Annie played with the scrambled eggs, flipping them around on her plate.
"What's wrong?" John asked, taking a sip of his coffee. Annie shrugged.
"I don't know, I'm just not that hungry I guess." John signed. She was starving an hour ago.
"Annie you gotta eat something." He looked into her eyes.
"John I'm just not hungry. I'll eat something later." John sighed again. 'Can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.' He thought to himself. Thinking back she was hungry until Joey called. Maybe she lost her appetite over it.
"Well then why don't we make are way over to Mrs. Davidson's. You'll like her Annie. She's real nice." He said trying to comfort her. Carlotta came by to pick up the plates.
"You didn't eat a lot little one, was my cooking bad?"
"Oh no maim. I'm just not feeling to great." Annie smiled. Carlotta smiled back caringly and gave John his change.
"Get her better John I know she'll love this breakfast next time." She winked at them and left.
"You ready kid?" John stretched, wrapping his strong arms around Natalie.
"Yeah" She said shortly. The car ride over was quiet.
"There's Rodi's. They have pool there. I mean, since you did live with John, you were raised on pool right?" Natalie looked back at Annie. She laughed.
"Live and breathe it." Annie looked out the window. She started drawing little stick figures from the frost on her window.
"Why does that not surprise me? Natalie smiled at John.
"He started teaching me when I was about 3. I don't know if it was because he wanted me to learn, or if he wanted to pick up babes." Natalie busted out laughing.
"Annie!" John looked at her through the review mirror.
"What? You had the ladies all round you when we played pool." Natalie couldn't stop laughing at John. She placed her hand on his cheek and touched him lovelingly.
"There's just something about a man with a child." She smiled at his embarrassment.
"I can't help that I'm a stud." He said with no emphasis. Turning into Llanfair he put the car into park and helped Annie get her stuff.
"What do you want to do with this?" He pulled out her guitar.
"I want you not to touch it, your accident prone with guitars."
"I am not." He said like a child.
"Yes you are. I don't want anything happening to my baby. It's pretty much my life now." She smiled. The reason why it was more now than in the past years was because her Landon and she would play duets together. Landon, she thought. She missed him. His warm smile, his hugs that made her feel safe. She couldn't believe what he went through to help her get out of her dad's house.
FLASHBACK
"So tell me why we are going this way again when we could have gone out the front door?" She asked.
"Because, I feel like 007 when I do it this way. Give me some theme music!" He started singing the Mission impossible theme. Besides, it's funner this way." Landon smiled.
"Funner? Nice choice of words babe. And wrong theme." She shook her head.
"Hey I dropped out. You can't expect perfect gramical words coming out of my mouth." She laughed at him. He made her laugh like no other.
"Are you sure I'm not too heavy?"
"Baby you way like 40 pounds you're not heavy." Landon had her on his back, rope propelling down the side of her dad's house.
"I do not way 40 pounds. Sure I don't weight a lot, but not 40 pounds!" She said in a harsh whisper.
"Ok… 50 pounds WITH a wet t-shirt on." He said with a grin. She smacked him on the arm.
"Ouch baby, I was kid-"She covered her hand over his mouth. She saw her dad's car pull up in the driveway and him getting out.
"Don't…move." She said quietly. Landon griped onto the rope tighter, hoping that they wouldn't fall. They stayed as close to the brick wall as they could.
"Let me show you how it's really done." She heard her dad try to whisper in the woman's ear. The woman giggled at him.
"Oh Joey, your so bad." She hit him on the arm lightly. Annie turned her face into Landon's back, holding onto him tighter. He grabbed her hand that was around his neck and rubbed it gently. He wanted to kill Joey. For everything that he had did to her. The only reason why he hadn't done it before now was because Annie said that this John guy would take care of it. She trusted him, with her life. He only hoped that he would be there for her. They watched them go inside and slowly made there way down. Realizing the rope was too short to reach the ground he tried to look back at her.
"Baby, you're goanna have to jump. I guess I didn't measure the rope before I hooked it up."
"But he'll hear us," Her voice was frightened. As her lip started to quiver, she held on to him, the only sturdy thing in her life at that moment.
"I've got an idea, just go ahead and jump."
"Landon I…"
"Baby, trust me." She looked at the back at his head, and with one swift move she jumped down onto the wooden porch. Following right behind her, Landon made his way down. He gave her the keys to his truck.
"Once you get in duck down ok?" She nodded fiercely and made a dash for the truck. Just as soon as she made it to his truck, he dad whirled open the door.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Landon whipped around to see Joey staring at him.
"Uh…I uh was trying to get Annie. Did I wake you?" He asked innocently, scratching his head.
"Yes you fucking did. Annie's not here, she's out with her brother. Now get out of here." Joey said impatiently. Landon gave him a cold stare and then made a dash for the truck. As he drove back into a wooded area and turned the lights off.
"Ok, we're safe." He told her. She got up from where she was ducked down into floor board. "We'll wait awhile until we know that coast is clear and you can go and key his car." She sat there silently listening to everything he said. He wrapped his arms around her, scooting down to be closer to her. He pressed his lips to her forehead.
"Yeah… just…well never mind." She didn't feel like voicing her opinion.
END OF FLASHBACK
"Hello Earth to Annie!" John waved his hand in front of her face. She looked up at him, shaking her thoughts away.
"What?"
"Are you sure you're okay?" He placed his hand on her fore head to feel for a fever.
"Well… I'd feel better if you give me my guitar to make sure you won't break it." She smirked. John sighed angrily at her, shaking his head.
"Come-on" He gave the guitar to her and helped carry the rest of the bags inside. Natalie stared at the two. It was fun to watch them argue.
"Oh my god! Look how beautiful you are!" A woman's voice was heard coming from inside the house. Everyone turned to see Mrs. Davidson coming out of the door. Annie looked over at Natalie.
"Is she going to hug me?" Her brow rose with a smile. Natalie smiled back.
"Most likely" No sooner did she say that, that her mother hugged her. It was warm, like any mother's hug should be. Safe, loving, caring. Annie hadn't felt a mother hug since her own mother hugged her. Sure she had her friend's mother's hugs and her brothers and John's. But they weren't the same.
"Well come inside out of the cold." She rushed them all in. After talking for awhile, Vicki showed her to her room.
"I think this is bigger than your apartment Johnny." She smiled looking around the room.
"Thanks." He frowned. He had to go into work. "I'm going to need your cell phone. And please, don't argue." He held out his hand waiting. Without protest she fished into her back pocket and handed it to her.
"That easy? It can't be." He tried to make her smile. It worked.
"I just want to get this over with." She stuffed her hands in her pockets. John turned to leave.
"I'm going to work. Be good for Mrs. Davidson. Don't burn down anything." He said with a wink.
"John?" She asked before he headed out the door. "I'm sorry for being, difficult." John cocked his head at her. Walking back to her he hugged her tightly and kissed the top of her head.
"I understand." Was all he said as he walked out.
XxXxXxXx
First of all, good Jesus where did all the fan fics come from? LOL and two: I tried to give somewhat of a background of Annie's life. That was a REALLY long flashback. I think I got some of the housing stuff backwards but I'm not the one life to live police so if I did oops.