Run Away Child

Low Iron

“Okay?”

“She dumped me for my best friend.”

“Wow, that’s not okay. What’s her name?”

“Lillian.”

“Huh.”

“And now she is walking over here.”

I saw a short brunette walk over and she was kind of pretty. She had light brown eyes and fair skin. 

“Hey Daniel.”

“What do you want?”

“That’s no way to talk to a girl.”

“Considering the fact that you dumped me for my best friend, I should have just walked away.”

“Look I said I was sorry. I just lost feelings for you and he was there.”

“You slept with him while we were still together!”

“I didn’t mean-”

“Look honey, I don’t care who you are or whatever you did. I suggest that you get out of here right now cause I'm already bored of you. Goodbye.”

“And you are?”

“His girlfriend. So I would suggest that you leave.”

I slid next to him and gave him the ‘just run with it’ look.

“Girlfriend?”

“Yeah. I moved on.”

“Since when?”

“It’s none of your business.”

“I don’t believe you. She looks like a child.”

“If I were I would still be more mature than you because I don’t sleep with his best friends.”

She looked like she was going to rip my head off.

“Now, go away because we have to get back to work.”

She glared at me then looked at Daniel.

“I’ll see you later Daniel.”

“No you won’t.”

She stomped away and he started laughing. 

“What?”

“Girlfriend? You are dating someone.”

“First thing that popped in my head and I really was bored of her.”

“She looked like she was going to kill you.”

“I'm used to it.”

“Thank you. You really didn’t have to do that.”

“Hey, we are friends now. I will do anything to protect my friends.”

He smiled. 

“Well, we have to get back to work.”

“You’re right.”

I walked away and continued restocking the shelves then I saw Jordan. He walked over with my coffee and in his football pads and tee shirt.

“Hey pretty lady.”

“Hey yourself.”

“Grabbed you a coffee and wanted to ask how work is going so far.”

“It’s good. Daniel’s ex girlfriend needs to be put in her place though.”

“Not your problem.”

“I know but she walked around him like she owns him and I don’t like it.”

“One of the many things that I love about you is that you want to help everyone but you can’t. Let him deal with his own problems because he is a grown man.”

“Fine, you’re right. How was practice?”

“It was decent. Coach was super mad today.”

“Why?”

“Because the team was more focused on the cheerleaders than the practice.”

“Well I know you weren’t because you have a psycho girlfriend who will cut you and kill them.”

“Yep. Only a few of the other boys and I were paying attention to the practice and not them.”

“Well what was different about them today?”

“Booty short and they were working out and not practicing.”

“Do I need to whip them back to focus?”

“Nope. Coach made them run laps.”

“Good.”

“Well, I'm going to go home and take a shower then change because I'm pretty sure I smell like sweat. I love you and I’ll be here to pick you up.”

“I love you too.”

He gave me a kiss then walked out. I finished restocking then worked at the register. Daniel walked over to me.

“Hey, you really don’t have to help me.”

“I know and I talked to Jordan. He told me that I can’t help everyone and that I should let you handle it so I was going to talk to you later but here you are.”

“Well listen to Jordan because he’s right.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll let you know if I need you to knock someone out though.”

“Haha, okay.”

“I saw the video on WorldStar. I saw the hair and I recognized Jordan’s voice.”

“Oh God. That’s not okay.”

“Yeah, well my shift is over so I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay, good night.”

“Good night.”

He left and I was sitting there waiting to ring someone. It was a slow night because it was a weekday. My shift was over so I clocked out and said goodbye to Robbie. I walked out and saw Jordan sitting on the hood of his car and then I saw Daniel’s ex waiting on the other side of her car. She walked up to me.

“I know.”

“What?”

“That you are cheating on Daniel.”

“What?”

“With that boy over there.”

“Honey, get out of my face.”

“Just admit it.”

“Fine, Daniel and I aren’t dating. I said that so you would leave him alone because I was sick and tired of hearing your voice like I am right now. So get out of my face or else I will knock your teeth out.”

I walked away and walked up to Jordan.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“You look tired.”

“Yep, long day.”

“Wanna go pick something up for dinner?”

“Nope, why don’t we cook?”

“Are you sure?”

“Yep, you didn’t set the kitchen on fire and didn’t burn anything the last time and I'm a great cook.”

“Alright.”

He slid off and kissed me. He walked me to my side and opened the door for me.

“Here you are.”

“Well thank you.”

He shut my door then walked around. He got in and drove home. I got out of the car and walked upstairs and opened the door. I walked to the couch and sat down and got comfortable. I took my shoes off and Jordan walked to the kitchen. 

“How do you feel about homemade Chinese food? We have everything we need.”

“Sounds really good.”

I got up and walked to the kitchen. He was grabbing everything out of the cabinets and the fridge. He looked at me then smiled.

“What?”

“You are the cutest thing in the world.”

“Nope, all you.”

“Well we are both cute and you are a better cook than me.”

“Now that is the truth.”

“That was mean.”

“Babe, you failed at making Mac and Cheese.”

“That was once and that was years ago.”

“But you still failed at making it.”

He glared at me and I laughed. I got up and started making the rice while I supervised him making the shrimp. We put the shrimp in with the rice and slowly added in soy sauce and other ingredients. I put it on our plates then he looked at me.

“What?”

“This looks amazing.”

“We did a good job.”

We sat there and ate our diner. He was cleaning the kitchen up and I took a shower. As soon as I got out he was sitting on the bed on his phone waiting for me. He looked up and he looked upset.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s Ollie.”

I started getting dressed while he was talking to me.

“What happened?”

“He is talking about people on social media and he said something about me and you.”

“What did he say?”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll deal with it.”

“Jordan.”

I was dressed so I turned and looked at him.

“Let me handle this one.”

I walked up to him and grabbed his face.

“You can handle this one. I just want to know what he said.”

He kissed me.

“Don’t worry about it.”

“I'm going to because he said something-”

He pulled me onto his lap and started kissing me. He wrapped his arms around me and I tangled my fingers in his hair. I pulled away and hugged him. I tried to get up but he wouldn’t let me go. 

“Jordan, let me go.”

“No.”

I leaned on him which made him lie down and me on top of him. He continued to hold onto me as he was laying down.

“Jordan.”

“Mine.”

“I know I am your girlfriend but I have to get up.”

“But why?”

“I have to finish getting ready for bed and go to sleep.”

“Nope.”

He pulled my face closer to his and started kissing me. He rolled me off of him and lied on top of me.

“Now you can’t move.”

He continued kissing me and started running his hands down my body trying to pull off my shirt.

“Not tonight.”

“Okay.”

He continued kissing me and pinned my arms behind my head. He kissed my neck a little bit, making me moan. He kissed me one more time and then got off of me. He walked over to the dresser and took his ring off.

“Why are you taking that off?”

“To put lotion on. Relax bubby.”

“I told you.”

I pushed him against the wall and started kissing his neck then whispered.

“Stop calling me that.”

He picked me up and put me on the bed. He kissed me again and put lotion on then put his ring back on. He got in bed and turned his lamp off. I got up and walked to my side, turned mine off, and crawled into his arms. I started thinking about what I should get him.

He kissed my head and pulled me closer to him. I wrapped my arm around him and he pulled my leg on his. He left his hand on it and wrapped the other one around my arms. I fell asleep to him running his fingertips along my arm.

I fell asleep then I felt Jordan moving then getting up. I looked at him and it looked like he was going somewhere. I decided that I wasn’t going to say anything but I remembered that we have ‘find my friends’ on our phones so I could track him down. He grabbed his keys then left so I pulled my phone out and tracked him.

I called one of his boys.

“Sophia? It’s midnight.”

“Where is Jordan going?”

“I'm not-”

“No, don’t lie to me. Is he going to Ollie’s house?”

“Sophia I-”

“Noah I'm not joking right now. If he isn’t going to Ollie’s house then where is he going?”

“I don’t know but it’s nothing serious.”

“What did Ollie say?”

“Sophia, not a chance.”

“Noah I swear to God I will beat the brakes off of you. What did Ollie say about me?”

I heard him sigh.

“You have to promise that you won’t do anything.”

“I already told Jordan that this is his fight. So please just tell me.”

“He called you some nasty names that I am not going to repeat and then he said ‘She is just going to mess up another man's career and move onto the next guy. She will be nothing but a train wreck and a little girl who thinks she is all that but in all reality she is nothing but a homie hopping hussie. Who’s next? Kyle, Mikie, Alex?’ That is word for word what he said and I read it from the screenshot.”

I sat there in shock.

“Are you still there?”

“I'm here. I don’t know what to say.”

“Please, please don’t tell anyone that I told you. They will kill me.”

“Who is they?”

“The group. No one wanted to tell you because we all know you and you would beat him until he was in a coma and you would have lost your scholarship.”

“Is Jordan going over there to fight him? Yes or no Noah?”

“Yes. he asked if a few of us would go with him.”

“Who?”

“Kyle, Brandon, Mirza, Katie, Kenna, Alex, Liam, Brody, and Mike.”

“Oh my God.”

“Now they aren’t just fighting him because he said that about you, he said something about everyone.”

“They are going to kill him.”

“Whatever you are thinking, don’t. They didn’t want you to be there for a reason. Stay home and Jordan will come back.”

“Thank you Noah. I won’t tell them anything and I’ll delete this call from my history.”

“Thank you and good night.”

“Good night.”

I hung up and deleted the call. I got up and walked to the living room. I sat down and waited a little while watching his tracker. I got back up and made some coffee because I was going to stay up until I knew he was home and okay. I waited a few hours then I saw that he was almost home.

I heard his car door and him walking. His keys jangled as he opened the door.

“Jordan.”

He looked at me and looked utterly terrified. There was a bruise on his cheek.

“I thought you were asleep.”

“I was but I'm a light sleeper remember?”

I got up and wrapped my arms around him. 

“I'm just glad you are okay.”

I pulled away and looked at his cheek. 

“God he got you good.”

“It’s nothing.”

I touched the skin around it and he winced.

“That’s not nothing. Follow me.”

I grabbed his hand and walked him to the kitchen. He sat down as I made him coffee and an ice pack. He put it on his face and sipped his coffee.

“So? What happened?”

“I called some of our friends who told me that we need to do something about it. We showed up and apparently he knew that we were coming so he had a few of his boys waiting for us when we got there. 

We all fought and he hit me first.”

“What did you do to him?”

“He’s not going to be at school tomorrow and neither is a few of his little friends.”

“I don’t know how I should feel about that.”

“Well he deserved it and they did too because they defended him.”

“I know.”

“How did you know?”

“Tracker on your phone remember?”

“I should have turned it off.”

“Never do that. Because I will literally go crazy. I was okay knowing that you were there and I felt a little bit better.”

“I'm sorry.”

I leaned across the island and kissed him.

“It’s okay.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes now let’s head to bed.”

“Okay.”

I put his cup in the sink and the ice pack back in the freezer. We walked back to the room and he lied down. I lied down next to him and pulled him onto my lap and played with his hair until he fell asleep. I fell asleep knowing that he was okay and that he wasn’t doing anything other than sleeping in my arms.

I woke up to my alarm going off and thank god it was friday because that meant that we were going to go out to a pre football parking lot party. Basically meaning all of the football players and their girlfriends get kicked out of every parking lot in town and sent home, but in reality we usually go to someone's house, and have a small party and the next day have the football game. It’s always super fun and I love it.

I was getting the coffee ready then I heard a noise in the room.

“Jordan? Are you okay?”

There wasn’t any noise coming from the room so I walked back.

“Jordan?”

He was lying on the floor and wasn’t moving. I ran to his side and lifted up his head and tried shaking him awake.

“Jordan! Wake up!”

I shook him a little bit longer and he opened his eyes.

“Sophia?”

I started crying and hugged him.

“I thought you died.”

“What?”

“You were lying on the floor and you weren’t moving. I was so scared.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes. We are going to the hospital.”

“Is it that serious?”

“We don’t know what caused this so yes. I'm calling us off of school so get dressed.”

I got up and he slowly got up.

“Do you want water?”

“Sure.”

I ran to the kitchen and grabbed him a water bottle. I came back and handed it to him. While he got dressed I called the school.

“Hello this is Sophia Jones. I am calling to call myself and Jordan Hernandez off of school for the day because we have to go to the hospital. I will give you a note Monday. Thank you and have a great rest of your day.”

I hung up and threw on a pair of his sweats and one of my shirts. I didn’t put any makeup on and I threw on my Nike’s.

“Ready Jordan?”

“Yep.”

He came out clinging onto the wall. I grabbed his hands and held him up and walked out to the car. I drove to the hospital and we walked in.

“Hello, how can I help you?”

“Hello, my boyfriend collapsed this morning and we would like to find out if it was serious or not.”

“Fill this out and we will be with you as soon as possible.”

“Thank you.”

I took the form from her and we sat down in the waiting room. We filled out the paper and I handed it back to her. I sat back down and my leg started shaking. He put his hand on my leg and leaned on me. I rubbed his head and kissed him trying to comfort him.

“Jordan Hernandez?”

I grabbed his hand and we walked over to the nurse.

“Room 302B. Follow me please.”

We followed the nurse to the room and Jordan sat down on the bed and I sat next to him in the chair. She asked us a bunch of questions and we answered all of them. She walked out and Jordan looked at me.

“This was our room last time.”

“I know.”

“Are you okay?”

“I'm thinking the same thing about you. I hope it isn’t anything serious and it’s something that won’t cause you any damage or causes you to have surgery.”

“Me too. But let’s hope for the best.”

The doctor walked and continued to talk to us about what happened.

“So Mr. Hernandez, does anyone in your family have Iron-deficiency anemia?”

“My grandfather on my mom’s side and my grandmother on my dad’s side. Why?”

“Well I'm positive that you have low iron and you fainted.”

“So it’s nothing super serious?”

“No, but we have to run a few tests.”

Jordan looked at me and his eyes sparkled. 

“Thank you doctor and I am okay with taking a few tests.”

“Perfect. Follow me.”

We walked with the doctor and it turns out that he was right and he had low iron. We just have to keep it up and he has to take medication for it. We left and went back home. I made him some meat that had high iron in it and handed him one of his pills. He went to the room and lied down.

“Sophia.”

“Yeah?”

“Come here.”

I walked to the room and he looked like he was going to explode.

“What’s wrong?”

“Is it true?”

“Is what true?”

“That you are cheating on me with your coworker Daniel.”