Abandoned

chapter thirty-one.

God. Is this really happening?

"What the hell?" I heard an all too familiar voice from somewhere in the distance, and then Justin was running over to where we stood. He gave me a pained look ranging somewhere between confusion, fear, and sympathy.

"Who the fuck are you?" The asshole snapped, his hands still holding Rose in place, unpleased with the interruption.

"I'm Ray's boyfriend." Justin announced with confidence as he moved to stand in front of me. In the moment my brain couldn't quite process those words, but I could freak out about it later. If I make it out of these damn woods alive, that is. "And you're gonna let go of her in the next three seconds or I swear to god-"

"Ah, fuck!" The man cut Justin off, hissing and yanking his hand away from Rose. I realized that she'd bitten his hand, apparently pretty hard. He had pulled both hands away, and after that things started happening very quickly.

Rose darted over to me the second she was free, and I met her halfway, leaning down to pick her up. She squeezed my neck and hid her face in my shoulder, almost immediately soaking it with tears. With her in my arms I could finally take a breath.

At the same time, Justin had gone straight over and punched the guy right in the nose. Hard. I knew Rose heard the cracking sound, too, when she flinched.

In between consoling Rose I looked up to see snippets of the two fighting that I didn't really want to watch, but it was hard to look away. They both got punches in at each other for what felt like way too long, and then Justin hit him hard enough in the head to knock him down to the ground. As soon as he was out, Justin turned around to us.

"You need to get out of here." He said. I could see a bruise already starting to form on the side of his face and he was bleeding from a few spots.

"What? No, I can't just leave you."

"Before I showed up, when I first saw him, I called the cops. They'll be here soon, Ray. And they'll ask questions if they see you guys."

"But... he's getting up." I said, my voice wavering with fear, as I noticed him start to roll onto his side. Leaving Justin here by himself with this guy when he's already hurt terrified me, but so did the cops asking questions about us.

"I'll be fine. I swear." He turned around to see for himself then turned back to me. Rose peeked over my shoulder at him, still making these whimpering noises that broke my heart. I knew she was scared, too.

"I swear," he said again, directed to Rose this time. "Go."

I nodded, reluctantly, and started to back away. I felt this need to kiss him, as a thank you and just incase something goes wrong and as an I'm sorry, but I didn't. I turned and left the woods.

I ran back to the house, as fast as possible while holding a kid who's too big to be held in the first place. I took shortcuts behind the houses just incase the police drove by and put two and two together. I don't know what Justin told them or how he's going to explain anything.

Luckily when I reached the house I saw that Pattie's car was gone, so she wouldn't be home to ask questions. Once inside I sat Rose down on one of the steps and took a seat next to her, out of breath and exhausted and a million other things.

I could feel the adrenaline leaving me. I peeled of my jacket and scarf and threw them down, all too aware of the lump forming in my throat and the tears in my eyes. Rose sniffled beside me, and I pulled her into my lap.

This is my fault... all of this. I should have told Justin about Rose's father the second I found out. I should have known he'd be after her, should've been more careful. Why hadn't I found a chance to call the police like Justin had? Or ran for help while they were fighting? I'd just stood there watching, like some helpless idiot.