better man | zdh

01

it was one of those winter, very cold new york nights, when the streets were lonely and dark and only the sound of the wind and the falling of the snowflakes could be heard.

a shadow appeared from the far corner, approaching faster and faster with each step to a flickering lamp.

it was kailea clark - a poor, beautiful nineteen-year-old girl with brown hair and brown eyes but suffering from life.

kailea lived in a small one-room apartment, with almost no furniture and no father, only with her mother and her six-year-old sister - molly, who was ill and had heart problems.

after she walked with fast steps and hid around the other corner, a car sped by at breakneck speed and stopped in front of the fast food restaurant mcdonalds.

a boy with brown hair got out of the car, staggering slightly and laughing at something no one knew about.

this was zach herron.

only at the age of nineteen was he a dream boy for all the girls, women, grandmothers and even children.

hailing from a wealthy family, zach was the typical handsome football player, nicknamed the heartbreaker.

and for his parents, his mother - myta - was incredibly good person, but she was very influenced by other people's opinion.

his father josh was his son's old copy. after all, the pear doesn't fall far from the tree, does it?

zach also had a little sister - reese. she was an actual angel. and the only thing zach would give his life for and truly loved.

a life radically different from that of kailea. one of them - poor, the other one - rich, but soon fate would meet them. very soon their lives will become intertwined and confused.

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kailea was curled up in her old patched coat and shivering. it was two o'clock after midnight, and tomorrow the girl was supposed to be at work at 8.00am. strange as it may sound, she worked at two places - during the day in a local fast food chain, and in her free time she was a babysitter.

the hopkins family had called her earlier today to ask her to babysit their little son greg. and so kailea needed the money, she immediately agreed. little did she know that these two hours will turn into five and a half. but at least she had two hundred dollars in her pocket now.

as the girl went around the corner she ran, because she saw that the pedestrian traffic light was green and she didn't wanted to wait two more minutes.

without looking, she stepped at the street and strode toward the opposite sidewalk. a roar of an engine and the whistling of tires were heard and a sharp yellow light illuminated her body.

kai stopped immediately and froze. the fast-moving car was coming at her with such speed that even if she moved, it would hit her.

she narrowed her eyes in fright and thought for a second that the worst would happen. but contrary to her expectations, she was not swept away by the fast-moving vehicle, but received a bath of muddy water on her clothes and face.

"oh my goodness!" she cried in a slightly trembling voice.

the car horn blew.

"what do you want? you were going to hit me!" the girl shouted angrily. she looked around. she was so wet and muddy and it looked like she had been rolling in the snow until now.

a head appeared from under the down window of the shiny corvette and shouted.

"are you blind? why are you crossing the street? i was going to kill you!"