Home Is For The Heartless (Part 2)

I’m on my way inside after my brother when I bump into something. No someone. It’s a lady. She looks like she’s around age 30 so I assume she’s the owner of the house.

 

“Hello. I’ve been waiting for the three of you.” She says with a friendly smile. “Come on in.” She says and steps aside.

 

I look back and there are men in suites already grabbing our bags and carrying them inside. No chance for us to run away anymore. I turn back to the lady then nod and go inside.

 

The home is huge. It looks even bigger on the inside. There are polished wooden floors and golden frames surround artwork on the walls. I walk down the hall and look around. Two staircases curve upstairs and I’m suddenly curious to see what our room looks like, but this isn’t important. I have to find Sebastian.

 

  I walk down the hall, passing the huge living room (how many flat screens can you fit in one room?). Finally I make it down to the kitchen and I can hear Sebastian. He’s in the fridge, spilling milk all over the floor.

 

  “Sebastian!” I shout and take his arm, tugging him away from the mess. I look around the room and find a rag sitting on the table. When i grab it I notice that there is someone else here. A girl. She’s pretty. Very pretty. She’s got strawberry blonde curly hair and light brown eyes. She’s wearing a white and yellow summer dress that suits her perfectly. I’ve never had the time to pay attention to any girls. Working to make sure we had enough money to put food on the table made more sense to me than flirting around.

 

She looks at me and I swear I see her blush as she looks away.

 

“Hey.” I say to her as I walk back over to the milk mess and soak it up with the rag.

 

“Hi.” She says softly. Very softly. Her voice almost lifts me. It’s so delicate which probably means she’s delicate. “So...you must be the new kids Rose was talking about.”

 

  I guess Rose is the name of the lady that let us in. “Yes.” I say and nod. “I’m Caleb, this is Sebastian and...I don’t even know where Mackenzie is. He might still be outside.”

 

  The girl turns and looks out the window, probably to see if Mackenzie was outside. The only thing I notice is the surprising half of the girls face. She is scarred. The marks are darker and wrinkled. They look like fire burn scars. Curiosity fills my head with questions to ask, but I wouldn’t dare say anything. I’ve realize that I’m staring and turn back to the ground which is now clean. Guess I cleaned it all up without paying any attention. I look up at Sebastian who is gawking at the girl, probably just like I did.

 

  “Sebastian, be careful next time okay?”

 

He’s not listening to me though. He walks over to the girl. “Hi!” he says cheerfully and smiles.

 

“Hey.” The girl says and grins back. He also makes me smile. He’s such a sweet kid. It cheers me up when I’m down. He reminds me why I work so hard every time I feel like giving up.

 

“what’s ....your name?” he asks the girl

 

“Shy.” She says. Shy. Unusual name...at least to me, but it sounds cute.

 

“Oh Caleb,” says another voice from the doorway. It was Rose. “ You boys should go take showers and get into some clean clothes. Dinner will be up by the time you’re dressed.”

 

 I nod, feeling a bit embarrassed because we’re probably as smelly as a rhino’s a*s right now. I take Sebastian’s hand and look up at Shy. “Nice meeting you, Shy. See you later, I guess.”

 

Shy nods and smiles a bit. I guess my smell doesn’t bother her too much.

 

In the hallway Sebastian smiles at me. “She’s pretty.” He whispers

 

“She is.” I agree and pat him on the head.

 

Sebastian and I are in “our room” after taking shows. I’m not use to calling this place a home yet and it’ll be a while before I get comfortable. Rose seems nice so far though and so does Shy. I saw other kids passing by in the halls upstairs. I didn’t know there would be so many people, but it’s a big house so I guess it makes sense. I’m going to have to learn to get along with everyone, but I’ll leave that challenge for tomorrow.

 

I’m watching Sebastian eat his lasagne carefully. One time I let him eat without supervising him and when I came back he was choking.  It’s a good thing that I took a CPR course otherwise I’d be helplessly watching my brother choke to death. After managing to pop the food out of his mouth he cried. I felt so terrible. Like the worst brother ever. Too make it worst he asked me what was wrong with him. He told me about the people that made fun of him at school and that nobody wanted to be his friend.

 

I told him that there was nothing wrong with him. He was perfect in my eyes. At that point I wanted to kill those idiots. How could they treat him like that? As angry as I was though I wasn’t going to start any violence. If I started it I don’t think I’d stop until there was nothing left of them. After that they’d take me away from my brothers. I couldn’t let that happen.

 

Sebastian still has trouble sometimes, but he’s gotten better with his food and I’m proud of him. I wrap my arms around him and hug him. I don’t know what I’d do without him.

 

  Suddenly our room door flys open and Mackenzie walks in.

 

“So you finally decided to grace us with your presense?” I ask and roll my eyes

 

“Sorry I was busy.” Mackenzie says and shrugs. “Is there any food left for me?”

 

“Oh sorry I gave Sebastian the rest of it and-“

 

“Forget it.” Mackenzie says, sounding pissed as he undresses down to his boxers. “So who’s sleeping where?”

 

“I don’t know. I don’t really care. I’m assuming you want toyr own bed so-“

 

“I’ll share a bed with you.”

 

  I raise a brow looking surprised at him. Mackenzie always wanted to be alone. By himself. Or at least he usually just didn’t want us around, but whatever. I turned to Sebastian and patted his back. “Are you gonna be okay with your own bed, buddy?”

 

“Yes!” Sebastian says then jumps into the next bed.

 

“Be careful.” I warn him.

 

“Oh shut up. You worry about him too much.” Mackenzie mumbles.

 

He’s already in bed snuggling under the blanket. I turn off the light and look around the dark room. After getting into bed I stare at the ceiling until I hear Mackenzie’s voice.

 

“Do you think she’s gonna throw us out by the morning?”

 

My thoughts fade away and I turn to look at my brother. “Huh? Oh. I don’t know. Probably. I hope not though. I’m tired of moving around.” I don’t want to get his hopes up to high with staying here. It seems too good to be true so it probably is.

 

Mackenzie sighs and i pat his shoulder. “Hey, we’ll be alri-“ I stop suddenly when I smell  him. “Mackenzie, you told me you weren’t into drugs. I don’t want you getting into that s**t.”

 

“I’m not.”

 

“My sense of smell begs to differ. Plus I noticed your eyes were red when you came in.”

 

“Allergies.”

 

“Bullshit.”

 

“Okay so what if I was!” Mackenzie raises his voice, starting to get angry. “Mind your own f*****g business!” he demanded and pushed me away.

 

“Hey watch yourself. Cool down bro.” I say and grasp his shoulder. He flings my hand away and throws a punch at my face. I don’t know what came over me be suddenly I decide to fight back. I know its wrong. I know I’m stronger than him and I know he’s my brother, but somehow I manage to beat him up enough to make him sleep on the couch. I hate having fights with him, but I don’t know how to get through to him.

 

I feel terrible and i know I deserve the bloody lip he gave me. I get a tissue and press it to my lip, wiping the blood away. I want to apologize to Mackenzie. I want to hug him and take back everything. I know he’s hurt, but it’s best to let him cool down first. Hopefully things will be better in the morning.