I Watched You Drive By

Scarlett

The giant room I woke up in smelled dangerously amazing. Dangerously, because my growling stomach had woken me up. For the first time in a year I had been in a dreamless slumber. Dreamless meaning that I didn't wake up once in the middle of the night. No restlessness either, until a growling woke me up. When it turned out to just be my stomach, I sighed and put down the pillow I was holding. At that moment I was fully wake and I was already rolling off the giant bed.

Several things became obvious after a few moments. This not my room. My room was not even remotely close to how large this room was. I stepped away from the bed and glanced around, my eye catching the glamorous things spewed about the room. The gigantic bed I had just woken up on. The huge television standing on a table in the middle of the room. The high glass windows and the ceiling. The theme of the room seemed to black and white. Everything was either black, white, or both. The City Hall building wouldn't take up as much space if it was stuffed in here. I felt like a tiny ant, looking up at how high and big everything was.

There were several doors that I could see. From what I could tell, one of the doors led to the outdoors. Another door at the end of the room was opened slightly. I ran toward it, my heart lodged in my throat.

Why was I here?

The door that was opened up slightly lead outside and into a hallway. There were doors up and down the place, but I ignored them, running down the gigantic staircase in front of me. When I got to the bottom of the steps, a loud crash echoed throughout the place. I moved toward the sound, although there was a large door that was clearly the exit out of this place.

I stopped in front of what seemed like the largest kitchen that I had ever seen. The theme here didn't seem to matter. It was colorful, even with the gray rain pattering on the windows as a background. The room was very well-lit and the appliances were large and modern. A boy stood staring down at the pieces of a used to-be glass, with furrowed brows. As soon as he noticed me staring at him, the boy started walking toward me, his furrowed eyebrows relaxed.

I grabbed a broom from the corner of the room and pointed the tip at him. "Stay back." The boy didn't stay back. In fact he moved quicker and quicker until his hand was resting on mine where I held out the broom.

"How do you feel?"

His question came as a surprise to me as I stared at his hand, resting on top of mine like it was completely normal. I pulled my hand away, pointing at him. "I said: stay back." The broom stayed in his hands and so I had no other weapon, but it didn't matter. I had dealt with a completely drunk Steve before. Dealing with this rich boy would be nothing compared to the asshole. I got into a position as quickly as I could without him noticing it.

"Scarlett," the boy said, putting the broom back down in its corner. "Scar, it's me. Samuel?" I blinked. How did he know my name and nickname? "Sam, remember?" He took cautious steps toward me like he was stalking an escaped animal from the zoo.

Sam.

The name started ringing an annoyingly loud bell in my head. I know him-- No, I remember him. From last night. He brought me here after.... I had confessed that I was practically homeless. I winced, thinking about how I had acted. Had I willingly told this guy my secret and followed him to his castle full of fancy things? I had not been in my right mindset.

I rubbed at my face, realizing for the first time that I was actually wearing black sweatpants and a t-shirt that were a couple of sizes too big for me.

I pushed my dry, dark hair away from my face and sighed heavily. "I gotta go now."
Samuel stepped in front of me as I tried to run for the large exit door. His emerald green eyes zeroed down at my mine and some kind of smell wafted up to my nose. The smell in the kitchen, itself, was overpowering and my stomach chose that moment to growl like a beast.
A tiny smile lit a teasing look in Sam's eyes. "You can't leave. Not right now." He pointed to a table in the middle of the room. The table was topped with covered dishes, and I could only guess the dishes to be food. The dangerously amazing smell from upstairs. Even as I shook my head, my stomach growled for the hundredth time.

"Thanks for everything, but I have somewhere else to be," I said. The entrance to the kitchen was large enough for me to walk around Sam. I was almost to the front door when a sharp pain in my left legs pulled me to a stop. The pain had me staggering on my right leg before falling to the ground. "Ow."

"Shit." The swear came from behind me. A moment later, Sam was kneeling next to me with a frown. "I almost forgot. You hurt your leg yesterday." He slipped an arm around my waist and sat me down on a couch. "Stay here. I'll be back."

I tried to get back up, but Sam gave me a death glare. "Sit down." He stared at me until I sat back down and then walked back into the kitchen. I exhaled and massaged my left leg, staring at the front door. I could-- if I ignored the pain long enough-- make it out of this place and run home. Except...I don't know where I was. We came here in a storm with Sam driving and I had stared down at my jeans the whole time. So even if I did get out of this place with my hurt leg, I wouldn't get far.

Sam came back carrying a first aid kit and sat next to me on the the couch. With his eyebrows furrowed, he pulled out a roll of bandages and gestured at my leg. "Let me see."

"No." I shake my head.

When I refuse to give him my leg, Sam settles down on the floor and starts wrapping my leg like he'd been expecting me to say no. I struggled against his warm hand on my leg, until he spoke very quietly to himself. "Who hurt you?" I stopped struggling and his green eyes snapped up to meet mine, as if he realized way to late that he had spoken out loud.

'Who hurt you'?

We stared at each other for a long moment, waiting for the other person to look away first. The game didn't last long. I could tell in a second that Sam wasn't the type to look away first, so I did. His green eyes seemed to be seeing way too much.

No one has asked me that question. I didn't like it. At all.