I Need You

"No!" I shouted, and tried to run towards her. They were taking her away from me.

"You can't take her from me!" I felt tears slowly trickling down my face. "She's my sister!" i cried.

The people holding my arms slapped hand cuffs around my wrist. What did I do to deserve this?

"Any last words?" The man on the other side of the room asked my mother, father, and sister.

"Connor I lov-" There was a giant crack and my mother slumped to the floor.

"No!" I screamed. "Mom!"

"If only your father could keep his mouth shut..." The man chuckled and trailed off.

"Don't punish my son for this!" My dad weeped. "It's my fault, leave my family be. Take me instead."

"Oh don't worry we will." The man smirked. "How about daddy dearest says his final sentence."

"Connor, I'm sorry I never wanted this to happen." He sobbed. "Your mother and I will always be with you. I love you!"

"I love you too dad!" Tears blurred my vision and my speech was slurred. I couldn't grasp what was happening before my eyes, and I couldn't run and save them. I looked down as the shot fired off an my dead lay dead on the floor.

"Lillian." I whispered in tears.

"Connor, I've lived out most of my life. Don't worry about me. I'll watch over you, I promise." The man put the gun against her head and I screamed:

"NO!" I sat up and I was saturated in sweat. I was panting, tears fell down my face. I looked over and Zeke was staring worriedly at me.

"Are you okay?" He asked gingerly.

"Yeah.. I-I'm fine it was... just a dream." My voice broke and I sobbed. I felt Zeke wrap his arms around me. I was shocked at first, but melted into his touch a second later.

"Shh. It's okay." He murmured in my ear. "What happened?"

"He killed them!" I wailed and sobbed into Zeke shoulder, soaking his shirt.

"Who?" He squeezed me tighter. "You can tell me, it will help."

"My parents and my sister!" I sobbed harder. "He said he was paying my father back for opening his mouth!"

"I'm so sorry." Zeke said. And from that point on he just held me. He held me in my arms like he had loved me his whole life. And for once, I felt safe, at peace. With in minutes I fell asleep again, safe in his strong arms.



When I woke up a few hours later, I couldn't stop the blush that spread across my cheeks. I felt the pressure of Zeke's arm around my waste and my head was on his chest. I leaned up a little to find Zeke still asleep. I felt horribly embarrassed about what happened last night. I mean , seriously who just wakes up crying? He probably thinks I'm a freak. I frowned at the thought.

He let out a big yawn and stretched slightly. "Good morning." He said groggily. I giggled slightly. His morning voice was so cute.

"Morning!" I smiled innocently hoping he wouldn't prob about my dream last night.

"Do you want some food? I'm sure Hale's cooking up a storm... Or he's past out drunk, which means I will have to cook up a storm." His smile was so nice. In all the papers he was frowning and unhappy. I would never have guessed he's so nice.

"Of course!" I shouted at the same time my stomach growled loudly.

"Come on!" He said grabbing my hand and pulling me through the door. "You can help me!"

"Oh... I'm not much of a cook... my mom..." I trailed off as a lump formed in my throat.

"Its fine!" He cut me off, obviously not wanting me to be unhappy. "I'll teach you!" I smiled and nodded. He got out all the ingredients for pancakes and helped me combine them in a bowl.

"No just turn it on..." He handed me the electric mixer. I pushed the switch over, and apparently that was the 'high' setting because the pancake mix exploded in a fit of rage and goopy liquid.

"Turn it off! Turn it off!" Zeke was screaming and laughing.

"i don't know how!" I said while dying of laughter. Zeke grabbed the mixer from me and turned it off. I fell to the floor and started rolling on the ground laughing. After a few seconds Zeke pulled me to my feet and when I was able to open my eyes again, I noticed our faces were really close.

"Um you seemed to have missed a spot." I pointed at his lips, the only part of him not covered in pancake mix. It was all in his hair and everything, I would have felt bad if it wasn't so funny. He smiled while I laughed. Then I felt his hand on my cheek. I leaned my head against it as my smile fell.

"I know we just met and all, and you'll probably hate me for doing this..." He took a deep breath. "But I just can't resist."

Without giving me time to respond he slowly leaned in and pressed his lips softly against mine. I was stunned, but only for a second, then I began to kiss back. Even though we were covered in pancake mix and probably really sticky, the kiss was so amazing it's inexplicable.

"What the-?" I heard someone asked behind us. I jumped away from Zeke and looked down at my hands.

"Uh... Hi?" I said awkwardly and blushed.

"Zeke, um, who is this? And are you sober?" One of the twins asked, they're so hard to tell apart.

"Yes, I've been sober, I didn't drink anything last night." That was the truth because i watched him open the beer, and then set it down and forget about it once I came in.

"I'm Connor." I said and smiled. "Sorry, I kept Zeke from you last night, he's just so nice to talk to." I looked over my shoulder and smiled at him. "I meant to leave, but I fell asleep instead. I'm sorry! I can... go now." I didn't want to but I could. I wanted to spend more time with Zeke, I don't just kiss anybody.

"Oh, no you can stay!" The boy said excitedly.. Ah so it was Raine. "I was just wondering how this happened." He gestured around the room.

"Ah... Well..." I started awkwardly. "Zeke tried to teach me how to make pancakes, and I turned that mixer thing on too high. And it sort of exploded..."

"Ohmygod!" Raine squealed. "That is hilarious. How about we leave the cooking to Hale?"

"You said my name?" Hale appeared from nowhere. When he caught sight of us he started laughing. "Dear God, this is the funniest thing ever! Why don't you two get cleaned up, I can handle the cooking." He chuckled some more. Then Zeke grabbed my hand and towed me to the bathroom where he sat me down on the toilet and grabbed a wash cloth.

"I can do it, really it's fine. You don't have to do this if you don't want." I looked down at my hands, feeling self-conscious.He just shook his head and began wiping the pancake mix off my bare arms.

"You'll have to change clothes, or borrow some of mine if you don't have any." He said quietly, I smiled at the thought of wearing Zeke's clothes. Then he got to my face, he pushed my hair out of my eyes and looked deeply into them.

No words were exchanged, and I felt like I was in a trance. His eyes were so beautiful. He leaned into kiss me again, and I leaned away.

"I-I'm sorry, I can't." I whispered. "I don't really know anything about you, I only met you last night. I'm really sorry. I like you, I really do." I looked down and blushed, emabrassed by what I had just said.

"I understand." He smiled genuinely at me. "I don't want to rush this anymore than you do... But your eyes are just so wonderful."

"Th-thanks." I blushed even more.

"How about, we go on a date." He suggested.

"W-what?" I stuttered, how would someone like him want to ask someone like me out?

"Go out with me, dinner, a movie, all the cliches. You know, a date. Tomorrow night." He looked me in the eyes and pleaded. "Please!"

"Oh...kay." I said, dazed. He wrapped his arms around me.

"Thank you so much. For doing me this great honor." I wrapped my arms around him as well.