Beautifully Broken

My Cards

Ryker Pov

I walk into my room in the home I am currently staying in. I share my room with two other older boys. I set my bag down next to my bed and look at the clock; it's 10 pm. I've already missed dinner. I hope I can find some food downstairs somewhere. I sneak down to the first floor and look in the kitchen; it looks spotless, not a good sign. I walk up to the pantry and try the handle. It's locked. I try the fridge; it's locked as well. I sneak back upstairs, hoping not to wake anyone or do anything else that could warrant a beating or, worse, a grounding. You might question why grounding is worse than a beating; if I get beat, it's just temporary; it will be over soon; if I get grounded, I'm stuck with these people, I can't get leave. I get back to my bedroom door when I am suddenly stopped by a person standing in my path. "Hi Chance, can I get to our room, please?"
"No, Max is in there right now and has some company over, if you know what I mean." He says with a wink. "Good for Max, I guess, but I really need my backpack."
"Why would you need that? It's not like you ever go out and do anything anyway."
"I need my backpack, Chance."
"And I need to keep you out here." He says, shoving me back and laughing at me. The next thing I know is that our door begins to open; I see the light from the room slowly illuminating the hallway. The more light I saw, the more ominous of feeling I felt. I see a furious Max step out into the hallway. "What's all the noise out here about?"
"Little Ryker here needs his backpack." Chance says, trying to taunt me. "Oh, okay, if you really need it, he can just come and get it." I slowly get up from the floor and walk into our room. The second I set foot in our room, I feel myself get shoved to the floor once more. I roll over and look up just in time to see Max's fist come into contact with my face. I was on the floor, defenseless. I tried to swing back, but it was a futile attempt to try and defend myself from them. Max had me pinned to the floor, and whenever I would start to swing, Chance would come to hold my arms down; after a little bit, I see Chance walk over and throw my backpack out of the window. Max leans down and gets very close to my face. "Now, if you need your bookbag so bad, you can go get it yourself." Max gets off of me, and I slowly pull myself up from the floor. I limp out of the room as fast as I can. I hear the door slam behind me. I carefully get myself down the stairs and out the back door to the alley that is right outside my bedroom window. I find my backpack on the ground, thankfully still zipped up. I look at my watch. It says 10:30 pm; I think Caleb should still be up; if he's not, I'm sure Michael is.

I start walking down the street to their house, my feet getting heavier every step I take. I finally get to their house. I walk around back just in time to see Caleb's light turn on. I get over to the window as fast as possible; I set my bag down and knock on the window. Calebs eyes grew wide, and he points to the backdoor. I nod my head, pick up my bag, and start walking to the backdoor. When He turns on the lights, I see both him and Michael go white, and their eyes grew to twice their normal size. Caleb opens the door, and I stumble in. I try to push myself up but am beginning to struggle. I start to cough, and Caleb grabs a bowl that was next to the door. I spit up some blood into the bowl. "Don't worry. It's just from my gum and my busted lip. I'm fine." I don't think He heard me, and I couldn't speak any louder than I currently was. I was just so tired from walking, my body just wanted to rest, and for the first time in a long time, I felt safe. Caleb helps me into a chair.
"What happened?"
"Well, I got into another fight. Then I ran away."
"Yeah, I'm glad you ran from that fight, dude; you could have gotten seriously hurt!"
"No, I didn't run from the fight. I ran from my foster home." I point to my bag that I had managed to drag in with me. "Ry, I know you don't like it there, but you know we can't keep you here. Running away isn't the answer."
"Why not? Alana ran away! She now has a family, and not just a family, a good family, which is something I want so bad."
"Ryker, you know that's not a good enough reason."
"Caleb, you don't understand; I have no one now. I don't have parents. My Younger sister got adopted. My older sister wants nothing to do with me. When they called my family to ask if they could take me in, my family laughed at them. I have no one."
"You have us," Mrs. V says as she walks off the bottom step. "You aren't gonna be alone. We all still love and care for you the same way we always have. The only thing is, Mark and I can't give you our last name, but one day I believe that you are going to meet someone who can give you their last name, and you know what? after that, we're still gonna feel the same way we feel about you now." She comes and sits down next to him. "Thank you, Mrs. V," I say, knowing in my heart that she's right, I know they can't adopt me, but I couldn't think of anywhere else to go. "No problem, Ryker, you know you can call me Addy if you want to."
"I know Mrs. V. It's just, I prefer Mrs. V."
"Okay, whatever makes you feel comfortable, now let's go get you cleaned up a little bit, shall we?" I nod my head, "Boys Bed." She says as she wraps her arm behind my back to help me stand up. "But we were going to watch a movie." Micheal and Caleb wine, "Boys, It is 11:30  at night; you can watch the movie tomorrow."
"Yes, Äiti," Michael says, "Yes, Mom," Caleb echos. "Goodnight, I love you both."
"Love you too." They both say as she helps me walk upstairs. She helps me into the kitchen and pulls out a chair for me at the table. She helps me sit down and grabs a first aid kit, and sets it down on their table. "So, what happened to you tonight?"
"Nothing." I quickly reply. "Nothing, this doesn't look like nothing. This looks like you got into another fight." I sigh. "Mrs. V, I really don't want a lecture tonight."
"I bet not; it looks like it's already been a rough night for you." I give her a confused look. "Ryker, I know you well enough that you didn't start this fight, and if you did start it, you had a good reason. So, why don't you tell me what happened?" I look at her for a minute, trying to decide if I can tell her what happened. I don't want to worry her, but then again, a bloody fifteen-year-old just showed up at her house. "I got into a fight with some boys at my group home."
"Oh, can you tell me what happened?"
"I said something that I shouldn't have, I should have just waited, and everything would have been fine."
"Waited for what?"
"One of my roommates had someone over, and I needed to get something from my room, so I told him I needed to go in and get something, and well, things kinda escalated."
"What did you need to get?"
"My backpack, which I left downstairs. I'm so sorry."
"no, that's no problem. We can get it in a little bit. Why did you need your backpack? Are you working on homework?"
"No, My wallet is in there; I haven't eaten yet tonight."
"well, that's no good. After I finish cleaning you up and making sure your okay, then let's get you some dinner."
"Thank you, Mrs. V, you didn't have to do this for me."
"No, I didn't, but I do have to ask why did you come to our house?"
"It was the only place I could think of; I don't know why."
"that's okay; you're always welcome here." She says, kissing my forehead. "All done!" She says with a smile. "Now, what sounds good to eat?" She walks over into the connected kitchen and starts listing off things for me. I start to zone out and fall asleep, and I guess I do because the next thing I know, Mrs. V is lightly shaking my shoulder. I feel my eyes flutter open. "Here, I made you some food. You need to eat. I already called your group home and told them that you stayed late to work on homework, and they told me that you could spend the night here. I'll go set up an air mattress in Caleb's room because I think we both know that He won't fall asleep till he knows if you're okay."
"Thank you so much, Mrs. V."
"Of course, Ryker, I'm gonna go set up that air mattress and see if I can find you a change of clothes. I want to see you eat something before I go through." I look down and see the warm bowl of soup sitting in front of me. I grab the spoon and take a bite; it is the best food I have had in a very long time. "Good, I'll be right back." Mrs. V says, walking into the living room. I sit there and eat in the house's peace and quiet for about ten minutes when I hear footsteps come upstairs. "Dude, you look a lot better now, dude, not gonna lie." I let out a small laugh. "Here, My mom told me to bring these up to you, and she told me to tell you to get changed when you finish dinner and to leave your clothes in the living room so she can wash them tonight."
"Your mom doesn't need to do that. I can wash them tomorrow."
"I don't know; I'm just telling you what she told me." He sets down a pile of clothes and goes back downstairs. I finish eating and change my clothes. When I walk out of the bathroom and down the hall into the living room, I see Mrs. V sitting on the couch. "Here, I'll take your clothes and wash them for you."
"You really don't have to."
"Ryker, your clothes have bloodstains on them. I'm going to wash them for you. Caleb has some clothes that you can wear in the morning. The only thing I'm worried about is pants size, but we have some from last year that might fit you a little bit better." I hand her the pile of clothes in my arms. "Now, you need to go get some rest. I'll wake you boys up for school in the morning, and we will sort out everything else." I nod my head. "Thank you so much, Mrs. V."
"No problem; Goodnight, Ryker."
"Goodnight, Mrs. V." I walk downstairs and walk into Caleb's room. I see the air mattress on the floor. I climb onto the air mattress and fall asleep, wondering if this is what a real family should feel like.