sure that she didn't get any farther from him than she already was. After he reached her, he quickly let go of her arm and wrapped both of his around the hysterical girl in his arms, quietly hushing her as he ran his fingers through her hair. "It's all right. You're safe in my arms; you always have been." His voice remained soft, almost a whisper, as if he was afraid that she would have a panic attack if he spoke too loudly to her. He unwrapped his arms from around her when she stopped struggling and turned her to look him, taking a hold of her face gently in his hands as he continued to coax her to silence.
Gently, softly, he brushed his thumbs along her cheek bones, smiling when silence had settled between the both of them and the steel gray eyes before him had shut in sweet rapture. "Good, now just take deep and calming breaths so that you can forget about whatever happened that caused you to run away," he told her, his smile remaining as he continued to run the tips of his fingers along the high cheek bones he had kissed so many times before. "Deep breaths, Kaelea, and everything will be fine." Before that moment, he had never been able to simply take her chin and face into his hands and brush at her cheeks in order to silence her. It had always taken a lot of time and patience to wait for the moment where she finally calmed down, and now, as much as he liked this ease that he had done this, he was worried because of how simple it had been.
"Brick…" she said softly, her eyes fluttering open as she smiled weakly and placed her hands on his wrists, her eyes shining with tears that she refused to let fall. "You weren't supposed to be here…" Her voice was quiet and barely a whisper, but towards the end of her sentence it had completely failed her, leaving her breathless and silent before her body quavered and she fell forward against the male.
Her sudden falling startled the male and caused him to take a step back, but he put out his arms and softly caught her in them, heaving a sigh of relief as he began to carry her bridal style. "You've had a long day, haven't you?" he asked as he let his hazel green eyes scour her face for any sign of her waking up anytime soon, but he found none. He didn't mind because it gave him more time to hold her in his arms and just watch his sleeping beauty sleep, but it also did worry him since he didn't know what had happened to cause her to faint like she had. Slowing to a stop, he sat down on a bench and laid her down with her head in his lap, smiling softly as he began to gently stroke her cheek while he ran his fingers through the long locks of black hair.
When the young girl had finally begun to stir, the male had stopped all of what he had been doing and watched her to make sure that she was all right. He figured that the people that were passing by the soaked couple were giving them off looks because, after all, he was nineteen while the female was fourteen and they could probably tell that he was with a minor. That's what really bothered him. Whenever he tried to show some sort of affection out in public, he always got looks from people who disapproved of him being affectionate to a minor, and had also heard several others whisper to friends about it. His smile grew when he saw that she had strength enough to sit up on her own, and he tenderly took a hold of her hand, squeezing it lovingly as he leaned over and kissed her cheek.
"How are you feeling, Kaelea?" he asked her, his voice gentle. When he got a smile in return from her, he smiled back and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling over towards him at an angle so that she was partially in front of him but still on the bench that they were occupying. "You gave me quite a scare, little miss."
Taking a deep breath, he leaned down towards her and softly brushed his lips against hers, not wanting to seem too forward with her since he knew that she had just reawaken after fainting. The reaction that he got had surprised him, but it made him happy nonetheless, so he went along with it and kept his lips planted against hers for a moment, only pulling away when he had felt her heart beat increase. It was as if she had melted into his arms by that simple sign of affection, and knowing that he had that sort of affect on her thrilled him in a sense. As if just getting the kiss returned to him wasn't enough, the young girl then moved herself closer to him and lifted his arm so that it was wrapped around her shoulders. He smiled at this and took a hold of her hand with his free one and laced fingers with her as she gently nuzzled his shoulder and let her eyes shut.
It was as if he was in a dream, but it was real and he knew that it was. "I love you," he whispered to her as he rested his head against hers and just let the rain pour down on him instead of doing something to make sure that the two of them didn't get sick.