The Fire In Me (Ryder) (COMPLETED) 1 ✔️

Chapter Forty-Eight She's Not You

Friends- Marshmello and Anne-Marie

(Dallas's POV)

     "How's she doing?" Archer asks, sitting on the couch next to me. Rocco was by the window looking outside, and Eddie was on the other couch looking for a channel to watch on the television. If Leo were here, he'd probably be either eating or fighting with Eddie for the stupid remote. Rocco, Archer and I would laugh at them and bet on who we thought would win. Leo and Eddie fought some good fights, but they never seemed to actually hurt each other. I take a drink of my beer before putting it down again.

     "She's been sleeping since we got out of the hospital," I say shrugging. "I don't know what that means or if it's bad or not, but that's what she's been doing."

     "I thought sleeping when you had a concussion was bad?" I hesitate. "Does her dad know?" Eddie asks, still looking for a channel to watch. I shake my head.

     "That'd just give him another reason to let her mom take her away," I say. "She doesn't want that."

     "She doesn't want that, or you don't want that?" Rocco asks from the window. Sometimes he can be really annoying only when he asks stuff like that. I sigh before taking another drink of my beer.

     "She doesn't want that," I say in a brief voice. "It doesn't matter what I want. She doesn't care."

     "Have you thought that her moving would be better off?" Eddie asks looking at me. "She has been getting into a lot of trouble here. The fights. Her attitude. How she's almost died many times."

     "She's scared to go back to her hometown," I say. "She's scared that some man is still there waiting for her." I think. "And she could have gotten into fights in her hometown also, and she could have had the same attitude."

     "What man?" Archer asks and I shrug.

     "Some man she's scared of," I say. "She won't talk to me about it." It wasn't a lie. It was true.

     "She's got to face her fears sometime." Eddie says.

     "Don't you think she and her father moved away for a reason?" I ask before drinking the last bit of my beer and getting up to grab another.

     "Don't you think if there was still a reason to stay away her father wouldn't give her up as easily?" Eddie asks and I hesitate.

     "Maybe Eddie's right Dallas," Rocco says, turning around to look at all of us. "If she was still in danger, don't you think that her father would be protecting her more than he is right now? He's not even here."

     "Because he doesn't know about her concussion." I point out grabbing another beer and leaning on the counter. "And the man has a job, he has to work."

     "But he's never here," Rocco says. "He's not protecting her from anything. If anything, we're the ones protecting her. Her father wasn't here when she was shot. Maybe when she went to the hospital but he didn't stay long. He wasn't there when Roscoe did what he did. He wasn't there when she was beaten almost to death. Dallas, he's just never here for her. We're the ones watching her, we're the ones taking care of her."

     "What's so bad about that?" Archer asks standing up. Rocco sighs and shakes his head before spreading his hands.

     "Nothing's wrong with it, it's just..."

     "When will we get a break?" Eddie says and Rocco nods. "We can't always be there to find her bleeding out in an alley right before it's too late. We can't always be there just in time to save her if she gets into any more trouble."