Could it be?

"Sage?"

I heard my name being called.

"Sage wake up. I brought you the supplies."

It took me a moment to wake up enough to clean my wounds. Once I woke up fully I had Ali help me just  bit. Little does she know I can do it myself, I just want her to help me. Is that weird?  I don;t know. I haven't had very many encounters with people who are good to me. Most of the time when out in the streets. The people passing by will just ignore me or snicker at me. Make fun of me for being homeless. But once in a blue moon, (I live near the south so we use that term a lot, if your not from the southern areas or just don't know what it means it means very rarely.) Good people walk by, they will notice me and care for me. Most of the time they would give me around $20 and buy me some food or new clothing. But Ali was one of those great people. She would help you any way she could. 

"Hey Ali? Do you think you could help me just a bit? I'm still a bit sleepy but it hurts too much to wait any longer to clean it up myself when I'm fully awake."

"Sure thing darling"

I blushed at the new nickname. Maybe her parent call her that so she picked up on it. No need to get my hopes up.

She came closer to me to help clean up my marks. You see no more than a few months ago, a man found me, he tried to take me in, and said  "I wont hurt you I just want to care for you" well turns out all he wanted to do was hurt me. He got out his knifes he used for hunting and carved the name "Francesca" into my back. While he was doing this he was mumbling to himself about how it was for his wife, revenge. I managed to get free from him. I was glad for that.  I still bled though. While I was without shelter or the things I needed to fix myself, it just kept bleeding, every time I moved I ached.   The feel of her hands on my shoulder shocked me. I jumped.

"You were shaking."

I was embarrassed. I was shaking over just thinking about this. Surly she would understand. 

"I'm so sorry Al, its just that well, every time I think of how this all happened I get a little shaky and scared."  I felt myself start to tremble again. 

   "Do you mind telling me what happened?"

"O-Ok   This man once came up to me and said he worked for a foster home. He said he could take me in, he said I could have a look-see around his house and see if I wanted to stay. I went with him because he showed me his card for being in the foster homing community. Once we got back to his place he pinned me to the wall and got out his hunting knives..." At this point I was shaking like dog in the rain. "H-He carved the name Francesca into my back because he wanted revenge for his wife."

"Oh my God, Sage I'm so so sorry. How can I help? Other than helping you clean it up. I will do everything in my power to help you." She bent over and hugged me careful not to touch my back to hard 

It felt nice having a person care for me. Wanting me to be safe. Helping in any way they can. Making sure they don't hurt me more. 

"Just please don't say anything to anyone. I beg of you."

"Oh Hon you don't need to beg. I swear I wont tell anyone I will help you in every way possible. You just have to let me help."

~~~~~~~~~

After having her help me clean up. I got fully dressed into the beautiful blue dress. I had to get a little help for Ali to help me lace up the back. Feeling her warm hands against my back gave me chills. After all that was done we left on our way for the tour. 

"Well as you already know, this is my room!"  I giggled at her. She is just so cute. 

We stared to walk out of her room and she showed me around everywhere.