You're My North Star (H.S. Fanfic)

part 1 - stargazers

Emily is her name, she is 23 years old and training to be a professional figure skater, she lives in a flat with her current 'partner', there's not much of a relationship between the two but if there is it's all one sided, she's taken advantage of almost all of the time. 

Jake, she used to think she was in love with him until the rude comments rolled in, he would start to convince her into things she really didn't want to do e.g. push away her friends, skip skating practices and competitions and most importantly, sex. 

But as time passed she started to build up her resistance, it came down to a Friday night, she had packed some clothes, her phone and some spare money (only around 30 pounds in cash) all in her old nike school bag and that was the night she ran away.

she tied the laces of her ankle high converse around her ankle like she always would when doing sports or going on runs in fear of tripping up, she snuck past the living room of her apartment where Jake was.

 He was playing some sort of shooting xbox game, she got to the front door without making a noise, she grasped the door handle, but froze and just stared at it going over every little thought in her head of all the possible things that could go wrong she was always a bit of an over thinker.

She awoke from her thoughts by Jake "FUCK THIS SHIT!", he had obviously lost or something like that, "EMILY!" he was only calling her because he needs something to take his anger out on but she had to run there and then because of his sudden jump off of the couch, he was absolutely fuming, as she bolted down the corridor she heard him shout after her, slamming the door.

she looked back whilst running in case he was behind her and sure enough he was, running at full speed with this evil look on his face, it was terrifying. 

she ran down all of the stairs of her apartment building and out the main entrance. The cold winter air hit her face as soon as she was exposed to the streets of London.

She kept a good running pace for about two blocks then noticed a small and darkened playground, she turned to see how far she was from him and he wasn't in sight. 

She was struck with relief as she jogged over to the playground and collapsed onto her knees.

As she was trying to catch her breath a voice whispered into her ear, "you thought you could escape me?" The feeling of disappointment stabbed her in her stomach..."Jake please just leave me alone". 

It was hopeless, he could outrun her any day and there was nobody to help as it was almost midnight.

He picked her up by the collar of the hoodie she was wearing, she was expecting bruises, blood, anything at this point. 

"If you want to hurt me just do it now, then leave me alone, please"

She shut her eyes tightly and clenched her jaw preparing for a slap across her face, "look at me".

She slowly turned her head to look into his eyes full of ambition "baby, I just want you to come home and dance for me" she paused for a couple seconds, at first her emotions were bombarded with fear, but her courage soon crept it's way back. "Neve-"

Her whole head turned as his fist went right into her face.

"HEY" someone shouted from outside of the park. Jake immediately scurried away, jumped the park fence and disappeared into the darkness, if there's one thing he's afraid if its being caught, he's been in jail once and she knows that he doesn't want to go again.

Now it was her and this stranger alone in the dark in the middle of a kids playground, at least it wasn't Jake.

She made her way over to a pair of old rusty swings and sat down hoping the stranger would leave her alone, she used the tips of her old white converse to gently swing herself back and forth.