Gavin's POV

I walked down the street, dragging my feet down the street as I edged closer to the rundown house. Butterflies flew around in my stomach as my head said to run the other direction and to not go home. As I got closer to the old house I heard muffled yelling and heard my name a lot. Even though my brain screamed for me to leave my body kept going, one step, two steps, I stood in front of the front door staring at the door knob. Hearing the cries and screams of my parents, knowing that I was the cause of all this and that the angel child, James, wasn't going to be home for another 2 hours. The screaming in my head only got louder and then everything went silent. The whole street was quiet, even the birds did not tweet as they went by, all the dogs on the block stopped barking. It was all dead silent, until I heard a thump, I reached for the door knob and the screaming in my head came back 10 times louder. I stepped into the hallway and closed the door, looking through the doorway to the living room to see my mother's body lying on the ground with my father standing over her small body.

"RUN Gavin RUN!!" My brain screamed but before my body was even remotely able to move, dad was in front of me.

"You pathetic little piece of scrap, this is all your fault" He screamed at me pointing at my mother as she tried to grab his ankle but she could hardly move. Suddenly everything black.

"Gavin, shhh, it's okay, it was only a dream, shhhh." Everly was shaking me, we were on the bus in the middle of nowhere.

"It wasn't a dream" I whispered looking out the window.

"You are safe now"

"I was only 10, I should have listened to my head but no I kept going, and she left because I was stupid and I went home." I told her wiping sweat off my forehead.

"It's okay, you are safe now" She hugged me from her seat and I began to calm down.

4 hours later, and we were finally getting off the bus.

"It's 10pm. We better hurry to catch a hotel before they close." Everly checked her phone.

"Okay, I'll grab the bags and we'll be off" I told her, after a 6 hours bus trip you sure are tired. I grabbed the bags as the driver grabbed them out and handed them to me. I went back over to Everly and she was on her phone.

"There's one motel that's still open and it's called Charcoal Heights and it appears to be like a small apartment complex." Everly explained grabbing her suitcases and then I followed her down the street as she went to themotel.

After walking three blocks we found the complex.

"Hi we were looking for a room" Everly went up to the lady behind the desk.

"We have a room available on the third floor room 309" the lady said as I walked up to the counter.

"We'll take it thank you Ma'am" We smiled at her.

"Okay can I get your names and id please?" she asked typing into the computer. I put the bags on the ground and grabbed my wallet.

"Gavin Jacob Ashworth and Everly Kyra Morgan" I gave her my licence.

"Have a good night" She finished the computer work and handed us two keys for the room.

"Thank you" We smiled at her and went to the lift. Everly pushed the button for the third floor and went up. I found room 9 and put a key into the lock and opened it up.

"This is beautiful, and the room are really cheap if they are like this" Everly walked into the room. I went over to the balcony which looked over a forest.

"This is beautiful too," Everly hugged me from behind.

"Hey, what should we have for dinner? I'm starving" I asked her and she chuckled.

"You and Oscar always have a feeling of hunger"

"But that cause we don't eat enough with our busy lives" I explained.

"What's open at this hour anyways?"

"Maccccccas" I smiled at her turning around. "I'll pay I saw one when we came to this place." I grabbed her hand and went inside closing the door behind us. I grabbed a key and we left the room.

"I'll have a hamburger and a crispy chicken caesar wrap medium meal with fanta please" I ordered to the cashier.

"And I'll have a small mcChicken burger meal please with a sprite please" Eve ordered.

"And is that all?"

"Yes sir"

"That'll be $19.35 thank you?" I gave him a twenty and he gave me the change and a receipt.

The wait wasn't long since there was only five people in here with us and they were already served.

"128? 128?" A lady called out our number and we went up to her.

"Thank you" We smiled at her before walking back to our motel room. We sat at the the four seater table and hooked into our meals. We soon finished and had a shower getting dressed into our pjs.

"Eve you can have the bed I'll take the couch" I told her putting a shirt on.

"Don't be silly, we can share the bed. I don't bite" Eve patted the space beside her on the bed. She had a beautiful blue silky nightgown on.

"Are you sure?"

"Definitely, plus you are my best friend." she smiled. I grabbed my phone then hopped under the covers. I turned my phone on and found a bunch of missed messages and calls most of them were from James.

"Happy Birthday Gav!... Where are you?... Why don't you answer my calls?... Dude where are you?... stop joking around... call me... I'm getting worried, please tell me you're not dead" The messages read. The others were just from Oscar making sure we were safe and wishing me a happy birthday cause he forgot with all the exams happening.

"Hey Jim, Happy Birthday and you might as well forget about me since you couldn't help me" I texted James before turning the phone off and laying down. Everly cuddled up to me already out cold and something inside my wanted to make her mine. Have I always had these feelings for her buried deep down? I thought before passing out myself.

I woke up and saw that Everly was still asleep beside me. I quietly got up and grabbed some clothes out of my bag and turned the shower on. I quickly washed myself and got dressed before going into the kitchen and making some coffee. I went outside and sat in the chair that looked out into the forest and the horizon. The sun was still rising as it was only 6:45am.

"Good morning" Everly appeared in the doorway coming out and sitting beside me. The same feeling from last night crept up on me again.

"Morning Ev" I smiled at her. "Did you want some coffee?"

"Um, yes please I would love some" She smiled still sleepy. I got up and went inside looking at the clock on the wall which claimed it was 8 o'clock. Which shows that i was out there for over an hour. I poured the coffee and went back outside.

"Here you go" I handed her the cup.

"Thanks" she smiled up at me and I sat back down.

"Happy Birthday Everly" I looked at her and choked on her coffee.

"What did you say?" She asked coughing a bit.

"Happy Birthday, you said it was your birthday today."

"It is I just haven't had anyone said that to me before, it was always 'happy birthday Clara' every year." She explained.

"Well let go have breakfast somewhere nice before we go to the real estate agency to celebrate" I told her.

"Okay I'll go get ready." She said taking her now empty cup to the sink before going and having a shower.

"I'm surprised from all the big chain stores here. I mean like we are in a small town yet we are walking into a 'the Coffee shop' right now" Everly looked around. "And there is a Big W and a Target and a Jasper's Grocers. Wow, just wow" She looked around.

"Oh that reminds me we have to go to Jasper's today."

"Er, yeah we need to get groceries too."

"And, that's where i'll be working."

"I should go into Target and Big W to see if they are looking for workers" Everly suggested.
"If you want to"

"Yes, I do plus I could work while you work," She told me.

"That's true" I smiled at her as we went up to the counter.

"Hi can I please have the big breakfast with apple juice?" I asked.

"Yes and what else?" the Guy behind the counter asked

"Can I please have the pancakes with maple syrup and Orange juice?" Eve asked.

"Yes is that all?" he asked tapping away.

"Yes thank-you" I told him.

"That will be $25.79" He told us and i gave him the money as he printed the receipt and hand Ev a stick with a number.

"That should be ready in 10 minutes."

"Thank you" We went outside a sat down.

"The real estate is just over there" Everly pointed across the street and we saw them setting up the shop indicating that it was going to be open soon. Some kids walked past in little uniforms as they went to their school.

"Oscar, he has to do something for us." I remembered

"What?"

"He has to change the location of where our stuff is sent to, from the school" I explained.

"We can tell him our address later on. When we buy the property" she said as the food came out.

"Hi we are interested in buying a property, is the sales agent here?" I asked the receptionist

"John, two people are looking to buy" she called and a guy around he late 20's appeared through a door.

"Hi my name is John Peters, what were you guys interested in buying?"

"Preferably a house, our budget is $180 000" I explained.

"Well we have two properties one is set at $80 000 and the other one is at $100 000 would you like to have a look at them?" he asked.

"Yes please."

"Rose can you get my the keys for 112 Nate and 114 Nate?" he asked the receptionist

"Yes" she got up and left.

"I'll be back in a second" John left and came back with his bag, folder and the keys.

"I'll be 30 minutes" John told Rose as we went out of the office building.

"Is there any chance we can catch a ride with you cause we rode the bus in."

"Sure thing, this is my car"

"Thank you" we thanked him and hopped in.

"So what brings you to Charwood?" He asked starting his car and leave the parking spot.

"We need a fresh start and Charwood was calling to me." I explained to him.

"Well we are here" He said pulling over. "It's quite close to town which is a good thing for walkers like yourselves." he stated as we hoped out.

"This first house is a 5 bedroom house, double garage, two bathrooms, swimming pool and is running at $100 000." he explained as he unlocked the front door.

"This is amazing," Everly said as we walked into the two storey house.

"Very much so. So this is the kitchen" He showed us the huge kitchen that had a lot of storage space.

"Okay let's check out the next house" John said as we finished looking at the house.

"Ok so the other house we have is next door and is a four bedroom home so a little bit smaller than the other one and it's selling for $80 000" He unlocked the door revealing a beautiful home that need a bit of work but was still beautiful.

"Wow, these houses are amazing." I looked around in awe.

"So which one did you like the most?" Everly asked me as we sat down at a restaurant for an early lunch.

"I like both and they are both in our budget. I have an idea and you are allowed to say no" I told her.

"Okay what's the idea?" She asked and by the tone in her voice I think she has an idea of what I'm going to say.

"Let's buy both, we can fix up the 4 bedroom one and maybe rent it out or something" I explained my little plan. Her smiled grew bigger and then she leaned over the table and kissed me. I was shocked for a second then kissed her back.