How Long Before We Fall In Love?

"No, why are you doing this— please, stop, please —!!" The girl begged. "Who do you think you are, to question me, huh?!" Shouted the woman clawing her nails into the girl's arm. "Haven't I given you enough?!" She thrashed her head into the wall. The loud thump was muted by the bustling traffic beyond the alley. "Shut up and watch your dreams break into pieces," the woman snarled into her ear. Pain seared through her head. Warm blood flowed across her face, marking the misery. Her ears rang and her vision blurred. In front, the boy bashed her acoustic guitar on the cobbled street, over and over; its creme wood broke into two and splinters speared through the air. He laughed maniacally as he smashed it against the wall next and witnessed as it completely broke apart. "No— p-please, why— I brought it with my money— I saved so much— h-h-how could you ...?" Her words were clogged, throat choked up and knees buckled. She hit the ground, just as the guitar did, though, instead of breaking apart like a piece of wood, she held onto the broken dream and cried. "Who knew you would be hiding money from me— for so long, no less, and buying yourself such worthless trash in the name of following a dream?!" The woman mocked as she kicked the girl's shoulders. The girl hurled into the wall again. The narrow alleyway did not provide much room to breathe. The boy stepped over the broken wood, walking towards her. It crackled underneath his feet, a paragon of menacing power that he held over her. "You did not give me money last week and now I don't have a girlfriend. It's all your f*cking fault that this is happening to you b*tch, now suffer!!" He grabbed her short hair and yanked them to-and-fro. The action pulled a hearty laugh from his mother. "Let's just sell her off to the club today, we can make all the money we lost," the woman giggled, an evil glint twinkled in her green eyes. Her son loomed over her, chuckling at his mother's brilliant plan. His nods cemented the girl's fate. "Come, you little trashcan," the boy snarled and pulled her by her hair. The girl yelped as pain surged through her body. She made an effort to pry her hair out of his deathly grip but failed as he swatted her hands away. "Keep your filthy paws off me, you lowborn," the boy growled. Right beyond the narrow alleyway, the moon remained a silent witness to her demise. It stood in the sky like a looming presence, overwhelmingly silver and cold. At least the sun burned when it felt like — but the moon? It merely stared upon the horrors of the world, turning a blind eye to ill deeds and their consequences. Suddenly, someone jumped over the low sidewall of the alleyway and landed right in front of the woman. Against the illuminated backdrop he seemed like a darkened silhouette, a warrior of the shadows, charging her assaliants. A hook, a punch and two kicks later, the mother-son duo laid flat on the cobbled ground, whimpering. "W-wh-o are you?! W-whwat are you-r connect-ions ti-o th-h-h-is w-hore?!" The woman stuttered, dragging herself against the end of the alleyway in order to escape his shadow. "I don't know," the man cleared his throat, "I smelled some trash and like the responsible citizen I am, I arrived for a cleaning.” Another roundhouse kick at the boy’s jaw stopped his attempts to sneak the broken guitar wood and attack his back. “You want money, right?” He scoffed as he took out his wallet, “Here, you can have all the money you want,” he emptied the brown leather over the woman's shivering body, “But all good things come at a prince.” Evil glinted in his eyes as he placed his booted right foot over the woman's bobbing throat, “Are you willing to pay it?” “No, no, please, leave my mother— take that girl instead! Please! She's such a w*ore, she'll do anything for money! For you—” Another kick to his face got the boy bleeding into the crevices of the cobbled street. “Absolutely mannerless of you to interrupt a conversation between two adults,” he scoffed at the boy and proceed to look at the mother, “Taught him no manners?” He tsked and landed one more kick to her face before knocking her out cold. She remained splat, her torso slightly strained against the dirty wall and her lower-half eagle-spread with bloodied bank notes blanketing her. Her son laid right in front of her feet, bleeding, out cold. “Are you okay?” The boy asked as he turned to see the girl. She was crouched on the ground with her back to the violence. Her hands held onto her arms and her body was doubled over her legs. She had cocooned herself. He tip-toed towards her. “Hey…let me help you up, okay? May I hold you?” He asked as he crouched in front of her, “Would you mind? I'm Kaleb, I was just ‘round the corner when I saw whatever this was. You don't mind my interference, do you?” He asked, gently, tone oscillating between worried and nonchalant. The girl peeked a glance at her saviour and shook her head. The moon illuminated his face, its holy silver accentuating the defined jaw, the concerned pout of his lips, the soft nose, the tall nose bridge, the wandering dark eyes and curly dark hair. “May I?” He asked again, holding out his hand. The girl merely nodded. Kaleb gently looped his hands around her and picked her up, bridal style. He walked out of the alleyway and carried her all the way to a nearby convenience store. The bright white light exuding off the glass exterior made the girl bury her face in his chest. She felt his chest vibrate with a ripple of a laugh. “Wait here, yeah? I'll be back in a minute,” he whispered into her ear and gently rested her onto a plastic stool outside of the store. He pushed the stool closer to the plastic table so that she could rest her head without a problem. The other tables outside the convenience store were taken by drunken groups of old and young. So, Kaleb took off his brown leather jacket and used it to cover her vulnerabilities from the world. He jogged inside and bought a bunch of band-aids, rubbing alcohol, a guage, some cotton, a skin stapler, wet wipes and a good amount of food. Armed with a big rustling packet, Kaleb jogged out and reached the table the girl was at. He dragged a plastic stool closer to hers and kept the packet on the table to announce his presence. She looked up at him with big glassy doe eyes that tugged at his heartstrings. The left collar of his jacket was now marked with her blood. Her face was small yet oddly squishy to him. Her nose was dainty and her lips were half-full, cut up and bruised. “Come ‘ere,” he said as he hooked a finger under her round chin and pulled her closer. He emptied the packet in front of her and said, “Anything you like? You can have them all,” he pointed at all the food. Her eyes instantly brightened upon sighting the snacks. Her shaky hands slowly headed towards a spicy chip packet when he caught it mid-way. “Hold up,” he said and tore open the wet wipes. He spent a good minute running the wet wipe over each of her fingers and the circle of her palm, dragging and cleaning the dirt buried within her nail beds. The girl merely blinked at him. Though the passerbys hooted unceremoniously. “You can eat now,” Kaleb said as he piled the dirty wetwipes inside the packet and held her hands by her wrists, “All clean now,” he held them in her line of sight. As she wiggled her palms in her face, Kaleb spotted her bruised knuckles. He sighed, wondering what she went through but did not consider it ocassion enough to ask. He let her eat while he cleaned the blood off her face, disinfected her injuries, stapled the skin and bandaged it all up. “All done,” Kaleb smiled at his handiwork and shifted the stool away from her space. “I'll leave it all here, okay? Don't get in trouble again. I'll get going now.” He said as he got up, ready to leave — when, suddenly, two hands grabbed his. Kaleb turned to look at the girl, brows raised in confusion. The girl stared back at him, wide doe eyes begging him to stay. Kaleb gulped. “I-I, uh, I really need to go, meet the curfew or I will be in trouble,” he tried to clarify. The girl merely jutted out her bruised lower lip in a pout. “Is there someplace I can leave you?” He asked, suddenly aware of the drunken eyes and ears they had upon them. The girl shook her head. Kaleb sighed, “Okay then, pack up, you're coming with me.”