My stomach was in knots as I climbed the stairs and made my way up to the door of Hawk's apartment. You've been in town for a while now, I thought. You need to go see him and you should've done this sooner. I shake off the anxiety and knock on the door.

"Whoa," Hawk says as he opens the door, leaning his head on it.

"Hey," I said, trying to keep cool.

"Hi," Hawk says again. "Alison."

"Hey, I was in the neighborhood." I say walking into his apartment.

"You were in the neighborhood?" Hawk laughs, closing the door and walking in after me. "You better tell me that your phone's been broken."

"I've been busy." I respond.

"I texted you like a million times, asshole. Where have you been?"

"Oh please, its only been a few months, Hawk." I say walking over to his window."

"What, I can't worry about you?"

The pink glow from the neon lights hide the blush that spreads to my cheeks. "You were worried about me? That's cute."

Hawk gives a light chuckle but speaking again. This time, his tone was softer. "How's life? How's school and all that?"

I look down at my shoes and chew on my lip, thinking what to say. "I stopped participating in the educational process."

"What? Why?"

I finally turn around to look at Hawk. "I couldn't hang with all those prep school brats."

"That's bullshit," Hawk says. "You and I both know that you're way smarter than those kids."

I smile lightly before looking to the floor again, biting down on my bottom lip.

"What happened?" Hawk asks, his tone serious.

"I don't know," I shrug, still looking at the floor. "They're just not nice people."

"Okay, no school." Hawk says. "So what are you doing with your life? Who are you hanging out with?"

"I don't know, I found a new crowd." I explain. "Some people I met online."

Hawk looks at me for a moment, almost studying me.

"So, what about you?" I ask, changing the subject. "Any girls?"

"Well, the girl I was talking to decided to write me a letter, slip it under my door, and then ditch town." Hawk explains. "She always talked about how she wanted to run away, I just-"

"Thought you could save her?"

Hawk laughed for a moment before quietly whispering, "Yeah."

"Look," I say moving to sit down on the couch. "I'm really sorry I didn't call when I heard about Dunbar. I listened to your voicemail and I just... I got busy and it was selfish. I'm sorry."

Hawk gave me a small smile, sitting down next to me.

"You were always so nice to him at camp when everyone else wasn't." I continue. "I thought that was sweet." I lean my head on the back of the couch. I found myself thinking about all the things that have happened since this past summer.

"You've been biting your lip a lot tonight." Hawk says, reaching up and touching my chin. I release my bottom lip from my teeth, not even realizing that time that I had started biting it. "What is it?"

"I just missed you," I reply.

"Don't do that, Alison." Hawk said getting up.

"Don't what?" I ask, sitting up.

"How long have we known each other?" Hawk begins. "Like ten years?"

I nod.

"So don't come back here, after not answering my texts or calls, and just to say that you missed me."

I forgot how blunt Hawk could be sometimes.

"Something is clearly wrong, you've been a wreck since you walked in the door. So if you want to be honest with me about what's going on with you, I'm gonna ask you again."

Hawk gave me a moment before asking again, "What's wrong?"

Light tears begin to gather in my eyes and I chew on my bottom lip again as I look down and tug on my sweatshirt sleeves.

"You said you were having problems with the prep school brats?"

I nod.

"What happened?"

"I wasn't like the rest of them, Hawk," I begin, pulling my sweastshirt sleeve over my hand to wipe a tear that began to fall. "I don't come from a family with money who goes out on their yacht with their bouchée yacht club friends. I mean, I was there on scholarship."

"Yeah," Hawk said. "And?"

I look up at him. "You know how can kids can be when something or someone is different."

He gives me a look of understanding.

"So anyway, I tried all these things to cope and none of it worked, so I just left."

"What do you mean you tried all these things to cope?"

I shrugged, looking down and began to tug on my sweatshirt sleeves again.

"Can I see?" Hawk asks, reaching a hand out.

Before I could even respond, one of his large hands is gently holding on to my wrist as his other is carefully pulling my sweatshirt sleeve up. I hiss as the fabric passes over my raw skin.

I look up, nervously, at Hawk to get a glimpse of what he was thinking. Thankfully, he didn't look horrified. If anything, he looked heartbroken and almost guilty.

"Hawk, none of this is on you."

"Some of those look pretty fresh." Hawk said, getting up and walking into his bathroom. "Do you take care of them?"

I snorted out a small awkward laugh.

"You know they could get infected, right?" Hawk said again, returning to the couch with a first aid kit.

"I know," I whisper.

Hawk stops for a moment. "Look, I'm not here to judge you, alright?"

I look up at him and nod.

Hawk gently takes my arm and lays it across his lap. He dips a piece of gauze into some water and gently presses it onto my arm. I grimace.

"Is it bad?" Hawk asks.

I shake my head, biting down hard on my lip.

He removes the wet gauze and presses a dry piece on, soaking up the extra water and blood. He then began the process of applying some antibacterial ointment onto each mark and covering them with a band-aid.

"Looks like you found yourself a girl to save." I said quietly as he applied the last band-aid.

"No," Hawk said quietly, gathering all the wrappers together to throw in the garbage. I watched him quickly clean up all the garbage and set the first aid kid aside. Finally, he sat down next to me and took my chin rubbing the soft spot under my lips so I would release them from my teeth.

"You're not just a girl for me to save," Hawk whispered, wiping away at some of the silent tears that were falling. "You are so much more than that."

More tears gather in my eyes and my bottom lip lightly quivers. Hawk looks down at my patched up arm and gently pulls down my sweatshirt sleeve before gathering me into his arms. I allowed more quiet tears to fall as Hawk lightly rubbed my back.

After a few moments, Hawk sat back and looked at me, wiping again at the tears that had fallen. "You have to promise me," he said quietly, but with his typical intensity. "That you are not just gonna disappear again."

I nod.

"I mean it, Ali." he said, still strong. "You know that I will be here for you whenever you need me to be and for whatever reason. But that does not mean that you get to appear and disappear in and out of my life as you please. Can I count on you to stay?"

I look up at him and see some sort of desperation appear in his eyes as he asked that final question. "Yes." I respond quietly.

Hawk broke out into a bright smile and embraced me once again.

"Now," he said releasing me from his grip. "What's the plan?"

"Plan?" I ask.

"Yeah," he replied, raising his eyebrows. "For starters, I think its bullshit that you don't wanna finish high school."

I looked down and couldn't help the big smile that spread across my face, my cheeks red from embaressment once again.

"See? I knew it!" he exclaimed.

I rolled my eyes, shoving his shoulder lightly.

"How about this?" he asks. "Come back to school with me."

"I don't know what my parents are gonna think-"

"I think they'll be happy that their daughter is going to finish high school."

"Yeah," I nod. "But how will I get caught up?"

"Well," Hawk says again, leaning in slightly. "I know this guy who's like a great tutor and I think I can get you in with him."

"Oh yeah?" I ask, raising an eyebrow and giving a playful grin.

"But you're gonna have to do something first." Hawk replies, his tone becoming serious once again. "You're gonna promise to go talk to someone about everything that's going on in your head." he said, reaching up and lightly touching my forehead. "And second, you're gonna promise to let me in and help you through it."

I smile again, not playfully, but with hope and expectation that my life might be taking a turn for the better. "I promise."