It Started With A Run

~15~ Hot Tears

Annabel POV
~Edited~

"Okay," I sniffled a little and wiped my nose, "well a while back I was dating this guy. He was an older guy. His name was Tony. At the time I was just starting sophomore year and he was a senior. I thought I was super lucky to be dating a guy like him just because he was older."

I looked up at him to see if he was looking at me or not. Sure enough, he was staring at me intently, waiting for me to continue.

"I'm not gonna give you a story about how he... hurt me because I'm not one of those girls with the sob stories about how they got abused by their boyfriends. I know some girls can't get out of it and I know some girls just choose not to because they're convinced they're in love with the guy. That isn't me though. As soon as I saw the signs of hostility I broke up with him. But..."

My voice cracked and tears started running down my face again.

Cameron pulled me close to him and tried to comfort me.

"You don't have to finish if it's too hard for you babe, it's ok."

His nickname for me threw me off, but I wanted to finish.

"No, no. I'm fine."

I took a deep breath and continued.

"I broke up with him, but he still thought he could control me. One day after countless texts and calls from him he decided to follow me and Aaron when we went on a run. He didn't even care that Aaron was there and he immediately tried to hit me. Aaron blocked him and tried to fight him off but... he isn't that strong."

I took another deep breath.

"He came after me next and started hitting me. Hard. Luckily we were on that same path that you stumbled upon while running. The guys heard the commotion outside and came to see what was happening. Tyson was the first to get there, and being much stronger, bigger, and more experience than my brother he easily fought off Tony."

"Is that why you joined? Because they helped you?"

"Yes... well, not exactly. At the time they weren't a gang, but I won't get into that right now. Afterward, they took me and Aaron in and helped us out. They tended to our cuts and bruises. They also told us that if anything like that happened again to call us because 'no man should be hitting on anyone for no reason, especially not a woman.'"

"Did it happen again? Did Tony... attack you or your brother again?"

Hot tears started rolling down my face once more.

"Yeah..." I couldn't even keep it in anymore. I was practically sobbing at this point.

Cameron pulled me towards him but I still spoke through the tears.

"He- he... he came after us again and again, but he decided it would be more fun to attack my friends. Every time I got too close to someone, they would get hurt. He never tried to attack the guys so I always tried to stay near them. That's also why I started hanging out with them. Sometimes it was one of my friends from school. Sometimes it was a new boyfriend I had. It was- it was always someone."

I had stopped full-on crying at this point, but Cameron still held me close to him.

"Because of this, I vowed not to get too close to anyone. I hate seeing my friends hurt and... not everyone can be saved by a gang of guys."

"Did you call the police? Press charges? Anything?"

"Yes. I did all of it. Every time it happened I did all of it. I pressed charges, I tried to get him in jail, I filed a restraining order. Every time he somehow managed to either hide from the police until the situation died down or use money to coax someone into making the charges magically drop. Even if I went to the station and said I didn't drop them they couldn't do anything about it. What was done was done."

"Has he done it recently?"

"No. But that's because any relationships I've had in the past year I've had them on the DL. He hasn't seen the faces of any of my friends and I have made sure I haven't had any boyfriends for him to attack. He always lets me know he's around though. Watching me. With phone calls or just near me in a park or around my neighborhood. He's always there."

"Has he seen me? It doesn't seem like you've been trying to hide our... uhm... friendship."

I giggled slightly at Cameron trying to find the words to describe us.

"You haven't noticed my attempts, but every day I make sure we leave after my brother. Tony doesn't know I've transferred schools, so he thinks I still ride with my brother. Remember when I said Aaron was driving some girl to school to feel less lonely?"

"Yeah..."

"He wasn't, he was driving her because he wanted it to seem like I was in the car when he went to school. He let you drive me because we didn't want Tony to know where I was going to school now. That's also why Aaron makes it seem like he doesn't like you very much. He doesn't want me to get hurt, but he doesn't want you to get hurt almost as much."

Cameron stayed silent for a while and then, "Wow Aaron actually cares about me? Well that's new."

I let out a breath of relief I didn't know I was holding in and wrapped my arms around Cameron.

"Thank you so much for letting me talk about it. I know it was a lot to take in and I don't want you to be overwhelmed or anything-"

"Hey," Cameron pulled away and cupped my cheeks to wipe the tears off my face. "Listen. I'm not overwhelmed and I'm really happy that you told me. I feel like I know you better than I did before, and all I want to do is keep you safe. I would never do something to put you in jeopardy."

He had the most serious, but soft look on his face, and I couldn't help but smile. A big goofy smile spread across my face and I couldn't stop it.

"What?" He had a smile on his face now too. We were just smiling at each other for a while until I finally said something.

His hands were still on my cheek, so I took them and intertwined them with my own.

"Don't ever leave Cam. Okay? Just don't..."

"I wouldn't dream of it." He smirked at me and kissed my forehead.

The action was so simple, yet so intimate and I didn't know what to do with myself. All my functions shut down until...

"You wanna finish that Boy Meets World Marathon?"

"What else would we do?"

He pulled me close to him once again and we both focused our attention on the T.V.

At least he didn't run for the hills when I told him my secret. But now, because of that whole thing I have another secret.

One that could get him into more trouble than he realizes.

I'm totally, 100%, without a doubt... falling for him.

Shit.

A/N
Hey Guys!

Sorry if you got 2 notifications for this chapter I always forget to add in the authors note until after.

We have 2 confessions now! How are you guys feeling about Anna and Cameron's relationship?

This was just a little insight into Anna's life. I wanted to make Anna tough, but also realistic, thoughtful, and considerate. She probably couldn't fight off Tony on her own, but she does know that she has to protect her friends from him to keep them safe.

I know the thing about pressing charges and Tony evading the law might not be entirely true, but it was put in there to stress the fact that he's out there and he's capable of getting out of the law.

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I kind of didn't want to write it because of how sad it is, but I still hope you guys liked it.

If you did like it, it would help if you commented and voted on the chapters! My viewers are going up steadily and even though it's not a number that might attract a lot of people to it, I'm still very proud of it :)

Bye loves~
Syd.