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A week.
I had been here a whole week. I hated myself for it. I felt as though I was betraying myself. My thoughts. I just didn't know what to think anymore. We all kept to ourselves. The boys went on about their days. Mr. Phoenix went to work. I had went with him the whole week. I wasn't comfortable staying with the boys alone. So I would just sit in his office while he did his work. ten in the morning until nine that night. Sometimes earlier. Sometimes later. Reading one of the many books he had on a shelf. I wasn't really comfortable with Mr. Phoenix but he was familiar. I had been around him the most.
We'd return to his home and I'd immediately flee to the room I shared with Rylie. We kept out of each others way. He only really came in to sleep or to get things he needed. Cameron was almost always out of the house. He seemed to always have something to do. He had a summer job at some basketball camp. Carter drummed most of the day. He often went out at night and staggered in at awful times in the morning. He was light on his feet. Like, he's done it thousands of time. Still, I would hear him nonetheless.
They were just all so ... ordinary. And somehow that was odd. It was strange. It didn't make sense. There was always some dirty secret. Something off. The Ramones were drug dealers. The Marshalls beat the shit out of me. The Jacksons' college junior son raped me. I could go on and on. I was numb to it. I had seen and been through it all. Yet, the Phoenix's were nothing. Average. Mundane. There were no looks. No hidden touching. No nasty comments.
They let me be. I couldn't understand it. Frankly, I didn't want to. I was savoring it. Holding onto it until the impending storm. There always was one. Expect the worse before anything else. It was something I lived by. Something that had been ingrained in me over the passing years. I was once naïve. Innocent. Fantasizing about the day a nice family would come and get me. But those were pipe dreams. Fantasies. They don't come true.
"Hey, you ready?"
I'm pulled out of my thoughts by the voice of Mr. Phoenix. I had been just staring out the balcony window. I turn around, Mr. Phoenix was adorned in a white button down rolled to his elbows and a skinny black tie matching his black slacks. That strange patient but weary look was always in his eyes.
I send him a nod and follow behind him as he makes his way down stairs grabbing his suit jacket along the way. The boys were sprawled out around the living room and kitchen. Cameron was making himself a sandwich, stuffing his mouth with chips along the way. Carter was writing in a journal I've often saw him with these past few days and Rylie was watching some animé cartoon on the television.
"Hey, we're leaving. We'll be back by nine and no, I'm not getting take out. If I can leave the office by eight I'll make us all a late dinner."
"I'll be waiting," Cameron gives his father a playful look before chomping into his sandwich.
"Of course you will. Alright bye, I love you all," Mr. Phoenix hollers out before stepping into the elevator.
"Love you too and also; bye, new sister who hates us," Cameron shouts back as the doors dings closed. Mr. Phoenix let's out a sigh.
