Not good enough

Part 9

Ben nods at him and starts. “I met Sarah when she was working as a bartender in Club M. We used to hang out there a lot. I went to the club one night with the guys and I remember seing her the first time like it was yesterday. She was standing behind the bar – tapping a beer... I fell for her the moment I saw her…” Thinking about this makes him slightly smile, while Chris stomach cramps by the thought of that.

“Well, I walked over and ordered a few drinks, and we got to know each other… I had to ask her for a date a couple of times until she would finally say yes. First I thought she was shy, and that´s it. To cut a long story short – we fell in love. But one thing was weird, she never talked about her parents, until I asked her and she told me she would live with her uncle because her parents died in a car accident. You might know that already.” Ben looks at Chris and takes a sip of his beer. Chris nods. “Yeah, I´ve heard about that already.”

“Well, everytime I wanted to pick her up from her house, she refused and wouldn´t let me show up there. I didn´t understand that, but well, I loved her, and it really didn´t matter. She was acting a bit strange from time to time, she refused to see me for days, claiming she had little trouble at home. I believed her, I mean, we all know those situations… until I found out, what was really going on.” He swallows. If he tells Chris now, he sure would understand. He wouldn´t try to push Sarah. And Chris would understand why he and Sarah have such a close relationship. But would Sarah want him to tell Chris about her past life?

“Ben, go on… what happened?” Chris interrupts his thoughts. He wants to understand. “One night we agreed on meeting at a friends house. But she didn´t show up and she didn´t answer her phone. So I decided to search for her. I asked for her address at Club M and drove to her house.”

FLASHBACK IN BENS HEAD….

Ben stops his car at the driveway of the house. He checks the address. That must be it. He gets out of his car and walks towards the door. He inhales, hesitates for a moment and then rings the door bell. After a few minutes and some knocking on the door, some shabby guy opens it. “Yeah?” he groals at Ben.

“Uhm… hi, I am Ben… can I talk to Sarah, is she here?”

The guy narrows his eyes and looks at Ben from head to toe.

“What the fuck do you want from my niece?”

“We were supposed to meet, and she didn´t show up, so I was a bit worried to be honest and I…”

“She is not going anywhere, you hear me, you punk?” Sarahs uncle takes a step closer to Ben.

“Ben?” That’s Sarah. He looks over the guys shoulder and catches sight of her, who is standing at the stairs, her eyes red from crying, her arms wrapped around herself, one terribly swollen – and her lip as well swollen and bleeding.

“Baby, what happened?” Ben rushes over to her.

“Hey, what the hell you think you´re doing here?” Sarahs uncle calls after him.

“Ben you better leave…” Sarah whispers under tears.

“Sarah… my god, what…” As he touches her arm, she winces with a painful look on her face. He wants to hug her, as he suddenly is grabbed on his arm by Sarahs uncle.

“Get your damn ass out of here! You hear me?” He starts pulling him towards the door.

“No, leave him alone!” Sarah yells and starts punching her uncles back. He turns around and slaps her into her face, Sarah stumbles back and falls and cries out in pain.