Second Best

Little Nathan watched as his drunk father walked passed by him with his shirt stained with blood. His mother's blood of course! He has witnessed those scenes quite a number of times and it heightened his fear and hatred for his father. However, he could not stand up to that man in any way. He rushed to his mother's side when his drunk father left the room. Nathan hugged his mother who was crying and shaking uncontrollably on the floor from behind.

"Mummy, don't cry" he whispered in to her ears with his trembling tiny voice. His mother turned towards him, hugged him, wiped her tears and asked;

"Nathan, will you leave with me?"

"Where are you going, mummy?" little Nathan asked.

"To a place where daddy won't find us" his mother replied.

"I will go with you, mummy" he replied and wiped a tear from his mother's face.

"Go and pack your favorite toys. We are leaving tonight"

Nathan rushed to his room to pack his favorite toys only to hear a loud scream from his mother's room.

******

15 years later

"Nathan!" Elaine shouted running towards Nathan.

Nathan stopped to look in her direction. Elaine has been his friend for as long as he can remember. He watched her running towards him.

"Hey! Slow down" Nathan joked when Elaine caught him in a tight bear hug.

"I really missed you" Elaine said and gave him a peck.

"Where are the others?" Nathan asked ignoring Elaine's previous comment.

"I was about to ask you the same question" Elaine said.

"I don't know if they're both in. But Jeremy's car is packed there" Nathan replied pointing at the blue jeep among the parked cars at the parking lots.

"Yeah! That's his car. He must be around. I can't spot Israel's bike. Can you?" Elaine asked.

"I can't either" Nathan replied as they both tried to spot Israel's bike.

"Hey! How was your holidays? My internship was quite boring. I had to run errands throughout the internship period. Quite annoying!" Elaine complained.

"Well, mine wasn't boring but hectic. I had more than enough work to do. I was almost always busy. I thought you were having a hectic time like myself because I couldn't reach you via phone." said Nathan.

"Busy? Of course! Busily running errands!" Elaine chuckled.

"Let's find Jeremy!" a familiar voice said from behind.

"Sure!" replied Elaine as they both turned to look in the direction of Israel who was approaching them. Elaine hugged Israel when he got to them.

"Israel, I missed you" Elaine said.

"I missed you too" Israel replied.