*Natasha's PoV*
Running...That's all I could do. The wind turning my hair into a craze and making it nearly impossible to breathe. The faces of all the people around us blurred but I wasn't running away. I practically jumped into Adam's arms.
He wrapped his arms around me and we just stayed there, not saying a word, just letting everything sink in. I shut my eyes and just hugged him. Even after the hug we refrained from talking. We just kind of stared at each other. I could tell how awkward Jimmy felt when he walked up to us cautiously.
"Hey, Brad says everything's all packed up and ready to go..." Jimmy said, looking even more like an awkward turtle than me.
We headed over to their van and all hopped in. The tension was heavier then Dumbo on an all carb diet. It didn't only make Adam and I silent but everyone else too. The only thing you could hear was super cheeky k-pop music being played by Paul, the roadie, who was driving.
Paul dropped everyone else off before taking the merch back to his place and as Adam and I hopped off and headed towards the door, my mind was racing. As soon as we get inside that door it's just us and we're gonna have to talk eventually. I felt like bolting and running as far away as I possibly could but I knew that'd just make me feel worse.
I stopped at the door for what felt like forever before forcing myself through. I sighed. 'No more running' I thought to myself as I closed the door behind myself.
I looked up and saw Adam leaning against the kitchen counter staring at me.
"I don't know what truly happened and I don't know if you'll ever forgive me...but-"
I interrupted him. "It's okay, honestly. I'm okay and I know you weren't in your right mind at the time..."
"God damn I missed you. I'm so sorry for what happened...Are you sure you're alright? I-I saw blood on the floor when I woke up that morning..."
"I-I'm fine...Just bruises and shit." I wanted to get off this topic so badly, I wanted to just return to the way things were before this happened.
"...Did I say anything?" he asked.
"No," I lied. "You didn't say anything..." I didn't know how much he remembered but I didn't want to make him feel any worse by telling him the truth.
He was silent for a bit but then he headed towards me and hugged me. "I'm so sorry...really I am..."
I hugged him back. "It's okay..."
"I know what I had done was way more jacked up...but I really wish you hadn't ran away..."
I couldn't even make eye contact. "I'm sorry... I just didn't know what else to do..."
"It's okay,'' he said, and then he smiled. "It's nearly 1 am...Wanna go watch some cartoons?"
I smiled. "Sure. Want some froot loops?"
"Sure."
He hopped onto the couch and I skipped off to the kitchen to grab some cereal; happy as hell for the change of topic.
I handed him the bowl of cereal and grabbed mine. We watched CatDog, Ren and Stimpy, Hey Arnold, and Doug until 3 in the morning when Rugrats came on.
"Ugh I can't stand Rugrats," I said turning off the TV.
"Good, I was hoping you weren't gonna make me watch it," he laughed. "So...what do you wanna talk about till the episode's done?"
"Hmm..."
We both thought for a bit and naturally my brain instantly jumped to all the bad shit. 'No, shut up brain,' I thought. 'I don't wanna be a downer.' But it came out anyway...
"Do you actually like having me here? I mean, I know I cost money and can be a bit of a pain-"
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
"I-I dunno..."
"Did I say anything that night?"
"Well...yeah... You kept calling me a bitch... and saying you wished you'd never taken me in..." I said really awkwardly.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" he asked me looking a bit disappointed.
"Why are you avoiding the question?" I asked, irritated.
He looked kind of hurt. "No. I want you here. You're not a bitch, you help me and it's such a great thing that I took you in. That night, that stupid slut Melissa...Well I dated her a long time ago but while she was incredibly protective over me, she also cheated on me and I'm fairly positive she was insane. I couldn't say hi to a female fan without her flipping out but then she'd go off and fucking sleep with some random dude behind my back. I dumped her and I've tried to avoid her but she still acts like we're together. Anyway, the night of the concert she took us out drinking and I think she was jealous of you. All night she just kept telling me all these lies about you being a bad thing for me and that you didn't deserve my help and that I'd be better off without you. She kept giving me drinks along with every lie and eventually my idiotic brain started to believe her shit..."
*Adam's PoV*
She just looked away and didn't say a word.
"Look I'm sorry I was so stupid, but you know I needed you," I continued. "Without you helping me to the couch, leaving ibuprofen, water, and coffee I would've never made it through that killer hangover. After you left I was freaking out. I barely got any sleep, I rarely ate, and the guys had to literally drag me out of bed. I need you and there is no way I'd ever want to have you gone..."
As much as I hate sounding sappy, it was true. I mean for fuck's sake, Neil had to shave my face.
She got a kind of sad look on her face but then she looked and with a smile said, "You know, my time away wasn't actually half bad." She laughed at the way my expression got sad. "I'm sorry, I'm just kidding, I swear! ...It was average," she joked again.
I scoffed. "Where did you go anyway?"
"Jimmy's."
"No way, I checked there twice!"
She smiled. "Well at first I went to the library, then I found a good area for mooching off of people, then you found me and I bolted and literally ran into Jimmy and he let me stay at his place. Then I left his place and hung out at the library for a bit."
"Damn, no wonder I couldn't find you..." I stopped for a bit, gaining the courage to ask my next question. "W-why'd you run? Why didn't you come back o-or talk to me when I sang with you the next night? What really happened that night?"
I could the brightness leave her eyes and she looked away.
"I don't know it... just seemed right...I was used to it all, it didn't faze me..." she answered, still not looking at me.
I put my hand on her shoulder. "Please Natasha, you know you can tell me anything..."
She sighed. I could see her leg start twitching, the same thing I do when I get nervous. She bit her lip and finally opened her mouth, trying to get a sound to come out.
"I ran...because all I could think of, was my past..."
"What happened...?" I asked, kind of unsure if I really wanted to know the answer.
She bit her lip even harder this time. "I...Well..." Trying to find the words, she sighed, shut her eyes and continued. "The reason I ran away from my real family-"
"Real family?" I asked feeling a bit hurt.
"No I didn't mean it like that. I mean my biological family... Anyway...the reason I ran from them was because... I was being abused...In my family I had my mom, dad, and three older brothers. My brothers accused me of everything and because they were the oldest my parents always believed them. To my parents, my brothers were perfect and nothing they ever did could be a bad thing. I was just entirely made out of bad things. I could never be as perfect as them. My dad was always pissed off and he was always drinking... I was being yelled and beaten since I was a little kid... I remember the smell of alcohol on his breath and the way that if I cried or screamed, he would make it ten times worse... although... as much as my dad hated me...I think my mother was the one who hated me most of all. To her I was her biggest disappointment and I was the reason why people scrutinized her. I wasn't like most girls; I hated dresses and I hated the color pink. I always hung out with guys and dug tunnels in the dirt or climbed the monkey bars to the point where my hands would blister and occasionally bleed... She hated that I wasn't just an American Girl doll that she could design and choose all the hobbies of. I think she was even jealous of me because my dad would...well...he kind of...he used to molest me... She wanted that attention and she started to loathe me... That's why I left and came to Canada and learned to survive on my own..."
I didn't know what to say...I couldn't believe that she had gone through all of that and I had never known... "Why'd you leave me...?" I asked softly.
"That night...you were yelling and your breath reeked of alcohol... You started to hit me and kick me...you...you threw me across the room... I kept getting flash backs of my dad and...and I couldn't stand being there all over again...so I bolted..."
I could feel my heart shatter. I let her down. I hurt her and yet she put me on the couch and she gave me things to help the next day... I could feel the tears start to well up. I can't believe I threw her...What the fuck is wrong with me? What the FUCK is WRONG with me?! The tears had escaped my eyes and started to pour out. I buried my face in my hands and started to sob.
"I'm so sorry..." I mumbled out between sobs.
I felt her wrap her arms around one of mine. She snuggled her head up against my arm. "It's okay..." she whispered to me. "It's all okay."
This only made me feel worse. How could I have hurt this girl; the girl that even after I hurt her so badly and brought up her past, still has the ability to forgive me? I just continued to cry as she stayed, latched onto my arm.
Finally, once I got it all out, I took my face out of my hands, wiped off the tears, and turned to Tosh. She separated from my arm and looked up at me.
"Wanna watch more cartoons?" I asked.
She cracked a smile. "Yeah," she said, nodding her head.
I turned on the TV to see the credits for Rugrats.
"Longest episode of Rugrats ever..." she said, as she started laughing.