⚠️SUICIDAL/ SELF HARM MENTION⚠️
I ran. I'm not the fastest runner but today I managed to outrun Kade. Hes significantly taller than me but I couldn't have him catch up to me to repeat those words.

"We're moving"

I've known Kade since we were five years old. I was still with my parents then. I remember the day we met like it was yesterday...

I was walking back inside from jumping in the puddles. When I had first went outside the rain wasn't bad so I was able to play in it for a while. It started getting worse and I knew I would have to get inside or my mother would lecture me about getting inside when the rain becomes far to heavy for me to handle. I was walking back inside when I heard it.

Was that someone.. crying?

It sounded near so I followed it. I followed it to my hiding hole. I had found a hole big enough for me to fit inside a couple months ago on the back of our house. It lead to underneath the house so I would usually hide their whenever I knew I was in trouble.

I crawled into the hole and that's when I saw him. A boy a little taller then me curled up into a ball. His head in his arms, he was shaking horrible. I crawled over to him and stared at the boy before me.

He looked up and his eyes went wide. We stared at each other for a moment. I then reached my hand out to him.

He didn't have any sort of a coat or jacket on so if he were to stay put in the cold any longer he would most likely end up getting sick. I also wasn't just going to let some stranger cry underneath my own home.

I walked him inside my house.

"I was wondering when you were going to come inside" my mother said from the kitchen.

My mother was the prettiest lady I had ever seen. She always wore her long black hair in a messy bun and never needed makeup to enhance her beauty. My father told her so everyday. She walked out of the kitchen to see me standing soaking wet holding onto the boy I had just found.

I guess it was mother intuition or something because she knew exactly what the boy needed. She brought him into the kitchen after wrapping a blanket around him.and made him some hot chocolate and gave him some macaroni she had finished making for dinner.

I watched as she was fixing him a plate and tried talking to him when I felt arms wrap around me.

My older brother William pulled me into a hug and said "Dads put right now so we can sit in his chair while we read." I was happy instantly! Our fathers chair was the most comfortable chair in the house but while he was there no one else was allowed to sit in it.

I quickly ran over to the chair and threw myself into it. William grabbed put book off the coffee table and sat down in the chair with me. We were reading our big Dr Suess book. I thought it had a million stories in it but my favorite was "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". I would always love for William to read that story no matter the time of year.

They were a couple of pages into the book whenever Kade had walked out of the kitchen. Their mother was on the phone so she must've at least gotten his mom's phone number.

"Come read with us" I said to him. He hesitated at first but walked over and sat on the arm of our dads chair. William continued with the story.

The door opened to reveal our father, a soaking mess, with a bag from dollar tree. He looked over at us and with a confused face yelled into the kitchen "Honey, I didn't know you were pregnant! Since when did you give birth to another kid?". That caused the three of us on the couch to go into a laughing fit.

Mom having finished talking to Kades mom took dad into the kitchen to talk about the strange boy in our living room. I stood up and walked over to the wall and put my ear against it to try and listen. Their words were muffled but I managed to hear this: "Only child... ran away... deadbeat father..". I didn't really understand what they were talking about I only pieced together that Kade was an only child who had run away.. but why?

I returned to the chair and sat in my spot again. A few minutes late my mom and dad walked into the living room again.

"Kade I spoke with your mother and we agree that the rain is too rough to drive in right now, so you'll be staying the night with us. William go get a change of clothes out of your closet. You two are about the same height so they should fit pretty comfortably".

"Alright follow me.. Kade?" William told the boy. He just nodded his head and followed William to his room.

My mother then looked at me and asked
"Where did you find him?" I looked at her and replied "under the house" as casually as I could not wanting to make a scene with a guest here.

my mother did a double take with at first a knowing then shocked expression. "Under the house!?" She whisper yelled so that my brother or Kade could hear her. "Mhm" she gave me the 'we'll talk about this later' look and went back into the kitchen to finish dinner.

A moment later both William and Kade walked into the living room, this time Kade was wearing Willaims old Joker pajamas and I saw him smiling for the first time. "Shall we continue our story?" William asked

"Yep!" I replied. I looked at Kade who seemed to be enjoying the warmth of the pajamas. I smiled. I think I finally made a friend.

I stopped to look at where I was. I had to have ran at least seven blocks from the cafe. Great just GREAT!

I was in a true part of the city where people were rushing in different directions trying to make it to work or to their families.

I pulled my phone out and looked at the time. 11:45? Time felt as if it had sped up. I didnt need to be back at the group home until four.

No. Scratch the going back thing. I'm never going back. Not the group home or school or even to the cafe.

TRIGGER WARNING
I remember after the incident. Whenever I first started self harming. I had started with small cuts around my ankles. I was put into a foster home and it was around the beginning of summer so trying to cover up anything on my arms with sleeves wouldn't work because Kade would get suspicious.

I didn't want Kade to know about it. He knew what happened and he knew it hit me hard as it would anyone but this would just make him worry about me even more. I knew he needed to focus on stuff at the cafe and helping his mom and him worrying would just bring them down even more.

I started wearing longer socks but that went about two inches above my ankles. No one questioned it. I was so young but everytime I had a nightmare or thought about the incident the guilt and sadness within me just overtook my body. It was like I wasn't there anymore and i had to watch myself harm myself from afar.

It had been a couple months and my insomnia took over and I no longer had to worry about nightmares plaguing me at night because I never slept. I had short naps during the day which kept me going.

Kades mom decided to take us swimming one sunday at her friends house. They were on vacation in Hawaii and left kades mom to tend to their plants and animals.

She even bought me a swimsuit with some extra money they had:

I thought it was really pretty. We went and we had a fun time swimming and playing games in the water. And they also had a really cute dog with puppies! I think it was a dalmatian not quite sure.

Anyways we had gotten back to the cafe and his mom had made us some lemonade and gave us both a chocolate cake pop.

I was joking around with Kade when his mom went into the kitchen in the back and his face had gotten really serious.

"What?" I asked him

"I saw your leg.. what happened?"

Holy shiitake mushrooms.

He knew me to well so he knows when I'm lying about something. So I explained it to him. We hugged and we cried together. Ever since I had found him under my old house my family had become his family and the incident affected him as well.

About a week later we sat with his mother and we talked about how we all felt. There was a lot of crying.

I had found a sort of coping mechanism to help with the urge to cut. I would draw on myself. Little doodles and designs and I would write down names of the ones I cared for. I had actually started to feel better.

I snap back into the present. I find myself in a place I dont recognize. I must have walked farther than I thought. I didnt even realise I was walking...

Then I see it. A fire escape leading to the top of a building.. perfect. I sit down on a bench and text kade a final message before it all comes to an end.

I'll miss him. I know he'll miss me but I'm easy to get over from what I know from my old foster parents. He'll find new friends in his new home. I know he will. I walk up the fire escape.. unaware that someone had been following me.

I get to the top of the building standing over the edge. I take a deep breath and inch forward when a hand yanks me back.

"Hi.."
●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
Hiiii its mee! Um just wanted to say I've never been in a group home and I'm not quite sure how it works just going off by what I've read in other fanfictions heh heh.. yeah anyways remember I welcome constructive criticism! :)
Enjoy your day/night wherever you are!