On The Run

Chapter One

"Owen, you can get off me now, you're gonna be late for football practice." I wriggle beneath him, pushing his shoulder feebly. I hate it when he does this, I swear it's like his natural routine.

"Fine, sis." He winks. I hate it when he does that too, he knows how much it irritates me. It's so cheesy. He moves back, allowing me to unpress myself from the wall. Thank god. I turn to walk away, I only get about 2 metres away before he yells. "You don't get away that easy, sis. Come back here! Now!"

Before I even have a chance to turn around Owen grabs my shoulder, swiftly turning me around and rolling me into a huge hug in his arms. I don't even resist. I just bury my face in his chest and appreciate the warmth radiating off of him. I go to pull away but Owen resists, his arms tighter around my torso, his head softly resting on the top of my head. I relax even more, resting completely onto Owen.

"You're gonna be late." I sigh, barely audible, into his chest, but I knew he would hear me. still not willing to pull away, his hugs are perfect. Me and Owen have known eachother years; our parents have been married for 6. He knows me like the back of his hand. He knows exactly what all of my body language means, every stutter and can analyze every single word that comes out of my mouth.

"But you're not okay." His breath tickles my ear, his voice so quiet, only meant for my ears. His arms squeeze my waist slightly, trapping me in his embrace.

"I'll be fine." I mutter, burying my head further into his chest, he smells so nice. His smells so familiar, his arms, they make me feel so safe.

"Promise me?" He pulls me away from his chest, looking down at me with an eyebrow raised.

"You're going to be late for football practice." I sigh heavily now, looking at the floor, pulling almost completely from his arms. I turn to walk again, I know he's disappointed in me, I can feel it, and it hurts.

"Blair, please." His voice quiet and raspy. He grabs my hands, pulling me closer to him, not quite an embrace but so his face is just above mine. "Be careful, beautiful, please, for me?" He whispers leaning down and kissing my forehead. I nod silently.

"I will." I hesitate. "For you." I smile slightly as he leans his head against mine.

"Come on Owen, Coach is waiting, and he's not exactly happy about waiting for you! Better get your ass in gear mate!" A guy in football kit yells to Owen, and with one last sympathetic smile, he's gone. If only he knew...

I walk to class, keeping my head down, oh gosh I hate these people. I get pushed through the door with my crowd of classmates, stumbling straight into my seat with a small thud. Finn walks past as I fall and leans close to my desk.

"Don't cause an earthquake you clumsy fat-ass." He snickers shoving my shoulder. It takes all my self control not to stand up and punch him in his tanned, squared face. He hovers, his face level with mine, a smirk plastered on his face. I clench my jaw looking away from his pale brown eyes.

"Fuck off, Finn." I whisper, leaning away from his face slightly. Finn stands up and walks behind my chair, bending down with his mouth by my ear, whispering.

"Listen Blair, why don't you be quiet, no-one hear likes you. You're not worth it, you're useless, I mean what have you actually ever done right? Nothing, because you're worthless. You're dumb. Fat. Fat. Fat. Disgusting..." He repeats every word, pronouncing every word with a dose of venom. "Fat. Ugly. Disgusting. Worthless. Useless. You don't deserve to be he-"

I stand up, ramming my chair into his pride with all my strength; he doubles over. I rush out of the class clutching my mouth stifling my cries. I run head towards the sports field, collapsing in a heap by an oak tree, pulling my knees to my chest and crying silently into my hands.

"Blair! Blair! Blair, oh my, Blair, baby what's wrong?" Owen jogs towards me frantically. I wipe my eyes with my sleeves, curling into a tighter ball. He drops down beside me, pulling me into his chest, completely enveloping me.

"Blair, oh baby please don't cry, shh." He strokes my hair letting me shake violently in his arms. He holds me for a while, shushing me and stroking my hair and squeezing me tight. He waits until I've calmed down to approach the subject.

"Baby, what happened, please tell me, why are you crying? Who hurt you?" ?He coos rubbing my cheek, I flinch at the word 'who'

"No-one, it was nothing; I'm fine now." I sniffle rubbing my sleeve on my cheek. He stares at me, jaw clenched.

"Blair, baby, tell me who did this?" He says his deep voice quiet and serious.

"Finn." I mumble, burying my head in his chest. He holds me close but pulls away as tears roll steadily down my cheek.

"What did he do?" He whispers rubbing circles on my cheek.

"He-He- nothing it doesn't matter." I choke. He holds me tight. "He-he said some stuff, I just I couldn't take it, it made me wan-" I didn't't have to finish, he knew what was coming. He shot up.

"I'll kill him, I swear to god I'm going to kill him. No-one makes you feel like you have to do that ever ever again, you're more than that Blair, I never want you to feel like that. I swear I'm going to kill him." He grabs my hand and pulls me with him, I follow, jogging to keep up with him.

"Owen, please don't, please." I sob clinging to his side. He storms through the door to my science class, marching straight to Finn; I pull his arm but my feeble attempt fails as he shoves Finn to the floor. A crowd forms around them as Owen throws punches at Finn, I scream at him to stop but my voice is near silent compared to the countless idiots chanting 'Fight fight! fight!'

Owen gets off of a near unconscious Finn and darts towards me, holds me to his chest and drags me away. "Come on beautiful, lets get you away from here." He whispers guiding me to the car as I sob into his chest. "Promise me Blair, promise me you won't do what he made you think of, I can't lose you, I just can't.." I curl up in the passenger seat and nod feebly, but some promises are hard to keep.