Do you remember

I was walking up the stairs with a red rose in my hand. I was going to take Patricia out to the park today. She's been shutting everyone out a little bit, but hopefully she will say yes. I opened her door a bit; I saw her sitting on the edge of her bed wearing only a tank top. I saw all her bruises.

"Patricia, those aren't from falling down, are they?" I said.

"Eddie, don't you knock?" She said putting on her robe.

"Patricia, something's going on." I said.

"Eddie, please go." She pleaded.

"No, Patricia, I'm not going until you tell me what's going on." I said.

"I don't want you to get hurt too, you're my boyfriend, my everything." She said getting under the covers of her blanket.

"Patricia, whatever it is, I promise it won't hurt me." I said grabbing her hands.

"Eddie…" she trailed off.

I remembered that her dad was here last time. He took her away for some kind of family meeting and came back with bruises on her legs. Her father was almost drunk when I saw him. I know it, he's been abusing here for who knows what reason.

"Patricia, your dad-"

She hugged my tightly, crying into my shoulder like a kid who just lost their favorite teddy bear. She kept mumbling and sobbing.

"Patricia, why didn't you tell me?" I asked.

"I didn't want to lose you, Eddie!" She yelled at me.

"Shh, Patricia it's okay." I said hugging her again.

"Eddie, he hits me, cuts me, and he blames me for things I didn't even do." She sobbed.

"Patricia, remember how we joked about running away together?" I asked slipping under her covers.

"Yeah." Patricia said. She let me snake my arms around her waist.

"We could, actually do that." I said.

"Eddie-"

"No really, we actually made up a place and time. I'm not kidding anymore Patricia." I said.


Later that night, after Fabian finally fell asleep I raided my closet to find my credit card my dad trusted me with. I took out my already packed backpack. I snuck out of the room to the bottom of the stairs. I waited for Patricia.

The night grew darker; I got a text from Patricia.

"You sure you want to do this?"

"Patricia, you don't need to be afraid. Grab your CD's, your favorite posters and anything special." I texted back.

She came downstairs with a duffel bag. She instantly hugged me once she reached the last step. I could feel her tears falling down my neck.

"Come on, Patricia." I said.

She nodded her head and we left the Anubis house. We ran away to the teacher parking lot where I led her to my dad's blue Ford truck.

"We can't steal this car." She said.

"It's my dad's." I said holding the keys on my index finger.

She threw her stuff in the back seat and climbed into the passenger seat. I started up the car and backed out of the parking lot.


We made it to an apartment building. Patricia was so tired she could barely keep her eyes open. I paid the first 50 pounds for the month and helped her to the room. Once we got there, she took off her jacket, shoes and socks. She took out her pins and let her hair down. She fell onto couch, and then groaned.

"Remember you still have bruises and cuts." I said.

"Why'd we do this again?" she asked.
"I'm here to save you from falling hard, don't you remember?" I asked.