dahlia

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Dahlia: I can feel like my heart wants to escape my chest as it beats loudly as if thumping my whole body and stopping me from agreeing to Brandon. I feel like this is wrong but this is my only option. It is true that I have nowhere to go. He found out.

I am thankful that he is not asking me why I ran away from home.

Or maybe, he already formulated a hypothesis in his mind based on the bruises on my face.

Brandon stops walking and points to the green gate in front of us. And my heart stops thumping. I stop breathing. The possibility that his mother will catch us sneaking in runs on my head like the rent is due...or a neighbor has seen us entering their home together.

I look around the street. No one's walking around. He opens the smaller gate. They have two gates: the huge one for the car and the smaller gate. He enters first then I follow him. I caught a glimpse of their medium sized fenced garden in front. There's one huge tree and the rest is green grass. They also have a front porch. The lights are off. We turn right and he opens another gate in the garage. The metal gate creaks open, the sound of rust metal clanking as it opens puts horror on my whole being that causes goosebumps on my arms.

It's quiet. I do not know if it's a good thing. It adds up to the suspense to hear dead silence. It makes me want to hold my heart or hope that there's a turn off button or volume down because it is beating loudly.

"Let's go," He whispers. Even his whisper sounds so loud.

I will never do this again.

We walk inside their garage. Their sedan is there. I'm not sure about the color as it is so dim. I can barely see anything.

As it is so dark. I feel like their garage has no end. We walk for, I feel like eternity, a few minutes I think but we still don't stop walking or reaching his room or something.

I bump into him when he stops. I can faintly see his hand through the faint light coming from the outside's street light. He is gesturing for me to wait.

He puts his head on the door when we reach the end of the garage. I can see him nod his head and unlock the door.

"Brandon, is that you?"

"Oh-

I immediately put my hand to cover my mouth as I almost screamed due to the shock that someone spoke. We're going to be caught.

Brandon opens the door loudly and it covers up the noise I made.

"Yes!"

I sighed. There's no questions afterwards. Brandon gestures to me to come inside. There's a hallway.

"We turn left and it's my room," He whispers to reassure me.

"Dinner?"

I can't breathe when I hear a woman speak again.

"Yes! I'll change first."

Brandon held my hand immediately after that. He sprints so I have to walk so fast to match his pace. My eyes are wide and scared. My heart once again beats so loud. We turn left. He opens the door and lightly pushes me inside. He enters after me. He abruptly closes the door.

He sighs. I collapsed on his room's floor. I hold my heart and exhale.

"They rarely enter my room. Don't worry."

I nod my head. We stay in our position as if on pause. No one dares to move an inch. We stayed like that for long awkward minutes.

Brandon: I did not think ahead. Her safety was my top priority when I offered her to stay in my room for the night. I did not think about how I would feel about it. I thought I would be okay with it like I would have normal feelings like how my friends come over for sleepovers. It will be fun...or at least normal.