Help Me

Cat and I were best friends for a really long time. Then she got a scholarship to Hollywood Arts after middle school. I was begging her not to go. I begged her not to leave me alone. She agreed and she knew that she had to protect me. But I had to let her go. I was sad and I was crying when I told her I didn't mind if she was going to Hollywood Arts and that I would be ok without her. She hugged me as soon as I squeezed out the words, "Go ahead and go to Hollywood Arts." She asked me about five times in a few seconds if I was sure that I would be ok after pulling away with her hands on my shoulders. I nodded every time, giving her a smile. She hugged me again and was giggling like a little kid after that.

I didn't see her very often when freshman year came up. And my home life only got worse because I was home every day. My mother hadn't entirely known what was happening at home. She was normally out, supporting my sister in what she wanted to do so my father stayed at home with me. My father was the cause of my problems at home. He hated me. He absolutely despised me. I didn't know why, though. He never told me why either. He would wait until my sister and my mother where out of the house and he'd stomp up to my room, pick the lock on my bedroom door, and beat me until I felt like passing out.

I never called the police and I never told anyone in my family. The only person I told was Cat. And that's only because she found out about it without my knowing. She had seen something on me or whatever and one night while I was sleeping over at her house, she looked over my body. I was completely asleep and she knew I was so she pulled my shirt up to look over my stomach and back. She had found the purple, green, and yellow marks all over my torso. She then pulled down my sweat pants to see the same marks all over my legs. The next morning she told me that she found the bruises. I immediately started to panic. She wasn't supposed to know and if my father found out that someone knew, he would have killed me. But Cat told me she'd never say anything and she hugged me as tight as she could around my neck. I cried into her shoulder for hours telling her when it started, how he kept getting to me, how he only hit me when my mom and sister were gone, and how I could never tell anyone. She told me everything would be ok and told me I was allowed to go over to her house whenever I needed. I was bruise free for my 7th and 8th grade years in middle school. But as soon as my freshmen year of high school started I didn't see Cat as often.

She was busy and calling her if I could go over to her house just wasn't the same after 8th grade graduation. She called me every once in a while, asking me how I was. I always told her I was fine even if I was in pain from a resent beating.

One day, instead of calling me, she decided to come over to my house. My father had just started to beat me when she walked in.

"You worthless, brat!" my father yelled at me, slapping my left cheek with his baseball mitt of a hand.

"Dad! Please, stop!" I sobbed out, trying to block my body with my arms.

He pushed right passed them, punching me in the stomach. All of the air in my lungs escaped out of my body quicker than any speeding bullet. I grunted. And the next thing I knew my father was being pushed off of me and onto the floor next to me. I saw Cat, the red haired, slightly tanned, old friend of mine that I loved to death. She grabbed my hand from off of the floor and made me stand. She pulled me down the stairs which I would have tripped and fell down if it weren't for her in front of me to stop that from happening. She dragged me out of my shade covered house and into a beautifully bright white car. I was pushed into the passenger seat and Cat ran over to the driver side. The car sped off leaving my father standing at the front door, watching us peel out as fast as the tires would turn.

"Danni, I told you to call me if you needed to come over!" Cat shouted in a panicked, shocked, upset tone.

I looked over at her, holding my most likely bruised stomach, and said, "I didn't want to bother you."

She glanced over at me then looked back to the road, "Didn't want to bother me? I'm not doing anything that's as important as you are."

I turned my head to the window to my right and sighed, "But your school…"

"But my school nothing," Cat said with a hint of anger.

I never heard Cat angry. She wasn't angry when she found out that I was being hit. But I just assumed then that she just needed to see him in action to get as angry as she seemed.

"I told you to call me," Cat said then sighed, "Why didn't you tell me this was happening? Why did you lie to me over the phone?"

My eyes closed and I went from holding my stomach to holding myself with my right hand on my left side and my left hand on my right side, both hands full of the fabric of my shirt. I shook my head. The car was stopped at a red light. Cat put her right hand on my left shoulder, getting me to jump extremely high in my seat. She pulled away quickly when I turned my head to her with eyes wide and scared.

"I'm sorry," Cat said. She put her hands on the wheel of the car still staring at me. "Please, tell me why you lied."

I relaxed, "I didn't want you to worry about me. I just wanted you to be happy."

"I'm happy when you're ok," Cat stated, peeping at the light to check if the light was still red. It was. She was looking back at me when she asked, "Do you know how much I worried about you?" I shook my head lowering my gaze to my lap. "I worried so much. I stayed up for nights knowing I wasn't going to be seeing you at school and praying that you were going to be ok."

That was rare. Cat praying meant that she was seriously worried. She never prayed. Her family had made her go to church and made her pray at dinners, but she wasn't a god person. People would think she was because of how cheerful her attitude was, but she really wasn't.

I looked up at her. She continued, "I cried after my first week of school at Hollywood Arts because you weren't there. But my dad wouldn't let me call you. He wanted me to be perfect when I sang and preformed. That's why I could only call you for like five minutes every time I even got the chance to call."

She kept going on and on about school and how she missed me. I started to cry. I put my head in my lap and sobbed holding my knees in my hands and she stopped. She was quiet then drove on seeing she had missed a few lights, not even noticing that people were honking at us and cursing out their windows. I wasn't looking out the window so she was able to drive to her house without me knowing. She got out and she opened my door, helping me out. I limped with her arms around me, getting help from her to get to her front door. I was let inside and Cat's family rushed to my side. I was set on the couch and Cat sat next to me while everyone else stood around us.

Cat's mother and father were the nicest people. They seemed to love me when I was over at their house. And Cat told me that when I wasn't there they were asking about me. But that was when we were in middle school.

I was able to sleep in Cat's room that night. We were lying down on the bed, under the blankets, talking to each other. Cat was doing most of the talking. I was just holding the blankets as close to me as I could with my front facing her. I wasn't looking into her eyes. I was looking at her neck. There wasn't anything wrong with it. I just couldn't look her in the eye.

Cat scooted closer to me and popped her hand out from under the warm blankets to force me to look at her. She raised my chin and I looked into her milk chocolate eyes. They weren't the happy-go-lucky eyes I remember. They were firm and distraught. She was worried about me. I hated it when she would worry about me. She hugged me putting her head in my neck with her face burrowing into it. I slid my arms around her shoulders so she could get hers around my waist.

She was shorter than me and weaker than me physically, but she took care of me when I needed it. And I needed it. The weird thing was, though, that I felt weird when she would hug me like she was. It felt more intimate then it should have. Like it was something a couple would do. I ignored it, however, and just held her tightly every time she would hug me that way.

"I missed you," Cat said into my neck, my skin muffling her soft voice.

"I missed you, too, Cat," I replied, looking at her bedroom door.

I was hoping that one of her family members wouldn't walk in and see us like that. They knew we were best friends and everything, but, like I had said, it just felt weird.

"And happy birthday," Cat whispered.

I pulled away, getting her to pull away too. "It's not my birthday," I stated.

Cat looked into my eyes a bit concerned, "Yes, it is." Her eyebrows knitted together and she said, "You didn't know it was your birthday? It's October 8th."

I raised my eyebrows as if asking her if she was serious. "I didn't even know."

Cat looked into my eyes and said, "You didn't know it was your 18th birthday?"

"18?" I asked. Cat widened her eyes, stuck her neck out a bit and looked me in the eyes with her eyebrows raised.

"You're 18 today and you didn't even know?" She asked. I shrugged. "So you really didn't get my voicemail from last year?"

"Voicemail?"

"Danni!" Cat sat up quickly as if I had offended her.

"What? I had no idea you even called," I said, sitting up also.

"Where were you last year?" Cat asked getting on her knees in front of me.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I had my phone the entire year." I paused then thought, "Except for that one week that my dad took it away…"

Cat was quiet for a few minutes. She shook her head, looking to her lap. "Your dad is mean."

I nodded, agreeing with her. Cat sighed and lied down again. She pulled me down with her into a hug. She started to sing the happy birthday song and I begged her not to. She just giggled and continued, ignoring my plea. When she finished she pulled away and looked me in the eyes. I smiled widely at her, so widely that my eyes closed. I never saw her lean close to me and kissed my lips softly.

My smile faded after realizing what was happening. My eyes had opened and I pulled away from her slowly. She blushed and looked away from me. She scooted back then got out of bed.

"I'm so sorry," Cat said backing up toward the bedroom door. She turned around opened it quickly and ran out, closing it behind her.

I got up from the bed, throwing the blankets off of me to follow after her. She was at the bottom of the stairs. I ran down the stairs after her, grabbed her right hand with my left when she was at the front door, and had her stop running. Taking her small shoulders into my hands I got her to turn to me. She was crying.

"I didn't mean to, Danni," She said, looking into my eyes with tears rolling down her cheeks. "It just happened." I just stared at her with a confused look plastered on my face.

Then I realized. My hug with Cat was weird because she wanted to be that close with me. She liked me.

My arms went around her shoulders pulling her close to me. I hugged her as tightly as I could. How could she not see that I liked her too? Did I hide it that well? I followed her around every day of Junior High and did anything I could for her. I took care of her when she was sick, I helped her with her chores around the house and with her homework when I was over, and I even helped her out with her disgusting, pervert boyfriends when they would beg her for things she didn't want to give them. I was as loyal as a dog when it came to her. I would do anything for her and she had no idea that I liked her? I shouldn't have been surprised because she was just naturally oblivious, but I really thought I stuck out with all that I did. I didn't even mind doing those things. I did them because I was able to spend more time with her and make her happy.

I pulled away from her with my hands still on her shoulders. "Cat," I started, "Do you like me more than you would like a friend?" She nodded weakly, looking to the floor.

I used my right hand to raise her chin. She tried to shake her head out of my hands, but I got my left hand in on it and took both of her cheeks in my hands. I leaned down and kissed her. She was frozen at the beginning of the kiss, but she threw her arms around my waist and grabbed onto the back of my shirt tightly and kissed me in return. The heat and the passion laced into the kiss was the strongest I felt my entire life. A had a few boyfriends in my life, but none of their kisses even compared to Cat's kiss.

She pulled away from me and I let go of her cheeks to put my arms around her shoulders. We looked into each other's eyes and she started to cry like she had before the kiss. Her face went into my neck and she sobbed harshly. I let her sob and try to speak without even thinking of telling her to stop. Her sentences were choppy, but I got a few things out of them. She said she missed me and that she loved me. She told me she had no idea she knew she did until she was in Hollywood Arts. After that it just sounded like gibberish. I couldn't understand her even though I was trying so hard. She eventually stopped crying and she sighed as she was coming down from her crying fit. I took her up to her room and she got into her bed with me behind her. She hugged me and told me she never wanted to leave me again. I told her I didn't want her to leave either.

The next day, my mom kicked me out of the house. She didn't care where I went, she just wanted me out. Cat's parents took me in and helped me get all of the stuff I had, which wasn't very much, into their house. It was just clothes and some books and such. They gave me one of their extra rooms and told me that it was ok for me to stay as long as I wanted. I thanked them more times than I could count, but they told me not to worry.

They helped me through school and gave me all that I wanted until I moved out with Cat. Cat moved out of her parent's house when she got an acting and singing career. She took me with her. I got a job and put myself through collage with the help of loans from banks and some help from Cat. I went through school and became a Doctor while Cat went through auditions and gigs to become a well-known singer and actress

Cat supported me through everything just as I supported her through everything. She was a famous actor and singer, moving from place to place to please her fans, and I was a doctor, waiting for her to return home. One day, I decided to make it official and marry her. She didn't know that I was going to be there, but I showed up at one of her concerts with a back stage pass.

She stood up from her chair with her friends and a few fans around her. I smiled to her, still wearing my doctor's uniform. Cat ran up to me and hugged me tightly around the neck. I hugged her around the waist and whispered that I loved her. She whispered it back. When she let me go she told me to take my doctor's coat off and sit with her. I took my little velvet box out from my coat without anyone noticing and set my coat aside as I was sat down in her chair. Cat sat down on my lap and introduced me to her fans. Her friends already knew me from years before. I put my chin on her left shoulder and used my right hand to put the velvet box in her lap. Cat looked down at it in my open hand that had its palm up to her. She took it into her hands and turned to look at me. I smiled up at her. She hugged me around the neck quickly then pulled away just as fast to look down at the box with wide eyes. She glanced up at me to just see me smiling at her. She opened it to see an engagement ring that I had worked on for months to find. It was perfect. It was a large diamond on a sliver band with smaller diamonds going around the band. Cat looked up at me and said that she didn't know what to say.

I chuckled down at her and said, "I think you do."

She kissed me with the ring in her left hand and her right hand on my left cheek. When she was about to pull away she said, "Yes."

My heart the entire time was racing and pounding against my chest like a hammer against a nail. When she answered though, my heart nearly stopped. I played it cool, however, and told her to put on the ring. She nodded and did so quickly. It was even more beautiful on her finger than it was in the box.

We were older than most of her friends when we were finally married. We were both about thirty-two years of age. Her friends and family was there while my family was nowhere to be seen. However, most of the doctors and nurses were there for me like family.

We were married sixty years or so until I finally kicked the bucket and died in my sleep. She died not two days later the same way. In the afterlife, which neither of us really believed in, we saw ourselves as teenagers again. I waited at the gates of heaven for her the day she passed. It didn't take long for her to find me. She had run up to me like she never could when she got older on Earth and jumped into my once again young arms. Just like that, we were kids again, able to love for the rest of our afterlives. The only thing she had from when she was older was the wedding ring from our wedding.

A/N: This is just a little something because I got writers block on my other story and I really, really wanted to write something else for a little bit. Um, tell me if you like it, if you don't like it or how you think it would be better if I did something different. If you have any questions and you want to me answer, go ahead and ask them. I would be happy to do so.