Scared of love

13

~Tom, Poppy's father, to the side.~

~Keiran's POV~

I unlock the door to my apartment and Miles comes out of the living room with a concerned look on his face.

I'd left him here while I'd gone to buy some beer. "What's wrong?" I ask, kicking my shoes off and using my feet to push them against the wall.

"Poppy's here and I'm not going to sugar coat it, mate, she's a mess." I run through in to the living room and see her sat on the sofa with tear stained cheeks. She's staring in to thin air.

The sight breaks my heart. I go over to her and sit close to her, pulling her into my chest. Poppy starts to cry again, no, she's sobbing. Large sobs that shake her body as she hides her face in my chest.

"Shh, Baby Girl." I stroke the back of her head and kiss her forehead. I feel her hands grab on to my shirt.

I don't even know what's happened, but I do know that she needs support because something terrible has obviously happened.

When her crying begins to stop and she is just sniffling against me, I decide to ask her what's wrong. "What happened, Baby?"

"Jason was hit by a car and he died." She chokes out. "I couldn't stay and see my mum in that much pain so I ran, and ended up here." She tells me and keeps her face covered with my body.

I hold her protectively. Her little brother is gone and that has got to be some of the worst pain to go through in the world.

"Don't send me home, Kieran, I can't face them." She begs, shifting back so that her blood shot eyes look pleadingly in to my own.

"You can stay here as long as you want." I reassure her. "I'm going to go and get you a drink and something to eat, okay?"

"I'm not hungry." She grumbles.

"Well, it will be there if you want it." I try and smile at her and she sits back on the sofa, her knees up to her chest.

I go through in to the kitchen and I find Miles drinking a beer, leaning against the kitchen counter and staring into thin air.

"Hey, Man." I acknowledge him and move to pour Poppy a glass of milk and get her some cookies to go with it.

"How's she doing?" Miles asks, taking another sip of his beer.

"She's not good, bless her. The poor girl has had such a shit time." I mumble.

"What do you mean?" Asks Miles, but I don't want to tell him anything without Poppy's approval.

"Not my secret to tell." I grab myself my own beer as I watch Miles sigh. He knows that he won't get any information out of me unless I want to tell him.

"She's begged to stay here. She ran away from the hospital and came here. The sight of her loved ones in that much agony killed her." I explain.  "I've said she can stay here as long as she wants."

"Okay, Buddy, but her parents are going to be worried sick about her." Miles says.

"I'm going to try and get her to bed where she can relax." I step closer to Miles and begin to whisper. "Then I'm going to go and see her parents and let them know she is safe. Will you stay here in case she needs anything?"

"Of course." He tells me.

I take the milk and cookies back through to Poppy. "Here, at least drink this." I hand the milk to her.

Poppy gulps it down eagerly. She was obviously very thirsty. "Do you want any of these?" I say pointing to the cookies.

"No thank you, Kieran." She says and I just take her in my arms and hold her against me where she just lays.