Let Me Love You

Harmony's P.O.V

I pushed myself to run faster, glancing behind myself every once and a while to see if he followed me. I wondered how he had felt when he finally realized that I left, but at the same time I had to leave.

When I was finally a good distance away from his house, I slowed to a jog and eventually dropped to my knees and hid in the trees. There, I cried. I had no one left; no one to go to or to take care me. I was an orphan.

I don't know how long I sat there, just sobbing and shivering, until a piece of ash blonde hair entered my line of vision.

“Why you're a pretty young thing aren't you?” A male voice said, his rough fingertips brushed against my forehead as he pushed a tendril of my dirty hair out of my face. “What's your name?”

I looked up and caught his eyes. “Please don't hurt me, “I didn't know what to expect from this boy but, by my first impression of him, it wasn't good.

The boy instantly frowned. “I won't hurt you, I promise.”

I still didn't trust him. My trust for people has been demolished when by Matthew Sanders when he drugged me. He drugged me then admitted is “love” for me....I'm sure that would have put any girl in a distrusting position. The boy saw my look and offered me is hand.

“My name is Asher Danforth, what’s yours?”

I looked at his hand before placing my dirty one in his.

“Harmony,”

Asher grinned and helped me to my feet. “Well we can't leave you out here Harmony, so is it okay if we take you home and clean you up?”

I stared at him, confused. What boy—who can't be any older that 16—would want to take in a dirty, probably horribly smelling girl? Nothing sounded right at the moment but my mind was so clouded with fear of Matt finding me and dragging me back to his house that I agreed to go home with him. I was desperate for a place to live.

“Come on now, we have to get you inside before you catch a cold.” Asher threw his jacket around my shoulders then led me towards his car.

I open my eyes to get rid of sleep. Instantly a smile slides its way onto my face. As usual, I’m tucked away in the safeness of Asher's arms. I've been staying with Asher ever since that night. He's also been taking care of me. I've recently started school under the name Hope Danforth.

My cover story is that I'm Asher's baby sister from Georgia. If you ask me, that’s probably the worst one that he could have ever came up with because he flirts with me all of the time.

“Good morning,” His scratchy voice greets my ears. I look up, meeting his blue/green eyes with a smile.

“Good morning to you too.” Asher smiles back and runs a hand through my still brown hair. I haven't changed my hair color that much. Last year, it was a ginger red which eventually changed into a strawberry blonde—by mixed up hair color—which looked horrible. The year before that, I put red streaks into it...which eventually turned pink. I seriously think pink has a vendetta against me.

Asher's voice breaks through my thoughts. I look up at him and nuzzle into the crook of his neck. “Can you repeat that hun?”

“I said, you don't know how happy I get when I wake up with you in my arms.” He says lowly, as if he's too shy to tell me.

“You're too sweet.” I murmur. I kiss his weak spot at the base of his neck, earning a low groan from him. Asher pulls me closer to him, almost cradling me in his arms. He knows for a fact that even now, 3 years later, I’m still wary about any kind of sexual activities. I really want to be intimate with him though, I really do but he won't let it happen. It's almost as he can read me like I'm covered in glass. Even when I don't admit things to him, he still finds out.

“I want to stay like this forever,” He whispers into my ear.

I try to hold on my laugh as I look at his face. “But, won’t you have to go to the bathroom? I mean, you can't hold your bladder forever.”

Asher lightly slaps me upside my head. “Way to ruin a romantic moment Hope.”

“Sorry, I can't help myself.” Looking over at the clock, I gasp. “Asher, we have to get ready for school.”

He gives me a toothless smile but doesn't move. I get up out of bed and to the kitchen. There, I get the coffeemaker going and get out the bacon to put it in the oven.

“I should have never let you get out of bed this morning,”

I turn around to find Asher leaning against the kitchen door way, his hair a mess and arms crossed.

“And why is that?” I ask in curiosity.

He smiles and pushes off of the wall. “Because, now I have to act like you're my sister and I don't love you the way I do. Do you know how hard that is?”

“Yea, kind of.” I confess while walking over to the dish dryer and picking up a knife. “You were an idiot for making up that story.”

Asher laughs and agrees. “I was thinking in the spur of the mome-hey, don’t do that!”

I stop mid-cut and stare at him. “What? I can’t cut the package open with a knife? I’m not clumsy you know!”

He walks over and takes the knife from me. “Go ahead and take your shower. I’ll finish cooking breakfast.”

I peck his cheek and thank him. I can’t stop the grin that makes my way onto my face. After I ran away, my life has been all most a fairytale. Asher takes care of me; we live fairly far away from Huntington Beach and I don’t have to worry about Matt popping up anywhere. Life is good.

I take a nice long shower and is almost done when I hear Asher curse loudly. Rolling my eyes, I wash the soap off of my body and turn the water off.

“Hope? Babe, I burned myself, do we have any ointment!” Ash calls through the bathroom door.

“Yes hold on!” I wrap my towel around my body then unlock the door. He immediately runs in an searches through the medicine cabinet that doubles as our mirror. Instead of waiting for him, I walk out into the hallway to head to the room.

Something feels unusual. My back starts tingling, and not in the way that the cold air hit my wet back, but like someone was looking at me, staring. I turn around and look at the window at the end of the hallway.

Nothing.

I shake my head and chuckle to myself. I’m just paranoid. Nobody’s looking at me. Turning back around, I retreat to the bedroom. Right as I enter the room, I feel as ease as if I had just stepped off of a hot plate. I peek from around the doorway at the window at the end of the hall, nothing but the branches on nearby trees are swaying. I shrug it off but one question stays in my head.

Why would the branches nearby be swaying if the ones farther away aren’t?