A few weeks had passed since Ray's accident. Landon had visited him every day. The doctor had said that the surgery was successful, but that he hadn't woken up yet.
Landon had gone to visit him every day and eventually he had woken up. Landon was happy that Ray had woken up and was able to go back to school. Although Ray missed a lot of school, he caught up with extra work.
The principal called the six young men that attacked Ray and expelled them. They knew what they were doing was her reasoning and they could have killed him. She didn't want kids like that to attend her school.
Ray hung out with Lauren and Landon and they were careful to look out for anybody that wanted to hurt him or do anything to him. Everything was going fine so far and Ray couldn't be happier.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Hey, you doing okay?" Lauren asked Landon.
Landon turned his head to face Lauren's voice. "I guess I'm doing fine."
"You guess?"
"Yeah. I still feel guilty for everything that happened. I know I should be happy that he's back to being my friend and all but I can't help but feel that it was my fault."
"How many times do I have to explain to you that it was nowhere near your fault."
"But I feel---"
"Landon please," she said in a pleading voice, "it wasn't your fault. You weren't the one who told them to hit Ray like that. You're a good guy, Landon. You were there to help him."
"Lauren, why do you keep doing this?"
Lauren looked at him not understanding what he meant. "Why do I keep doing what?"
"You keep telling me things, trying to make me understand. Many people would have given up already."
Lauren blushed. Because I like you and you're way more amazing than you think, she thought but she didn't tell him that. "It's what friends do. That's what friends are for." she said instead.
"Well that just makes you more amazing than you already were."
"I wasn't that amazing."
"Yes you were. You still are and I can't thank you enough for that."
"Landon Valentine, you are a sweetheart. You don't have to thank me for anything. If anything, I should be thanking you."
Landon laughed. "Okay. Then we should both thank each other. After all, we have both helped each other a lot."
"Yeah, we have."
Landon nodded his head and he moved to a more sensitive topic. "Has your mother called?"
Lauren looked at him. It had been two months since Cindy had left and she still wasn't back. "Yeah, she has, but she didn't want to talk to me. She talked to my dad and Aunt Emileigh, but she refused to talk to me."Lauren started to cry without noticing the tears as she was talking. "My dad and my aunt both wanted her to talk to her, but since she talked to my aunt last, the second time my aunt asked her to talk to me, Mom just hung up."
Landon brought her close to him. He hated when she cried. He could practically feel her pain. Whenever he heard her cry, anguish, anxiety, and sadness clutched his heart but there was nothing he could truly do. All he could do was hold her. And that was exactly what he was doing now.
When Lauren had calmed down, she wiped the tears that still stained her cheeks. "I'm sorry about that. You must think I complain about everything."
Landon lifted her chin towards his face with his finger. "Don't ever say that again. I don't mind if you tell me your problems. That means that you trust me enough to tell me all this. Don't ever feel like it's a burden for me or anything, because you're not a burden to me. You could never be that to me."
Lauren stared into his eyes as he said those words. All she wanted to do was tell him that he meant so much to her. There was nobody else that made her feel as safe as Landon did.
Landon wanted to tell her he liked her, that she meant so much to him, but he didn't want to feel the rejection. After all, she was the first person ever to actually make him feel like any normal person out there.
"Tell me one thing." Lauren said.
"Okay." Landon nodded.
"If you were to fall in love or something, would you tell me?"
Landon had to think about this. She had said if he were to fall in love, which he wasn't right now. Of course, he just liked her right now, which was different. But what if it got there? he thought. He shook the thought away and turned to face her, or at least he hoped he was facing her. "Yes. I would. I would tell you. Would you tell me?"
Lauren thought about what she had said. She still wasn't in love so that made the decision a lot easier. "Yes. I would tell you."
"Okay." Landon said. He wondered who would be the lucky guy who would win Lauren's heart.
"You want to go for a walk?" Lauren asked Landon.
"Are you sure?" Landon asked her.
"Yeah. I mean we're not really doing anything."
"Let me just get my cane." He got up and went upstairs to find his cane. He found it on his bed, and then he went downstairs. He felt comfortable walking and going around with just counting his steps but he was more comfortable using his cane. Once he was downstairs, Landon wrote his mom a note and then they walked out of his house.
"Where do you want to go?" Landon asked her.
"I would like to go to the park. We don't have to do anything. We could walk a few laps and then just sit on one of the benches." she answered.
"Okay. That sounds like fun."
They hadn't even been walking for five minutes when one of the six guys that attacked Ray stood in front of them. Lauren automatically reached for Landon's hand. There was something about this guy that she didn't like.
"So you're the guy our little Ray ditched us for, huh?" his deep voice reached Landon's ears.
"If that's what you want to call it, sure. Yeah. That's me." Landon answered without any trace of fear in hid voice.
The big guy approached him dangerously.
"There's nothing you can do, big guy."
"I can kill you right now. I won't even think about it twice. I can kill you and your little girlfriend."
"Leave her out of this. And you won't kill me or anybody."
"You want to bet?"
"Yeah. If you're up for it. You want to know why I know you won't kill anybody? Well I don't really need to ask you because I'm going to tell you anyway.
You won't kill anybody because you're too good of a guy to do it. You're afraid to not fit in and so you hang out with the bullies. You didn't want to hit Ray, but you didn't want to be the next one, so you followed along. Easy as that. You hang out with the wrong crowd."
The look on the big guy's face before he started laughing gave it all away. Yet, he still laughed and said, "You're wrong."
"If you say so. Think about it like this: would your mother be proud of you if she found out what you were doing and what you did?"
"I don't have a mother. She's gone."
"I'm sorry to hear that. I know your pain. I think about my dad every day."
"Who was your dad?"
"Liam Valentine."
"He was your dad?!" His eyes grew huge and he went pale.
"Yeah. Why do you react like that.? Your voice tone changed."
"He was the ne who helped my family. He tried everything to help save my mom. She was an alcoholic and a drug addict. Your dad tried everything to get her to stop. Sometimes he even paid for all the treatments, all the rehab places.
When she died, he was at the funeral. He took a kid with him, too. I could tell that the kid was his son and that was when I realized he was probably married. I had wanted him to be single because he was a great guy. I wanted him to be my dad. And now that I look back on that day, I realize that you were the little kid with him. You haven't changed much.
I have to thank you for everything that your father did for me and my mom. There was really nobody better than him."
Landon didn't know what to say. He knew that his dad helped people whenever he could but he never thought that he would one day meet someone who his father had helped. "Wow....ummm...you're welcome. But it isn't my place to respond for my father."
"You look a lot like him. I think you even have the same way of talking, the same way of getting through to people."
"That's a great honor. My father was my hero, the role model that would always be there no matter what."
"Well, you were definitely lucky to have someone like that."
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you can't have one. I guess in a way, my dad was your role model."
"Yeah, I guess that's true. You don't mind sharing your role model?"
"No. My dad was a good man. He always cared. It's good to know that someone cared about him, too."
"Thanks man. I appreciate it." He turned around and then walked off, looking back and making sure no one was looking.
Lauren looked at Landon. She still had her hand intertwined into his. She couldn't help but leave her hand in his because it felt right. She never had this sensation with her ex-boyfriend. She had always thought that was normal, but now she knows that it's not now. Gosh, she thought, this isn't normal. There is no way that this is normal.
"You okay?" Landon turned to her.
"Yeah, I'm fine." she answered.
"I think we should go sit down. I mean, we just got a huge scare from that guy."
"Yeah. I think that's what we should do."
Lauren and Landon walked over to the bench closest to them, unaware that they were still holding hands. It wasn't until they went to sit down that they realized they were still holding hands. With a blush to both their cheeks, they both let go of their hands at the same time.
Lauren looked at Landon. Her heart screamed at her to tell him how they felt about him, but she just couldn't. She knew that there was a chance that he wouldn't like her at all. And she didn't want to feel that rejection especially from him. He had helped her with everything. She felt like there was nothing he hadn't already done for her.
"Thank you." she said to him.
Landon turned to face her. "For what?"
"For helping me. You always help me, every time. Every single time and you have no idea how grateful I actually am for everything. If it weren't for you I wouldn't be able to handle everything that's happening to me right now."
"You're stronger than you think."
"Sometimes it doesn't feel like I'm strong, it feels like I'm always weak."
"Don't worry. You'll know."
Again, they embraced in a hug.