Harrison paced the small dim space, constantly looking up to the door and then back to the floor. He was excited to see Lili, but he was also nervous. She was so easily scared he didn't want her to be upset by him again. Plans and ideas ran through his head of how to make her more comfortable, but everything sounded stupid as soon as he thought of actually applying it to the situation in that room.

After what felt like hours, the door slowly swung open and Lili was pushed inside by a man holding what looked like a cattle prod. Lili's hands were bound together by huge metal shackles and Harrison had to restrain himself from immediately running to her aid, thinking it best to wait for her to be alone before he attempted any sort of intervention. The door slammed behind her and Lili jumped as though shocked. She scurried to the corner, hiding from both Harrison and the doorway.

Quietly and very slowly Harrison moved towards her crumpled form in the corner. "Lili?" he called softly once he was within a few feet of where she sat. Her eyes flashed up, wide and curious, then her anger and hatred glazed back over them and she returned her gaze to her wrists. Maybe she remembered her name, thought Harrison, maybe he could get through to her.

Bridging the last few feet between them felt as perilous as crossing an old rope bridge over a chasm. Harrison was within a foot of Lili when she aggressively began to bite at the skin of her fingers, drawing blood. She stared at the blood, focused as if she thought she could make it move. Harrison just watched her struggle and the longer she stared at her blood the more flustered and desperate she became.

Harrison closed the gap between them and she immediately kicked out, hitting him in the shoulder, but this time he was prepared for it. He resisted her kick and reached for her handcuffs. Lili whipped her arms up into his jaw, causing his head to spin a bit as he reached once again towards her. "I'm trying to help you!" he yelled in frustration. She froze. "I'll take them off," he whispered, collecting himself and internally reprimanding his outburst seconds before.

Lili continued to just stare at him, her eyes a mixture of hate and fear. He reached out his hands very slowly towards her and gently pulled her handcuffs towards him. Lili kept leaning as he pulled her arms forward until she was against his chest and he felt the wetness of her tears on his shirt. Then the world began to spin.

Harrison found himself in a dark hallway, holding Lili close to him as she hugged him and cried in the corner behind some lockers. He gently ran his hand through her hair as her sobs began to shake her body harder and harder. It began to all come back to him. He loved Lili, this girl who he wanted to help ever since he met her.

She always made poor choices in boys and he had grown tired of watching her hurt while her friends did nothing to help her get over her bad habits. This most recent time, Mark had tried to force himself on her in the school theater after hours. She had come bursting out of the auditorium into the hallway just as Harrison was snapping the lock back onto his locker. He caught her as she ran towards the exit and the force of her grief knocked them both into the corner where they now sat.

Mark had not yet left the auditorium or maybe he had gone another way out. Harrison felt rage boiling in his gut as once again another 'man' hurt Lili. He wished with all his heart as he held her that she would just choose him and he would never hurt her.

Harrison had been ready for months to throw everything he had with Claire for the chance of getting Lili to love him back. Lili threw herself so readily and fully into everything she did, how could anyone not love this girl who had so much love she was willing to pour into everyone else?

The door down the hallway banged open as Mark stomped his way out the opposite direction from where Harrison held Lili. Harrison pulled away from her and ran down the hall after Mark. "Get back here you f***ing coward!" Harrison roared at Mark's quickly disappearing back. Mark spun around, "yeah? What the f*** you goin' to do? Cry on me?" he laughed at his last comment. Harrison had caught up to Mark and swung his fist straight into his jaw. Mark turned like a top before crumpling to the floor, sniveling and trying to crawl away.

"You'll get expelled for this s***," Mark groaned, still slithering across the linoleum floor. Harrison could no longer see, his rage boiled so hot in his veins, he moved towards Mark and began to kick his ribs with everything he had. Each kick was every bit of hatred he felt for guys like Mark and every part of him that loved Lili, the two parts of Harrison dancing together with the rage of an erupting volcano.

Harrison lost track of time until two arms pulled him back away from Mark, his vision cleared and he turned to see Lili holding him, her eyes swimming with tears, yet she held him in a firm grasp that made his rage cool faster than hot metal in freezing water. Harrison was suspended for a week after that outburst, but his love for Lili only grew stronger.

Harrison shook his head and there was Lili, her handcuffed wrists resting on his leg. He had remembered part of who they were and why he wanted to be with her. It became very clear to him from that moment on this wasn't something they had willingly volunteered for, Lili was trapped, and so was he.