you're not alone. - johannie.

xix.

THIRD PERSON

"You should try telling somebody, John." Lauren says as she and Johnny both walk the halls of school.

"I can't." Johnny says. "It'll make things worse."

"How worse?" Lauren asks. "I'm sure he'll just scream or something."

Johnny gives Lauren a look.

"Trust me, he'll not just scream." He says. "Especially if I'm gonna take the risk of telling someone. Not after what he did to me last time."

"You two seem kinda close today." Hayden says walking up to the Orlando siblings. "What changed?"

"Nothing." Johnny spoke.

"So-" Hayden starts off.

"Can't really talk right now, Hayden." Johnny interrupts. "We have something personal to talk about. Like, Orlando to Orlando."

"Oh, okay." Hayden says before walking away.

Johnny sighs as Hayden disappears.

"What was that?" Lauren asks. "You could've told him that we were just talking."

"Yeah, no." Johnny says. "It's Hayden. The curious one. He needs to know all."

"You have a point." Lauren says. "So, why are you so close to me?"

"Just, now that you've actually seen dad hit me," Johnny explains. "Stay as close to me as possible."

"Why?" Lauren asks.

"Just 'cause." Johnny spoke.

"Seriously Johnny." Lauren says, walking in front of Johnny to make them stop walking.

"Don't worry about it." Johnny says.

Lauren sighed knowing she wouldn't let his brother spill out the reason why he wanted her to stick close to him.

"Alright, fine." Lauren spoke. "You win. I'll see you after class."

And soon enough the bell rings for first period.

Lunch period

"How's Annie?" Lauren asks Johnny.

Johnny looked up from his tray of food that he was mixing.

"Haven't seen her in weeks." Johnny spoke.

"Why? What happened?" Lauren asks. "I've never really seen her in school these past few days."

He shrugs.

"After Annie being missing, and said she was found, she never really showed up again." Johnny explains, giving emphasis to the word 'missing', knowing Annie's not really missing.

"I wonder what happened." Lauren says, poking her food.

"I don't know, but I really can't check on it because we have this stupid curfew." Johnny says.

"Hey, Annie's dad is very strict. I still remember that." Lauren explains. "She was really taking the risk of running away."

"Yeah, I guess you could say that." Johnny replies.

"Hey, you're like her closest or maybe, no offense, only friend." Lauren says. "Don't you wanna ask how she's doing?"

"If I had the time, I should've probably done that weeks ago." Johnny says.

"Then you can do it today." Lauren says.

"When, Lauren? When? We literally have thirty minutes after our dismissal before we need be at home." Johnny asks. "And you know what happened yesterday. A teacher talked to me that took less than 5 minutes, and I was late."

"Don't you wanna be a risk taker too like her? She technically risked her life possibly for someone." Lauren says.

"Lauren, I can't add any more problems to what I'm dealing with right now." Johnny spoke. "I'm dealing with quite enough on my own right now."

"Well, who said you have to deal with them on your own?" Lauren questions him. "I'm here too."

"What can you do?" Johnny asks. "I don't want dad hurting you."

"If you're going to risk your life, might as well help." Lauren spoke. "I did plenty of damage to her last freshman year. Might as well try and fix what I broke."

updated :))