Best Friend's Keeper (Book Two)

Chapter 30

Where the hell is she? Kristina stands outside on the front steps of Sarah's house tapping her foot madly, barely being able to contain her anxiety. "What's taking her so long!" she groans.

"Calm down, she'll come soon. Relax. Take a seat." Ian says from the steps that he's sitting on.

"I can't calm down. She's going to be late and then I'll get in trouble. Then I'll get grounded for life and I-"

Ian cuts her off, "You're rambling, relax." Ian says as he grabs her wrist and pulls her to sit down on the step beside him.

"Fine. Okay." she pouts.

"Where did you guys go this week?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"You can't even tell me where you guys went? Let me guess a secret spy mission? A drug operation?"

Kristina laughs, "None of the sort."

"Then it wouldn't be so hard to tell me."

"National Honor Society Ceremony."

"Oh sounds fancy. You are the smarty pants type. How was it?" Kristina freezes, images of Malcolm Knight hitting and feeling on her flashes in her mind. She opens her open to give an answer but no words come out to respond. "Kristina?" Ian asks while looking at her strangely, but she gives no response just a blank stare. "Kristina are you okay?" he asks as he puts his hand on her shoulder. Kristina jumps, her whole body shakes from his touch. "Kristina are you okay?" Ian asks again with worry lacing his tone.

"I-I-I-I-I-I don't l-l-l-like to b-b-be touched-d-d-d." Kristina says with a stutter.

"Kristina what's wrong?"

Kristina tries to talk but the words can't seem to come out. The tears well in her eyes, "I need air." she says as she quickly gets up and runs down the sidewalk. She runs until she's about 3 blocks away then starts to walk. She starts to cry, I can't even let people touch me without freaking out. How can I go home? To school? To church? I can't get him out of my head. I will never be normal. She walks around some more until she stops crying, she realizes she's in an area she doesn't know. She puts her hand on her pockets to get her cell phone to call Sarah but she immediately realizes she left it. She sees a bench and walks over to sit down. She exhales slowly. I was almost raped, Levi is in a coma and Javier ... She sighs, Javier is gone. She sighs again, He didn't even try to fight for me. Maybe guys don't know when to do that. Or maybe it just runs in his family because his cousin sure as hell never fought for me.  She feels someone sitting next to her which immediately stops her train of thought. She turns and sees Ian. "Ian? How did you find me?"

"I was walking around looking for you. I wanted to apologize for upsetting you ."

"It's okay." she says with a weak smile.

"Are you okay?"