Beaten, Broken, Loved, then Fixed

Pancakes and Fruit

I open my eyes and see the sun start to peak through the small window. I look down and see Ariel's hair laying over my chest. I lean down and lightly kiss the top of her head. I slowly pull out my phone and see that its about 6:30 on a Saturday. I have no miss calls from my mother, which I expected to have 100. She starts to slowly wake up. She pulls her hair back into a messy bun and sits up to quickly as I look up at her. She hugs her knees to her chest and turns away from me. I can feel the questionable look on my face grow as she looks off into the distance.

"Are you okay? Did I do something wrong?" I hold myself up with my elbow and keep looking out the window. I know if I look at her I'll get emotional.

"There is nothing wrong. That's the thing."

"What do you mean?" I ask her very confused.

"I thought you would change our mind about me after last night. I thought I'd wake up cold and alone. But you didn't leave you stayed with me." 

" Of course I stayed with you. I like you Ariel, I like you a lot." 

"I like you too." She turns and rests her hand on mine and looks down at me.

"You know more about me that anyone else in this world." I intertwine my fingers with hers and hold her hand tightly.

"Same with you. I was with Zayn for almost a year and I don't even thing he could tell you my middle name."

"Whats you middle name Ariel?" I ask as I sit up and move closer to her. 

She looked at me and blushes. I explore her featuers of her face. I study her as I'm sure no one has ever seen her this raw before. She doesn't wear a lot of make up. I'm sure just enough to hid the puff circles under her eyes. The ones shes gotten from her father. She must be so scared at night alone, afraid he will come into her room and hurt her. One strand of her hair didn't make it into her bun. I reach for it and tuck it behind her ear.

"Tell my Ariel. I want to know." I repeat myself

"Grace. Ariel Grace." 

"Its beautiful." 

"Its okay. Grace was my moms name. I'll keep it because it was hers."

Our eyes meet and I want to kiss her. I don't want to rush her. Everyone in her life has done that to her. I can't... I wont be one of those people. We stay quiet for awhile and just sit. I don't think I've ever felt so safe with a person. Our peace is broken by a slam of her back door. She pulls my down and we lay flat on our backs. She holds her hand over her mouth to muffle her cry to hold back her scream.

"Ariel!!! Damn it Ariel!! Where are you?" her dad yells.

I feel the latter shake. She looks at me tears flowing down her cheeks. She pulls me to the back corner of the tree house and puts a blanket over me. She holds her finger to her mouth telling me to be quite. Before he opens the door, she rushes over to stop him.

"Hey dad I got up early and was just hanging out up here. I was about to go make you some breakfast." She lies 

"Why the hell would you come out here at 6 am Its freezing." 

"I'm fine dad, lets go inside so I can make you breakfast."

He starts his clime down and she looks back at me. She mouths I'm sorry and closes the door behind her. I can't leave her alone with him. Shes not safe. Once I hear they door close I get up and I  rush down the ladder. I know I have to save her. I look into the kitchen window just enough to see her. I just have to make sure he doesn't touch her. She is in different clothes, she is in a long sleeve and jeans. Ariel is over the stove cooking eggs, she has tears in her eyes. I peek in further and see that her father is sitting at the kitchen table is a bottle of Jack next to him. He is slumped over the chair with his eyes closed. I wave my hand up and try to get her too see me. I have to get her out of there before something sets him off. 

She looks up and sees me. She waves back and asks me to wait. I nod at her and watch as she places his plate in front of him. He looks at her and she tells him something with her back turned. She walks into the living room space, I can't see her anymore. I walk around the house to see her come out the front door. She runs into my arms and I pull her close. 

"We have to go. I can't stay here another minute." 

"Okay let's go." 

We walk over to my car and I open the door. She get in and doesn't look back. I jump in the driver seat and smile at her. I make my way down her block. I can see her tightly holding her hands together, she is shaking. I reach my hand over and rest my hand on her leg. She half smiles and I hope she remembers that I told her I would protect her. She looked over at me and placed her hand on top of mine.

"Where are we going?" she asked

"Honestly no idea, are you hungry?" 

"I mean I guess." She giggles

I start to drive to the nearest diner. She looks out the window and turns up the radio. She hums to the music and keeps a hold of my hand. Once we get there, I turn off the car and lightly kiss the top of her hand. I jump out of the car and rush over to her side. I grab her door and reach for her hand. We walk to the door hand in hand. Once we are seated I can't help but look at her. 

"What are you gonna eat Harry?" She asks while she keeps looking at the menu.

"I'm not sure yet. What do you think is good?" I smile hiding my face but still looking at her, she hasn't even noticed.

"I like just plain pancakes with some fruit nothing fancy really." 

"Hi I'm Ami I'll be your waitress this morning what can I get you folks to drink?" The waitress comes over with a huge smile but my heart stops when I look up at Ariel and he face is pale.

"Umm can you just get us come coffee thanks." 

I answer and grab Ariel's hand. Shes drops her menu and her eyes are full and heavy. I move over to her side of the booth and wrap my arms around her as she rests her head on my shoulder. I rub her cheek and kiss her forehead. She looks up at me and wipes her tears away.

"I'm fine, Its just her name. Its fine." 

Before she can say anything else she looks past me with fear in her eyes. I turn around and see Zayn with his arms around our waitness puling her in for a sloppy wet kiss. My eyes screw shut as I turn to look at Ariel. I expected she would be hurt, but when I look at her all I see is anger. She stands up and nudges me with her leg so we both stand up out of the booth. She walks past me and reaches for a pitcher of water. As soon as Zayn's pulled apart from the waitrness Ami, Ariel pours the water over his head. Leaving him completely soaked. 

"What the fuck!" He yelled 

"I'm tired of scum like you. You are ridiculously worse than scum. You hurt people who are better than you. I'm better than you! Does Ami here know what you do to girls like me!" 

"Would you shut your stupid whore mouth." He grabbed her wrist and pulled her away from Ami.

I Jumped up to her and pulled her too my chest. I hugged her and lightly pulled her behind me. Zayn stepped to me, I stood talk knowing I was going to have to protect her. She held my hand tightly but stepped next to me.

"No Harry I'm not scared of him anymore."

"You should be you little bitch, I'll end your shit right now." he snapped at her.

"Why don't you go ahead and try and we'll see who the bitch is." I step to him again\

"Zayn you need to chill out. Your gonna get me fired." Ami rested her hand on Zayn's chest and lightly pushed him back.

"Ami shut up." He stepped back and started to walk away.

I pull Ariel back to our booth and sit her so she can't see Zayn anymore. Ariel covers her face and starts laughing. She laughs really hard, so hard she is out of breath in seconds. I look over at her and start to laugh with her. I grab her hand and smile at her.

"I can't believe I did that. I've never done that before. What a rush! Haha I seriously feel awesome right now. He's actually soaked because I had the balls to pour water on him. No one has ever done that to him before. I never had hat kind of power when we were together." She kept laughing 

" You were awesome."