Chapter Three

Tyler

     "Huh,” He said, laying his book down on the kitchen counter. He didn’t know if his new foster parents would yell at him for leaving books everywhere he went, so he always would test that theory whenever he was moved.

     “Hello?” He called, and listened as his voice echoed through the recesses of the house. He was alone, that’s for sure. If there was anyone else with him, they would have responded or come running to see what he wanted.

     He got up and searched the fridge, before he realized that it wasn’t his house, and closed the door.

     “Jesus Christ,” He muttered. He wasn’t allowed to say “Jesus” or “God”, or really anything else that could be classified as a “bad” word in this new house.

     “JESUS CHRIST!” Tyler screamed. Then he smiled to himself, a private little smile that almost no one had ever seen before. It was nice to break rules, it was nice to scream, it was nice to curse.

***

     “Hey, Tyler?” When he heard the front door close and a voice call him, he looked up. It was Ainsley, the Whittaker’s daughter. Tyler pushed his plastic-framed emo glasses up his nose and stared at her.

     “Is my mom home yet?” She asked. The Whitakers were his newest foster family, but who knew how long they would last, what with their “close-ties-country-Christian-family” thing going on. Tyler didn’t feel as if he was going to fit in.

     “No,” He said, Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 d opened his book. She kept talking, though.

     “Oh. I was just wondering what we’re having for dinner, cuz I might be going over to Pen’s house to sleep over, but she still has to ask her mom, so…”

     “Uh-huh,”

     “Sorry, I guess you don’t really care,” She said, blushing a little.

     “Not really…” He said, but she seemed really embarrassed, so he added, “But it’s fine.” Ben would have probably wanted to be in this house, what with Ainsley being hot and all, even though she didn’t seem like the type who would go for someone currently enrolled in disciplinary military school.

     “I’ll just go, then. I’ll be upstairs if you need anything,” She said. She stood there for a few minutes, with Tyler awkwardly reading his book and her standing in the doorway, before she went upstairs.

      Tyler looked up and watched her go, feeling more alone than ever.