Please Don't Leave Me

I like to think myself a reasonable person.
I like to think myself more inclined to settle disputes diplomatically.
But there is only one time, one, that I can safely say I lost it.
They made her cry. I wanted them to burn.
She walked by me that day, after she'd gotten off the bus.
I was about to ask her why she looked away when I saw her face.
Bruised, right on the cheek, in a hand-shaped mark. I saw red.
I ran to her, shoving people out of the way as I followed her behind the bleachers,
where she went when she didn't want other people to find her.
I found her there, sobbing against one of the pillars.
I walked up and touched her shoulder. She flinched.
Whatever I was feeling that day, it started there.
Someone had hurt her, and that was all I could think of.
Someone had made her scared enough to run away from me.
"hey, it's alright, I'm here now." She turned around, and I saw it again.
The same look she'd had so long ago, when she thought she would never live,
hopelessness, my little sunshine was feeling hopeless.
I drew her to me, wanting to help her, to get rid of it forever.
"Don't worry, I'm here for you." She shuddered once, but relaxed into my arms.
She held me for awhile before she started to talk.
They'd done this to her, they made her cry.
Each and every one of them had hit her somewhere.
I saw and felt them. One on each arm, two on her back,
And one right across her cheek. 
How a girl's family could do that was beyond me.
How her parents, her brother, could do this...
I wanted them all to burn for it.
And then she unmade me with her next whisper.
"I told them about you..." and the world fell apart.
I can't describe the feeling adequately. That level of pain.
I just wanted to hold onto her, apologize to her, she felt hopeless.
"They told me that no one could love me," My heart beat once.
"They told me you would leave me." I barely breathed.
"Please, don't leave me." I was ready to end them by then.
I hugged her tighter, my own tears spilling across hers.
I told her what was in my heart, what I felt.
"I will never leave you." She seemed to trust me then.
She relaxed and let me hold her.
She felt so light and fragile then.
I almost did it. I almost called someone,
told someone. If I had, things may have been different.
But, against all odds she loved them,
and I couldn't take that from her.
Not when she'd lost so much, suffered so much.
I couldn't keep her safe without hurting her.
I offered. I offered for her to move in with me.
My mother would have said yes, No one would object.
I'd take the couch permanently. But she looked at me.
I was almost relieved to see the hollow hope she held,
even as she politely refused.
She knew I was there.
She knew I would always be there for her.
She trusted me to keep my word.
Even though everyone told her I was lying.
She knew the truth.
I would give anything, everything,
to be by her side.
If only it was enough...
"Please, don't leave me,"
I whispered that night.
Even when it was too late.