/ / F A L L I N G F A S T / /

/ / F I V E / /

~I called you up, at 102 we just sat there for ages talking 'bout that boy

and what was getting on to you, you.~

I got to Skylar's about ten minutes later, apparently she didn't live too far away from me. I parked my car in front of her house, and threw the cigarette I had smoked on the ride here onto the road, and ran up to her house. I knocked a bit too loud and worried she might think I'm Doug, or something like that. I noticed that there were indents in the door, which made me worry even more. I wasn't sure if they were from the last people here or from him.

"Hey Matty I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt your night I just didn't know who else to call, I usually call Sam but since he moved I just," she looked down at the ground and shifted her feet.

"Don't worry about it I wasn't doing anything important, I'm just glad you're okay, you sounded pretty scared on the phone... You want to talk about it?" I said as she walked out with her bag over her shoulder, I threw my arm around her and pulled her closer to me.

"Yeah just once we get to your place, not right now." I nodded, understandingly. She looked so gorgeous even in this state of fear, her hair thrown up to the back of her head sloppily, her eyes with far less makeup and small bags underneath them from how tired she was. Even her clothes, which wear a pair of night shorts and a tank top with a sweater thrown over her, seemed so perfect, like she didn't have to try to accomplish being breathtakingly beautiful.

I opened the passenger door for her and she climbed in, throwing her bag in between her feet on the floorboard. I walked around to the other side of the car and got in, starting it. The noise of the engine made her jump and her eyes seemed to flash open at some thought that had her in panic.

I grabbed her hand lightly, "Hey Sky, hey look at me." Her crystal blue eyes shifted over to meet my gaze. "You're alright now, you're safe with me." I said trying to sooth her. She seemed to process this through whatever thought had been shaking at her for who knows how long, because her eyes began to close back to their tired look and her shoulders seemed to fall and all of a sudden she was in tears. This beautiful young girl was sitting next to me in tears.

And I held her.

I held her soft hair against my chest and closed my arms around her frail body as she pulled her legs up to her chest and fell towards me. I calmed her as her whole body shook against me and her warm tears stained my white t shirt. I was there. I stroked her arm ever so slightly, while her world crashed down around her, I was the one at the bottom picking up the pieces and telling her we would figure this out.

Not that sad excuse of a boyfriend. She went on like this for a good twenty minutes until she lifted herself and said 'I'm okay', even thought we both knew that wasn't true. She shuffled through her bag and pulled out a CD of Billy Joel, and played it all the way back to my apartment.

When we arrived at my apartment, she walked very slowly up to the door, clinging to my hand which she had took as soon as we left the car. I got this instinct to kiss her, but I knew she would think I was taking advantage of her, I knew this timing wasn't right, so I held it back.

I unlocked the door and threw my jacket over a chair in the kitchen while she sat her bag on the ground and curled up on the couch. I sat down next to her, not too close to her because I wasn't sure if she wanted me here, but enough to let her know she still was not alone, and that I wasn't leaving until she was ready for me to.

She suddenly moved closer to me and put her head on my lap, so I stroked her hair some more, since it was in a bun I could only really stroke the part she had smoothed back to where her pony tail holder met her scalp. Her hair was so soft and smooth it was like feeling silk. A smile pulled at the corners of my mouth because I knew that I was the one who was supposed to love this girl. And I was the one doing just that right now.

I was jolted back to reality by her voice. "I'm fine, really Matty." I didn't respond to this because I didn't want to push her into telling me. I didn't want her to feel pressured, so I just sat there and thought about all the possibilities of what she could've been through. Maybe he had yelled at her about her mom again. Maybe he was yelling at her because of me. Maybe I was the source of all this pain. But I knew she was strong. I knew she was a very strong girl who could take pain and cover it up and hide it from the rest of the world like it was her little secret. So if I really was the source of this I knew she wouldn't tell me. She would keep it to herself like she trained herself to do, and she would keep coming back to me. I had to know.

"What happened love?" I asked still feeling her dark hair.

It took her a minute to respond to this. She was probably figuring out how to tell me that I was bad for her. I usually am for most of my girlfriends, she wasn't my girlfriend. This was totally wrong of me to be doing. So did that make it worse, or did that make it better?

"Doug..." She began, "he had been drinking. He drinks a lot now. Usually he would only get totally drunk maybe once a week, not even, but lately it's more often." I felt a tear drop roll off her tan cheek onto my leg. I let my hand rest on her shoulder. "He called me telling me he was coming over and that we needed to discuss our relationship. He sounded really drunk and I got scared and told him not to because I didn't want him driving to my house while he was drunk. I guess he thought I was hiding some guy in my house because he started yelling at me saying I was cheating on him and that he was the one being used in this relationship." This brought her to a little bit of a sob. I could hear her choking it back.

"I told him that I wasn't and that even if I did have a male guest over he should trust me enough to let it go since I always let him stay at Kate's for nights and days on end. He got all mad saying I was just jealous of Kate and his friendship and how close they were. Which I can't say isn't true. So after a good ten minutes of him screaming at me on the phone he hung up. I figured he would still be trying to come over so I cleaned myself up a bit because I didn't want him to see that I was upset about him." Her hands began to shake and I reached down and held them as she shifted her legs nervously. "He showed up about fifteen minutes later, and barged in yelling and whatnot. I had heard this all before. 'You're going to leave me for some lowlife guy who you think has feelings for you', 'you never think about how I feel in this relationship', 'how could you do this to me'. I just sat there and took it. After that he started throwing things and I went to my room and locked the door, that's when I texted you. I was just so scared..." She drifted off into thought, and that look of panic returned to her eyes so I tapped her twice.

"You're safe now, Skylar. You're always safe with me okay? I'm always going to be here for you. No matter what. I'll protect you. I'm sorry he can't see how amazing you are, and how you should be treated, because you deserve the world Skylar. I promise you I'm never going to leave you." I kissed the top of her head and stroked her arm a bit. She sat there crying into the night. After a long period of silence, I thought she had gone to sleep on me and I was about to carefully try and get up and get to bed, but I heard a small sentence fall off her tired lips.

I couldn't be sure if I heard what I thought I did, but if I'm correct (and honestly if I'm not correct this statement stays the same) if what I believe she said is true. I charished that moment forever, because it was a glimpse at the real Skylar Foxx.

"That's what they all say, my dear."

A/N-

hello everyone! so I had this burst of ideas today about the rest of plotline and oh my goodness I cannot wait for you guys to hear it. A bit of a tragedy I must say but I promise it will be very dramatic(;

tomorrow I'm going to have to be doing a tonnnn of homework so the next chapter might be later this week, unless i actually get a good amount done tomorrow i'm sorry!

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you for all of these reads! I hope to see more in the future(:

much love as always,

jordan xx