Rocky was keeping everyone happy. He was singing on his own, dancing with little kids, and playing music. After a while he turned down the music- still having it playing, just lower- and sat down to play with the little kids. I smile at him being so sweet.
The mother of the little boy that Rocky was playing with smiles at him and then me. "He's sweet."
"Yeah, he is." I smile.
"You're a very lucky girl to be dating a guy like him."
"What?"
"You're dating, aren't you?"
"No." I laugh. "We're best friends."
"You sure about that?" I stare at her, confused. "I seen the way he looks at you and you look at him. It's obvious."
"It's the obvious that I like him?" I hit my forehead. She laughs and puts her hand on my shoulder.
I watched as Rocky sat in a seat with the little boy. He spun him around and tickled him. Rocky laughs as he plays with him. "Hey, Kacey, look how adorable he is." He laughs.
"I'll take him back now, thank-you for playing with him. I know he enjoyed it." Rocky hands her the boy and smile, before walking back to his seat. I follow him and laugh when I sit down.
"You're so sweet." I smile at him, sinking down into my seat, tired.
"Thanks." He laughs. "Can you remember the last time we were on this train?" He smiles, sinking down to be level with me.
"Yep." I smile. "I could never forget that day." I laugh and he does too.
~~FLASHBACK~~
Tommy and Lisa were wrong. If I was going to make friends, I would've done it by now. I barely made friends at the orphanage. And when I finally felt like I had a family at the orphanage, I'm taken away. To live with these people. In their house. In California, of all places. Next to famous people.
They told me not to worry because I'd make friends. It's been a month and have I made them yet? No. Will I ever make them? No. I was fine back at the orphanage. But I couldn't stay.
So here I am, at midnight, running away. I'm not even sure where to. But I'm leaving. And I'm not coming back. Maybe, I'll go back to the orphanage? It seems too good to be true. I can't count on that dream for long.
I have my bag and my phone and I'm taking the train. I get to the train station. I talk to the lady at the front. "Hi, what's the next train going to and when will it be here?"
"Emmerson and it will be here in... ten minutes."
"Can I get a ticket for that train?"
"Yes ma'am." She gives me the ticket and I pay for it. Then I get in line for the upcoming train. I could hear a boy talking.
"Excuse me, where's that girl going?"
"To Emmerson."
"I need a ticket there." I turn around and see my new neighbor walking towards me. That famous Rocky Lynch guy. Why was he here?!
I turn back around and roll my eyes. "Come on lets go home, Kathy. Everyone's going to be worried."
"It's Kacey. And I'm not going anywhere. I'm leaving. For good. So go back home to your perfect little house with your perfect little family and your perfect little fame and leave me alone. I don't need you."
"I'm not going anywhere."
I glare at him and make my way down the line, finally getting on the train, and running to the very back. Sadly, he found me. He sat next to me in my seat in the very back. "Just leave me alone! Can't you see that's what I wanted?"
"I can't tell you how excited your parents were to bring you home. You're really going to break their hearts like that?"
"They don't care about me." I say. "And they're my foster parents. I was an orphan. They're not my biological parents."
"Who cares? But what is important is getting you back home. So as soon as we get off this train, I'm paying for a train back home."
"Well you are certainly welcome to leave." I glare at him. He smiles at me and it was too sweet of a smile. "You're annoying."
"You know, I bet past all that hate, you're a pretty cool girl." He says, smiling. "You dress cool. You can skateboard. You film. You're... very weird."
"Way to compliment someone." I say, sarcastically, and rolling my eyes.
"In a good way." He rolls his eyes. "Why don't you think they care about you?"
"I don't know. Nobody's ever really cared about me. It's just hard to believe that a family can come up and all of a sudden love you. And it's so hard for me to make friends."
"That's why you've been pushing us all away."
I immediately felt guilty. His siblings were trying to be my friends and I had pushed them away. "I'm sorry about that."
"It's okay. I don't know how it feels to be in your position so I might would've done the same thing if it was me."
"Really?" I stare at him. "You're just saying that. Go ahead, tell everyone what a freak I am. The weird orphan. Go on." I cross my arms over my chest and shut my eyes, tightly.
"Kacey, you're doing it again." He puts his hand on my shoulder. "But it's okay, because I want to be your friend."
"Really?" I open my eyes.
"Yeah, and guess what? I'm your new best friend." He hugs me and I laugh and push him away. "Now, Kacey, you don't do that to your best friend."
"Shut up." I giggle. This could actually be a good friendship.
He laughs too but we eventually recover. "So, what did you think you were going to do after you got on this train?"
"I don't know. I had a dream to go back to my old orphanage but it seems like that is never going to happen."
"So, where are we going anyway?"
"Emmerson, I think." I sigh. "But now that I'm on this train, I'm not sure it's really what I wanted."
"Okay, so I'll make you a deal." He turns to me. "We stay at Emmerson for a few days so you can get a break. If you find out that you enjoy being out there, I'll go back and tell them that I went out to find you but I couldn't and you won't ever have to live near us or see us ever again. But if you don't like it, you'll come back with me and you'll actually try to be our friend?"
I stare at him. "Fine, but you have to agree not to tell anyone where we're going or where we're at, or if I decide to stay, where I'll be at."
"Agreed." He shakes my hand. "Game on, Kacey."
~~END OF FLASHBACK~~
I smile at the memory. Look how far I've come since then. I can't believe I used to push them all away. I hate that I ever thought of leaving but if it wasn't for that day on the train, I might not have been with all the great friends I have. I probably would've continued to push them away.
"I'm glad you followed me."
"Yeah, me too."
"Why did you anyways?" He stares at me, confused by the question. "Why'd you follow me?"
"I thought that you'd be a cool friend, and since you weren't willing to make any friends, I made it my personal mission to be yours." He smiles at me. "And I'm very proud to have done it. Because it's probably that greatest thing that's ever happened to me."
I blush and laugh. "I doubt that."
"I don't." He smiles, nudging me. We talked for the rest of the trip and then finally, we got to the train station. We look out the window to see the creepy looking platform. It was dark with vandalism everywhere. People were hidden in the shadows and the weather wasn't helping the scene. It was raining and dark. "As creepy as last time." He stares at me.
It was our favorite place because it was where we became best friends. But that didn't make the place any more cheery. I don't think anything could really make this place cheery. It was just this part of the town. The other side of town is all happy with the fair coming to town. But this side? Nope. And this is where we're staying. Not in this particular part but around here. "Come on, everyone's getting off."
We stand up and catch up to the line of people filing off the train. We get outside and we're immediately soaked. Rocky holds my hand as we walk through the station. "So, are we staying in The Garden like last time?"
The last time we came, we got at the station and we really didn't know what to do. So, we started walking and we found this abandoned garden. It was still really beautiful though. It was like a greenhouse, I guess. Rocky and I got to know each other better there and stayed there until we decided to go back. We walked around the last time we came, but decided it was better to stay inside rather than outside because of all the fights and dangerous people.
After the trip, we took a ride on the train to get back and we both got grounded and a cold from the bad weather. "Yeah, I guess." I say. We walk to where it is and see the building still in tact. As we walked inside, however, it was terrible. Most of the plants were tall but droopy or dead. There was a broken table. The bulletin board was in half. The walls were spray painted with bad messages.
"Kacey, what do you think happened in here?" He says, looking around at everything. I shrug. We separate, looking through the different rows of plants. I couldn't see him because of the plants but I could hear his voice. "It's creepy. Don't you remember how beautiful they used to be?"
"It probably hadn't had been abandoned for long when we got here last time. But now, it's been so many years, Rocky. I doubt that anyone's taken much notice to it."
"Except for whoever did all this." He calls from the other side of the room. I nod, even though he couldn't see me.
I look around at the sight. It was disturbing. Suddenly, I felt someone's arms wrap around me. I tried to stay calm but when I turned around it was some guy with a beard and creepy eyes. And it was just my luck for him to have a knife in his hand. I scream and struggle to get free. He slaps his hand over my mouth and holds me with his other hand, the one with the knife in it.
"Kacey! Kacey, are you okay?!" He shouts. The place was pretty big, so I could imagine, he wouldn't find me right away.
I try to think fast, which wasn't working. But I came up with an idea. I stomped on the guy's foot and he yelped, letting go of me. I started to try to run, and I got a little bit away from him. But, he didn't need a lot of time to recover, so he tackled me and we rolled under a cabinet. "Rocky!" I scream.
He slaps his hand over my mouth again but this time, uses his free hand to get out his knife. My screams were muffled as he stabbed my leg. I thought I was going to pass out because of all the pain. I was crying and screaming but it was all muffled. He put his knife away and held me with his other arm. But his hand slowly started to move further up and then further down.
This couldn't happen. This just couldn't. And there was no way that I was letting it. My screams and cries were still muffled as I tried to think of a plan as his hand moved closer to where I didn't want it. I decided to wing it before he tried something else.
I bit his finger and he yelped. I roll away and as I struggle to get up, he grabs my ankle and yanks me down. I scream for help and try to yank free. He just scrapes my leg with his knife as I finally yank free. I kick him in his soft spot and he winces, laying there for a second. Rocky, finally finds me and helps me up. He helps me to the door and I scream as a knife flies past us and gets stuck in the bulletin board, which falls to the floor. I grab the knife as the guy struggles to get up.
I hold onto it long enough for us to get out and kind-of run away. My leg was hurting extremely bad, but I couldn't stop. A car pulls up and a guy rolls down his window. "Hey, it's dangerous out here."
"We know." I cry in pain.
"And you're hurt!" He says in shock. "I can take you to the hospital but we need to hurry."
"How can we trust you?!" I say. Clearly, trust isn't my best thing right now.
"Would you rather take the chance of trusting me or get killed by that guy?" He looks in his rear-view mirror to look at the creepy guy from The Garden running towards us.
I fling open the door and climb in, Rocky, being slightly shocked, climbing in right after me. The guy sped off and we started to get into the nicer part of town. I cry into Rocky's shoulder. The pain was killing me. "How far from the hospital?" I cry.
"A few minutes, and don't worry about the blood in the car or the hospital bill. I'll take care of it. All that matters is if you're safe." He says. Rocky was completely silent.
Rocky carried me in to the hospital, with the help of the kind man who saved us. But being rushed into the hospital was the last thing I remembered before I passed out.