Just Keep Running

Chapter 2 Just don't get hurt

TW: Violence

Luke walks into the bar and looks for John, he finds him and sits on the barstool next to him the bartender comes up to Luke.

"What are ya drinking sir?" She asks Luke.

"White Russian." Replies Luke.

"Coming right up." She says and walks away, John looks at Luke.

"Why did you want to meet up so bad?" He asks Luke.

Luke just sighs. "Why did you jump a girl at a school today?" Luke asks not looking at John, John has a look of confusion on his face. "Don't give me that look, you know damn well what you did John!" Luke says sternly.

"Why do you care Luke!, you're not a part of the gang anymore so why do you give a shit!?" John states angrily.

"Because that's my neighbor John!" Luke says through gritted teeth.

"Okay? It's your neighbor so what!" John retorts back.

Luke sighs. "I care about her okay so just stay away from her, please." Luke says slightly wincing at the fact that he said please.

"Oh, does the infamous Luke Tara actually care about someone other than himself? I'm shocked." John says, filled with sarcasm.

The bartender walks back up to them. "Here is your White Russian sir." She says handing it to him. "That'll be $8 please sir" She adds, Luke hands her the money without saying anything and she walks away, Luke turns back to John.

"You know damn well I'm not the selfish one here John." Luke states his words like poison as he downs his drink and walks out of the bar leaving John alone with Luke's message repeating itself over and over again in John's drunken mind. As Luke is walking towards his car he texts me saying that he just left and should be back in 20 minutes, I text back. Okay thanks for letting me know. Luke puts his phone back into his pocket and goes to get his keys out of his other pocket when he hears someone call his name, "LUKE!" It was John who seemed to have brought a buddy of his with him. "Luke, wait!" John yelled across the parking lot.

"I'm waiting" Said Luke as John and his friend walked over.

"I wanted to introduce you to my good friend Chris Hurley but you remember him don't you Luke?" John teases Luke even more.

"Hey Luke, long time no see." Chris says, putting his hand on Luke's shoulder.

Luke sighs. "Don't touch me." Luke replies, taking Chris's hand off his shoulder.

"Then how about we just pay that little school girl a visit again. I'm sure she would love to see us again." Chris says pushing Luke past his limit. Luke just snaps and grabs a hold of Chris's throat and slightly lifts him off the ground, choking him.

"YOU LEAVE MADDIE ALONE! YOU HEAR ME!" Luke yells at Chris while John tries to get Luke to let go of Chris. Luke sets Chris back on the ground and releases his grip on Chris's throat. "And YOU!" Luke says, pointing his finger at John. "You can just piss off!" Luke says through gritted teeth.

Luke gets into his truck and starts speeding down the road because of how mad he got but he just wanted to protect me, but when he hears sirens and a,

"Please pull over." He just made it worse for himself.

"Oh you gotta be shitting me." Luke says under his breath as the officer comes to the door.

"Do you know why I pulled you over?" Says the officer.

"I was speeding." Replies Luke.

"Right, license and registration please." Asked the officer Luke hands the Officer his License and registration the officer looks at it and hands it back.

"Mr. Tara, I am going to let you off with a warning as of now but just remember next time I won't be so nice." Says the officer.

"I will, thank you officer, have a good night." Luke replies as he rolls his window back up and starts driving back to the complex but watching the speed limit this time.

Luke parks his truck and makes sure the doors are locked before going up to his apartment only to be greeted by the door handle being broken and a huge mess in his apartment he starts frantically looking around the apartment yelling.

"MADDIE!" Over and over again until he hears a muffled scream from the bathroom. Luke runs into the bathroom to find me sitting on the floor sobbing with my hands tied behind her back and my mouth covered in tape. Luke rushes to me and takes the tape off of my mouth and unties my hands. Luke looks at me with more concern as he sees that I now have a black eye and a bloody nose. Luke grabs some toilet paper from the cabinet and gently wipes the blood off of my face. I take the toilet paper and hold it up to my nose to try and stop the bleeding as Luke pulls me in for a hug as I sob into his shoulder. "Shh Maddie it's okay, it's okay I'm here now you're safe now." Luke says and he gently rubs my back while I cry. Luke pulls out of the hug to look at me again. "What happened?" He asked me. I stopped crying for a moment. "I-I don't know i- it's just one m-minute everything was f-fine and the next there w-were these people who broke in and j-just started hitting and punching m-me for no reason t-then they tied me up a-and put tape on my mouth s-so I couldn't say o-or do anything, and i-it was really scary L-Luke I'm s-scared." I choke out, Luke looks at me with a sad expression on his face and pulls me in for another hug and starts rubbing my back again to try and calm me down when they hear footsteps entering the apartment. Luke reluctantly lets go of me and whispers. "Stay here I'm just going to go look." He tells me. I just nod my head and hide behind the bathroom cabinet. Luke walks out of the bathroom to see John and Chris standing there staring at the mess.

John looks up and sees Luke. "Oh I guess he beat us to her, so tell me Luke where is that little school girl." Asks John, obviously trying to piss off Luke.

"Oh is she in the bathroom like the boys told us she would be." Chris says starting to walk towards the bathroom door but Luke steps out in front of him and punches him hard in the stomach.

"None of you are going anywhere near Maddie, ya hear me!, do I make myself clear?" Luke yells as Chris falls backwards and John catches him then when he gets back up to his feet John walks forward towards the bathroom.

"Ya know what Luke, I've had enough of your bullshit tod-" John gets cut off by Luke giving him a hard punch to the face.

"What did I just say!" Luke states as Chris tries to get up and John is holding his nose.

"YOU BROKE MY NOSE!" John exclaims.

"Oh did I? I'm sorry John did that hurt your massive ego? Guess what, I don't care, both of you get the hell out of here now before I hit you again, but harder I don't wanna see either of you ever again, so get out!" Luke yells as the two men run out of the apartment as fast as they can. Luke walks back towards the bathroom and crouches down next to me. "It's okay Maddie they're gone now alright they won't hurt you again, not if I have anything to do with it." Luke tells me.

"What did you do to them?" I asked.

"The same thing they did to you." Luke states leaning down to whisper in my ear.

"I gave em' Hell." Luke says into my ear making him chuckle and me laugh. Luke stands up. "Let's get you cleaned up." He says as he holds his hand out for me and pulls me off the ground up so that I'm standing next to him.        

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