Rescue- Runaways 2

Chapter 10: Aaliyah

"Hey, I'm heading outside again," Peyton stated after fifteen minutes of waiting in silence. It didn't sound like they were shouting anymore. In fact, they were speaking in hushed whispers.

"You'll have to go through there," Luke nodded toward the main room. She rolled her eyes.

"I know."

"I'll come with," I offered.

"No, I'll just go by myself," she countered.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Fine." Her eyes shot daggers in my direction.

"Don't lie to me," I answered firmly. "I said I'd go with you." Peyton didn't protest, she just turned toward the doorway. I heard her let out a small sigh of exasperation. When we entered the main room, we were greeted by five pairs of intimidating eyes.

"Can we just head outside?" I asked tentatively. Reese shrugged as if to say, why not? We hurried out, avoiding getting any closer to Clayson than we had to. Luckily, he was more or less in a corner.

We emerged into the open air only to find that it was cloudy, and the air was sticky as though it had just rained. Peyton immediately pulled off her hoodie. I averted my eyes, trying to ignore the fact that there were now cuts on her right arm too. I had to hope she'd stop eventually. Telling her to do so seemed to do about as much good as rubbing salt in a wound.

"Are you okay?" I asked again, more gently this time. She shrugged.

"Just a little mad and confused but we can't do anything about that until that weird pervert leaves." I nodded. Instead of walking farther out like we had the last time, we simply headed to the nearby woods and sat in the shade of a large tree.

"Hope there aren't any snakes here," she joked flatly. I didn't reply. 

We sat in silence for a while until we heard rain coming our way through the trees. I started to get up to leave but Peyton grabbed my arm. "Please stay out here with me," she whispered. I sat back down next to her.

"I want to talk to you, you know," I said. She gave me a half-smile.

"Same."

I took her hand in mine, using my other hand to trace my fingers along some of the fresher wounds. She winced, but not in pain. "You do this to yourself because of me, don't you? Please, don't tell me no because I think I already know the answer." I hoped that didn't come out sounding harsh.

"There are a lot of reasons. It's complicated," she muttered. "One of them is having to face the reality that for the first time in my life, I'm attracted to someone of the same sex. That reason brings to light the memories of how awful I was to you when I first met you, but much more to Marcus when I was dating him, and when he came out to me. It reminds me of how I tried to change him for months, and if I tell him what's going on now, he'll call me a hypocrite."

"He will absolutely not and if he does, I'll break his nose. Reese said I was pretty good at throwing punches yesterday." I was only half joking. She sighed. "Peyton, you have to forgive yourself. For that and for everything else that's weighing you down. This isn't healthy. We've all forgiven you ten times over." I tenderly adjusted my fingers, so they interlocked with hers.

"I guess I felt like I should be punished, so this is what I started doing."

"You don't have to punish yourself. I know I've already forgiven you, and in no way would any of us, even Eli, want you to do this to yourself because you think you deserve it. You don't, I swear to you. You're one of the kindest people I've ever met."