Heaven Can Wait - Teaser

The moment when they saw each other, exchanging surprised glances, they ran, as fast as they could and embraced each other.

He started to tear up, "I thought I'll never see you again." He mumbled as he buried his face into the side of her neck. 

She, on the other hand, was lost of words. What if he knew the truth? She knew how broken he was when she left; she knew he would always lock himself into his room and sob silently. 

He separated the hug. Only to see her deep in thought.

"I missed you." He said, caressing her shoulders with his hands, radiating warmth. He was then surprised how icy her arms felt.

"I missed you more." She tried her best to pull off a smile, looking into his emerald eyes, which she has fallen so hard for.

"Shall we dance?" he asked, recognizing the soft and comforting music in the background. He then lifted his right hand, looking into her eyes.

She was somehow surprised but still, she placed her left hand into his grasp. He immediately pulled her in, placing his free hand on her small back, as they swayed to the music in sync. She took the opportunity to inhale his scent, reminiscing the familiar smell.

 Their eyes locked, looking at each other with admiration and love.

He then started to lean in, moving his left hand towards her chin, and lightly pushed her chin upwards. 

She knew exactly what he wanted to do. She found herself slowly closing her eyes, leaning herself towards him. 

But before everything could happen, her eyes shot wide open, suddenly remembering that this was all surreal, "Stop." she demanded, struggling herself free from his embrace.

He looked at her, confused. Doubts run wild through his mind. Does she not love me anymore? "W-we can't. We just can't." she looked away, tears threatening to spill out any second as she rubbed her right arm with her left hand.

"Why?" he simply asked.

She swallowed hard, not wanting to tell him the truth, because she too, never want this moment to end. 

"You don't belong here." she whispered. 

We Run

"Bye mom!" i waved my mom goodbye after i got off the car.

"Bye honey, don't he nervous okay?" she smiled at me with both of her hands still on the steering wheel.
I nodded as i closed the passenger door and my mom drove away.

I made my way up the staircase and was greeted with a dark brown door with a see through glass on the top part of it, consuming almost half of the door.

The receptionist immediately recognized me, with a smile.

I slightly dusted my shirt, hoping that i looked somewhat neat and pushed the door open.

Time passed rather quickly and it was time for lunch. I swear i was so hungry that i could swallow a buffalo. I hurried down the staircase and turned to my right, knowing there was a restaurant located near. When i was almost there, i saw a kid.

A kid who looked like he was around 10 or maybe 12. He was seated on the side of the road with a red paper cup in hand, shaking it, seemingly asking for some small changes or coins.

I stopped my track and took a better look at him, he didn't look like those typical beggars. With worn out clothes or dirty faces. He looked very clean, with fresh clothes and comfortable shoes. I walked over and squated down, so that our eyes met.

"Where are your parents?" i asked, knowing that it was not okay leaving your 12 year old child beside the road.

He gave me an empty laugh and said, "My dad is busy. But he will be back."

I looked at him with my brows furrowed.

"Are you hungry then?" i asked again, as i noticed that there wasn't much money in his red paper cup. Enough to buy a piece of bread, but not enough for a meal.

He pursed his lips and nodded, looking down at his shoes.

I then marched towards the restaurant, took away some chinese noodles and walked back to the kid.

"Here," i hand him the noodles. His eyes shone so bright, like as if he hadn't seen food before.

Without hesitation,  he reached over and gobbled down the noodles. I smiled, taking a seat beside him as i watched him finish up his food.

"I feel so full." he blurted after finishing up.

He then looked over at my direction, noticing that i was looking at him.

"Thank you." he mumbled softly, so soft that it almost came out as a whisper.

Slowly, it had become a habit. I would always have lunch with this little kid everyday. I would share stories, tell him whats going on. He would only keep quite, nodding and agreeing to my thoughts and statements. Well he does laugh at my jokes sometimes. I tried searching for him after work, but whenever i reached the spot that he's always at during lunch, he wouldn't be there. I'm worried, I'm not going to lie. There were so many questions that i wanted to ask him but he was so small, so young. The questions just didn't came out of my mouth.

I remembered asking him this question during lunch break one day,

"What would you like to do? Like what is your dream?"

He looked up to the sky and blinked several times due to the sun light.

"Run." He mumbled.

"Run? Are you a good runner?"

"No, but i would love to be." he sighed, shifting his vision towards me.

Realization hit me, the emotions that he was displaying through his hazel eyes, was a mystery.

Was it sadness?

Pain?

Or was it hope?

I just couldn't figure it out. And because of that, i let the topic slide. I didn't want to push it further.

Days passed by, as i noticed he was getting thinner. I tried questioning him, whether his father would feed him and so, but he never really gave me an answer. I thought about asking him about his mother, and i let it slide away too, since he never once mentioned about his mother.

Bruises would appear once in a while when i see him during lunch. Sometimes his cheek will be swollen. 

Sometimes he has scratches on his knuckles. And sometimes he would wince in pain when he tried to walk.

Questioning him was unsuccessful of course. He would never tell me what really happened.

One day i was able to leave my workplace early because of some sort of emergency my boss had. I was very excited of the fact that i could go home and rest early. An idea popped up in my mind, as i walked towards our meeting place during lunch.

I was greeted by a loud roar, a sound of a man yelling. I put my steps on halt and tiptoed towards the meeting 

place.

There was a man, leaning against a white van, holding a red cup that seemed so familiar. Standing opposite to the man, with his head down, was the kid, who i always meet during lunch. I furrowed my brows, trying to understand what is currently happening.

"This is all you got?!" he yelled again, throwing the red paper cup towards the kid.

The kid whimpered, as some of the coins in the paper cup went in contact with his face.

The man then stood up straight and started to hit the kid, cursing.

I stood there, surprised. No, shocked.

The kid was so defenseless, he tried to block the man's fist with his small hands. Of course,  that didn't work.

I curled my hands into fists so tight i swear my knuckles went white. I ran towards the man and pushed him down with all my might. The man fell towards the ground and groaned in pain.

I quickly reached out for the kid, pulling him into a tight embrace. I could feel his tears wetting my clothes.

I then separated the hug and looked him in the eye, "It's time to show me how good of a runner you can be."

With that, we did what we could, we did what we had to.

We ran.