Austin stared at the petite girl currently occupying his couch.

She was wrapped tightly, almost like a burrito, in one of his many flannel blankets. Her coffee coloured locks were still soaking wet and little droplets trickled down the leather material of the couch and onto the tiled floor. Her grey eyes were wide open and nearly bloodshot as she gazed at a dark corner of the house, avoiding eye contact with Austin at all costs. A dark purple and blue bruise surrounded her left eye, the middle of her bottom lip was split, and her cheek was incredibly red and swollen; Austin figured someone had slapped her pretty hard. To add to the already lengthy list of injuries, a long cut ran from her hairline all the way through her eyebrow and finally ended right on her purple eyelid; he knew it was going to leave a gnarly scar. Despite the warmth that radiated throughout his house on this cold, winter day, she continued to shiver violently and uncontrollably. Austin watched as tears poked at the corners of her eyes; she tried to quickly wipe them away before he could notice, but it was no use.

Austin was well aware of her pain.

"You never told me your name," He said abruptly and she flinched at his naturally gruff voice.

She glanced at Austin timidly, "Ava."

If he hadn't been listening closely he probably wouldn't have even heard her hushed voice. Being constantly surrounded by rowdy, tattooed, and usually drunk or stoned men meant Austin was just used to people being so loud all the fucking time and for some reason this bashful, silent girl was like a breath of fresh air.

"What were you doing hanging off of a bridge?" Austin asked without really thinking, "Were you trying to kill yourself?"

She scoffs, "I was trying to escape."

"Escape what?"

She gazed at him for a few seconds before turning her focus back to the dark corner that she had been previously staring at.

There was no doubt in Austin's mind that she was recalling the events that had led up to her suicide attempt.

"I was trying to escape from everything."

****

Ava's throat burned horribly as she ran as fast as she could from the atrocious house that contained all of her demons. Tears trickled down her face and her nose became runny as she neared her destination; a vacant bridge built over a river. She slowly came to a halt as the bottoms of her cut up feet came into contact with the unstable wooden planks of the bridge. Sobs escaped from the back of her throat as she firmly gripped the safety railing on the bridge. As she continued to cry, her sobs soon turned into pained screams; Ava was making the same noises an animal would make if they were being tortured.

She definitely felt as if she had been tortured these past five years.

"Just do it," Ava whispered as she gazed into the chaotic river. It seemed pretty deep, but she figured since she was a horrible swimmer that even if she did make the drop, the heavy currents would easily drown her.

Without even thinking, Ava climbed the pathetic excuse for a safety rail and hunched over to get a better look at the river. Her ragged breaths evened out as she considered just giving up on life; anything is better than this pain, right? Ava closed her eyes and relished within the darkness, wondering if this is what death was like.

Black; nothing but a dark abyss.

She leaned forward and swung her legs over the rails.

"Hey!" A naturally gruff voice called out to her, "Please don't do whatever you're thinking about doing!"

She wiped her eyes and cringed when she remembered that her left eye was bruised and there was blood trickling into her eyeball. She glanced over her shoulder and gazed at the man standing a few feet away from her. Though her vision was blurry, Ava immediately noticed how worried the stranger seemed, like he genuinely cared about this girl he had never met. He was definitely intimidating with his large stature and the tattoos that covered his arms and neck. She didn't say anything as he approached her slowly and cautiously. Ava must have either looked like a total lunatic or completely terrified because he held his hands up in surrender, silently telling the suicidal girl that he meant no harm.

Ava wiped the blood from her eye as he stared at her with soft eyes.

"It's okay," He said and held his hand out towards her, "I won't hurt you."

"I don't know you."

"Exactly," He spoke softly, "Why would I hurt a stranger?"

"You promise you won't hurt me?"

He nodded vigorously, "I promise, please just get down from there."

She broke down and climbed down from the wooden railing, grabbing his large hand with her much smaller one. Without another word, the taller man pulled her into a tight hug and cradled the back of her head to his warm chest as she started to cry again.

"I care about you," He cooed as Ava wrapped her thin arms around his mid section and sobbed, "You matter."

Ava shook her head against his chest, "I don't."

"Yes you do," He argued, "Whatever the reason for wanting to end your life is... it's not worth it, I can tell you that right now."

****

"Do you want to talk about it?" Austin asked softly, feeling awkward in his own home. Her red lips parted and Austin thought for sure she was going to speak, but she promptly closed her mouth and shook her head.

"I just want to sleep," She said in her miniscule voice.

"Okay," Austin said with a small smile, "If you want you can take my room or the guest bedroom."

She sat up and ran her hand through her wet hair, "I can take the guest bedroom, I don't mind."

Austin grabbed her hand for the second time in the same night and led her down the hall and to the guest bedroom that still wasn't completely finished. The walls were still completely bare, boxes were still unpacked, and the only furniture in the room was a queen sized bed and an entertainment stand with a flat screen hanging above it. There were a couple picture frames sitting on the entertainment stand, along with a few notebooks. Though he had lived in this house for nearly a year after his divorce, he had never bothered decorating the guest bedroom. Austin glanced at Ava sheepishly, but she didn't seem to care about her surroundings at all.
It was clear that she just wanted to sleep and never wake up again.

Austin scrambled through one of the cardboard boxes in search of some clothes the petite lady could wear to bed. She stood awkwardly in the middle room with the damp blanket still wrapped around her shivering body.

"Uh," Austin hummed as he pulled an old Slayer t-shirt and a pair of boxers out of one the boxes, "Hopefully these won't be too big on you."

Ava's grey eyes widened as she grasped the fresh pair of clothes in her tiny hands, "Why are you being so nice to me?"

The way she said it made Austin's heart break, like she had never experienced the genuine kindness from another stranger.

"Because you're a human being," Austin shrugged, "And you've clearly been through a lot of shit, it's only fair that you have one person in your life that cares about you."

Her eyes glossed over as she tried not to cry, "Thank you"

Austin smiled and the skin near the corners of his eyes crinkled, "Anytime."

Ava offered the tall man a tiny smile and he immediately noticed the dimples in her red cheeks.

A soft spot immediately grew in his heart for this beautiful girl.