THE REVIEWEES HAVE SPOKEN! lol. So apparently, people liked it...alot. I have so many views from yesterday it's not even funny. So I've decided I'm going to continue with this story. Mwahaha. Just a warning though. I do NOT have this all prewritten. The first chapter was just a sort of spur of the moment thing that popped into my head during biology class...which is probably why I failed that paper...hm. Anyways, I'll try to get out a new chapter every day, but no promises since I'm going with the flow here. Thanks to all who reviewed. They keep me going and inspire me more!
Happy Reading! XOXO-Erika

As I walked down the street to my stepfather's apartment, I knew I was beyond being in trouble. I was more than four hours late from coming home from school on time. Kevin, as I'm supposed to call him, had already been drinking when I left for school this morning and I already knew it was going to be beyond worse now.

I walked up the stairs as fast as my tired legs could manage and looked at the apartments ahead of me. The living room lights were already off, which wasn't a good sign. Taking a deep breath, I trudged forward across the concrete landing and opened the door.

It was completely silent, dark, and scary. I tentively closed the door behind me and locked it. It was like out of the movies, because next thing I knew, a light was being turned on, and Kevin was sitting on the sofa, staring pointedly at me.

"Where have you been?" he asked in a quiet voice.

"I had school stuff I had to do, then I went to go do my Biology project with Britney," I said in a tiny voice.

"Well," he said, raising his voice. I winced, knowing what was about to happen. "How would you like me NOT to feed your sorry little ass? I put a roof over your damn head, buy you clothes, I even take care of your godforsaken pill-head of a mother, and this is how you repay me?" At this point, he had already crossed into my comfort zone and had me by my throat with his hand.

"Please, I'll never do it again. I promise," I squeaked, tears forming, threatening to spill over. "I'll do whatever you ask, just please let me go."

"Anything you ask?" he said, the smell of alcohol pouring off of him.

I felt like crying, knowing that I was going to regret my words. I actually started sobbing.

"Aw, poor girl, quit your crying," he said, taking hold of my chin roughly.

"Please, stop," I blubbered, vision blurry from the tears.

"Wrong answer," he growled, and he started pulling me towards his bedroom.

"No, please, no, no no no," I cried, struggling against him.

"It's too bad Nova. I won't hurt you…much," he said evilly.

I wretched my hands away from him and clung to the closest doorway. "No, just leave me alone. I won't do it again, I promise!"

"WAKE UP NOVA!" he screamed at me. "Wake up!" He was in my face now. He grabbed a hold of my waist and pulled me into the bedroom forcefully. I watched the door slam, but it suddenly disappeared.

"Nova, come on sweetie, wake up!" I heard a voice tell me. I shot up, looking around frantically. I was back on the bus. It was only a dream. Thank freakin' Jeebus.

"It's okay Nova," Phil said. He was behind me and he was in his flannel pajama pants and a black tank top, even though I knew he wasn't sleeping.

I felt the tears rolling down my face and I knew that it came back again. My stupid past was biting me in the ass and it wouldn't go away.

I sunk back against the cushions, but Phil wasn't having any of it. He pulled me into his lap and let me silently cry against his shoulder, knowing I needed to let it out.

I hated my family with such a passion it wasn't even funny. I hated both Kevin and my mother for everything they did to me. I told my mother one time about what Kevin was doing, but she overlooked it, claiming I was delusional.

I sat there, crying pitifully in Phil's lap while he rubbed my back, trying to comfort me somehow.

"Is she okay?" I heard Kofi ask from the doorway. He looked half asleep, half worried.

I sniffled. "Yeah, I'm okay Kofi. Sorry for waking you up."

He smiled sadly at me, came over and kissed my forehead, and went back to his bunker.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled, collapsing back in Phil's arms. It was the only place I really even felt safe.

"Don't. It's not your fault. If anything, I want to be the one to go and kick that asshole's face in," he replied quietly.

I looked up at him, wondering how the hell I had gotten so lucky.

"And," he continued. "We both know that I'll always be there to protect you Nova. Always."

I smirked at his choice of words. He knew that I was in love with the Harry Potter books, and he knew that was my favorite part; when Snape admitted to Dumbledore that he had always been in love with Lily. So bite me, I'm a romantic at heart.

"I don't deserve you guys," I said, closing my eyes and snuggling deeper into his arms. I fell asleep to the sound of the rain on the window and Phil's breathing.

PHIL'S POV

She had always been having these dreams. I knew about her past, and I never thought it was anyone's business when I was asked about it. She trusted me enough to tell me, and that was more than enough for me.

Nova had always been such a sweet girl, even if she did avoid most people in the company. She'd been wrestling since she was seventeen, and she was a damn good wrestler too. She even gave me a run for my money on the occasion that we sparred. She was pretty feisty when she wanted to be though, hardheaded too.

"I don't deserve you guys," she whispered, me almost not hearing it. I waited until her breathing slowed and was steady before I replied.

"You deserve the world Nova," I whispered almost silently, holding the girl I knew was going to break me sooner or later.

NOVA'S POV

It had been only three days since the ankle incident happened, and I was going stir crazy.

Both Phil and Kofi took it upon themselves to make my life as boring as possible. Yeah, they let me go to the gym to work out, but god forbid I so much as move without them telling me to be careful.

I knew they were just trying to help, but after the second day of being babied, I said screw it and didn't return to the gym. I just stayed on the bus, regrettably eating tons of ice cream, watching weird horror movies, and reading horrible comics that Phil seemed to be in love with.

With us having no show to do tonight, the boys decided to have a movie night. Big surprise.

"Do you want me to go buy some sweets and stuff?" I asked Phil as he was going through the clothes on the floor of the back bedroom where he slept, looking for some cash.

"Nope. You're supposed to stay off the foot remember?" he asked, checking a pair of jeans for his wallet.

"Oh come on! I'm dying to get out of here. Phil you know I can't stand being cooped up like a damned chicken!"

"So you want to spread your wings a little then?" he asked, looking towards me with a cheeky smile.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Did you just call me a chicken?"

He raised his hands in defeat. "You said it, not me."

"Please can I go Phil? I'll even sit in one of those old grandma carts and stay off my foot."

"And have you running me and possibly innocent bystanders over? I think not."

"Phillip Jack Brooks."

He winced. I knew it'd get his attention.

"Fine," he relented. I squealed with delight and hopped up and down on my good foot.

"Thank you thank you thank you!" I said, hugging him.

"You're welcome," he said, laughing. "You have exactly five minutes to get dressed before I leave your midget-ass here."

I was so happy I was getting some yard time, I didn't even care that he called me a midget. I hopped out of his room and into the bunker room. I lifted my mattress and dug my suitcase from the hidey-hole. After discovering that half my good clothing needed washing, I just stuck with my pajamas.

I threw my hair up in a messy ponytail and put my Jack Skellington hoodie on, along with my duckie slippers. I hobbled off the bus to where Phil was talking to Kofi in front of the bus.

The two stopped talking and looked at me.

"Are you seriously going to wear that?" Kofi asked.

I shrugged. "It's not like we're going to the club or something."

"If you ruin my reputation because you're wearing pajama pants with ninja-cows on them and duck slippers, I'm going to kill you," Phil said, humor in his voice.

I stuck my tongue out at him and hop/leaped on Kofi's back. We were walking to the grocery store around the corner from the hotel parking lot since it was pretty pointless to get a rental.

We got inside the store and the door greeter gave us weird looks, which only made me laugh hysterically. Phil found one of the funny little scooters and Kofi plopped me down in it.

I frowned, looking at the little handle. It was black and had a basket in the front. I'm not exactly supposed to be in these for another, eh, fifty years, so I wasn't happy.

"Do I have to?" I asked Phil.

"You agreed. You can't take it back," he said, getting one of the little hand baskets.

"Ugh," I complained, twisting the handle forward, causing the scooter to leap forward.

I rode around a little, and after deciding that I had the jest of things, it was actually pretty fun. I followed Kofi down several isles, letting him throw things into the basket. Then I got bored and decided to do some exploring.

I putt-putted around until I found the candy isle. My first thought: Oh hell yes.

I rolled down the isle, pulling random crap off of the shelves and chucking it in the basket. I wasn't paying attention, mainly because something chocolatey had caught my eye, and I ended up running into someone.

"Son of a bitch! That was my foot you just ran over!"

I looked up to see none other than the Viper, Randy Orton standing there, glaring at me.

"Well you shouldn't have been in my way then," I retorted, twisting the handle of the cart backwards and pulling a u-turn.

"You come back here you little twerp. I demand an apology!" he almost hissed behind me. Heh. Viper…hissed. Heh….ugh. Never mind.

"Well I hope you can pull one out of your ass because that's all your getting from me," I fired back, over my shoulder.

"Nova, I told you to stay with Ko-" Phil said, but he stopped talking once he noticed who was behind me.

"What's going on here Randal?" Phil asked, slipping into Punk mode. I could hear it in his voice. Don't get me wrong, he was a prick anyways, but when it came to people he didn't like, Phil turned into a complete asshole.

"I was just fixing to listen to Nova apologize for running me over," Randy said, cutting his eyes at me.

I snorted. "You're gonna be waiting a hella time then."

"There's your answer Randal," Phil said coldly. "Let's go Nova."

I gladly followed him around the isles and up to the front for check out. I looked around, sort of bored while the cashier was scanning our mountain of food. I saw Randy staring at me, a cool look in his eyes.

I rolled my eyes and turned to Phil. "What a creep," I mumbled to him.

Phil half-smiled. Oh god, be still my heart. "I can't leave you alone for two seconds and you find trouble, can I?"

I poked him in his side and he just laughed at me.

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