A young man struggles to carry on, scarred and broken by everything that's happened to him since he was kidnapped and held prisoner. What happened to the beautiful, mysterious girl who haunts his dreams? Will the love they shared be strong enough...
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Robert's mum called up the stairs. "Robbie, its dinner!"
"Alright, mum! Be down soon!" he shouted.
He bookmarked the place he was at on Google Maps and closed his web browser. When he set his laptop aside, he sighed deeply, suddenly feeling desolate. He didn't want to sit through dinner having to carry on a conversation and pretend he was normal. He wasn't ready for this. But what other fucking choice did he have, he thought grimly, his dad had insisted. He stood up with another deep sigh, and slowly went down the stairs.
He was surprised when he walked in the kitchen. His best mate, Darrell, was standing next to his dad, looking happy to see him but also nervous. He looked at Robert, silently asking if it was alright he was there.
"Alright, Darrell?" Robert said, going up to him right away to clasp his hand.
"Alright there, Robbie," he replied, and surprised Robert by pulling him in for a quick one-armed hug.
It wasn't that Darrell was eating dinner with his family that surprised him, it was that he didn't know about it ahead of time. Usually he contacted Robert before coming over, checking to make sure he'd be there. Robert suspected something was up. When he pushed his hair out of his eyes and looked at his mum, her guilty expression confirmed it.
"I rang Darrell and invited him over," she said quickly, before turning away to put more food on the kitchen table. Robert pretended as if this wasn't the first time in history that had ever happened.
He and Darrell had been best mates since they'd met playing football at a nearby park when he was ten and Darrell was eleven. Darrell had practically grown up at Robert's house since his home life wasn't very good. His dad frequently drank too much which had caused huge rows with his mum. She'd had finally had enough and left them both for another man when Darrell was thirteen. His dad's reaction was to drink more, and Darrell spent even more time at Roberts' house.
Robert only had to mention once to his parents that Darrell sometimes needed an escape from his home. From then on, they'd never said a word about all the nights Darrell slept over in Robert's room, or all the meals he seemed to show up for at just the right time. Darrell's dad never seemed to care, barely noticing if he was around.
Robert was tall for a bloke, but Darrell was even taller by a few inches, with grey-green eyes, and shaggy thick blonde hair that curled at the ends. He'd been skinny as a lad like Robert, but was much bigger now, adding muscle to his lean body working as a bricklayer's apprentice for the last few years. They'd always got on well since they were both quiet by nature, contentedly spending hours in each other's company not saying anything.
His mum encouraged everyone to sit down and Darrell took Betsy's seat. Robert suddenly realized he was starving looking at all the food on the table, and filled his plate almost to overflowing. Darrell did the same.
