CH.7

The TV was on in the living room of April's apartment.

Malin sat alone on the couch in the middle of the night, she had been crying for hours now. To lose your mother is bad enough but when you're fifteen you don't really know how to move on and when you lose someone you love you only remember all the good times wish makes you miss the person more.

Malin had been allowed to stay at April's for a couple of days. Malin's grandmother said she needed to be alone for a while to get over her own sorrow.

Don had been watching Malin on the couch for a little while now from a distance hoping he could come up with an idea to get her to forget about her hurting for at least a minute or two.

He got into the living room and sat down in the armchair next to the couch. To see Malin's red eyes and blank stare made his heart ache, no one deserved to feel this kind of pain, unfortunately it's a part of life.

"I'm really sorry about your mom" Don said after a long silence.

"I don't get you…you have a loving family the little I've heard of them and as far as I can tell they've never been intentionally cruel to you, you don't know how really bad things can get, you should be happy you've had such luck" Malin said sobbing.

"You don't know what you're talking about…"Don answered.

"I know exactly what I'm talking about, this person Leo who I'm guessing is your brother is coming back for you tomorrow so you can solve your problems, at least he cares enough to talk about your troubles, my mom died last night in the hospital and my grandmother can't stand to have me home because she is sad, instead of comforting each other she is selfish and only think about herself!"

"So just because you've had bad luck and have troubles that are more serious, mine doesn't matter?" Don said getting annoyed by this girl's ignorance.

"Don't you dare call this bad luck, you've had issues with your brother for how long, a couple of months? This is my life, nothing in this world has been easy for me so it's not even fair you compare us two! You can continue your happy life tomorrow after your talk with your brother and I'll go back to the hell I call my life!" Malin almost yelled out then got up from the couch and went out on the balcony to get some fresh air and to calm herself down, it wasn't like her to become this angry but could you really blame her?

Don took a deep breath and followed Malin out on the balcony

"Listen, I'm sorry, I shouldn't be arguing with you about this…I know you're right it's not easy to lose a parent especially when you're so young, I can't even imagine how it would be if I lost my father and I know my brothers love me even though they don't show it too often. And your life may have been a living hell, I don't know that… but one thing I do know is that it's just the beginning and I promise you that it will get better…" Don hesitated before letting the final sentence leave his mouth "And jumping from a rooftop won't solve anything…"

"You never came back" Malin said after a long silence.

"What do you mean?"

"Your coat…you never came back for it, why?" Malin asked, tears were still running down her cheeks.

"I don't know, maybe I was too afraid to face you again…to be honest, it all happened so fast and if I wouldn't have left my coat with you I would have thought it all was a dream" Don explained. "That coat could have been a good thing to have now though, it's freezing out here, maybe we should go back inside? We don't want to catch a cold"

It was still early spring and the snow was still lying thick on the ground.

"My mother was a great person, she was funny and smart, and always made me feel safe. My family were ok when I was younger, my mother, my brothers and I, sure we had a hard time to make things work with money and everything after our father left us but we made it work somehow but then one of my brothers were killed when he was walking home from school and my mom was heartbroken. His name was Derek…he was 12 at the time, I was 10 and Jonas was 13…And I always have this thought that what if Derek was still alive, would my mom had stayed away from the cigarettes and the alcohol and still be alive?"

Malin started shivering as the tears continued to roll down her face.

"Come on, you need to get some sleep it's almost 3 in the morning, I'll be by your side until you fall asleep" Don said and laid his arm around her shoulders and led her inside, closing the balcony door behind them and entered the guestroom together. Malin wrapped the covers around her and lay down.

"Where are you going to sleep?" Malin asked as Don sat down on the floor, resting his back on the frame of the bed.

"I'll take the couch, don't worry about me get some rest"

"Will you be here when I wake up?" Malin said slowly drifting off to sleep.

"I hope so"

"Good, I'm happy I got to see you again" After that Malin fell asleep but Donnie didn't leave the room immediately, he just sat there watching the girl sleep. Even when this girl had suffered so much the latest couple of hours she still looked peaceful when she was asleep.

Don turned off the lights and left the guestroom and went for the couch and sat down, and his thoughts came to the night when he had met Malin for the first time…He wanted and needed to get to know this girl…

Okay so hope you liked it, much more to come so hang on ^^

TC!