START STORY:
IMPRINTER 1's POV
I watch as Lenie closes her eyes, biting her lip, and furrowing her eyebrows in thought. I can't help but wonder why she looks so sad - was it a bad break up? Did something bad happen to him? Did she miss him? Or, worst of all, did she still love him?
"It started out how I told the kids. We were best friends, he even helped me befriend Melina." Her voice cracks as she seems to plead with me. But I can't tell what she wants from me - no judgement? Advice? Understanding?
"Ethan didn't have the ... best childhood. When he was seven his parents died in a car accident, the car spun out down a slope and nobody found them for a few days. By the time they found the car, Ethan had gotten out. He hadn't suffered any serious injuries and managed to get out of the car; they found him almost two weeks after the accident. He just wondered out from the woods, into the middle of the street in broad day light. Nobody knows how he survived or what happened to him during those two weeks, he wouldn't talk about it to anyone. They only know that he was covered in fresh injuries - burn marks on his arms, legs, and face; bruises everywhere. He had these long, thin, scars going down and across his back."
My hand gently rubs the tears from her eyes as she squeezes them shut again. She leans into my palm, releasing the breath she was holding. "You don't have to." I whisper, afraid that if I'm too loud she'll burst into tears.
She shakes her head quickly, "No, I-I have to. I need to share this with someone, it's not fair to always dump everything on Mel." She pulled away from me and pulled her legs up to her chest."He wasn't the same after that, never really ... right. When he was released from the hospital he went to live with he grandma, Arabelle. I didn't meet him for another five years but I've heard the stories. He was violent, wild, and out of control. He had a temper and snaped over the littlest things."
I barely manage to hold in my growl - did he hurt her?
"When he was nine he was sent to juvie for beating a kid so bad he was hospitalized. Apparently, the fourteen year old bumped into his grandma at the store and didn't appologize. He ... he was very protective of her, she was the only one he said understood him and didn't judge him. He was in and out of juvie for awhile, but never stayed for too long."
Thunder booms outside as she grabs my hand, leaning against me for support.
"After my parents got married, we moved in next door to him and his grandma. I was ten and he was almost thirteen. He had no friends and I didn't know anyone so we kind of stuck together after they welcomed us to the neighborhood. I didn't hear any of the stories until after I started school, two months later. But I didn't care what anyone said, he was my best friend and that's all that mattered. Him being the only guy I talked to I guess it's no surprised I feel for him. He asked me out after I turned thirteen and things were great."
I watch her face as she takes a deep breath, pausing in her thoughts. By now she's leaning against me and I have my arms wrapped around her under the blanket.
"Things were great." She mumbles, voice breaking and lips trembling, "For a while, I thought things were perfect and would stay perfect. Ethan had changed so much from when he was a kid, but his temper was always there. He got in fights still, although not often. It was right before I found out about being pregnant that his temper landed him in jail. He was a month from being seventeen and I was still barely fourteen. We'd been together for about a year. "
'Jail? Do they still talk? What did he do? Did he hurt her?' I think frantically as I wipe the tears from her eyes again.
"I'm sorry." She whispered before clearing her throat. "He went to jail and was sentenced for life."
We sit together in silence as her sentence hangs in the air.
A loud howl suddenly fills the air causing me to jump up and Lenie to fall off the couch in surprise.
"Are you okay? Sorry, I didn't mean to make you fall," I appologize red faced and nervous.
She nodds, standing up and leaving the blanket on the floor. Several more howls pierce the air causing her to go towards the window as I tense up. "I need to get going, Sam needs my help with something."
She nodds her head, understandingly. "It's fine. I'm probably just going to head to bed."
"Promise me something," I sound desperate even to myself.
She turns around to stare at me, surprised but she nods anyways.
"Don't leave the house tonight. If anything happens, call Emily right away."
"Why would -?"
"Just promise."
She hesitates, "I promise."
I relase a relieved breath, rush towards her and wrap my arms around her before kissing her forehead and rushing out.
A/N: Sorry, my internet was so slow last night it wouldn't let me publish. HERE IS THE PROMISED CHAPTER!! Look back in tomorrow for another one. Or two, depending on how much time I got but right now I have to get ready for school. PEACE OUT MY BEUATIFULLY STRANGE READERS!
