Naomi [Wattys 2017]

Chapter 27

Mum I'm so sorry for disappointing you.

The steps were closer and closer and...

"Hey! Some kids are running down that street! Let's go!" The deep voice shouted.

Suddenly, we heard double running footsteps leaving the area.

My chest calmed down.

"That was close." Adam sighed. "You okay?"

I nodded my head slowly. Still feeling trembled.

"But what if they come back?" I asked looking at him.

"I bet they won't."

I sighed and looked around.

Fear was still trembling in me. I really want to go home. The place was quite dark and scary and worst of all, two strange guys were after me.

"I want to go home." I shake.

"We can't leave this place, not tonight." My chest broke down when he said that. "Those guys never give up. This might be the only safe place for us."

"I can't stay here," I break down, "nothing is safe about anything here!"

"I will keep you safe."

I shook my head.

"Adam this place isn-"

"-Naomi just trust me."

My eyes were getting weaker and weaker and I knew nothing good came out of tonight. Neither will tomorrow be good when I face my parents.

After a little while, we were sitting in silence with owl and cricket sounds making the noise for us. Adam was using his phone while I just play with my hair and stare into space. I was still anxious about staying out here in the cold night. Sad thing is that I forgot my phone in Hayley's car and I bet my mum would have probably called up to a hundred times now. Thank God Adam was here or else I would have just died alone. I turned to look at him still using his phone.

"Thank you." I whispered.

He turned to look at me and smiled.

"For what?" He raised his eyebrows.

"Getting me out of trouble."

"Nah it's fine. It's my job to protect you." He said. "Perhaps what you did was quite dangerous. You could have killed that guy if you hit him on the head."

"I dunno what I was thinking." I put my hands on my face.

"It's not your fault. You were trying to help me out and thank you for that."

I nodded as I slowly dropped my hands from face.

"You're welcome..." I trailed off and turned my face around to stare into space.

"Are you still scared?"

I turned back to Adam and nod my head slowly. I was really scared. I was scared about facing my parents tomorrow. I was scared I might bump into the brunette stranger some day. I was scared that he might be really hurt because of my aggressive act. I was scared that nothing was going to be fine again.

"What do you do to stop you from being scared often?" Adam cut me from my thoughts.

I really don't know what I ever do when I was scared. Maybe Sleep. Read a book. Eat. Sing.

"Sing?" I asked while looking at him trying to be sure if I wasn't sounding weird.

"You can sing?" He raised his eyebrows.