Broken World

Chapter 3

       "Well, I'm glad I could finally get you alone. I need to ask a favor," the voice meets my ears, and I freeze in my chair, my muscles flexing to prepare to fight, because the voice has a hint of something bad in it.

       "I think you should tell me your name first. We've never established that," I say trying to stall him.

       "My name's Brandon. Now what's yours?" he asks.

       "You already know my name," I say.

       "No, I know that name was fake. Now tell me, what your real name is," he says coming closer.

       "It's Delilah," I say looking out the window hoping to see someone coming.

       "That's a pretty name," he says coming even closer. He puts his hand where it shouldn't be, and when I try to smack it away he grabs my hands and puts them over my head.

       "Let go of me! I'll start-" I yell. He shuts me up by kissing my lips. When I try to kick him, he straddles my legs and kisses me harder. At this point I'm terrified; I think I know what he's going to do. I try to buck him off, but he just puts more weight on me. I try to scream, but he just puts more pressure on my lips. He rubs himself on me, and I start to panic when I feel something hard poke me in the thigh. He puts his hand where it shouldn't be again, and then trails it down my side to my pant's waistband. That's when my adrenaline starts pounding through me, and I start fighting and screaming. He puts his lips back on mine, and then all of a sudden he flies off me. I shoot upwards and prepare to kick some serious butt, but Max has beaten me to it and is punching the living daylights out of Brandon.

       "If you ever touch her like that or come near her with those intentions again I will kill you!" Max screams, spit flying from his mouth onto the face of Brandon. I'm shaking and crying, and I have pulled my legs up to my chest and have my arms wrapped around them. Max comes over and pulls me into a hug, and I start sobbing into his shoulder. He whispers calming things into my ear, and he holds me close, but not like Brandon did. If I wanted to I could get away from him, but I trust he won't do anything that would hurt me.

       "M-Max why'd h-he d-do that?" I stutter still crying.

       "I don't know. Maybe being sixteen got the better of him," Max says.

       "Does that mean that you'll be like that next year?" I ask a bit scared.

       "No, not if I can help it. You're a year younger than me, right?" he asks.

       "Yeah, I'm fourteen," I say happy he's trying to help me think of things other than what just happened. He pulls me back into a hug, and I let him. He pulls away, and that's when I realize that someone has poked him. He turns around and gets up. I bring my legs back up to my chest and wrap my arms around my legs. I put my head down resting my head on my knees. I hear the whispers of Zoe and Max behind me, and I know he's telling her about what's happened. She pats my shoulder, and you'd think it was a sympathetic pat, but it wasn't. It was a pat that said 'I'm sorry he did that. I'll be getting revenge for you.' I only know that because I've known her since preschool, and now we are both fourteen.

       "You good for now?" Max asks.

       "Yeah, I guess," I say pulling my pillow and food up from where they dropped to the floor.

       "If you need me just wake me, okay?" he asks.

       "I might. Depends on how good you're sleeping," I say with a small smile. I put my pillow between my legs and chest, and I slip the food between my chest and pillow, ever so carefully so I don't crush it. I rest my head on my pillow and look out the window across from me. I let most of my weight lay against the cold, side of the bus I'm leaning on. I shiver then realizing just how cold it's become. I wish I had my blanket that I packed, but it's in my suitcase in the U-Haul trailer that's being pulled along by our bus. I shiver again with a sigh and continue staring out the window. The bus stops again, and all the kids let out a loud, annoyed sigh. I guess we're back in traffic. I wish I could sleep, but I just can't, at least not right now. The sky grows dark, and several large, dark grey clouds fill the sky. It starts pouring rain, and thunder starts booming like God's playing the drums, and lightning starts slashing across the sky like beautifully weaved threads. I stare in awe at the sky, but that's when it registers in my brain that this storm shouldn't be happening because there were no clouds until just now. I shake Max awake out of fear, and when he sees the fear on my face he looks around.

       "Max, it's the weather. The clouds just randomly showed up, and then it started pouring. Max, I'm sorry I woke you, but I'm scared," I say feeling a bit guilty.

       "It's okay. I told you to wake me if you needed anything," he says, and I slide over to his seat, so I can be close to him.