Moving On Towards the Better

Chapter 12

I wake up on a bed, and it's not mine. It smells like smoke and male cologne. 

"Mornings sunshine," it's just Roger. He is above me, watching me. I get up quickly. 

"You are such a creep you know that?" I get myself out of bed and I pull on my slippers. I look up and find him leaning against the wall staring at me. I wrap my arms around myself and start to walk away. 

"Oh come on babe, I know you want me!" Roger calls after me as I leave the room. I enter a kitchen where Sebastian is stirring eggs. 

"Morning Kay," Sebastian greets me with a smile.

"Morning," I pull out a seat from the kitchen table and sit down. "Where's my brother?"

"He went to get you some of your things." Sebastian continues to stir the eggs. I look down at my hands.

"What will happen to us?" I ask honestly. Sebastian stops, he takes the eggs off the stove and walks over to me. He takes a seat and puts a hand on mine. 

"You are going to be just fine." He smiles a sad smile at me. "Your brother wants you to live in the safest place possible for now." 

"And where is that?" I ask.

"Your brother has been talking to your principle and he has agreed to let you stay at his place till your brother can afford another, safer place for you guys to live. Your principle knows about everything and he wants what's best for you just like your brother does." My face must have said everything because he starts to scoot closer to me, to put an arm around me. I lean on him and I wait  for the tears to come flowing out but nothing happens.  I don't even think about Micheal all I can think about is how I will be separated from my brother. That hasn't happened since. I shiver at the thought. Sebastian feels that and gets up and gets a flannel blanket for me. I wrap it around myself, while Sebastian wraps his arm around me again. 

"I'm back," Nate calls as he walks through the door, a few minutes after Sebastian and I were like this. He notices that we are like this and we move apart. "You told her didn't you?" He directs the question to Sebastian. Sebastian nods. "Kayla..." I cut him off.

"I'm fine with it," I take off the blanket and starts heading for Nate. "Just give me the essentials and I'll be on my way. " I turn to look at his shocked face. I notice my backpack in his arms and I take it from him. 

"Kayla..." is all he manages to say before I hug him tightly. It takes him a moment to realize whats happening before he hugs back. He rests his head on mine and we stay like that for a couple more seconds. 

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I make my way through the town with my brother hand in hand. We left Sebastian's about an hour ago and we are heading to Micheal's. Nate thought it would be best if I missed school and I couldn't agree more.

"So I've been thinking," Nate says as we pass Auntie Mae's. I look in the window and see her talking another woman. I wave and she waves back. I look back to the sidewalk.

"What about?" I ask. 

"About work." I can feel him glance over at me. I knew this was coming. He's going to leave me in this town to go back to our old town and get his old job back as a auto repair man fixing bikes with his friends. I knew he would take the first chance he got to go back to his old life. Mr. popularity, the ladies man, Mr. congeniality, the guy that everyone wants to date. Even the lesbians.  I take a deep breath and grab the box of some of my things from Nate. He doesn't oppose this. 

"Ya I get it. You need to get to your old life." I start to cross the street. He follows behind me.

"Kayla that's not it." I stop at the other side of the street and look him straight in the eye. 

"Then tell me Nathan. Why are you leaving me with the principle? We were in this together I wouldn't have cared where we had to live. But no you had to do what's best for you. I knew this act wouldn't last long. I mean you only started actually interacting with me when you moved back in after college." I feel tears brimming in my eyes. "I shouldn't even be crying right now. I should have known not to get close to you. I could see you were actually trying but it's never enough, is it Nate?" He's silent, it's because he knows I'm right. "I just needed someone to lean on for a while and you were that person. I needed someone who shared my pain but since they are locked away YOU don't have to worry about them anymore. But what about me? I will never be the same after what they did to me." The salty tears slide down my face and absorb into the cardboard box. "Just do us both a favor and leave. I don't need you anymore. I can take care of myself like I always have." I turn and start walking away and I can tell he isn't following me. Instead I hear the roar of a bike in the distance. 

I let the tears fall down my face. I don't bother to wipe them away. Nate was a good brother for a short period of time and that was the perfect time to recompose myself. I am independent, I have to be. No one ever held my hand to lead me in the right direction. I learned everything by trial and era. What was I supposed to do? I was abused by my parents. My mother was abused by my father and she was a drug addict and a alcoholic. My father was all the things a person should run away from. He was highest of the high all the time. He would stick needles filled with harmful chemicals inside his body every hour of everyday. He never slept. The drugs and alcohol kept him awake. They were never the ideal parents and I never wanted them to be. 

"Finish those dishes you little bitch," my father said with his feet propped up on the kitchen counter of our trailer home. I scrub the paper plates we used for dinner. Don't worry, be strong Kayla. 

"You heard your father," my mother slurs her words. I hear her get up from a fordable chair and fall down. I don't answer either way I know what they are going to do to me. 

"Did you hear me slut," I hear the chair creek when he gets up. I stiffen but I try to remain calm. He grabs my hair and jerks me back.

"Ah," a faint cry escapes my lips.

"What did you say?" He pulls my hair harder. He puts his lips to my ear. I smell the drugs on him. I can identify everyone of them. I don't dare respond to him. "Answer me," he demands. I grab my head. 

"I said ah." I whisper. He tugs me to the small bedroom.

"You need to keep your little trap shut and do what your told." he throws me on the bed and starts to take off his belt. I curl up into a ball. "Now you are going to learn your lesson."

I shake the memory from my thoughts and continue walking to my new "home" with tears on my face.

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This was a really big chapter. I actually started crying writing this. I am fortunate enough to live in a great community with loving parents and great siblings. Some people don't have that and I knew someone who had issues at home but their issues were less violent then this story. Also I am changing the name of the story to "You Can Never Forget" so I don't want people like "Where is Moving on Towards the Better?" So that's a heads up. Remember Vote, Comment, Share. 

~Katie