The suited man stopped walking.<\/p>\n
The diner stayed silent.<\/p>\n
Coffee cups sat untouched.<\/p>\n
Forks paused halfway to plates.<\/p>\n
Everyone was watching now.<\/p>\n
The boy pressed closer to the biker’s side.<\/p>\n
Trying to disappear behind him.<\/p>\n
The biker noticed.<\/p>\n
And didn’t move away.<\/p>\n
The man in the grey suit forced a small smile.<\/p>\n
“He’s coming with me.”<\/p>\n
The biker glanced down at the boy.<\/p>\n
His hands were trembling.<\/p>\n
His eyes filled with panic.<\/p>\n
Not confusion.<\/p>\n
Not guilt.<\/p>\n
Fear.<\/p>\n
Real fear.<\/p>\n
The biker looked back at the man.<\/p>\n
“Funny.”<\/p>\n
A pause.<\/p>\n
“Doesn’t look like he wants to.”<\/p>\n
The man’s smile disappeared.<\/p>\n
“He belongs with me.”<\/p>\n
The boy shook his head immediately.<\/p>\n
“No!”<\/p>\n
The word echoed through the diner.<\/p>\n
Several customers exchanged uneasy looks.<\/p>\n
The biker’s expression hardened.<\/p>\n
He crouched slightly to the boy’s level.<\/p>\n
“Who is he?” he asked quietly.<\/p>\n
The boy swallowed hard.<\/p>\n
Tears slipping down his cheeks.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know.”<\/p>\n
The diner grew even quieter.<\/p>\n
The biker slowly stood again.<\/p>\n
Now fully facing the suited man.<\/p>\n
The man took a step forward.<\/p>\n
The biker took one too.<\/p>\n
Blocking the path completely.<\/p>\n
The message was clear.<\/p>\n
Not happening.<\/p>\n
The suited man’s jaw tightened.<\/p>\n
“Move.”<\/p>\n
The biker folded his arms.<\/p>\n
Unimpressed.<\/p>\n
“No.”<\/p>\n
A long silence followed.<\/p>\n
Heavy.<\/p>\n
Tense.<\/p>\n
Then the diner owner quietly picked up the phone behind the counter.<\/p>\n
The suited man noticed.<\/p>\n
So did the biker.<\/p>\n
For the first time, uncertainty crossed the man’s face.<\/p>\n
The boy looked up at the biker.<\/p>\n
Still scared.<\/p>\n
But no longer alone.<\/p>\n
And as the rain tapped softly against the diner windows\u2014<\/p>\n
the biker stayed exactly where he was.<\/p>\n
Like a wall the boy didn’t have to face by himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The suited man stopped walking. The diner stayed silent. Coffee cups sat untouched. Forks paused halfway to plates. Everyone was watching now. The boy pressed closer to the biker’s side. Trying to disappear behind him. The biker noticed. And didn’t move away. The man in the grey suit forced a small smile. “He’s coming with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":6875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}