TIME : The Beginning.

CHAPTER 9

   After the incident at my house I could help but feel embarrassed....
I had a break down , and not just that , it happened when my mother and Eric was there....why Eric of all people? And I don't know why I care about him seeing me cry but I guess it's because he is a stranger and ....I don't know but I care and it's getting me angry.

So there I was trying to crack my head as to why the hell I cared when my mother walked into the shop...

" It's because of you!!" I said.

" Me?? What did I do" she said putting her hand to her chest.

" You invited him to our house, made me emotional and he saw me cry"

" First of all, I do admit to inviting him but as you crying and being emotional..." She chuckled. " Darling that was all you"

I didn't say anything...as she started walking to the back she stopped and turned to me with a questioning look.

"Now hold on..."

"What?"

" Why do you care "

" What are you talking about?"

" You've been like this for two days don't tell me that's what is eating you up "

" What...no!!"

" Then why do you care?"

I actually couldn't think of any answer.

******

After the night of my mother's death aniversary ...I think I have been thinking about Eric...and not in a romantic way ...I just want to know about him....after all he keeps coming to the store at least twice a even though the station is no where near  my shop so I think he'll be around for sometime and there is no harm in being curious about his life.

" Oh denise hi" I said as one of my customers walked through the door.

" H-hi Jenifer"

" Are you alright you look pale"

" N- no I'm fine"

She was looking pale and had bags under her eyes , she looked like she could drop dead any minute.
Now normally you would expect me to press further but  one thing my father thought me was to mind my business...so I did just that or was going to until she asked me for a favour.

" Ok if you say so"

" Um .. Jenifer could you do me a Favour?"

   I looked at her...what comes after that sentence is usually not good... normally I would say no right away but I didn't...why? You might ask, I have no idea...so I took a deep breath , then replied
"Depends on what kind"

" You can say no if you don't want to do it"

And that's code for please don't refuse...

I furrowed my eyebrows and said " ok...."

She brought out some money from her pocket ..
" Could you please give this to my sister when she's coming back from school?"

I stepped out of the counter and stood close to her...
" Why don't you give it to her yourself?"

" I-i can't...I need you to give this to her when she's coming back , you can't let her come home you have to give it to her and tell her I said to do what we discussed"

" Ok... look denise you can't just ask me to do something like that and I don't even know what or why you're giving her this money.... What if I get in trouble for this?"

Her face stared at the flour then she whispered ok to me and turned around slowly...as she turned I noticed a mark on her back...I immediately pulled her jacket down ...she winced in pain and tried to move away.

" Stay still" I said grabbing her arm...as I pulled it down  I saw that her back was covered in marks... though her clothes covered it but you could still see some blood stains on the fabric.

" Who did this to you"

She pushed my hand away and ran out of the store....

I told my mom about it...she thought it would be wise to call the cops and she did...but she called Eric in particular..I didn't know she had his number?"

After sometime he came and I explained everything again...

" I think it domestic violence" he said with a serious face. " Do you know where she lives!"

" I do!" My mom said.

" You do? How do you know" I asked.

" What !! I'm an extrovert... unlike some people"

I glared at her.
After she told her where denise stayed ,Eric decided to check it out and I went along with him..if you ask why I do not know so moving on....

" Hey wait up!" Eric shouted at me as I walked ahead of him.

" Walk faster" I said finally stopping.

" Why are you coming anyway"

" I just want to..is there a problem with that?"

He smiled at me " ok"

Raising an eyebrow "what, why are you smiling?"

We were both distracted by a scream near by. We looked at each 9ther and ran towards the scream.
As we got to the house we stopped at the door , there were screams from a woman and a man was shouting back at her...
Eric kicked the door open at tried grabbing the man but he got away...Eric ran after him while I stayed with the woman..she looked familiar

" Denise?"

She looked up with tears flowing down her face and she continued crying....
Now I didn't know what to do...I would've given her a pat on the back but she was wounded so I choose to sit close her .... She then grabbed my  hand and pulled me into a hug..now that was a very long and awkward time.

We finally went back to the shop , Eric lost the man so he collected a statement from her , at first she was reluctant but after my mother talked to her she finally opened up.

The man was her step brother ...he comes once a week to take the money they had and if they refused he would beat them up...

" That's why I came to you this morning..." She said looking at me " I wanted to give my sister so she could run away ". She started crying...

After she wanted to go home but my mom stopped her telling her that it was too dangerous and he could come back ....I knew where this was going..my mom was going to ask for me to let them stay with me.so before she could ask I jumped in.

" ...umm have about you go and get you and your sister's thing for a few days..you guys can stay at a hotel"

They all turned to look at me.
" A hotel?" My mother said " I was thinking maybe..."

" I'll pay for the time you'll be staying there " I cut her off.
They looked at me surprised..I then turned to Eric
" Will 3 days be enough for you to get him?" He nodded

" Alright then it's settled"

" But jenifer ... it's ok..." Denise started but I cut her off.

" No buts ok...I want to do this".