Stranger Nights

Chapter 8

Henry Baker ran through the streets of Roanoke. His house was on the other side of town. He was cold and everything on his face hurt. He was barely holding back tears.

When he got to his home it was dark and cold. His parents were at work. Just because it was raining doesn't mean their lives just stopped.

Henry turned on the artificial suns by pulling a cord. He then went into the bathroom and took a towel and dried his hair.

Retreating into his bedroom, Henry changed out of his wet clothes and left them on the hanger to dry. He changed into a simple white t-shirt and blue plaid pajama pants and crawled into his twin sized bed.

Laying on his back he stared up at his ceiling. He had planets hanging from it. Planets he made when he was seven and still thought he would travel to one of them one day.

The first tear dripped out of the corner of his eye and down his temple. The next fell into his mouth. Soon he was crying, not bothering to muffle his whimpers since there was no one around to hear them anyway.

He stopped crying eventually, but his heart still hurt and his right cheek was still throbbing.

He got under his black blankets and let himself be lulled to sleep by the sound of the rain on his roof.

Henry was awakened by the sound of someone entering his room. At first he thought it was his mother, but when he turned around and sat up on his bed he was surprised to find Freddy Elliot.

Freddy was playing around with things on his shelf, his back was facing Henry.

"Uh...Hi?" Henry piped up. Freddy quickly turned to Henry dropping whatever he was looking at. A light blush tinted his cheeks. "What were doing there...."

"Oh..um....looking I guess." Freddy answered rubbing the back of his neck.

"Um....sorry the door was unlocked. I figured all you Bakers must be the same so...I kind of just walked in."

"Well, is there something you need?" Henry asked stretching.

"I guess I just wanted to say sorry."

"For beating me up?"

"Yeah..." Freddy said sitting at the foot of his bed, "And for not accepting you. I do, you know, accept you."

"I figured you would." Henry smiled at him.

"You did?"

"Well I had my doubts when you started pounding my face in." Henry laughed. At the sound of his laugh Freddy's heart started to race again. He quickly calmed it down though.

"There was one other thing too." Freddy said tying his fingers into knots, "Charlotte said you were bullied."

"Oh..." Henry said, smile never faltering although it didn't reach his eye's anymore.

"Yeah, she said that Oliver Martinez beat on you at lunch and that the reason you don't have many friends....well she said you would tell me that part."

"Do you want to hear that part?" Henry asked softly after a moment of silence.

"I think so." Freddy answered.

"Okay then." Henry said, "Charlotte was born early. Earlier than expected. Her mom died when she was born. Something about her insides or something, but we won't talk about that right now. Anyway, you wouldn't believe how tiny she was. She was so fragile..."

Henry paused for a moment and then continued.

"I knew I had to protect her. I promised that I would the day her mom died and then the day her dad didn't do anything when she was crying. I was only two years old. When she was six and I was seven she was still really tiny. When I was eleven and she was ten she was still tiny. When I was thirteen and the bullying started and she was twelve she was still super tiny.