Juliana Woodland and Nate Jacobs have been best friends for as long as they can remember.
They are now in their junior year at East Highland High School and things are starting to get complicated.
*Had this story up on my old account and it got dele...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Juliana kept checking her phone, surprised to that she still hadn't heard from Nate.
Their evening had been spent at the football game, which Nate scored the winning touchdown for, keeping his team's winning streak going.
After the game, he dropped her off at her place. He said he had to run to his own house quickly, then he would come over.
It had been nearly an hour since then and there was no sign of him. She called and texted him several times and got no answer. She thought that was strange because he always answered the phone for her.
She didn't mind waiting on him and wouldn't care if something else had come up, but it wasn't like him to not let her know. He would never leave her waiting with no explanation, even before they were together.
She pulled on a grey zip-up hoody and tight black leggings and ran the brush through her hair, which was still damp from her shower. She checked her phone one last time before she walked next door to his house and knocked.
No one answered but she thought she heard a faint thump from inside. She knocked again and waited a moment before slowly opening the door. She immediately heard yelling coming from upstairs.
"You wanna keep fighting? Come on, Nate!" She heard Cal shout as she rushed up the stairs.
Her eyes widened as they landed on Cal with Nate pinned down to the floor of his bedroom. Before she could try to intervene, Nate started to hit his head violently on the hardwood floor.
"What the fuck are you doing to him?!" She screamed, her voice cracking partway through.
Cal clearly hadn't heard her come in over all the noise they were making, and he jumped at the sight of her. He got off of Nate and stood up, panting. Even with his dad no longer on him, Nate kept crying out and smashing his head on the floor.
"Nate, Nate!" She shrieked, kneeling down beside him and grabbing his shoulders. "Nate, stop, calm down, I'm here, Cal is gone!"
His movements slowed and he looked around like he was didn't know where he was or what was going on. It was like he had been in a trance and was coming out of it. His face was red and he was completely out of breath.
"It's okay, Natey, it's just me, your dad isn't here now." She soothed him, pulling his head into her lap and stroking it where he had been hitting it.
He didn't say anything. He stayed in her lap for a while, breathing heavily as she comforted him. She didn't know what happened but she knew that Nate didn't deserve to have his dad attacking him like that.
She was so shocked her heart hadn't stopped racing since she walked in. She knew that Cal treated his youngest son poorly, but she didn't think he would physically harm him.
They stayed there for a little while until his breathing returned to normal and it seemed like he had mostly calmed down.
"I'm going to get you some clothes and we're getting the fuck out of here." She said quietly.
