Unlikely Pair

Chapter 11

That night I couldn't sleep for anything.

I didn't know whether to stay with Derek or leave him. I loved him with all my heart but I couldn't be in that situation again. My life felt like it was endangered with him. He didn't feel safe anymore, he was the complete opposite.

At the same time, the other half of me was wanting to stay with him. I wanted to give him another chance, I couldn't leave him after one mistake. He's seemed to have learned his lesson about what happened.

Then I thought about what Luke said. He was appalled that I would stay with Derek after what he had done. Lauryn was in the middle like me but she agreed more with Luke some times. I felt like I was being pulled in two different directions.

My heart and my brain in a huge fued right now. It was causing me a lack of sleep. I switched over from my stomach to my back with a deep sigh, looking at the ceiling. Whenever I had troubling nights, I'd look at it.

When I was younger I had the wondrous idea to creatively paint my ceiling as the night sky. The illustration was life like and I would count the stars to help myself think.

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5." I started going from star to star.

I gave up once I reached 100. Pushing off my comforter I went to my room door. Opening it softly so I didn't wake up my parents, I tip toed down the stairs. I had some running shoes by the front door and I slipped them on.

It was a good thing I slept with socks on. I opened the door softly and left the house. Running out to the sidewalk, I started jogging. The pain in my ribs was minor, compared to my brain. It was pounding with thoughts and I didn't know how to stop it.

I kept running and I reached the park. I ran the park at least twice before I needed a change of scenery. I ran towards the lake area and around it. Halfway around the lake, I got a little tired noticing the pain in my legs. Slowing down to a walk, I stretched my arms above my head and took deep breaths as I walked.

I looked up at the sky and saw plenty of real stars. It was my favorite part of Lake Crescent, all the stars you couldn't see in the cities. I remember a trip to New York and you couldn't see any of the stars. As I rounded back towards the park I heard a noise from behind me.

I looked out of the corner of my eyes and sped up my pace. I was not going to be in a real life scary movie. Oh hell no, I refuse! I sped up my pace a little faster until it was a full on sprint. The only bad thing about my run was I still had to go through the park.

I kept running as fast as I could until I ended up on the ground. I realized I had tripped over a tree root, twisting my ankle. I quickly examined it and cursed myself for falling like dumb girls in scary movies. My ankle was fine just a little sore.

I looked up to check my surroundings and there was nothing after me. Great, I just ran for nothing. I'm such a wuss. I scooted back until my back was against the tree and drew my knees to my chest.

I thought about everything I had been through this past weekend. I couldn't help but cry at the incident in the hotel. We had probably left a mess of blood for them to clean. I felt bad but even worse because I didn't know what to do to answer Derek's question.

Just then I heard footsteps. Looking up I saw an approaching figure. It was a person and I wouldn't be able to get up and ran before they reached me. I'm going to die.

"Brooklyn?" A familiar voice called. It took me a second before I registered the voice with a face. Just who I wanted to see. Not!

"Luke?" I said trying to cover my shaky voice but in my head I was thinking 'Please don't be Luke'.