The Delinquents

The Delinquents - chpt. 20

The Delinquents

Chapter Twenty

It had been five years since I left Ash Falls Group Recovery Home for Troubled Youth. I had been taken in by the state, my case looked over, a local defence attorney assigned to me and a new judge with a new opinion on where to hold me.

After a few weeks of debate, the judge sent me to a female only group home run by the state. I spent two years there before being let off for parole for the following six months. When the six months ended, I was considered rehabilitated and thrown back into society.

With my mother gone, I was shuttled to my Aunt Kate even though I was past the age of eighteen and no longer considered a dependent by the state. She took me in without much complaint. She cared for me while I completed the education I had the opportunity to start while at the group home.

She took me to my mother's grave for the first time and offered to tell me how her last moments had been. My mother was buried beside my sister, her gravestone small and modest. My Aunt told me that only seven other people had attended her funeral.

She had died painlessly. Her last weeks were spent in a medicated coma until her brain rotted away to nothing. My Aunt had held her hand while she died, made sure she wasn't alone even if she didn't know the difference.

I had stayed by her grave for a long time, standing alone once my aunt returned to the car to wait for me. Sarah's gravestone was starting to show signs of exposure, the stone bleached by the sun. My mother's was brand new and still shining. The wounds they had left on my heart were the same way.

Some months later, my aunt told me where my father lived. It took me another two months after that to go and find him. When I did he didn't want anything to do with me. He opened his door, just wide enough for me to see his new family―two sons, a young wife and a beagle―before he slammed it in my face.

I got a job, started to save, found some roommates and moved to a new city. I let go of my Aunt Kate and tried to let go of my old haunts. I had been living in Seattle complacently for a few months before his letter arrived.

Travis's sentence was up. He was due to be released from the detention centre he was in a month after he sent me the letter. In it, he requested that I pick him up. I had written back the same day, telling him I would.

I stood there now, outside of the detention centre. I had gotten off the bus and parked myself next to a lamppost, hoping he'd have a clear enough view to spot me. I twisted my hands together, picking at my fingernails and playing with my bracelet.

People shuffled around the parking lot, heading in and out of the building. Whole families came through, single women, old men. I watched them go and come, I watched them leave crying and go in shaking.

A woman passed in front of me and stopped, titling her head up to get a good look at the building. Her hair was long and dark, curled elegantly down her back. She was small and slim, her body petite but toned. She raised her arm to fight the sun and then turned around, one eye pinched closed.

"Lily?" her named tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop it.

Lily turned fully, revealing her full face to me. She was still beautiful. Her features had matured but her eyes still held the same dark gleam. Her smile was brilliant as she recognized me, hurrying over to pull me into a hug.

"Piper!" she said, hugging me tightly. Her hands rested on my shoulders as she pulled back and took a better look at me. "How are you?"