Young Writers Society

Zach flew from his seat, leaning down next to Jada to help her up. He head Kassy's laughter, and glared up. "Shut the hell up! It's not funny!" He barked, Kassy's face paling before reddening with rage. He helped Jada to her feet, whispering softly to her.

Kassy walked over, and slapped Zach in the face angrily, spitting out lines like, "I'm done with you, don't call me ever again." A red hand print began to form on his cheek as he carefully led Jada out, treating her as if she'd fall apart at the seams any second. They walked back out to the courtyard, Zach sitting her down on the bench.

"Are you okay? How's your arm? Did you hurt anything?" He asked, carefully, gingerly taking her hard-casted arm in his hands before looking into her eyes and gently pushing a lock of hair out of her wide, slightly scared, teary eyes.

Zach quickly leaned down to help me up. Yelling at Kassy.
"Shut the hell up! It's not funny i winced, i've never seen him this angry since what happened with rich, no, no he was angryer then. Kassy slapped him across the face, and started insulting him. he led me back into the yard sitting me back down on the bench.

"Are you okay? How's your arm? Did you hurt anything?" he moved hair out of my face. I wimpered, still to low for him to hear. Fighting back tears. He looked me in the eyes and i had to look away. I was too intimadated to look into any ones eyes. I bit my lip, wimpering, this time it was loud enough to hear.

I mentally yelled et myself for that. Why did he care about me, like i said. I've been nothing but trouble since he found out. He should have let me be with rich. It would have saved him all this trouble.

Zach looked away, letting his head fall into his hands. He wasn't looking at her, wasn't touching her, nothing. "A-at least tell me," he felt his voice waiver. "Tell me why you're scared of me." She didn't say anything and, still not looking at her, Zach began to plead. "Please tell me why. Why're you scared of me, and what can I do to make you less scared of me. I swear, I'll never hurt you. I've told you that time and time again already. I'm not like that bastard of an ex-boyfriend of yours." He stood up. "When you're ready, tell me the answer to your question. Write it down and stick it in my locker if you want, I don't care, I just want to know. Anthony won't bug you any more, I've taken care of that, and I've got a friend of my dad's looking for Rich to bring him to jail. I've got to go." With that he walked away, walking past Rachel, who smiled softly and went to sit by Jada, wrapping her arms around the smaller girl.

I was crushed, he sounded so upset, i-i just wasn't ready to trust a guy again so soon, if he hadnt noticed i was terrified of all the guys. Rachel walked over and sat beside me wrapping her arms around me.
"You ok? you look like your ready to cry." I shook my head
"No- no, im fine."
"Im not buying it anymore, really tell me what happened."
"w-what do you want to know?" she rubbed my shoulder.
"Well for starters what really happened to your arm." I swallowed hard.
"I-i told you i broke it."
"How did you break it." i started to cry, softly.
"My ex-boyfriend stepped on it, trying to keep me from running away."
"That's horrible! Why were you trying to get away?"
"he was beating me." i covered my face. Sobbing.
"What! Why was he doing that!" The bell had rang,
"uh... um... he wanted me." I looked uo at her, her eyes were wide in shock.
"He was going to force you!" I nodded bringing my knees up to my chin then burying my face in them.

The bell rang again, great i skipped class on my first day. I saw anthony come outside. He started walking towards us. I sprang to my feet and ran inside, into the bathroom and locked myself in a stall.

Rachel stormed over to Anthony, who held his hands up in defense. "Woah! I was just gonna tell her that I was sorry." Rachel drew her hand back from slapping Anthony, and scoffed in disgust, following the trail of tears that Jada had left behind, soon entering the bathroom and sitting on the counter.

"He just wanted to say sorry, but truthfully Jada, I don't blame you for running away. But.. I've got another question. I mean I know you're scared of all the guys here, but you seem to be absolutely horrorfied when you're with Zach, like he'll hit you any second. Why is that?" She asked softly, thinking about the guy who'd protected her so much throughout her life, like a big brother.

--

"-the young girl looked up slowly, her face scared and bruised as tears brimmed her eyes. 'Who did this to you?' the young cop asked, the girl sniffing as tears pooled down her cheeks. 'My boyfriend.' she answered weakly." Zach listened slightly as the teacher read the line, getting angrier by the minute. She kept reading, the girl in the story admitting that her boyfriend had forcefully taken her when they first got together, and beaten her ever since. That's what threw Zach off. He let out an enraged shout, Jada's face flashing again and again in his mind as he stood up and stormed out of the classroom.

"He just wanted to say sorry, but truthfully Jada, I don't blame you for running away. But.. I've got another question. I mean I know you're scared of all the guys here, but you seem to be absolutely horrorfied when you're with Zach, like he'll hit you any second. Why is that?"
i looked up jumoing a little when rachel came in. i unlocked the door and stepped out, shaking like crazy.

"I- i dint know rachel, to be honest i am more afraid of anthony. But i guess it's becuase of how big he is and how easily he took" i stopped and shudderd "that guy, out that night, how easily he found me. if there was even a chance he could turn out to be like him, i would never escape." I started crying agian. i couldn't even remember how much i told rachel about rich.

I heard a noise down the hall, then a door slammed, i wimpered a bit. But it was really loud.

"i wonder what that's all about?" rachel hopped down off of the counter and opened the door. She pulled her head back in "I dont see anyone." She walked over to me and wrapped her arms around me. You want to go for a bit of a walk. I looked up to her
"Are we allowed to?" she nodded.
"ya next is lunch and we're allowed to leave for lunch, ill just text zach so he wont worry about you." she pulled out her phone. I wiped my face off. It was hard to hide my still bruised eye, will all the crying i had been doing. I discretly pulled out my purple eye shadow and cover over my good eye.

"He's in class still, so he wont text back right away." i nodded, shoving the eye shadow back in my pocket. "you wanna leave right now, beat every one else out?" i nodded
"sure what ever works best." i really just wanted to get out. We walked out of the school grounds and into the town.

Zach, sitting in Panera Bread, wrote on angrily for one of his college papers. He wasn't in college yet, but he was taking classes under his dad's command. His phone vibrated, and he slowly, still writing, looked at the text. Without replying, he set the phone back down, shaking his head slowly.

On some accounts, some abuse victims are so traumatized by such actions, they flinch at the sheer lift of a hand. One girl my family's recently taken in, like so many other abuse victims, is different, for she displays these actions. The simple lift of a hand, and she flinches. It actually makes me feel bad for her. I've felt bad for others in the past, but nothing like this girl. How it used to be, with Rachel especially, I was told to protect them. But with Jada... I want to protect her, even without being told to do so.

He put his pencil down and rubbed his face slowly, groaning at the writing block he was getting.

~~

Rachel grinned happily as she and Jada walked, Rachel talking non-stop. They walked into Panera Bread, and Rachel looked over at Jada. "Everything here's delicious. What would you like?" She smiled sweetly, not noticing Zach, who was back to work on his paper, not realizing that Rachel and Jada had walked in.

I didn't notice zach was there. I looked up at rachel,
"I'm not hungry." It was the honest truth, i wasn't hungry. If i ate i would throw up.
"Are you sure, you look like you shouled eat something." She said pointing at my stomche.
"No really im not hungry." She sighed,
"Fine, but dont tell zach on me." I went and sat down(opposite end of resturant from zach) and she joined me a few seconds later, she had bought a club sandwich.
"Why do you act like zach owns me."
"I- i dont, he just cares about you so much."

We left it at that and she finished eating. When we were down we headed back out, to walk around before having to go back to school. When we walked out i saw him. I didn't realize that zach was there. I really didn't want to be around him right now, so i didn't mention anything to rachel.

She said there was an awesome fountian in the center of town. Then dragged me down an ally.
"should we really cut through here, it may be dangerous."
"It's nothing i've down it a hundred times." She let go of my hand for a second, i looked behund us. I had the strangest feeling we were being watched. I felt someones hand on my shoulder. I jumped a little and screamed, not turning around. I thought for a moment. Im probably just freaking out over nothing right?

Wrong. I turned around to be pushed up to a wall, next to rachel. Two big guys covered our mouths. She was in tears. And i was getting dizzy, was i going to pass out?

Dammit! Why the hell wasn't Rache answering her phone? He stormed down the sidewalk, through town, and sat down at the fountain, pulling out his head phones as he people watched. Zach looked around the square slowly, at every person, every building, every al- His eyes froze on the alley across from him. Jada? Rachel? And two huge guys? Sure they were big, but not as big as Zach. He stood to his feet slowly, walking over towards the alley as he nonchalantly dialed 9-1-1 on his phone.

"Hey! Get the hell outta here!" One of the men yelled, Zach letting the people on the other side hear the conversation.

"It's not great to harrass girls you know," Zach growled lowly, "Especially in the town square." He hung up the phone, and let his fist fly, coming in sick contact with the guy's jaw. The man let go of Rachel, knocking her against the wall, her head slamming against it as she fell unconsious. The first man fell into the second one, who three Jada into Zach. He helped her sit down slowly as she shook, Zach charging the two guys against another wall, knocking them both out as well. With an exhasperated sigh, he looked back at Jada and Rachel.

"Cops are on their way. These guys are gonna be out a while. I'll see you after school. Bye." And with that, he walked away slowly, back towards the school as the sirens of the police car flew by.

I screamed as zach came at the two guys. Rachel fell down and was knocked unconcious. He knocked the other guy off of me. He helped me sit down. Everything was getting blurry. my ears were pounding.
"Cops are on their way. These guys are gonna be out a while. Ill see you after school, Bye." he turned and started to walk away. It took me a second to find my voice
"W-wait dont leave me here!" I looked around at then at rachel. She groaned in her unconsious sleep.

I pulled closer to her. I looked back up, zach was still walking i yelled down the ally sobbing
"Please, dont leave me here!" Never in my entire life had i wanted a guy to stay around me. Exept for rich, but that was before he started to abuse me and i had givin up on love.I streached out my hand asif i was trying to pull him. back, i closed my eyes, crying.

Zach heard her scream again, this time pleadingly "-don't leave me!" She cried, causing him to immediately shoot back to the alley, she was holding Rachel, and sobbing. Zach could help it as his throat tightened at the sight of her tears. He quickly walked over to her side, engulfing her and Rachel both in his arms. He sat down against the wall, closing his eyes slowly. She actually wasn't trembling. She was still crying, sure, but she wasn't acting scared of him.

"Are you okay? Did you get hurt?" He asked softly, hearing sirens in the distance.

Zach wrapped his arms around both me and rachel. I loosened up a bit, i looked up at him. His eyes were closed.
"Are you okay? Did you get hurt?" I nodded
"A little." His grip tightened at that. "But im ok now." The sirins got louder. I shuddered. I heard running from the other end of the ally.

Zach nodded to the two passed out men, as the police entered the alley. They both nodded and Zach carefully stood up, handing Rachel over to one of the men, her adoptive father. "What happened?" He growled, obviously at the men who were thrown in the back of the car, even if his question was directed to Zach.

"The two guys jumped Rache and Jada. One's armed, but he didn't pull out the switch blade in his pocket, and the second one's a little schitzo." The chief of police nodded, tightening his grip on his daughter.

"Thanks Zach, once again." The chief smiled, Zach shaking his head.

"It's what I do Chief." He smiled as the chief nodded and walked away. "So... can you walk?" He smiled down at Jada, noting her bruised and swollen ankle. "I'll carry you if you want. You can't be more that a hundred pounds."

"I'll carry you if you want. You can't be more that a hundred pounds." I was a little, afriad of the officer. I looked at the other officer he had dragged the two guys down the ally.I didnt want to stand, i wanted to stay right there with zach. He stood up, offering me his hand.

I took it, watching the officer, who was watching me. I took a step fprward and almost fell. I hadn't realized i hurt my ankle. I looked up at zach, he was watching me to. I gave an apoligetic look.