Worry

Benji

The conversation was still loud in my memory to this day. I’d never heard her sound so scared and after that night I never let her stay late again on her own. There were repercussions for starting a shelter like the one I had in a not so glamorous part of the city. The kids I watched over tended to have unsavory friends, and those friends weren’t the sort to come to a place like my shelter for help. They would rather take what they wanted and damn the consequences and the people they hurt in the process.

I showed up at the shelter after the cops. Heather was standing out in the yard with a blanket over her shoulders giving her statement when I parked and got out of my truck. I ran to her but was blocked by two officers. After telling them who I was and being waved over by the cop talking to Heather, I rushed to her side and found myself being nearly squeezed to death in her arms. She had a tighter grip than I would have expected.

I still felt guilty even now over how scared she