It All Started With a Diary

truth|part 1

"Things were going a bit better once they got steady, if you could say that," he said. "But, then Susie found the money in my bag. I'd been saving it for Kacen if something happened to me, and he was forced to run. I wanted him to have a better shot than I did."

"But, then she found it. She threatened to send me off if I didn't tell her where I got it from. So, I told her. I didn't expect her reaction. I expected anger, cursing, yelling...but, it was something else. She started crying. And, crying, and crying. Then, she just left my bedroom, and I just...assumed that everything would be alright."

He ran a shaky hand down his face. "I was so fucking wrong."

Kade shut his eyes, his jaw locked tight. "The next morning, I woke up, and went to the kitchen to make Kacen some breakfast. There were men there, all big and quiet. I didn't know what was going on until they reached for me. I tried to run, but it was too late. My mo—" He shook his head. "Susie. She wasn't even in the same room as us. She was too afraid to watch her son get drug away to a mental institution." His chuckle bounced through the trees. "Isn't that fucking crazy?"

His throat bobbed before he bit at the inside of his cheek. "I still remember Kacen's cries. His screams, and pleads with Susie for me. It fucking tore me into two that I couldn't stop it, that I couldn't do a thing."

"My dad was there, just watching and trying to hold Kacen back. For the first time in my life, I saw some type of emotion through him other than rage. It was too late for me to care, though."

His eyes ran over the grass, his fingers reaching for some of them, too. "When Susie visited, she refused to bring Kacen. I'd beg for her to just let me see him, but I could only see pictures. She claimed that she didn't want me to backtrack, or some bullshit, again. As if I were some type of addict."

His fingers tightened around the grass, his gaze growing deadly. "As if I were fucking crazy for wanting to see my baby brother. The only person that I cared about was separated from me. That is what made me crazy."

"She claimed that my dad was off of the alcohol, that he had changed when he saw me being taken away. I didn't believe it for one fucking second," he rolled his eyes. "I was still young, but I wasn't stupid. He'd been gone for far too long. I was given so many excuses, so many cover-ups and stories, but I never understood. All I saw was selfishness. From both parties."

"I was in the institution for three months, before I was cleared. Susie was convinced that I was her boy again since the hospital had given her pills to keep me under control, along with the therapy," he said. "I went home, and I finally saw Kacen. Out of everything in this shitty world, my boy's hug was the one remedy for me."

My lips pulled into a soft smile at that. I just wished that Kade had been able to get another.

"My dad, he was...attempting to get better, I guess," he told me. "I guess this was his way of making up for his fuckups, but there were only so many times you could claim beating your family as a 'little messy situation'."

"A couple of weeks later, I picked Kacen up from school, and he was crying. He told me that some kid was bullying him. I wasn't supposed to go back to school until Susie cleared it, but once I found out about the bullying, I begged her to let me go back. It took some time, but since my dad was on a business trip and couldn't convince her to say no, it worked."

"I went back, and things were...pretty normal, I guess. It wasn't long until I fucked up, again though," Kade sighed, massaging at his temples as he released a sigh. "I don't even remember how, or why I forgot the marks. They weren't fresh, but they were still there. We were doing an assignment in class, and I raised my sleeves. There were too many bruises to ignore."