Gavin stood at the police officer's desk with patience most fifteen-year-old boys couldn't hold. Gavin found justice to be something of great value. That's why he was waiting for a police officer to help him with a report for a wallet Gavin had found. The officer had been called away and Gavin was asked to wait for him. He had been gone for quite some time but Gavin didn't mind. The bustle of the police station and the talk amongst the officers was almost soothing to him. Gavin knew far too well what he wanted to do after high school. Despite what his classmates said about him, he wanted to fight for justice instead of against it.
A shout came from the hallway next to Gavin. He looked up just in time to see a small figure run by the door frame. She stopped to look behind her, giving Gavin a glimpse of her face.
It was that girl.
The one from his school. Though she was a couple of grades below Gavin's and they didn't share any classes, she had a way of grabbing his attention. She didn't have anything visibly that made her stand out. In fact, if it weren't for the fact she was the talk of the school, she would blend into the background easily. She wore overly large clothes and had big bushy hair that almost always covered her face. Though her clothes didn't seem to be a fashionable choice, that didn't stop the kids from picking on her whenever she walks past them. The girl didn't normally say much, only speaking when asked to by a teacher, but Gavin could tell she had a lot to say. He could see it through her trained poker face.
Just that day, Gavin had caught sight of the girl staying in the library after school hours. She had her earbuds in as she stared at the textbooks surrounding her. Though it was obvious that the girl was deeply concentrating, she seemed so at peace. As if working brought her a calm. Gavin had watched her for a while. Leeching some of that peace unintentionally from her.
Though, in the police station that day, with the look in her eyes, it seemed as if Gavin was imagining that peace from before.
The girl's normal blank expression was shaved clean by the fear that pulled at her face. Her clothes were slightly burnt and torn in a variety of places. Her right shoulder was exposed through the fabric of her shirt and the knees to her jeans were torn deliberately as blood dripped from its tethers. But it wasn't only her clothes that were ruined. Her long, bushy, brown hair was ratty and torn horribly in places as if it had been pulled at and ripped from her person.
She looked nervously behind her. Her eyes went wide with terror then turned back around quickly as if to keep running. A hand shot out from the other side of the doorway and held firmly onto her wrist, stopping her from going anywhere. Doing so tore the rest of the fabric from the shoulder of the shirt, dropping the sleeve to her wrist, revealing her bare skin. Burns and scars ran up and down it. Blood dripped from fresh scars and fell into the old ones, making them more prominent under the florescent lights.
Gavin felt a wave of shock and sympathy as he stared wide-eyed at the scene. Gavin looked around him for help. The atmosphere had completely changed from the calm it once held before. The police officers around them had silenced their conversations and had started calling for back up, cautiously approaching the situation with hands held over the tasers on their belts.
The girl struggled against the hand. She scratched at it and pulled but it wasn't letting free. A man appeared from the doorway, pulling the girl closer to him. He was balding and dressed in old and ratty clothes. Clothes that seemed very familiar to the ones the girl wore. He whispered something to her which made her stop struggling. Her eyes went wide with sorrow. For a moment she seemed to relax, but it was only a moment. A new emotion flashed in her eyes. An emotion Gavin had been all too familiar with.
Her body started to shake as she bore her teeth. The girl held on to the man's wrist. After a second the man grunted and let go of her. Taking advantage of her new freedom, the girl screamed and kicked the man in the stomach, causing him to fly down the hall and away from her. She fell on to her back, the air clearly being knocked out of her. She lay there for a moment then quickly sat up and looked down the hall.
Her once anger-filled face was replaced with regret. She went to lean on her hand but it fell from under her. She looked at it with confusion. Then something seemed to have snapped in her eyes. Immediately, the girl feel apart. She held her face close to her knees and screamed into them. Followed by a round of sobs. Police officers began to crowd her, trying to calm her and comfort her. She pushed them away and cried louder. The noise she made was startling. It was a sound Gavin would never soon forget.