You're Not In This Alone

I go down onto the street and no one has come after me so either they didn't hear me leave or they don't care that I left. Either way I don't care so I start walking, heading towards the only place in the whole city I could possibly stay, besides a dirty alley. I make my way to the apartment building before going up and knocking on the door. When it opens I see him standing there holding a bag of ice to his nose. "Matt" I start and he frowns at me. "What Ruby?" "Can I maybe stay here? Just for a little while?" Matt scoffs at me and says "Yeah so your dad will actually kill me this time, no Ruby. I don't want to be around you right now so no you can't stay here. Go home." "I'm sorry, I never meant for this to happen" I tell him as a fresh wave of tears start to fall and I turn, walking away when Matt calls out my name but I keep walking, not able to handle any more rejection. I walk down the street in tears, occasionally bumping into passing people due to my blurry vision, having absolutely nowhere to go but not wanting to go home. I go into a coffee shop and buy a coffee, sitting in the corner and drinking it when I have a sudden idea. Once I'm done I leave the store and walk five blocks down to a bus station, buying a ticket to Jersey. The bus leaves in an hour so I sit around waiting before boarding it and taking a seat by myself in the middle of the bus, staring out the window and watching the city pass by and disappear out the window.

Seven hours later I arrive at my destination and I use a map on my phone to figure out how to get to Uncle Mikey's. It takes me almost two hours to walk there and by the time I get to his door it is three in the morning. I knock on the door, praying he's home and when no one answers I let out a defeated sigh, walking over and laying down on his porch swing, shivering slightly in the cold early morning air. The next thing I register is a warn hand touching my face and my eyes snap open, coming face to face with Mikey. "Ruby, what's going on, what are you doing here?" I sigh in relief that it's just Mikey and I realise that it's now day light and that I had fallen asleep. "Can I stay?" I ask and he sighs before grabbing my hand and helping me up. "Of course but I need to know why and how you got here." I nod and we go inside, Mikey leading me to the kitchen and getting me a drink of juice. The pain in my side is flaring up again so I dig through my bag for my pain killers, taking two before Mikey snatches the bottle from my hand,. "What are these?" He asks, looking at the label. "Why do you need such strong pain killers?" He asks and I stand up, lifting my shirt and showing him my blackened side. "Jesus Ruby what the fuck happened?" "Dad punched me" I tell him and his face grows scarily angry. "He did what?" "This all has to do with why I'm here" I tell him and I sit back down, sipping my juice again before starting. "I was upset with dad and pa the other day because they're so loud in bed and I don't want to have to listen to it all the time so I stayed the night at Matts to get away from them. Matt gave me a joint and a beer and I guess I got a little too wasted and my memories are still a little sketchy on the whole thing, I don't remember every detail but we had sex and then the next morning when I remembered I freaked out completely and ran away from him. When I got home pa found me crying and asked me what was wrong and when I finally told him and dad dad snapped and went over to Matts and started fighting him and when pa and I got there I tried to stop it and dad punched me instead and then pa was trying to lecture me about being irresponsible and stupid and I didn't want to hear it so we got into a fight and I need a break. Matt wouldn't let me stay with him after what happened and the only other person in the whole world that I have is you so I hopped on a bus and came here last night but if you don't want me to stay its fine, I'll go back." Mikey sighs before saying "Ruby, I'm not gonna lecture you or tell you what you did was wrong but sweety was Matt your first? And is this your dad's business partner Matt?" I nod and he sighs again before saying "Sweety you know it was a huge mistake to do that right? And someday you will regret it but what's done is done and we can't change it. Of course you can stay here for a while until you all cool down, I would never send you back with no where to go." "Thanks Uncle Mikey" I tell him gratefully and he smiles over at me. I finish my juice and he says "Do your dads know you're here?" He asks and I shake my head. "No, I need a break, please don't tell them." "Ruby" Mikey says and he sounds exactly like pa when he's about to lecture me. "If they knew they'd make me come back and I don't want to be around either of them." Mikey looks pained, obviously deciding whether he should rat me out or not before saying "Ok, fine, that's your decision. I have to go to work soon but make yourself at home and I'll be back around four. Kristin might come over before I get home but she has her own keys so don't worry and I'll call and let her know you're here. I need to grab a shower before work so I'll see you later." I nod and Mikey stands up, pressing a soft kiss to the top of my head like he used to when I was little before walking from the room. Once he's gone upstairs I walk into the living room and lay down on the couch, turning on the tv and making myself comfortable, my eyes drifting shut again as my head starts to spin and I wonder whether I should have taken that second pain killer on an empty stomach.

Notes

So this is the chapter I wrote before the feedback, I'm trying to work on the next one in light of the encouragement I received from everyone else, especially @bringusbackthechemicals who told me I should write if I enjoy doing it and that if I enjoy it then I should do what makes me happy and if people don't like it they can just not read which actually helped set my very upset and confused head straight quite a bit so thank you, your comment helped a lot : )
And as always thank you to @Frerardified and @ashlee way for the continuing support, I feel like you two have been with me every step of the way since the start of this little story I created and your constant support is what's kept me writing until this point.
To everyone else who reads and who commented yesterday, thank you. It took a lot of courage I never thought I had to start writing in the first place and it took a while for me to build the confidence to become comfortable with it and it was really reassuring to hear that so many of your enjoy what I created so this chapter is for all of you who commented and offered me such positive support and gave me the courage to post this chapter <3