Sanctuary

“Kaela, please go talk to him!” I plead, trying my best to convince her to go talk to green eyed boy. “You know you want to!”

Kaela stares at me for a few seconds before finally shaking her head no. “You know I’ll freeze up and freak out.”

“GAH. You’re going to be the death of me.” I tell her, rolling my eyes. “Someday, I’m going to get you to talk to a boy without 12 years worth of argument. Trust me.”

She giggles and shrugs. “I can’t help it if I’m shy!”

“S’all good. You wouldn’t be you if you weren’t shy. Do you want anything to drink? I have to pee. And, I’m thirsty.”

“Sure! Get me a Dr. Pepper? I’ll stay here and save our spots.” she says.

“Dr. Pepper. You are a girl after my own heart.” I tell her while making a hand heart. She rolls her eyes at me, so I quickly walk to the bathroom. It takes me forever to find it, but after I take care of that I walk back to the bar area. I order two Dr. Peppers and notice a cute boy across the room from me. He’s blonde, and I saw him glance over at me so I waved at him. Maybe we can talk later. As it is, I have to get back to Kaela.

I grab our drinks and glance back around the room, trying to figure out where I left her. I clearly wasn’t paying enough attention to where I was going because I instantly slam into someone, spilling soda all over them. I feel my eyes get really wide as I stare at him.

“Ohmygod. I’m SO sorry. I was looking for my friend.. Ah, shit. Your shirt and pants are soaked! Ohmygoodness. I have napkins…” I say, and I dab one at his shirt. I realize I’m trying to dry off a spot that’s a little too south to be comfortable with. If it’s possible, I turn even more red. “Uhm.. Do you want me to like.. Buy you a new shirt? Or something?” I ask, knowing that there has to be a merch table around here somewhere.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m pretty sure you didn’t plan that out. I bought a Maroon 5 shirt earlier anyway. I felt lame changing into it, but now I have a good reason.” He says, winking at me. God, I’m glad I’m as red as can be right now, because that would not be helping matters.

I chuckle nervously, and glance around, looking for Kaela. “Well, I’m glad you, uh, have a reason. But.. Uhm..” I trail off, and he looks at me expectantly. I shrug because I really didn’t know where to go with that.
“Wait! I know why you look familiar! Weren’t you at the airport yesterday? You ran into Cameron?” he asks, and I realize he was green eyed boy’s friend.

“Green eyed boy? Nah, that was Kaela. But I was there!” I explain.

“Ahh. Yeah, well. He was really kicking himself for not getting her number.” he says.

“ I bet she wishes she got his, but she’s kind of painfully shy sometimes.” I’m so glad he picked a topic that doesn’t make me sound like an idiot.

He grabs a napkin off the counter, and writes on it. “Here, give her this.” he says, handing it to me.

I glance at it and see a phone number. “She’s not gonna call it, you know.”

“I bet you can convince her. Anyway, I have to get back to Cameron. Before I go.. I’m glad it wasn’t your number he wanted. I don’t think he’d get it without me putting up a fight.” he says, winking again, I immediately go back to being bright red.

“Uhm. Well. Bye.” I say plainly, and walk away giving myself a mental forehead slap. I finally make it back to Kaela, and she looks at me, confused.

“Weren’t you getting us something to drink?”

“What? Oh. .yeah.. I got lost and wanted to make it back to you before it got dark.” I lie, not wanting to talk about whoever I just met. I quickly shove Cameron’s number in my purse and almost immediately forget about it.

After the concert, Kaela and I are basically exhausted. We wait around for awhile, hoping to see any of the band members. We manage to each get a picture with Adam Levine, and do a celebratory dance after he walks away.

“Well. This is about as good as it’s going to get. Ready to go?” Kaela asks, and I just nod my head. We make sure we have everything and head toward the door.

“Uh.. Kaela, do you remember where we parked?” I ask, because I have no idea where we go once we’re outside. She quickly looks around, and I’m hoping she knows where to go. It’s almost 1 A.M and I want to get home and sleep.

“It’s this way. It’s only a few blocks, Bri. We can make it.” she says, and I can tell she’s also exhausted.

We trudge down the street, while I’m secretly wishing I was a horse.. It sounds weird, but they can sleep standing up. I’d sleep right here, in this spot. Plus, who messes with a horse? Idiots, that’s who.

The area we’re walking toward isn’t getting anymore familiar, but I figure it’s because I don’t know the area. “Today was a good first day here, Kaela. I’m glad I decided to move before the concert. It would’ve sucked to miss this.”

“I’m so glad you were here too! It wouldn’t have been the same without you.” she says, and we chat for awhile over random things. Mostly talking about everything that went down in the last 24 hours.

“Uh, Kaela.. Are you sure this is the way?” I ask, because it’s getting really scary.

“What? Oh, yeah! Don’t you remember.. Uh.. Well. That sign was there earlier..” she trails off.

“That’s a stop sign. They’re everywhere.” I say, slightly worried. I hear a deep voice chuckle from somewhere in the darkness, and immediately step closer to Kaela. “Uh.. Kaela.. We should keep walking.” I say, and try pulling on her arm. She’s frozen to the spot, looking at something a little bit in front of us.

I try to make out what she’s seeing, and I try not to freak out when I realize two men are standing in the shadows. They slowly walk closer, and I’m trying hard not to panic.

“Do you two ladies need directions?” the guy who was laughing asks. His voice is rough, almost gravelly. He’s taller of the two, with hair that’s cut military style. He’s big, but it’s because he has muscle. We both just nod, and he laughs again. “That’s why we hang out here, right Joe? Just in case pretty girls need directions.”

The second man is shorter, and skinnier. Even in the darkness, I can tell his hair is blonde-ish, but very greasy. “That’s right, Al. They might want to repay us for such a favor though.” His voice doesn’t match his body at all. It’s high pitched, almost girly.. They both laugh, getting closer to us...

I’m standing so close to Kaela, I can feel her shaking. Or maybe it’s me, I don’t really know. I grab her hand, and somehow manage to squeak out “Actually, I think we’re gonna go find out other friends. They’re back.. That way..”

“Yeah! Thanks anyway, though!” Kaela says, her voice an octave higher than usual. We both turn to walk away, but one of the guys grabs my arm.

“Where do you think you’re going?” The big guy asks, sneering at me. “I know your parents wouldn’t approve of you being all alone out here.” he tells me, and I honestly don’t know what to do. I notice the other man is holding Kaela like he’s hugging her, but she’s definitely pushing him away. I look back at the man who’s holding my arm, and I somehow manage to find my voice. “You need to let me go. Now. Our friends are going to be worried about us.” I say, and they both laugh.

“I bet you told them you were headed home. They won’t be worried til tomorrow!” Joe says, squeezing Kaela closer.

“Actually, they’re coming to spend the night.” Kaela lies, and they both stop for a second. Al’s grip loosens on my arm, and I pull away from him. I grab Kaela and we both push at the other guy.. He falls down, and we start running.

Kaela, having ran track in high school, was always faster than me. She’s a few feet ahead of me, and I’m trying hard to keep up. Being as clumsy as I am, I trip over something on the sidewalk. I don’t hear Al behind me, but I’m sure he’s getting close.

She turns around when she realizes I’m not behind her. I yell at her to keep running, but she starts back toward me. I stand up, feeling a little bit of pain in my ankle. I must’ve landed on it weird or something, because it’s making it difficult to even walk.

“Kaela! Go the other way! Are you crazy?!” I yell at her again, and she stops when she makes it to me.

“I’m not leaving you!” she says, breathing heavily. The bigger man was getting close to us, and fast. I could sort of make out a figure in the distance, but I assumed it was Joe. I look back at Al, and see he’s slowing down, chuckling. “Can you walk?” Kaela asks, concerned.

“It hurts, but I can at least walk. I don’t think I can run, though.” I tell her, so she nods. I’m about to ask what she means by that, but Al is like six feet away. I’m swearing either in my head, or out loud. At this point, I can’t even tell. Kaela throws something at him, and he just laughs. We’re slowly walking backward, as he gets closer. She throws something else, and I realize they’re the shoes she was wearing earlier today, before the concert.

The second shoe smacks him in the face, and he stops laughing and swears. He grabs her, and she kicks and hits at him, but there’s not a lot she can do. Finally, she spits at him, and he basically throws her to the side.

My eyes get really wide when I hear her hit the ground. There’s a loud crack, as her head makes contact with the sidewalk. I wait to see her open her eyes, but she’s just laying. I start crying, and I try to walk toward her but Al grabs my shoulder.

He pushes my back against the wall, and I try to avoid looking at him. “All right, Blondie. We were just trying to show you a good time, but you wrecked it. You had to take off. And your friend.. Hitting me. You’ll pay for that. But we’ll have fun, won’t we?”

I can smell the alcohol on his breath, so I just nod and look away. He starts whispering in my ear about everything that’s going to happen to me, and I start crying harder. I can’t move. He’s pushing me against the wall with his entire body. I look back at him, and he grins. He moves his face closer to me, and I almost gag, realizing that’s going to kiss me.

I close my eyes and squeeze my mouth shut as tightly as I can, and wait for it. All of a sudden, I feel him jerk away from me. I peek my eyes open to see Cameron’s friend pulling him away from me and turning him toward Cameron. Cameron punches the guy in the stomach, then knees him .. Where it hurts.

Al immediately doubles over in pain, and Cameron rushes over to Kaela. The other one, his friend, looks at me concerned. “Are you okay?” he asks, and I just look at him. I glance back at Kaela, and see that her head is bleeding a little bit. Blood has always grossed me out. Combining that with everything that just went down, I feel what I ate for dinner coming back up. I try to stop it, but I can’t. I lean forward, and before I know.. I throw up all over this boy’s shoes...