A L O N E

Chapter- 11

Time stands still
Beauty in all she is
I will be brave
I will not let anything take away
Christina Perri, Thousand years

Wrapping my injured arms around his torso, his soothing voice reached my ears and kind of calmed my nerves down, his voice and the way he hugged me and cared for me brings a lot of memories back.

I hugged him tighter afraid that he'll vanish the second I'll let him go and I cried. I cried my frustration out, I cried until I was hiccuping and no tears were coming out and he did nothing except cradled me in his arms and soothe my hair out with his long fingers.

After some time when I feel like I'm ready to face him and answer his curiosity. I stepped away from him what felt like hours, rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand and looked up to him, his warm eyes meeting my red puffy eyes.

He cupped my face in his warm hands, I leaned in his touch enjoying every second with him. I'm so glad he's with me.

"What happened?" He asked with uncertainty, uncertain of my answers, uncertain of his own reaction.

Before I could make any excuses, he noticed my arms. Shit.

He softly let my face fall and cradled my arms in his own, inspecting every bruise and slightly hovering his fingers on it, afraid he'll do more damage.

"I'll clean you up, and then you can tell me what happened." He sternly said, leaving no room for arguments, I nodded.

~

After he cleanly and cautiously cleaned and bandaged my arms. He inspected my face and asked if there are any more bruises, I showed him my stomach and one on my scalp. He cleaned those too and bandaged them.

He didn't talk much, his shoulders were tensed, I asked him couple of times that was he okay but he denied with just a shrug of shoulders.

"So, what happened?" Noah asked snapping me from thoughts, we were back in the old rusty school bus, where it all started.

"My dad hit me." He flinched hearing my reply. And I sat there emotionless.

"Why?" His voice and gaze at me soften. He reached for my hand and cradled my hand in his lap. It's warm, he's warm. Like home.

"It's long story, and probably you don't wanna listen me blabbing about my 'oh so sad life.'" I dryly chuckled.

"C'mon Katherine, I'll never judge you and you know that."

I sighed, I have to tell him someday.

"It all started when I was born. I was the second child, and another daughter. Of course dad wanted a son in the first place but he got two daughters instead. My mom tried to reasoned him that it's not that bad to have a daughter, he accepted me at first. It was all rainbows and unicorns for me." I hiccuped, tears on the verge of falling as I continued." He got reasons to hate me as time grew old. He would find every weak point of mine and would taunt me for years.

"I always used to see everyone's father coming to school for picking them up. I waited for him to pick me up, everyday. I was so happy on the day when he picked me up I had the largest smile on my face, I had that smile for the whole day. The next day to the next day I waited and waited he never came, I waited for him for years. I'm still waiting.

"As I got introduced to adolescence, situations got worse. He will beat me up for no reason, he'll get drunk and bring girls home. I confronted him, he'll call me names and used to hit me in front of those girls. As I grew and knew that his behaviour is not gonna change. I seek for love from my older sister, Natasha."

I chuckled through my tears, Noah squeezed my hand in assurance. He pulled me in his side and I laid my head on his shoulder. Getting more comfortable.

"Natasha is not a bad person, she never was. It was my dad who would hit her if she would be helped me. I felt guilty for her, I stopped going to her. She became distanced from me.

"You cannot count how many times I would cry myself to sleep hoping that my elder sister would come and calmed me down. Or she would helped me from my problem. The eliana pro-"

I stopped myself from saying more,I could not bring myself to talk on that topic. Noah understand that and he pulled me in a comforting hug.

"You know I remembered someone like you whenever I look at you, you know why I cared for you this much, cause you made me remember someone, someone special to me." He smiled at me, a sad smile.

"Who?"

"My sister" A tear slipped from his eyes as I gaped at him.

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