Hope

Zack held Kristel rocking her back and forth murmuring kind words into her hair, as he tried to get her to calm down. "Do you know what they wanted?" Zack finally asked, not wanting to make her think about it, but needing to know why they were after her.

Kristel sniffled, before turning to face him, "They said I owed them money. But," She sniffled, wiping tears from her eyes. "I've never borrowed money from anyone." Tears ran freely down her face once more. "They all said not to borrow money, because when it was time to pay it back you wouldn't have the money. So then they'd do horrible things to you. So I made sure to never borrow money from anyone even thought I really wanted to."

"Who told you these things?" Zack asked, becoming confused.

"The people at the homeless camps," Kristel didn't want to look at Zack. She didn't want to see the disappointment when she talked about being homeless.

"Did you perhaps accidentally borrow money from someone?" Zack asked, hugging her to him once more as sobs racked her body.

"N-no," she took deep breathes, trying to regain control. She stopped suddenly, as a realization took hold of her. "Tess, Tess gave me money. She said I didn't have to pay it back. She said she was taking care of things."

"Who's Tess?" Zack asked, hopelessly lost now.

"She was one of the first people I met, when I was on the street." Kristel wiped her eyes once again, trying to make the tears go away.

"How about we go find Tess tomorrow and see if we can figure this stuff out." Zack suggested. Kristel gave a weak okay, as she leaned back into his chest, listening to his calming heartbeat. Zack stroked her hair, "Why don't you tell me about you going to college?"

Kristel gave a small laugh, "It was boring, I doubt I did anything as exciting as you."

"Humor me," Zack laughed, trying to distract her.

Kristel thought for a moment, "Mom kept badgering me to go to school, so I said fine, and looked online. Found an accounting class, thought to myself, oh this’ll be easy. Go to school the first day, and the first thing out of my teachers’ mouth was ‘this will not be an easy course’. I swear half the class instantly went ‘crap’ after that.”

Zack laughed, “I never did like math.”

“I didn’t either,” Kristel laughed, starting to relax. “I sucked at it in high school, but I took the accounting course in college, and…I freakin’ loved it.”

Kristel smiled up at him, making Zack smile. He wasn’t sure why, but she made him happy when she was happy. “So how come you didn’t finish the course?” Zack asked.

“Oh, having three jobs, being a mom and doing full time school didn’t seem too mix too well for me. So, I got suspended,” Kristel explained, waving him off.

“You?” Zack asked in mock disbelief. “You got suspended?”

“I know right?” Kristel laughed. “Apparently, bad grades are enough to suspend you.”

“You don’t seem like you get in trouble a lot,” Zack mused, rubbing her back.

“Never,” Kristel laughed. “Oh, if I ever got caught doing something I wasn’t supposed to, my mom would skin me alive.” Kristel thought for a moment before continuing, still laughing. “I got sent to the principal’s office once and thought I was about to die.”

“What’d you do?”

“I shared my lunch account number with a friend, so they could get a brownie,” Kristel smirked.

“And they sent you to the principals for that?!”

“Well,” Kristel thought for a moment. “It wasn’t the first time I did it, so they figured I needed to stop.”

“But still,” Zack was still in disbelief. “I got sent to the principal for plenty worse.”

“Oh, so you were one of the bad kids,” Kristel teased. “My mom definitely would not approve.”

Zack chuckled, “Is that so?”

“Oh yes,” Kristel nodded, trying not to smile. “She had rules.”

“And what were these rules?” Zack asked, leaning in closer to Kristel.

Kristel started using her fingers to count, “Any potential boyfriend had to. Go to church faithfully, couldn’t be more than a few years older or younger than me, no piercings, no tattoos…anywhere. Can’t drink excessively, have no history of law violations, and absolutely no smoking what-so-ever.”

“Well, apparently I’m out,”

“Not even an option,” Kristel gently put a finger on his nose, moving her face closer, then gently pushing his face away from hers. “Gotta marry that good working man,” Kristel teased, daring him to move closer, again.

“I’m a good working man,” Zack moved slightly closer, making Kristel’s heart rate increase. Amber began crying, making them separate. Kristel jumped up, rushing to her room, cursing herself for getting that close to him.

After a few moments, Kristel was able to return to the living room. Zack exactly where she had left him. "How is she?" Zack asked, nodding towards her room.

"She's fine, I think she just had a bad dream." Kristel sat back down next to him. They sat in silence for a while, not knowing what to say.

“You okay?” Zack asked.

Kristel glanced towards him, before looking at the blank TV, “Just…thinking about my family.”

“Do you miss them?”

“A little,” Kristel paused. “Well, my dad and sister a lot. My mom on the other hand,” Kristel shook her head. “Maybe a little.”

“Why don’t you miss your mom that much?” Zack cocked his head, wondering how much information he’d be able to get out of her before she clammed back up.

She sighed again, before looking at him. “My mom and I never really saw eye to eye. I never felt like she cared about me as much. Or about anything I did…and when I got pregnant out of marriage.” Kristel stopped, trying to keep the tears from coming.

“She wasn’t happy,” Zack finished for her, taking her hand in his.

“It was the worst thing that could’ve happened to her.” A tear ran down Kristel’s face, making her stop talking, trying to regain composure.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Zack tried to soothe her, bringing her into a hug once again, holding her in his arms. “I’m sorry for bringing it up.” Kristel shook her head, but wasn’t able to speak. Zack sat with her until she calmed down. “We should get you to bed," Zack whispered after a while.

Kristel nodded in agreement. "Thanks for listening to me," she gave him a small smile.

"No problem," he gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead, then walked her to her room. She gave him a small hug, then went to bed. Zack walked into his kitchen to see his broken sliding door. "Guess I'm going door shopping tomorrow."