Broken

Leaving was the hardest thing I had ever done. Dallas was my home, the place I’d lived my entire life, but I’d gotten in too deep. I had lost who I was and regardless of where he was, I needed to be far away from the grand state of Texas. That would be how I ended up in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. I told no one but my family where I was going, I couldn’t risk him finding me when he got out.

My lake house was big, old, and in desperate need of a pick-me-up that would have to wait until I at least somewhat resembled a normal human being. The shiner and the casted arm I was sporting seemed to bring in too many unwanted questions in the overly friendly town. However, I was in desperate need of food, so for the first time since I’d gotten there a week ago, I left my new home. With my black eye covered with at least a pound of makeup, I began the bike ride up to the grocery store for some more simple foods. It was standing in the back of the store, struggling to put a small container of orange juice in my little hand basket, that I met him.
“Do you need any help,” He said from behind me, causing me to jump and drop my orange juice.

“Dammit. No, I’m fine. I just need to get a new thing of oj now.” I took a deep, calming breath in an attempt to calm my racing heart. He was tall, much taller than my five foot frame. He also appeared to be more than just solid muscle, in fact, I was very willing to bet that he had almost no fat on his body. He shook his head at my refusal and grabbed a pint of oj for me before taking my basket off of my casted elbow so that the orange juice would fit.

“You’re welcome.” He turned around and started to walk away from me.

“Thank you,” I called back softly. I saw him look over his shoulder and smile softly before continuing to walk away. I shook my head and finished my shopping as well as I could before checking out. I was arranging everything in my little basket when he walked out the doors.

“Need some more help,” He asked kindly.

“What is up with you damn Canadians and helping people,” I mumbled as I looked up from the task at hand. “Oh, um, sorry. Don’t mean to sound rude.”

“Are you really going to try and bike home with your groceries and a broken arm?” I nodded.

“I did it just fine the other day, I’m sure I can handle it now.”

“Look, just let me give you a ride home. It’ll help me feel better about scaring you so badly earlier.” I blushed at the memory of my easy scare. The psychiatrist had said that I would probably have involuntary scares like that for a while. I sighed deeply and then nodded. He grinned and grabbed the items from my bike’s basket before slipping the bike into the back of his Range Rover.

“Thank you,” I said as I slid into the front seat. He half-smiled and shrugged.

“It’s no problem. Now, where are we going?” I gave him the address and prayed that he knew where I was located because I was certain that I wasn’t going to be able to remember how to get back. He gave me a look and then smiled again. “We’re neighbors!”

“Huh,” I asked, snapping out of my thoughts.

“I said, we’re neighbors! I live about three houses down from you.” I thought carefully back to the other houses by the lake. Most of them were huge and almost obnoxiously nice. Mine was honestly a dump next to the other beautiful homes.

“That’s cool,” I mumbled. He looked away nervously, obviously feeling the tension. He soon rolled to a stop outside of my little lake house. He helped me unload the bike and carried my groceries through the door once I had it unlocked.

“Nice place you’ve got,” He said, looking around. I shrugged my shoulders. The place was still pretty dirty from the years of being unoccupied.

“It’ll be nice. I’ve just got to put some elbow grease into it.”

“Well, if you need any help at all, I’m three houses that way,” He said, pointing in the general direction of his home.

“I’ll let you know. Thank you, um, I’m sorry. What’s your name?”

“Sidney.”

“I’m Darby. It was nice to meet you, and thank you again for helping me out.”

“No problem.” And with that, he left. I put everything away before plopping down on the old sofa. I had a lot of work to do on this place, but it could wait until tomorrow.