A soul collectors love

Amanda pinched herself, as she was trying to suppress her laugh at the little girl mumbling to herself, "This is not neat." She glanced over to see the little one rubbing out her attempt at drawing a house. She was getting frustrated and scolding herself. "Amy, its okay if the house is not the same shape as a square. You can have round houses and rectangle houses. Your house can even be a cloud, as long as you love it." Amanda explains making exaggerated gestures. Amy bursts out laughing and starts immediately drawing a house in the shape of a cloud. "I like my house." Amy beams with pride as she holds up the squiggly picture for me to see. "Me too!" Amanda grins. She glances at her watch and realizes Amy's mom is over two hours late to fetch her and she needs to get home. She sighs. Guess it's one of those nights, she thinks to herself and gets up from her desk to start packing up her things. "Amy, sweetie, pack up your things so we can go, mommy said she wants me to take you home today." Amanda fibs with a smile on her face, trying to hide her concern for Amy and her mom. Amy bounces up and chatters happily as she packs her things so we can leave. Amanda locks up her classroom and they head out to her car through the mostly deserted school. Amanda sees the security guards already locking up and smiles and waves at them. "Bye, Miss Amanda!" he yells forgetting that her surname was Ellis and that she asked him to stop calling her Miss and rather call her Amanda. "Bye, Jack!" She calls back with a bright smile. Her and Amy reach the block of apartments and start walking up to the correct floor. Once they reach it she could already tell why Amy's mother Lizzy couldn't come fetch her. They both slowed their walking as they heard the sound of things breaking in the apartment and the sounds of a man's raised voice. She glances down at Amy to see her pale little face contrasting against her bright pink jacket and her hand clutching Amanda's tighter as if she was her lifeline. Amy's eyes were huge and she halted walking and looked as if she were about to run. Amanda wishes she could take Amy home with her but Amy's dad is a jerk and will report her missing out of spite because let's face it, he doesn't really care about her. All of a sudden the noise stops and little tears begin escaping Amy's eyes. Amanda starts walking to the door and pushes Amy behind her so that her long black coat can hide her in case Ralph answers. She knocks firmly and Lizzy's tear stained face answers, she tries to wipe her face and she's pulling at the sleeves of her robe trying to make them longer to hide the bruises. Amanda searches her face to see if this time she'll come with her and lay a charge of domestic abuse against her intoxicated husband. She casts her eyes to the floor knowing what Amanda is looking for and admitting defeat. Amanda holds in her disappointment. "I know you asked me to bring Amy home earlier but we got carried away drawing houses." Amanda lies while staring at her friend. Lizzy looks up realizing that her friend is covering for her and mouths a 'thank you' before answering, "That's okay, Amy can show me her beautiful drawing, hey baby?" Amy sneaks out from behind Amanda's coat and smiles at her mother. She runs and embraces her and Amanda notices how Lizzy flinches while clutching her side. Classic, Amanda thinks to herself. He always hits her in places he knows won't be seen, even in his drunken state he's manipulative. The only reason Amanda doesn't call the police is because she knows Amy will get taken away from Lizzy and her friend doesn't deserve that. He never hurts Amy because Amanda suspects he knows that will cross the line for Lizzy. She walks away while the two are chattering, she doesn't bother to say goodbye. This exhausts her because she knows it's going to happen again and her heart is going to ache just like it is doing now because her friend thought she found love when she found a monster and her friend now has a daughter to look after so it's even harder to leave. She rubs the back of her neck. Her phone starts ringing and as she glances at caller ID she remembers she forgot to cancel her plans tonight with Anya. "Hey" Amanda answers trying to sound cheerful. "Oh no, you sound like s**t and that is my filter working. So no, you don't get to cancel on me tonight again! I don't care if you're tired. You need a drink! I'll see you in 15." She hangs up before Amanda can say anything and that alone makes her smile, maybe she should go out tonight, it is Friday and she has had a rough day. Amanda drives home and feeds her fur babies before she decides she looks absolutely gorgeous in a black bodycon dress with black wedges, browns and blacks for eye-shadow and her blonde hair lose around her shoulders. She giggles because she can't remember when last she felt this good. She meets Anya at the club and after a couple of drinks, she's dancing on the dance floor, her eyes roaming the crowd. Unexpectedly, she finds her eyes drawn like a magnet to this tall, dark and handsome guy that just strolled in to the club. Their eyes meet and he gives her a sexy grin before dropping down at a reserved booth, the only booth in the club. She found herself curious over why he would reserve a booth, which took forever to book for any normal person, just to sit alone. Maybe he's meeting someone, she scolds herself. Guys like him never fell for plain Jane's like her, she still couldn't help sneaking glances and trying to move a little sexier on the dance floor. She felt his hot gaze on her and she smiled to herself, even though she felt like an i***t she knew it must be working. She didn't know why she wanted his attention, she was happy by herself and she didn't need a man but damn, did she want this one. Her lust must be making her insane, she told herself, as she snuck another glance in his direction and saw his gaze trained on her with a slight up tilt of his lips. She felt sexy in that moment but just as she was waiting for him to join her the song ended and thinking that since he never joined, he probably never planned to she gave up and decided to get some air. Little did she know the attention she attracted was not only one of a sexy man but also one of a man that prey's on young women.