"Umm...I don't know where to start." I said.
"Well, who do you live with, brothers and sisters? Just anything." He replied.
"I did have a brother. His name was Jake." I took a deep breath. Josh held on to my hand. "He was 17 and died when I was 8. he used to be the perfect child, did well at school, had lots of friends. Until he got involved with drugs, alcohol and gangs. Then one night he came home. He was depressed. I still remember the night. He was sat on the bathroom floor. I asked him if he was ok, and he told me he loved me and to go play with my toys. But I hid behind the door. 5 minutes later I went back and found him unconscious, lying in a pool of his own blood. He had cut himself with a blade, too deep. It was already too late. Then after his funeral my parents became depressed. They started on drugs and drinking and would tell me that I was nothing like Jake and I was useless. They would blame his death on me but.." I broke down into tears.
"Hey, it's not your fault." He said looking me in the eye and gripping my hand tighter.
"But I could have saved him. I could of stopped him from doing it. I could have got help. But I didn't. It was my fault." I cried even harder.
"Listen to me Lauren. It is not your fault. And I'm sure Jake wouldn't want to be seeing you like this either."
"Hmm." I said through tears.
"Don't cry. Please." He said. "Why didn't you tell social services about them?"
"I guess I didn't want to leave them, I mean, they are my parents. And I don't want to be stuck in some care home either."
"I understand." He said.
"What about your family?" I asked.
"Well...my life was perfect. All my family were together. I had great friends. Everything was going well until my dad left us. We found out that he'd been seeing another family for the past 6 months. And he just left. He didn't even try staying in touch with me. We ended up having no money and almost becoming homeless. So my mum stole from him. But he soon found out. And when he did he went mad. He beat my mum up. I came home from school to see her cut and bruised. He had said that he would be back, so we moved away, to here, and we haven't heard from him since."
"Josh, I'm so sorry...I..I had no idea"
"It's fine, as long as he doesn't find us." He sighed.
Just then my phone started to ring. Josh picked it up off the side and gave it to me. It was my dad ringing me. I couldn't answer it. Not after the text he sent me. I didn't answer.
"What does he want?" Josh asked.
"H...he... He doesn't want me anymore...."
"What do you mean?" He asked again.
I showed him the text from last night.
"What? He can't just put you into care. Can he?"
"He can and he will." I replied "I'm going to be put into care and be bullied again with no family." I started to cry again.
"No don't cry. I'll sort all this out tomorrow. You'll be fine, I promise."
I gazed into his eyes. He gave me butterfly's. Then he gently moved my hair out if my face with his hand and held it on the back in my neck. Then he slowly leaned in. He looked down to my lips, then back up to my eyes. I rested my hand on his shoulder and leaned in to. His soft lips pressed against mine and I instantly felt fireworks. Our lips moved perfectly in sync. It felt amazing. Then we broke apart. He gently kissed my head. I didn't know what to do or say.
In silence, he helped me into bed under the covers, then he got in next to me. I rested my head on his chest and after everything that just happened, I fell asleep to the sound of his heartbeat.
