This Is Why I'm Here... 1

I smiled sweetly and continued to look up at him... and I wasn't watching where I was going so I tripped over one of those flat benches, fell on it with a thump and flipped over the rest of the way, landing on my butt.

"Oww...."

Oh yeah... I'm a klutz too.

I stopped and watched her fall, that was my fault, I distracted her. I ran over and started to help her up but I was scared now, I'd caused her to get hurt.

"I'm so sorry, you have no idea how sorry I am!"

"No, no! It's okay!" I sat myself up and grinned at him, giggling some. "I could trip over that with no one around me. I'm just a total klutz! It's not your fault!" I was really laughing at myself though. I'm sure I looked pretty funny!

Why was I shaking so badly?

"Are you sure?" How would I ever confess now? I didn't want her to get hurt again because she was talking to me.

"I'm positive!" I pulled myself to my feet and rubbed my butt. It hurt. "Thanks for asking though. You're really sweet!" I smiled warmly up at him. Kind cute too...

I wondered if my face turned red or not when she said that, my heart was certainly racing. "Ah... aha... I'm glad you're okay..." I had to say something.

I think I blushed some. My face certainly felt hot! I'd never really experienced that before though so I wasn't positive. "So um... you still wanna see the fish?" I asked meekly. I didn't want to pressure him. "If you don't want to, that's okay! We can go somewhere else!"

"No we can still go see the fish." I said with a smile, I felt a little bit shaky still but I supposed it would get better over time.

"Yay!" I couldn't help it! I was always excited to see my buddies! <3

And now I had a friend who wanted to see my buddies too!!

Just then I heard a phone ringing.

"Is that your phone?" I asked.

"Huh? Uh- Oh! Yeah, I guess so!" I reached for it and answered it. "Hello?"

I could hear someone on the other line, her phone wasn't too quiet.

"Katie, it's Mom. We're coming by to pick you because..."

I heard the words 'Ian' and 'In the hospital' but nothing else came out clearly.

I'm sure I turned pale. "M-Mom... calm d-down. What happened?" I gulped, trying to hold back tears until I knew what happened. But something told me it was pretty bad.

"He just stopped breathing and collapsed! The ambulance just took him away and now we're driving down!"

This sounded bad.

I nodded and even though I tried to hold them back, like the big girl I needed to be, I couldn't. I started sobbing. "I-I'm at th-the pet store entrance." I sat down on the bench I'd just tripped over and hung up the phone. I couldn't talk to her right now. She wouldn't be able to understand anything I said!

I felt worried, I was scared for her and I sat down and just sat silent. I knew she wouldn't be able to talk to me.

I don't know what came over me... but I really needed a friend. I grabbed his hand and turned to him, hugging him suddenly. I'm sure I probably startled him. I fully expected him to push me away, but I didn't care. A three second one-sided hug is better than none. T-T "My brother's in the hospital! He j-just collapsed!"

I hugged her back, a bit nervous about it at first but then I felt a little bit better, we were both hugging so that was fine. I wasn't sure what to say to her. I could offer to pray... but that's all I could do.

I cried into his shirt and hugged him tighter. I didn't know this guy from Adam, but he wasn't being mean to me at all. Not like I expected him to be anyway. "I'm s-so s-sorry." I cried. "I'm s-sorry." Every sob seemed to wrack my entire body. I rarely cried this hard. "Y-You shouldn't have to stay." But I wasn't letting go of him. I wanted him to stay because he was the closest thing I had to a friend at that moment. And he almost didn't seem to mind.

That or he was minding it but he just hid it. ._.

She felt so small in my arms, like a fragile doll that was breaking. A saw a car pull up and a woman climbed out and sped walked into the mall.

"Katie!" She called when she saw us.

I wanted to look up, but didn't want mom to see me crying. And I suddenly didn't want this guy to see my crying face. I don't know why... I didn't normally think like that. But I was suddenly nervous around him... like maybe after he saw my emotional breakdown he might not want to talk to me ever again. :(

And we didn't even get to see the fish! T-T

But eventually, I did look up at her. "Momma." I couldn't get more than that out. I become an emotional wreck when it comes to Ian. T-T

"Come on sweetie." Her mom smiled to me a little bit but I could see the pain in her eyes, something I had never seen so prominent before. She took Katie and seemed to hide her face from me as if she knew something I didn't.

I was still holding his hand though and I didn't notice until we started to walk away and I had to let go. I cried harder and hugged my Mom. Why did I act like such a baby when it came to stuff like this?

*Rhema*

"Shh, shh. Don't cry so hard, sweetie, it's scary right now but he's not dead, it's okay." I led her out of the store and to the car. The kids were in the back seat and I left the middle back for her to sit in, right behind me while Kyle was up front.

I sat it the back, trying hard to wipe my tears away when Elijah took my hand and just held it. T^T

"Wh-what could have happened to him?"