"Why do you care, Cato?" Clove asked swimming towards the edge of the pool where Cato stood.
"Care about?" he knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Me, ben and I to be more precise," she asked twirling in the water.
Her hair was pulled back and wet, drops of water trickled down her face.

"You're fifteen Clove, and the fact that no one cares really bothers me.
I don't know, I guess it's just that someone has to look out for you right? Might as well be me." Cato smiled.
Clove smiled back.

"Bet you can't hold your breath for longer than me!" Clove laughed.
"You're on!" Cato smirked.
The two played a couple of juvenile games until it was dark.

Clove had tried so hard to act mature that she had forgotten how great it was to just be a kid.
Clove dried her hair and slipped on her shorts.

"Cato," Clove whispered as she chucked the towel on the deck chair.
Cato nodded using the towel to dry off.

"Run," Clove whispered as she grabbed his hand and darted across to the other side of the pool and aimed to get out through the exit gate.
Cato ran behind her confused and potentially scared.

"Hey! You!" one of the guards yelled as him and three others scuttled behind the couple.
"Clove! What are we doing?" Cato asked between breaths.
Clove said nothing and just ran faster.

Cato's heart galloped like a stampede of gazelle running from a cheetah, though the situation he and the gazelle was stuck in was uncannily similar.
He turned around to check on the security guards every three seconds.

Clove laughed as she ran gracefully through the lobby and out the exit, Cato in hand.
The guards actually followed them out on the road.

To people on the road it looked like a scene from a movie.
Two good looking kids running from the cops at sunset.
One wearing a black bikini top and shorts and the other was shirtless and sparkling with drops of water dripping down his body as he ran.
It was a picture perfect movie.

"we're going to get you!" one of the guards yelled.
"Get us while were hot!" Clove yelled back before laughing hysterically not slowing down one bit.

Eventually Clove pulled Cato into an alley and the two hid behind a couple of trashcans.
Clove popped her head up and watched as the guards ran through the alley and to the other side of the road.

"Clove! What the fuck was that! I had the money! We could have paid for the swim!" Cato yelled.
"Come on, it's a rush!" Clove laughed.
"Are you fucking mad? We could get thrown in jail for this kind of shit?" Cato exclaimed.
"Chill out, they barely saw our faces." Clove stood up and began walking out of the alley.
Cato just paced behind her furiously.
"You're such a fucking retard!" Cato said through his gritted teeth.

Clove looked back at him in an almost painful way.
She looked like was about to cry. But she wasn't going to cry, not in front of someone, not in front of anyone.
Clove made a run for it again, but this time she headed in the direction of her abode.

"Clove!" Cato screamed as the girl ran as fast as her stick like legs could take her.
"Please! I'm sorry! Come back," Cato yelled.

Clove kept running until she reached a small flower store where she collapsed on the stairs leading to the inside of the shop.
Her head fell between her knees and cried for almost fifteen minutes straight.

There was a lump in her throat that stung every time she even attempted to swallow.
She didn't really know why she was crying.

She was called a slut a couple of times when she showed up to school in a crop top and micro minis during a heat wave.
A girl called her a whore once because the girl's boyfriend decided to hit on her.
Someone once called her a bitch because she stuck to her own crowd and didn't interact with other people.

And being called a retard wasn't actually that bad, but Clove was crying because what she did earlier was a stupid move,
so was the whole situation with Ben, and that Cato was right.
She didn't know why trouble fascinated her the way it did, but that obsession would take an eternity to overcome.

She eventually sucked it up and walked back home.
He didn't even come after her, and that hurt her.

The sun had nearly set now, the sky was kind of a purplish pink, and there were only three stars and a crescent moon illuminating the sky.
She looked like a tramp with her black bikini top, her shoes in her hands, and her mascara staining her cheeks.
She finally walked through her front door with puffy cheeks and red eyes.

She walked past the kitchen door where Riley stood rummaging through the cabinets.
"Hey, I was wondering where-" Riley asked before he saw the condition Clove was in.

"Clover!" he said in an empathetic and genuinely concerned way. He caught up with her before she got up the stairs.
"What's wrong Clove?" he asked compassionately as he put his hand on her shoulder.

She looked into his ocean blue eyes and broke down for the second time today, though unlike earlier, this time someone caught her.
She crashed her head onto his shoulder and sobbed quietly.
He stroked her hair lovingly and told her everything was going to be fine.
And in that moment, they looked like a regular pair of stepsiblings.
The two sat entwined on the staircase for what seemed like lifetime.

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