[This story is free again]
A social klutz and certified bookworm, Autumn Lyne is content with having just books as companions--that is, until her extrovert of a sister drags her out to meet her band. But nobody has expected that this would mark the...
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He lived the early years of his childhood in foster care, where he was abandoned as a nameless infant. Without any object with him that bore his identity, he was randomly given the name Michael. The records of his birth mother were sealed, and rumors said that he was an accident. An unwanted child. In the institution, he was constantly mocked and picked on by the other children and was given little attention.
When he was seven, Jodie and Fredrick Summer adopted him. They had chosen him because he wasn't as troublesome as the other children in the institution. He grew fond of his adoptive parents before long... until Elodie came a year later. She was a miracle baby after her parents trying for so many years and losing so many, so all the care and attention were immediately shifted to her. Despite this, Michael shouldered the responsibility of taking care of her as if she was his biological sister.
Michael described his elementary years as tough both at home and at school. While he struggled to deal with the attention his little sister received, he also struggled to fit in with his peers. His social interactions were awkward, and he often wanted to speak on his terms with little concern for the listener.
Middle school was when his life turned into something else, although the first two years were not exactly divine for him. He skipped classes that didn't interest him and antagonized his teachers. He got into fights because he got sick of those kids who mistreated him. His parents grounded him; he snuck out. When Fredrick got mad at him, it was the first time Michael felt real fear.
He made his first friend when he was in detention. It was Clint who then made him meet more acquaintances. Nate, Ryan, Finn, and Claire. Rose joined the group in their first year of high school. While all of them taught him what friendship was and helped him recognize his talents, Claire was the most special to him. She made him feel things that he had never felt before, although he soon realized that she loved him out of pity.
Things were starting to go well again.
Or that was what he had thought.
Elodie was a very sickly child, in a pattern of one-week sick, one-week healthy, so she had to be homeschooled and forego her pleasures. She never even got the chance to skip a rope in a day of her life. All she dreamed of was to go outside and see the town just for a day, like a normal kid, but her parents refused her pleas. Michael wanted to make her happy, so one day, while their parents were away, he snuck her out of the house.
It was their little secret.
He took her to the town center, where she ran around and got lost in the crowd. After searching around, he found her on the other side of the road, looking at the toys displayed outside a store.
She was happy. She was excited. She just wanted to enjoy her one day of freedom.
Through the vehicles that were passing by like bullets on that highway, Elodie saw her big brother waiting on the other side, and she gave him a smile of pure joy. The smile he didn't think would be the last. He yelled at her, "Stay put! Don't cross. I'm coming."
