Runaway by Delaney Knight (i read book .TXT) 📕

The doorbell rang and stuttered the peace of the Smith family's sleep. Although Clay walked as if all was fine, he knew something to be horribly wrong.  Upon opening the door, he found himself to be correct. Beth stood before him; her left eye flourishing in a fresh blue bruise. Makeup stained tears were smeared on her cheeks and she was shaking. Blue and red lights flooded the room. Beth's pride curled at Clay's feet in defeat.

"My dad...he just went crazy, and... Clay, I think my mom is really hurt this time..." She broke into whimpering sobs and Clay twined his arms around her. She just stood, quivering. After a few minutes, Clay ushered her up into his room and into his bed. She obeyed exhaustedly and was almost instantly bent with unconsciousness.

Outside, the lights from the police cars flashed. Clay stood on the outside of the tape impatiently as they wheeled Marcie out on a stretcher and into the back of an ambulance. Stepping up next to the car that Beth's father was in, he peered in at the man who had beaten Beth.

"You deserve the death penalty...you sick, twisted bastard!" Clay banged on the window, his fury sieging. A uniform by the name of Officer Lee pulled him away.

 Inside his house, Beth stood motionless in the window.

"Beth?" Max burst into the living room. Clay sat straight up from where he was dozing on the couch, ignoring the complete lack of respect Max had for the home. "Where's Beth? Do you have her?" He asked with a threat bubbling in his throat, but Clay denied the foreshadowed fear of the boy.

"What does it matter to you? All that matters is that she's safe." Clay stood across the room from Max, their unspoken challenges radiating on a string that tied them together. Beth descended the staircase, confusion and panic overcoming her quickly.

"Would you two stop it?" She stood between them, though she was hardly a barrier; Being five foot three, she was minuscule compared to the two five foot eleven boys.

"Baby, are you okay? I came as soon as I heard." Max's expression sweetened and he pulled her into a kiss. Clay stood beside them, wringing his hands.  "Why didn't you call me when it happened?" His worry looked so fabricated.

"I'm sorry, it was late at night and I didn't even think about it." She hugged him tightly and he returned the favor. "You have to take me to her."

"I will. Why don't you just go freshen up and I'll meet you down here, okay?" Beth grinned and fluttered up the staircase, leaving the room empty of sound and warmth. "Thanks for taking care of her." Max's insincerity seemed to change. Clay was so uncertain of what to believe. "I was...busy."

"Right. Well you shouldn't have been too busy to worry about your girlfriend's mother being practically beaten to death." Venom lined the words that he spat at Max.

"Hey man, give me a break, I was out with some friends! How was I supposed to know that was going to happen?"

"I don't give a damn what you were doing! You should’ve been there for her!" The words were chopped when Beth paraded down the staircase once more, makeup covering her bruises.

"You ready?" Max nodded and the two turned towards the door. Beth only glanced back to wave at Clay before they were gone, slamming the door behind them. Clay returned to the couch and held his head in his hands, listening carefully to the two getting into a car and driving away. 

Clay's mother tiptoed down the staircase, stopping halfway to watch her son helplessly.

"Are they gone?" Clay nodded, not looking up. "I don't like that Max. He's a jerk if I ever saw one." Clay nodded again.

"I just don't understand why she thinks so highly of him." He trailed off, completely lost in the maze of his own mind.

The heat hung low in the air early that afternoon. Colette's 1996 Chevy backed into Clay's driveway, and the engine stuttered and fizzled out. She opened the door and struggled to pull herself out, one hand on the car and the other on her swollen baby bump. Clay rushed to help her. She waved him off.

"Where are they?" She eyed the premise for the police. Clay pointed towards the woods.

"They're at the tree house. I told them she was too smart to leave anything there but they insisted." A smile threatened Colette's distanced look in remembrance.

"She wouldn't be caught dead leaving anything for us to track her down." Clay huffed out a sarcastic laugh and buried his face in her neck. The two twined together as the heat oozed across their skin.

"I miss her too." The words danced under Colette's breath. He shook his head and backed away from her.

"No you don't. Not like I do. I loved her." Colette's anger glimmered.

"Then why'd you lie? Everyone else left her. You were the one person she thought she could count on, and you left too. Do you think this is my fault?"

"A little bit Colette, you weren’t exactly a bystander!"

"Don't you dare blame this on me!” She screamed, rising to meet his eyes. “You’re forgetting, this is your daughter too!" Clay's rebuttal was dropped along with his jaw.

"...Daughter?" Colette smiled through her tears and nodded. He dropped to his knees and stared at her belly. "We're having a girl..." Colette let out a shaky sob and watched as the father of her child held his hand to her belly. Officer Lee cleared his throat and Clay rose quickly to his feet.

"We didn't find anything. " Clay nodded and wordlessly followed Colette into his house.

Clay padded through the hall of the hospital, reading the room numbers.  Three-oh-six, three-oh-seven, three-oh-eight...three-oh-nine. He stood just outside upon realization that Beth was sitting on the bed, holding her unconscious mother's hand.

"I remember when I was little, I wrote on the wall. He was going to hit me, but you got in his way. I probably would have died if he had...I was so little." She was crying now. "You were laying on the floor for almost a day. I sat beside you and held your hand.” Her words came between sobs. "You tried not to let him hit me... Please don't leave me..." Her words were lost in her weeping. The beeping of the heart monitor was rather slow, and the scene was heartbreaking.

Clay stepped in, his arms held open, and Beth tumbled into them. She clung to his shirt and cried out everything she had. Max, of course, was nowhere to be found.

"It's going to be okay." Clay whispered into her hair. Beth did not stop crying. He smoothed her hair. "Beth, look at me." Her sobs halted and she looked up at him. "It's going to be okay. I promise." A tear rolled down her cheek to meet the rest that clumped at her jawline. Her breathing was unsettled. "It's going to be okay." She grabbed at the collar of his shirt and stood on her tiptoes, kissing him ever so gently. The shockwave that followed jumpstarted Clay. Hungrily, he pulled her closer, his hands on her back. Those moments seemed like forever, entire lifetimes passing by. Clay heard footsteps tapping lightheartedly down the hallway and he untwined himself from his love in time for Max to return with a doughnut in one hand and a coffee in the other.

"Oh hey Clay. I got you a coffee Beth." He held out the cup to Beth who just stared at it. Her finger leaped to her lips, and she looked into Clay's eyes. "You gonna take it?" She shook her head, the sobs beginning again. "Oh come on, don't cry." He did nothing to console her otherwise. Clay stood aside the two, unsure of what to think. He had just kissed Beth. Beth's mother was dying. Beth was dating Max who really wasn't that great. Beth, Beth, Beth. Her name rung out in his head like church bells, such a sweet, sorrowful sound. All three were too occupied to notice the heart monitor's beeping slow until all three had silenced.

"The nurse said she'll be lucky if she makes it through the night." Another hoarse sound of her sadness rung out of her throat and she crumpled into a ball on the bed. Clay's heart broke inside his already seemingly hollow chest and he sat beside her, stroking her hair. Max put the coffee down and watched his girlfriend cry. Clay could not fathom how anyone could watch Beth cry and do nothing to attempt to subside it.

Hours later, Clay sat at the foot of the bed with a sleeping Beth in his arms. He ran a finger down her back and paid close attention to counting the bones in her spine. One, two, three, four, five… His eyes turned to Max who was also asleep in a chair across the room. Then he peered