The Girl who Fought to Provide

Chapter 8

Waking up the next morning, I tiredly dragged myself to go shower to hopefully wake myself up.

Today I had a lot of things to do so I quickly showered and blow-dried my hair, giving it more volume then it normally had. Slipping on an orange and white poker dotted sundress and deciding to take time to make myself a little girlier, I add a light layer of foundation, a little bronzer to showcase my high cheekbones and swiped a little mascara and lip-gloss on.

"Ava." Grayson's tired voice drifted through my door.

"What's up?" I asked swigging my door open.

"I was just checking if you were up." He said, yawning.

"We're leaving soon, go get dressed." I said, pushing him to his bedroom.

Running back into my room, I quickly slip my sandals on and grab my purse before heading downstairs to make myself breakfast.

"Ready?" I asked Grayson as I finished hanging a load of clothes on the washing line.

"Yup." He said popping the p.

Grabbing my things, we walk out of the house, the hot sun blinding.

∞

"Like any of the girls at school?" I wiggled my eyebrow at my brother as we pulled into the mall parking lot.

"There's this girl in my history class, no one really talks to her which I don't understand why because she's actually really funny, I like her but we'll see." He said, running his fingers through his hair.

"I guess we will." I laughed locking the doors to my car and slinging the chain to my purse over my shoulder.

"Here's some money, ring me when you want to be picked up or something." I said handing over some cash.

"Thank you Av, see you soon." He said, kissing my cheek and running off.

∞

A couple of hours passed and I finished handling the important stuff regarding our bills and paying them all in a months advance so I wouldn't have to worry about it for another couple of weeks.

I walked around the mall looking at different kinds of shops, it was pretty crowded but what do you expect on a Saturday. I saw a lot of kids I recognized from school looking around at stores too or hanging out with their friends or families.

A loud whale like cry caught my attention as I stood in a huge crowd near the food court, turning I looked around for the crying but couldn't see anything till something wet wrapped itself around my legs.

"Can you help me find my big brother?" A little girl cried, clinging to my legs, her tears rolling down her chubby cheeks.

"Hi, Of course, come with me." I said, my heart breaking at her tear stained cheeks.

"My brother said I couldn't talk to strangers." She said, wiping at her eyes.

"My names Ava, what's yours?" I asked getting on my knees to be a little closer to her level.

"My names Beau." She said pointing to her two bows tied around her pigtails, tears falling silently, her eyes looked so familiar I couldn't put my finger on where I'd seen them before.

"See we aren't strangers anymore, now come on let's go sit and wait over there where there aren't so many people." I said holding my hand out to her and pointing to a table outside of a small café.

"Are you really going to help me?" She asked, climbing onto my lap.

My heart ached at her situation; I can't imagine how she's feeling.