This Warrior

***Chapter 1

There he runs. Around the track. The most beautiful man alive. Mr Keegan Allen. He finally gets to the finish line and guzzles down some water. Me and him are on the same cross country team. He starts walking my way to sit under the willow tree (where everyone else is). I try and fix my hair and look natural. Without even noticing, he just walks pass me. Keegan and I have known each other for about a year now. We are just friends though. I want to tell him how I feel, but I'm afraid he wouldn't even want to talk to me ever again. So I just keep my mouth shut.

I walk over to get some water when I fell a hand on my shoulder. It's Keegan! "Keegan! Hi!" I say trying to look half way decent (even though I'm all sweaty). "Hey! I just wanted to say great job coming in first today, again!!" He said lightly punching my arm. I giggle. I am the fastest runner in my team. "Haha thanks. You did great too Keegan!" I said looking up at his blue eyes. I hear a car horn in the distance, it's his mom. "There's my ride! I got to go. Talk to you later" he says running to the red mini van.

I watch him get in and see how his mom kisses him on his forehead. I wish I had that. All I get from my father is slaps and punches. My smile slowly fades as I see my dad pull up in his white truck. I slowly approach the car being very cautious of what I say to him. I open the front door and sit down. "Hi. I won first again!" I said trying to make conversation. He laughs "You? Winning at something? Don't make me laugh. I don't care if u are the best at every sport. You will still be a nothing." He says harshly. "I know." I said looking out the window.

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I arrive at our shitty house and walk inside. The house is literally falling apart. We get a letter from the home association at LEAST once a week saying to clean it up. But instead of kicking us out, they could care less. I go straight up to my room and change. It's a plain white room with absolutely no color in it. There is a mattress, a desk, my closet, and three little letters spelling out my name "Ali".

I change into a over sized t-shirt and comfy pants. Instead of going to sleep, every night I sneak out my window and walk to the green belt. It's basically a little park with one bench and a bunch of grass. I go there and just think. I can do anything there. I won't be judged or punched or be called names.

As I approach my bench, I see someone sitting on it. I don't know if I should run away or see who it is. Who would be here this late at night? As I come closer, I see that Keegan is on the bench! What the hell would he be doing here? I start to back up. As I start to turn around and run, I step on a stick. Crap. Keegan snaps his head around. "Ali? Is that you?" I slowly walk towards him.

"Ya hi." I say in a stutter.

"What are you doing here?" He says with a concerning look.

"Uh I come here every night.. To think. Be alone. What are you doing here?"

"I come for the same reasons mostly. Here, come sit with me" he says gesturing me to sit next to him. I calmly walk over to him and sit. We don't say much, we look at the stars and just relax.

At around 1 am I say "It's getting pretty late, I'm gonna go back home" I stand up and start walking away.

"Wait, Ali..." He says grabbing my arm softly. I turn around and look into his blue eyes. He leaned in and slowly kissed me. Like a movie kiss. It was so magical. He slowly pulls away and pushes my hair out of my eyes.

"You don't know how long I've wanted to do that" he said looking straight into my eyes. I can't help but smile and giggle. He lets go of my hand and I walk off. I smiled the whole way back. 'He cares' I thought 'he actually cares about me. He doesn't think I'm a piece of shit!' As I reach my window I climb in and go straight to bed. That was the first time I actually went to bed happy.