Stay

Chapter Nineteen.

Sorry for the lack of updates! Been busy busy busy! This was written on my phone so sorry for any errors!! Enjoy xoxo.

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There's a moment of silence as we both stare each other, I catch onto his deep purple bruise throbbing around his eye and can't help but wonder what happened and if this was the reason he skipped school today.

Lola drags on my arm, pulling me from my thoughts. Her cheeks a rosy red and her smile reaches from ear to ear. Her happiness is contagious.

"Come play hide and seek with us!" She shouts, tugging on my arm some more.

"No, sh-" Jessie starts but is cut off by an over excited little girl.

"Let's go! You two count and I'll hide." And with that she runs off between the tall trees swaying in the wind, a few of their amber leaves falling to the ground.

Neither me or Jessie panic at her disappearance, we can still see her blonde flocks of hair as she attempts to hide along side her little mischievous giggles.

We both start walking towards her, pretending to look around and that we have no clue what-so-ever of her whereabouts.  

"Jessie-" Before I can even bring up my concern about his eye he cuts me off.

"I don't want to talk about it." His muscles tense up and he looks away for a second, kicking up the leaves on  the ground. "It's me who should be worried. What are you doing out here with a ruck-sack full of stuff?" He gestures to the bag on my back and I start to bite my nails nervously.

"I'm not going home," I pause, "And you can't make me."

"I wasn't going to," He mumbles. "I just want to listen."

I let out a sigh as the sadness begins to devour me once more.

"My mum threw a glass bottle at me, twice. Almost. She was shouting for me to get out, like she didn't want me there. I don't know what's going on at the moment. Shay's never home and I woke up this morning to the house smashed up." Saying these things, slowly and steadily gives me a bit of relief.

This whole day I've felt a weight over me, so heavily its caused bone crunching pain and now, having said these things it's like the pain has been shared. Not gone, just lighter then before.

"I'm sure your mum didn't mean it. Parents don't like showing weakness to their kids, she probably just panicked when you walked through the door." He rests his hand on my shoulder, a reassuring touch.

He's right. I just wish they would tell me what's going on.

"LOLA! WHERE ARE YOU?" Jessie shouts and I can't help but laugh as we continue to approach her. The smirk on her face shows she's still convinced we have no idea where she is.

But then it happened so fast.

She's gone. Out of sight.

Our eyes dart around the forest, we are far away from the playground now.

Until we hear a thud.

"LOLA I'M COMING."

My instincts kick in and I run.

I run for her.