Running Free (unedited)

Chapter 4

๑Chapter 4๑

“Good morning California, it looks like today we will be staying in the low seventies without a cloud in the sky….”

Groaning I move my hand around to try and find the snooze button on my alarm clock. My oh so dear step father wanted to spend time with my mother and she refused to go out unless I tagged along. We had have bad experiences of me being left alone in Clark’s house, on more than one occasion my mother would come back and find me beaten and bruised. From then on she refused to ever leave me alone in his house.

Dragging myself out of bed I make my way over to my bathroom to take a quick shower and change just as fast, I don’t want to anger Clark anymore than he could be right now. Making my way downstairs I find my mother having breakfast and Clark shouting on his phone.

“NO, either you get me the money by tonight or you could kiss your family goodbye!” Shouts Clark to the unfortunate soul on the other end.

I quietly say a good morning to the both of them and sit as far away from Clark as possible. the servants quickly serve me and I begin to eat.

“I don’t care if you can’t, just find a way to get me the money!” and with that Clark snaps his phone shut.

“Hurry up and finish eating Raven, we don’t have all day!” He says while he exits the dining area. I don’t know how much more of him I can take. He is slowly pushing me to my limits, but I don’t know what do to. Hopefully within a few weeks he will let us go back to just moving around without him bothering us.

Quickly finishing our breakfast we make our way out to the front to an awaiting car. He smiles and gives my mother a quick kiss, but scold’s when he sees me.

“Come on Sarah can’t we leave the kid here? It’s just supposed to be the two of us.”

Clark is absolutely in love with my mother, but she doesn’t feel the same anymore. At one point we actually were one big happy family, that is until the truth came out. After we found out, all Clark wanted to do was get rid of me and keep my mother to himself. Even though neither of us wanted to be anywhere near him we have to put up with him so he won’t kill us.

“If I’m going so is she, I don’t want to leave her all alone in a house this huge.” Says my mother. With a frustrated sigh, Clark pushes my mother and me inside the car. It didn’t take long to get to our destination. Looking out the window I see we had parked in front of a casino.

Getting out of the car Clark turns to me and says “Raven since you’re still underage why don’t you go to the park near the lake a few blocks down while your mother and I have some fun.” Taking the hint I nod my head as he hands me another wad of cash.

“Alright see you later, and take your time coming back, we won’t leave.” He says with a mischievous smile. But I knew better by the time I return I know he would be long gone taking my mother wherever he really wanted to go. He always does this, and it doesn’t take much to persuade my mother once she has alcohol in her system.

Sighing I start to make my way over to the park just a couple bocks down. I count how much money he gave me, it seems Clark wanted me to run away or something since he always giving me a couple hundred bucks so that when I do he could finally finish me off and no one would ever know. But I could never leave my mother alone with that man; I would go through hell and back to be by her side.

As I near the park I can hear the laughter of children all around me. I smile as I see many families sitting down and having picnics while others are running around. Seeing at how it’s a beautiful day out, I decided to take a stroll on the docks around the lake.

I’m deep in thoughts as I round a corner when all of a sudden I am falling down into the water. As I resurface I feel strong hands grab a hold off my arms and lift me out of the lake.

“Shit sorry are you alright?” I hear someone ask.

Wiping the water out of my eyes, I see two piercing blue eyes staring back at me with concern.

“Y-yea.” I manage to say

“Jay-Jay is she going to be okay?” I hear a little girl say. Sitting up I see an adorable girl not over ten years old.

“Yea she’ll be fine, right?” this black haired blue eyed man asked me.

“Yea I’m fine”

“Now Gabby, say you’re sorry” he says to the young girl sighing with relief.

“Sorry I ran into you, but my brother was the one chasing me.” The little girl says while pointing at her older brother.

“But you where…. Never mind, here how about we get you dried up?” he asks me while extending his hand more me to take. In one swift motion, he lifts me to my feet, takes his little sister hand and leads us to a car. Opening the trunk he hands me over a plain white shirt and black basketball shorts.

“That’s all I have right now, you can change in the back if you want I’ll make sure no one looks, by the way I’m Jayden.” He says while extending his hand.

“This is fine, thank you, I’m Raven.” I say as I shake his outstretched hand. Climbing into the back of the car I begin to change with caution. I can’t help but to admire the way his cloths smell, realizing what I was doing I blush and get out of the car.

“Well thanks for the change of clothes but I think I should be going now.” I say as I start to walk away until I feel a small hand grab mine.

“Can’t you come and eat with us? I feel sorry for making you fall into the lake, please come and go eat with us.” Says the little girl

“Uh Gabby I’m not sure…” Jayden begins but its cut off.

“Please Jay-Jay I feel really sorry, can’t she come and eat with us?” Gabby says as she gives her older brother her puppy dog eyes.

Sighting in defeat Jayden says, “Well only if she wa…” but is cute of by Gabby’s squeal. She grabs my hand and begins to lead me back inside the car.

“This is going to be so much fun, my names Gabriella by the way and I’m 9 years old. What’s your name? How old are you? Where are you from? You look so pretty I wish I can be as pretty as you when I’m older.” Gabby began as she talked ninety miles an hour.

“Gabby slow down she’s not going to understand you.” Jayden says from the driver’s seat.

“No it’s fine, um okay let’s see, my name is Raven, I am eighteen years old, I just moved here from across town, and thank you but you’re already so pretty.” I giggle as Gabby listens so intensely to everything I say. We start making our way to a fast food restaurant when Gabby wrinkles up her noise in disgust.

“Jay-Jay I don’t want to eat here I want pizza”

“Gabby come on you use to love this place.”

“But I want pizza, pweas Jay-Jay?” Gabby says giving Jayden her puppy dog eyes again. I chuckle as I see Jayden’s face soften at the sight of his sister.

“Fine fine okay you win.” Gabby jumps up and down in joy and goes over to kiss her brother on the cheek in thanks.

After a few minutes of driving around, we finally park in an all you can eat pizza parlor. Once we get out of the car Gabby goes running and jumps on Jayden’s back. I can’t help but feel a little jealous, at what a happy family they are and how much I yearn for something they have. If only life could be so easy I think to myself as we make out way to a table.

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A\N: Picture of Aiden