Long Road Out (Dallas Winston love story)

Chapter 1

When I was young I always questioned the meaning of 'Soul-mate'.  I thought it was just a cheesy word in a love story, that was until I met my Soul-mate.  At first I didn't understand.  Of course I didn't, I was only 9 years old at the time, So I couldn't have understood that I was in love.

Annabeth Joe Smith was my name and the summer I would start the fourth grade I fell in love with a handsome boy who had just moved into my apartment building.  His face was tough and bold, he had brown eyes with hair so brown it was almost black.  Right next to the boy was his father, a tall lanky man who looked just like his first son.  I kept my eyes on the handsome boy when another boy about 2 years younger hopped out of the car.

"Dallas I wanna go back to Mama's house, when will she come back." The younger boy whined to his older brother.  I learned later on the two boy's names. Dallas was the handsome boy around my age and Sean was his younger brother.  Sometime after the two brothers moved into New York they never left one another alone.  Where Dallas went Sean wanted to go, if Sean wanted to go somewhere Dallas would take him there in fear of his younger brother being harmed.
One day I was walking back from the family market after grabbing a coke when in an Alley-way I saw Dallas and another boy about 12 slugging Dallas right in the jaw, blood dripped from his mouth as he got up and punched the boy in the mouth and the boy swung back at Dallas and Dallas fell to the ground. The boy spit on Dallas and walked away.  I quickly ran over to Dallas and came to his aide.

"You're bleeding." I tell Dallas.  "No shit." Dallas groans holding his jaw.  A bruise already started to form where he had been hit.  I sit next to him and hand him the cold coke bottle.

"Hold it against your jaw, it's cold." He grabs the coke without saying anything and holds it against his face. His brown eyes looked at the ground.  He fumbled with his hands and handed cursed under his breath.

"I lost my dollar, my old man is gonna kill me." Dallas tightened his grip on the coke bottle. "I never caught your name, I'm Dallas." I already knew his name though.

"I know you, you live in the apartment down the hall from mine. My name is Annabeth. My parents call me Ann or Joe. I mostly just stick to Annabeth because it sounds nice."  I continued my chat with Dallas as we walked back to my apartment.  I learned that Dallas was 10 and he moved into a smaller apartment since his mom died 6 months ago along with his baby sister.  His Dad wasn't very kind to him and his brother.  And Dallas will be starting in the same grade as me when school starts up. Then we were at Dallas apartment

"Thanks for the coke, you can have it back." He hands it to me. I declined the coke, it was probably a little warm anyway and I feel bad Dallas got jumped. 

"You can keep it, I gotta get home anyway.  My parents work nights so I don't see them much but they will be awake soon, Bye."  I make my way home and think about Dallas.  He was one I could dig.