College

It's been two months since I last saw Jace. I will meet him today. Aunt Joey is driving me to my new home for a while. My college will start with in 2 weeks.

Beth will be coming after 10 days.

This will be my longest car ride after the incident with my parents. It's 3 hours drive.

Uncle Mike wanted to come but must have thought otherwise looking at my panicked face. So it's just me and Aunt Joey now.

She took me shopping for new clothes and some essentials I might need. She was so sad that I am leaving for college, that she used to cry every now and then for the past one week thinking about it.

I am sad, confused and panicked about this new phase in my life. She assured me time and time again that Jace will be there if I need anything.

I will even have Beth with me for moral support. But nothing seems to assure me about this. The more we stay in this car the more I am panicking. Everything is coming back. The car ride with my parents and their murder everything. My breathing becomes shallow and dark spots starts to dance in front of me.

"Sweetheart" aunt Joey pulls over and instructs me to close my eyes and count numbers in my head like my psychologists adviced.

That seems to ease my panic a bit.

"I cannot do this aunt Joey" I cry with shame and my hopelessness.

"Shh.. sweetheart. You are a strong girl. This is a challenge life has thrown at you. You can get over this, trust me" she soothes me with reassuring words.

I cry on her shoulder for what felt like hours, but eventually my body gets exhausted and slip in to deep sleep.

When I open my eyes next time, we have already reached the city. Huge skyscrapers, heavy traffic, people walking on the side walk to get to their destination greets me.

The small town I came from is always peaceful, no skyscrapers, no heavy traffic, people usually stops to greet if they find someone they recognise. In that town usually everyone recognise everyone.

We cross my university on the way towards my new apartment. We reach an area which seems to be high-tech. Huge buildings, posh boutiques, high end restaurants. After 2 minutes Aunt Joey parks our car infront of a glass building which seems to have offices.

A watch man opens my door. He steps aside to let me get down.

I got down as fast as possible and moved away from him. In my haste to move away from one guy, I bumped in to another.

"Hey, watch it" the guy I bumped in to mutter and glare at me.

I recoil as if burned. Panic starts to creep inside me.

"Shall I help you with the luggage" the security guard is still lingering near by.

I push myself more in to the passenger side car door.

"Miss I am talking to you, do you need help" he slowly approaches me.

""You can go, I will take care from here" Jace's voice penetrates in to my haze of panic.

I blink a few times to clear my eyes of moisture. He comes directly towards me with another guy in tow. He blocks my view of the world around me effectively cutting everyone off by placing both palms on either side of my head.

A familiar face and the fact that he is mindful not to touch me now, eases my panic a little.

"Yes Mr. Black" the guards voice can be heard from behind Jace.

"I am scared" I whisper pathetically looking down at our feet.

He raises my head with his thumb and forefinger by holding my chin and looks in to my eyes, which are wet with tears.

"You made it this far. I know how you must have felt. I can really can understand. Do you how much strength it takes to keep going, when all we want is to give up and go home?" I move my head right and left when he waits for me to answer.

"A lot. Now take that strength from with in and let's keep going. Your parents wouldn't want you to suffer like this. Will they" again I move my head from right and left.

"Now, for their sake and for all of us, who loves you dearly let's start with baby steps. One step at a time" he encourage me to keep going and never look back.

Because if we look back, it will pull us down.

He removes his palms from either side of me and extends his palm forward, for me to take it.

I look at it and muster the courage to take it, but I couldn't do it.

He senses my fear, instead he places his palm on my lower back and guides me forward.

"Mr. Black"

"Sir"

"Good afternoon sir" everyone greets him with respect.

They stop doing what they were doing and gawk at us.

The ground floor seems to be mostly common space with security guards and a screen displaying details of the companies in the building and in which floor they are situated.

Jace leads me in to an elevator which has private written on the top.

He leads me in to it, aunt Joey and the other guy follow suit. I stay on the far corner away from the new guy. He winks at me when I notice him looking at me curiosly.

I hide behind Jace.

"Cut it off Brandon" Jace warns the guy.

"Sorry" the murmur.

We reach 34th floor and again Jace leads me out with a firm but gentle push on my lower back.

He unlocks the only appartment on this floor with a key card.

He leads me inside, and what I saw is not a simple college students home.

The foyer leads in to a living room on the left and kitchen and dining room on the right.

Futher down the hall there are two doors opposite to each other which leads to bedrooms. Aunt Joey opens all the doors and check eagerly.

"Come" Jace gently commands and I follow him.

This time he doesn't touch me.

He leads me in to the right side bed room which is huge with a king size bed in the middle of the room. There's a door on the left which is half open, and I can see that it's a bathroom.

There's a door on the far right corner of my room. Jace opens the curtains and reveal a sliding glass door.

"Come" Jace motions for me to come.

I follow him out and what I saw outside takes my breath away.

It's a roof top garden, colour full flowers are all around me with a fountain in the middle. Two chairs are placed on the right side, where I notice is a straight wooden staircase leading upstairs.

"That leads upstairs. I live there" Jace explain noticing me curiously staring at the staircase.

"You like it" he asks after a moment of silence.

"Yes" I whisper.

Some guy brings me my dog which licks me as soon as I lift it up.

"You guts settle down. I will come back in the evening" with those parting words, Jace and the other guy leaves us alone.