Noxious

22 | can't start over

Charly 

I didn't know where I was going. 

I also didn't know what I was going to do. All I knew is that I couldn't spend another minute in a confined space with my siblings. It felt weird to think of them like that. Technically, we were only half, but we still shared blood and that sucked. 

Still, I couldn't stick around and wait for everything to burn to the ground again. I couldn't deal with another period of my life where I thought I had found something and then I just lose it all again. 

I gripped my backpack straps as I walked. I would need to find a place to tend to my injuries, the last thing I needed to deal with was an infection. 

"Charly!" Someone called out.

I paused out of surprise and I heard quick footsteps coming after me. For some reason, I just stood there. Perhaps it was because nobody ever came after me. 

Nobody had ever cared. 

I turned, my lips pressed into a firm frown, "What do you want?" 

Tommy came into the light of the streetlight I had paused beneath. His face was slightly shadowed and I felt wary. I still didn't know him. But, he asked, "I want to know what your plan is?" 

"None of your fucking business." 

"I don't recommend hitchhiking in these parts," He said, "You'll end up killed and dumped in a ditch somewhere." 

"Why do you care?" I bristled at the fact that he didn't seem bothered by my hostility. Every sharp word I spewed, he seemingly ignored. I couldn't get a rise out of Tommy like I could with Kyle. How did the two of them even meet? 

"Because you obviously don't care about yourself," Tommy replied, calmly, and he didn't approach me any further than where we had stopped, "Why don't you just stay the night? We can figure things out in the morning." 

"There's no we," I snapped, "It's just me." 

"Not true, you have your brothers--" 

"They're not my fucking--" 

"Waiting back there--" 

"No, they--" 

Tommy sighed, "Can we stop cutting each other off?" 

I was going to leave. I didn't want to have this conversation and I wouldn't. My grip tightened on my backpack. Tommy must have read my mind and cleared his throat. 

"Listen, I didn't get the chance to reunite with my sibling," Tommy paused for a second, "My advice to you is don't wait until it's too late." 

"Do you have any idea what they've done?" I hissed lowly, angered by the fact he was trying to guilt-trip me. 

"No," He sighed, tiredly, "I don't know the background between the three of you, although none of you are making it easy to understand anything," He paused for a moment, "What happened that made you all hate each other?" 

My jaw clenched. I wished I could forget those memories but I would always remember them. Kyle and I when we went to daycare together. Rowan and I when before his mom decided to kick me out. All three of us the day before we left. The fights, the broken bones, the screaming. 

I never considered why it happened. 

Tommy must have taken my silence for a refusal to answer, so he said, "All I'm really saying is... give them a chance."