Mine // Carl Gallagher

Chapter 13

         School was soon over and Sophia managed to control herself and focus on class for the rest of the school day. She found that it was a little easier to not think about him when he wasn't around. It was the end of the day but Carl had detention, so she walked back home by herself. Sophia felt safer when he was with her, so she was uneasy as she walked alone to the Gallagher house. As she turned the corner, just a few feet away from her destination, she crossed paths with the scary men from Carl's gang.
        She started trembling with fear, he wasn't here to protect her this time. The men all looked at each other mischievously. A very tall guy, who looked around 19 with several tattoos on his arms and face, spoke in an extremely deep voice, "Well, well, look here boys. It's that bitch we ran into the other day. I don't see Carl anywhere... he can't save you now sweetheart." Sophia shook as tears welled up in her eyes, "Wh-what do you want with me? I just want to go home."
"We want you... to take off your clothes."
The men all laughed and agreed, completely humiliating her. Sophia was completely bewildered and afraid for her life, the men all had guns in hand. She began to cry, "No please, don't make me. C-Carl will find out about this! Aren't you afraid of him?"
The men looked back and forth at each other,
"Damn straight we're scared of him... but we won't be in no trouble if he don't find out about this. That's why you're going to keep your pretty little mouth shut and do what we say."
Sophia was sobbing, not knowing what to do. After the men stood there waiting in silence for her to obey, she acted instinctly and quickly began to run for her life and headed straight to the house. The men chased after her, dangerously close to catching up, and shouted for her to get back. They took out their guns and were about to shoot, but she barely made it inside the house. Just in time. She slammed the door shut and locked it.
     Sophia was crying nonstop as she leaned against the back of the door, trying to catch her breath. Nobody was home yet. She carefully peeked out the window, the gang was long gone. They knew better than to cross into Carl's house, it wasn't worth it. Sophia took out her cell phone from her backpack and tried to call Carl, but he didn't answer since he was still in detention. She sat down on the couch and burried her head in her hands while whispering, "Please, please... God why?"
         After about ten minutes of sobbing, she sat on the couch and blankly stared into space as if she was lifeless, warm tears silently streaming down her face. Carl came through the door and dropped his backpack on the floor, "Oh my God detention was so bori-". He immediately stopped talking when he turned around and saw Sophia in that state. Carl slowly walked towards her and sat beside her on the couch, "What happened babe?" She stayed quiet for a moment and continued to stare straight ahead, completely emotionless.  Sophia had never been so close to being assaulted, so close to being killed. She spoke just above a whisper in a soft, weak voice, "I am humiliated." He didn't know what to do or say, so he tried his best to be comforting and pulled her into his arms. Sophia began to cry even more and he hushed her to try to calm her down, "Shh, you're okay. What the hell happened? Please just tell me."
       Sophia sniffled, "I ran into your men when I w-was walking home... they wouldn't let me leave. They tried to make me t-take off my clothes... they had guns." Carl's face turned red with anger and his eyes grew dark. He stood up and flipped over the coffee table, "Fuck!" Sophia moved away from him and begged as she cried, "Carl, Carl please calm down. You're scaring me." He instantly felt regret. Carl sat back down and settled, "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. Goddamit. Stay here, I'm going to kick their motherfucking asses. They need to be put in their place." Sophia got up off of the couch as he walked towards the front door and tugged on his arm, "No please, they'll come after me! Don't go... please don't go." He sighed and looked at her, "I'll be back soon, I promise. Those bastards won't get away with this. I'm in control." He grabbed a gun out of his backpack on the way out and left.
         Sophia sat on the couch, nervously biting her nails and praying to God that nothing bad happened. Carl had been gone for over an hour and she was extremely worried, but then she remembered what he said and trusted that he was able to take care of himself. She took deep breaths when Carl finally got back home, she practically jumped off the couch and stood up to face him. He was twirling his gun in his hand and whistled, she was afraid of what he might've done. Sophia wiped her eyes, "So?" Carl smirked, "So I took care of it. They're never going to bother you again."
"What do you mean by that? Oh my God, did you kill them?!"
"Fuck no! I just kicked their motherfucking asses first and then I bought them all one-way plane tickets to Canada. They're gone and they're never coming back. You should've seen them, they were practically begging for me to forgive them and let them stay."
"You sent them off to Canada... that's an interesting punishment. Wait, so does this mean you don't have a gang anymore since they went away?"
Carl let out a genuine laugh,
"Babe, I own over 30 men in this hood. Those guys meant nothing to me, it's not like they were my only members. They were just replacements for a few guys who worked for me that got locked up in prison a while ago. I mean, people practically beg to work for me. I've got eyes and ears everywhere."
Sophia was secretly pretty impressed... and intimidated. She knew that she was lucky to have him on her side. He slowly walked towards her, just inches away, "Did they hurt you?" She shook her head, "No, they didn't touch me."
He sighed with guilt and frustration, "I'm so sorry that I wasn't there to save you this time.."
Sophia gave him a small smile, "It's okay. I'm safe now. Please, please don't ever leave me."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A/N: What did you guys think? Please leave your honest opinions in the comments! Also, feel free to leave me any advice or constructive criticism to make my writing/story better :) Thanks for reading!