Purity

chapter 2: ethereal

"A-Ajay stop overreacting he was a nice boy w-who dropped me h-home because some b-boys made fun of me for having mr.sniffles," she tried to explain to her brother, who was finally starting to stop lecturing her for being around this random boy,

"Alright Amara just please just be careful around him, I know you're a responsible girl and I know you're so smart, smart enough to understand why I'm saying this," he said but Amara felt so dumb at this moment, because she didn't understand why he was saying this, why she had to be careful around someone who made her feel so comfortable, but she barely knew this boy so she intently nodded her head and walked back to her room, she went to bed with her thumb in her mouth, another attribute about herself she hated.

When she woke up in the morning she quickly put on a white dress with pretty little flowers, and she put her hair into small ponytails which she tied with ribbons, she walked downstairs and claimed she wasn't hungry, which her brother believed and dropped her to school

as Amara walked in she saw a group of boys walk up behind her, slowly growing to touch her, a blonde boy put his hand on her behind, she was so scared

"please s-stop," she requested,

"don't be a bitch," responded the blonde headed boy,

she was on the verge of tears and asking him to stop, Ace was also at this time walking, he saw the situation and walked over,

"Get your fucking hands of my girl," he stated in a loud but cold voice

"Bro I didn't know she was yours," he said with his hands up in the air, he was scared, terrified even

"It shouldn't fucking matter, but stay the fuck away from her," he said and the boys hurriedly ran away,

"Mara, baby, are you okay?" he enquired with genuine worry dripping off every word, it was all too much for Amara, she just wanted to hug mr.sniffles.

she soon started tearing up and silent tears rolled down her pink stained cheeks, Ace wondered how she looked so pretty even like this, he took her hand and got her into the janitors closet, she felt his thumb rubbing over her knuckles as he began to speak,

"do you have a phone baby, maybe then when things like this happen you can call me, that would be nice huh?" he said, trying to coo her but at the same time trying to find a way for some of his worried to disappear, now he wouldn't admit it but he had a soft spot for this shy little girl, Ace had a lot of friends but he didn't care about them at all in fact it didn't matter to him if he had them, there were a lot of people who knew how powerful he was, a lot of people who were terrified of him, but he didn't care, but for someone god awful reason he seemed to care so much about this girl, she was so beautiful, so sweet, so kind, so innocent, something he wanted to protect.

"n-no, I don't k-know how t-to use one," she said feeling like a complete idiot, she thought he would hate her now, she didn't even have a phone, she never had the chance to get one growing up, she had seen her brother with one though, he used it because he sent money to their mother who let them leave only on the condition that they would send her money every month, that's why her brother was working two jobs to make ends meet, Amara thought she would have to get a job pretty soon because rent was getting higher and eviction was a risk, she thought about everything and tears prickled in her eyes, falling while soft sobs and whispers could be heard around the locked closet.

"Why the tears baby?" he said while holding her close, his hands on her back, rubbing to provide comfort, the other hand around her arm moving up and down so that some warmth would be generated,

"m-made ace s-stop liking me," she mumbled into his shirt,

"But I like you so much baby, i'll never stop liking you, how about I get you a phone, so that we can talk whenever we want, alright?" he suggested.

"n-no! aren't t-those expensive," she said, trying to sound authoritative, Ace thought it was cute,

"Not for me baby, even it were, you wouldn't have to worry about that, we're late for class baby, how about we go together, hmm?" he suggested, happy when she nodded, he held her hand and they both walked in together, Ace noticed how she Amara got when the stares immediately turned to her, so he held her hand tighter and the walked into the seat at the back together, she starting flicking a rubber band on her wrist, causing the skin to become red and agitated, he held her hands apart,

"ah ah, don't do that, be a good girl for me, hurting yourself is bad," he said and noticed her pout get deeper, her pink lips parted

"I'm good girl," she incoherently mumbled,

"course you are, you're my good girl, but that's why you're not gonna hurt yourself like that right?" he said while rubbing the agitated skin, he hated seeing her hurt, it hurt him.

"mhm I won't, " she said happy that he was happy with her answer, the teacher announced that there would be a project which they would have to do with the person next to them, an essay project. Ace suggested that they go home to his house and Amara and Ace could do it together, Amara didn't worry about her brother as he was working nights today too, although she thought she would only spend the evening there,

•

They now reached the house, Amara was shocked to see how big it was, in fact she had never seen a house so big, she went to leave her shoes out but ace held her hand,

"There's no need to do that baby, we don't want your feet to get cold now, do we?" he said but there was no point as she had already done it, Ace noticed her eyes almost closing and her looking tired,

"You've had a long day baby, how about you take a nap sweetheart," he said,

Amaras eyes almost instantly closed and she went to bed, her head resting on Aces thigh as he played with the ends of Amaras hair. After 5 minutes Amara woke up feeling energized and ready to actually do some work,

"Alright baby, what do want the topic to be?" he enquired, curios to know what his smart little baby wanted to do,

"a-are people w-with mental h-health issues t-treated fairly?" she said,

They spent the rest of the day discussing this topic while Ace heard her,

They both felt truly happy.