I sat up.

“I’m going to use your shower, then turn in.”

He nodded but didn’t move.

“I’ll take the couch.”

“Thanks.”

Two

After just a few hours, I couldn’t take it anymore.  The fight with Brick had been cut short, leaving me with emotions I didn’t want.  Now, Ethan’s father snored loudly from his room, emanating too many emotions even in his sleep.  I needed a break.

I tossed back the covers and scooted out of bed.  My runners were side by side in Ethan’s closet.  He’d put them there while I’d showered.  I laced them up and eased open his bedroom door. With soft steps, I crept past Ethan on the couch and gently opened the front door.

The encroaching sun had lightened the sky outside from black to not quite black.  I shut the door behind me and breathed in the air.  It wasn’t fresh.  In fact, it stank like rotten garbage and exhaust.  But it was free of heavy emotion, and I breathed easy.  The pavement called to me, and I jogged from the yard.

An hour later, I returned out of breath and bruised.  I thought I might have even had a black eye.  The idea just made my grin bigger.  Jogging in Ethan’s neighborhood was great.

The front door opened as I stretched and cooled down.

“Good run?” Ethan asked.

“The best.  I may have convinced a few wannabe thugs to go to school today.”

He laughed and offered me his coffee, which I took gratefully.

“So, what will the unemployed do today?”

“What are you going to do?” I asked, instead of answering.  I hadn’t given my lack of employment any thought.  All night, my mind had kept replaying the scene from Ethan’s place...the hit to my face, the cage bending inward, the teeth snapping at me.

“I have to go clean up,” he said, and I knew he meant the bar.

“No.”  The word came out panicked, and I took a breath to calm myself.  “You can’t go back there.  Not yet.”

“What choice do I have?  One of us needs a job.”

He said it to tease me, but I didn’t laugh.  He didn’t know; he didn’t understand.

“I need to show you something.”

I went into the house and grabbed the letter I’d shoved into my bag.  When I turned, he was in the bedroom doorway, watching me.  I handed the piece of paper to him, not saying anything.  His eyes skimmed the page.  He frowned and read it again.

“Shit.”

Fear poured from him, his shock robbing him of control.

“Yeah.”  I sat on the bed.

“What are we going to do?”

I loved him for that.  It wasn’t my problem; it was ours.  And I knew the fear he wasn’t able to suppress wasn’t for himself.  It was for me.  But, I couldn’t pull him down with me.  I wouldn’t.

“I’m going to the bank, taking out everything I have, and doing what the note says.  I need you to stay here.”

He lowered himself to the mattress beside me.  I’d expected an argument, but he sat there quietly for a moment, closing himself off emotionally as he stared at his hands.

“Want to know why I stay with him?” he asked quietly.

His question was unexpected.  Though something about his tone had me worrying about what he would say, I nodded.

“You have your parents.  They love you completely.  You stay away from them to protect them, just like you do for me.  But I saw...”  He exhaled slowly.  “Remember the day you came home with me?”  He gave a pained laugh.  “Your mom had put pigtails in your hair so it wouldn’t fall in your face when we fought on the playground.  I stood behind you, staring at your hair and cringing when you told my dad never to hit me again.”

I remembered confronting Mr. Petnu.  Ethan and I had both still been in grade school when I finally figured out why Ethan was angry all the time.  I could still feel the rage that had consumed me as I’d stood before Mr. Petnu.

Ethan looked up at me before he continued.

“And when he fell to the floor, I wanted to cry I was so happy.  But not you.  Hurting him to protect me had hurt you.  I remember how you’d whispered ‘I broke him.’  You didn’t, though, Z.  You fixed him.  I’ve stayed because I never wanted you to regret what you did for me.”

I couldn’t speak around the tightness in my throat.

“All you’ve ever wanted was a friend.  That’s who I am.  And that’s why I’ll follow you.  Because there’s nowhere else I’d rather be, and no one else I’d rather be with.”

It hurt so much.  For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, I threw my arms around him.  He held me close while I fought not to cry.  I was the reason he’d stayed with his dad.  But, by staying his friend, I’d trapped him in more than just his home.  He would stay with me to face the creatures the letter mentioned.  I recalled the teeth of the thing that had brought me to the ground and knew Ethan would have no chance if they found me again.  Yet, I couldn’t bring myself to let him go.

“You are my best friend,” I said with a tight voice.  Finally, I pulled back.  “I want one promise from you.”

“Anything.”

“If I tell you to run, you go...or I’ll make you go.  Run and find someone perfect and sweet who hates violence.  Have lots of babies and name one after me.  Okay?”

He closed his eyes and turned away before he nodded.

“Life should have been kinder and made you my brother,” I said.

A sharp, rapid knock on the front door echoed through the small house and broke the moment.  I quickly got off the bed.

“Might be one of the thugs,” I explained when Ethan gave me a questioning look.

He smiled, and with a shake of his head, he stood.  I followed him into the living room.  Ethan had already folded his blanket and picked up while he’d waited for me.  I wondered how often he did that for his dad.

Through the diamond of smoke-stained glass that decorated the window of the front door, I saw the top of a dark mop of hair.  A step behind that head, I caught a glimpse of blonde.  They were definitely not the thugs.

Ethan reached for the knob without looking through the window.  His trust humbled me at times.

As soon as the door opened, anxiety, fear, and desperation flooded the room.  It all came from the girl with the dark mop of hair.  Her emotions were so loud, she drowned out what the girl behind her might be feeling.

“Hi,” the dark mop of hair said, meeting Ethan’s gaze.  “Is Isabelle—?”  Her gaze shifted to me.  Some of her desperation faded as joy lit her face.

We stared at each other a moment while I waited for her to say what she wanted.  But she kept quiet, staring at me as if I were her long lost relative or something.

Then, suspicion crept in.  First the letter, then the weird dog attack, now strangers showing up at Ethan’s and asking for me?  No one knew I was here.  I didn’t recognize her.  How did she know my name?

“Who are you?” I asked.

Ethan shifted and started to close the door at my distrustful tone.  The girl’s expression quickly changed to one of frustration as she placed a hand against the door to stop it.

“Look, shutting the door in my face won’t answer the questions you must have.  How about letting us in so we can talk?”

Before I could tell the two girls to get lost, the blonde spoke up.

“My name’s Gabby.  This is Bethi.  We’ve been driving for a week just to find you—”

Find me?  Panic jetted my adrenaline.

Knocking Ethan to the side, I grabbed the door and slammed it in their faces.  I heard one of them cry out as I grabbed Ethan’s hand.

Run.  Hide.  The words echoed in my mind while my pulse jumped, and I felt a sliver of fear.  I needed to get Ethan out of there.  I pulled him with me to the kitchen, not ten feet away, and toward the back door.