idk what to put in this author's note, so hi
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The rest of the week went pretty well. Spencer came back to school, which was nice despite being an awkward third wheel in their friendship once again.
Even better, he didn't get beat by the Millers at all. When he really thought about it, it was a sad thing to be excited about, but he was nonetheless.
Now, it was Sunday and they had visitors coming.
He knew better than to have hope that they would choose him, but somewhere in a small corner of his mind, he did.
The morning was somewhat hectic, trying to get everyone ready and fed quickly, with fear of the Millers coming downstairs on top of it. If they came downstairs before everyone was ready, it would've been a nightmare.
But luckily, they were all sitting in the living room waiting when the Millers finally came down. They seemed to ensure everything was in place before waiting in the foyer.
It didn't take long for the first couple to arrive. They didn't stay very long either. They decided to adopt one of the little boys, Ty. Peter didn't know him as well, but it was still bittersweet seeing him go. He would miss him, but couldn't be sad now that he'd be getting a family.
They had an hour or two to hang out before the next couple came. He mostly talked with Bella and hung out with her, but the time passed all too quickly.
The next couple came in but seemed less decisive than the first.
They asked everyone some questions and talked to everyone for a bit. Then they spoke with each other while watching everyone.
Peter had no idea who they might've been interested in adopting, but he knew one thing for sure: that it wasn't him. They'd barely glanced at him when they came in and the only thing they asked him was his name. Even that seemed more like they were trying to be polite since they'd asked everyone else.
He didn't mind though; he didn't expect to be chosen. He was starting to realize that they were only really interested in younger kids.
Yet, he guessed that wasn't always true, considering Bella was adopted. He'd thought no one would adopt teenagers, but then the Millers told everyone they wanted to adopt Bella.
He couldn't believe it. Of course, he was happy for her, but they'd become best friends in the past few weeks. It didn't sound like long, but it felt like a long time.
He'd thought about how May had left him alone, but even then, he'd had Bella. Now he'd be truly alone.
Everything seemed to go by in a blur as the couple waited in the living room while the kids went to the toy room and Bella went to pack. Peter waited for a few minutes in the hallway until Bella came out.
She almost immediately engulfed him in a hug which he didn't hesitate to return. "I'm gonna miss you."
"Yeah, but you get to leave this place." Peter pulled back from the hug to see her give him a skeptical look. "I'll be fine and you just got adopted so you should be happy. They seem nice."
Bella smiled half-heartedly but it didn't reach her eyes. Although, after a second, her eyes lit up and she grabbed her phone, handing it to him.
"Why don't you give me your phone number so I can tell you how it goes and you can text me if you need help."
Peter agreed and entered his phone number. They said a few more things, but then the couple rounded the corner, saying it was time to go. They hugged one last time before he was left alone.
He went to go hang out in the toy room with the kids when Bella texted him, just so that he'd have her number too. Then, he also saw the last texts he'd gotten from May.
She'd never replied to his last text. How could he not have noticed it? It was so obvious. All the signs were there, pointing to it, and yet he was oblivious to it. He was tempted to delete the texts, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.
In desperate need of a distraction, he decided to take the kids to the park. It was a little stressful leading nine young kids to the park, but he managed. He figured he'd get used to doing it eventually.
While the kids played, he got the opportunity to distract himself and listened to music. There was rarely any time anymore that he got the chance to listen to music.
It wasn't too cold anymore, which was nice, but he wasn't exactly excited for spring or summer to come. Now that he lived in the orphanage, short-sleeved shirts weren't ideal, no matter how hot it got.
For a few hours, the kids ran around on the playground, but once a few came up to him saying they were tired, he rounded everyone up and started the walk back.
The walk back was slower with all the kids tired rather than practically bouncing with excitement as they'd been on the way there. It was fine though; they'd make it back in time for curfew and it wasn't like they'd miss dinner, since he made it. Well, usually Bella made dinner since he had work, but now he'd have to.
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It was a lot harder to manage everything without Bella. Normally, she helped get the kids ready and out the door on time, but now he had to do it by himself.
Somehow, he managed though and he dropped them off at school. He told them they'd need to walk home without him today. The oldest was only nine, but he wasn't too worried; they'd be walking in a big group and the town was pretty safe, considering it was a small town and most people knew each other.
Peter wished he could walk them home, but he still had to go to detention. He was just glad it was his last day.
Bella texted him on his way to school that she had to move schools to one closer to her new house. She told him it was pretty nice so far, and he was happy for her, despite missing her. It sucked she had to move schools though.
School was boring as ever, and even worse, he had three tests. Did teachers plan to all have their tests on the same day to make students crazy? It seemed like it.
When he went to sit with Spencer and Adam at lunch, he ran into Caleb, who made sure no teachers were looking before shoving him. Peter stumbled backward, but kept his footing and just rolled his eyes when Caleb walked away.
Detention wasn't much better, with Caleb, but once it was finally over, Peter wasted no time heading towards the library for work.
Work was actually pretty busy for once, but he found time in between helping people to do his homework. He still had a bit left but was glad he'd gotten most of it done.
His mind was occupied with observing everything around him on the walk home. The people walking up and down the street. Cars driving by. All the different signs and stores. He focused on it all until he reached the doorstep of the orphanage, to try to keep his mind off worse topics.
But when he stepped inside, it was unavoidable. Yelling instantly met his ears when he opened the door, and he quickly shut it behind him.
Getting his shoes off as quickly as he could, he peeked towards the living room where the yelling was coming from. The sight of Mr. Miller yelling at Kristen, one of the little girls, met him as he looked, and he immediately rushed in.
"What happened?" he asked, cutting through Mr. Miller's yelling effectively. Kristen looked like she was on the verge of tears, her cheeks flushed. Mr. Miller's head snapped towards him, a familiar scowl painting his face.
"Stay out of it, boy. It's not any of your business," he snapped, turning back to Kristen.
"You shouldn't be yelling at her like that. She's only six and I'm sure she didn't mean whatever happened."
"This little brat knocked my beer from my hand, and it shattered all over the floor!" Mr. Miller seethed, motioning to the broken beer bottle on the floor.
Peter sighed. "Look, I'll clean it up, but she didn't mean to. Leave her alone. Kristen, why don't you go back to your room."
Kristen nodded and ran off into the hallway towards the girls' room. Mr. Miller didn't look happy in the slightest.
"You think you can come in here and tell me what I can and can't do? She should be in trouble for causing such a mess, but here you are saying it's fine. It's not fine, and they need to know that so that they don't do it again," he raised his voice, stepping a bit closer to Peter.
"She didn't mean to," Peter argued quietly. Normally, he wouldn't dare argue, but now he felt almost obligated to. He didn't want any of the kids to get hurt.
"Don't talk back to me, you fucking piece of shit!" He raised his hand and slapped him across the face, before pushing him backward. Mr. Miller followed him back and slapped him once again, making him to fall to his knees.
He felt the blood rush to his cheeks as they became red and it stung badly. His vision became blurry with tears waiting to fall, but he was just glad he couldn't taste blood or hear ringing.
"Clean this up," he commanded him, before grabbing another beer out of the fridge and going upstairs.
Peter stayed kneeling on the floor for a minute or so, before getting up to clean the broken glass and beer off the floor. It should've been easy, yet he still managed to cut his hand on a shard of glass.
He went into the bathroom to clean up the cut a bit. There were no bandaids, so he just put pressure on it until the bleeding stopped. It stung a bit, but it was manageable.
After checking on Kristen, making sure she was alright, and helping all the kids to bed, he laid down and fell asleep quickly.
There was nothing more he wanted to do than to hit snooze on his alarm the next morning, but he knew he couldn't. So with a sigh, Peter got up and woke all the kids up.
It turned out to be a pretty average day. Peter got ready and took everyone to school. School itself was average, as it so often was. He walked the kids home from school and went to work, which was pretty slow, and soon he returned to the orphanage.
The kids seemed pretty hungry when he got back, so he started on dinner. He'd planned on making pasta, but when he opened the cabinet, he couldn't find it anywhere.
For a moment, he was confused. Did one of the kids take it? Or had Bella made it for dinner a few nights ago, and he just didn't notice? But it all made sense when he saw the empty boxes in the trash.
At what Peter thought was perfect timing, Mr. Miller's footsteps echoed throughout the first floor as he walked down the stairs.
Peter walked into the foyer to see him, dressed as if to go on another "business trip". Maybe it wasn't the best idea, but Peter decided to confront him on his way out.
"Mr. Miller?" he started, somewhat politely, but there was still an audible edge in his voice.
Mr. Miller turned to him annoyed. "What?"
"Did you and Mrs. Miller eat the pasta I bought?" It was a question, but it was somewhat obvious Peter already knew the answer.
"Yeah, so what?"
"I bought that with my own money, and it was supposed to be dinner for the kids. Now, what am I supposed to feed them?"
Part of Peter realized how dumb it was to talk back at Mr. Miller, but a bigger part of him didn't care. Well, at least not yet.
"Excuse me? You don't get the right to snap at me. I'm the one who's paying for the roof over your head, so I can eat whatever the hell I want," Mr. Miller growled, glaring at Peter with a look he could only describe as hatred.
"But, they have to eat something. I spent–" Peter was cut off with a hit to the face. Pain exploded in his jaw and he bit his tongue hard, crying out slightly.
"Don't talk back to me! There's no place for that here. You should have some respect."
He balled up his fist and punched Peter again, this time in the ribs. Peter fell to the ground, but Mr. Miller didn't stop there. He kneeled to the ground next to Peter and kept laying down hits.
Peter felt the hits land everywhere. His head was knocked back to the floor when he got hit in the face. He could hear ringing in his ears and felt blood drip down his face. His vision was blurry and the familiar metallic taste filled his mouth.
His ribs and arms and stomach hurt and he wanted nothing more than to curl into a ball and for the hits to stop. It was stupid to talk back and he knew it, yet did it anyway. Why was he so dumb?
With one last hit to his arm, Mr. Miller stood up, kicked him, and left without a word. Peter couldn't actually see him leave, but the sound of the front door closing cutting off his labored breathing was enough.
For a moment, he was worried one of the kids might've seen it before he remembered they were still in the toy room. He let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, wincing slightly at the pain in his ribs and chest.
He tried to pick himself up off the ground, but his vision swam and the room seemed to sway. Using far too much energy, he managed to sit up and stay there for a few minutes.
When the room had finally come to a stop and he could see a bit better, he somehow got to his feet and stumbled to the bathroom. There was still a small ringing in his ears though.
When he saw his face in the mirror, his eyes widened almost comically.
He had blood dripping out of his nose and mouth, and out of various cuts all around his face. There were tons of puffy red spots that he knew would turn into bruises. Taking off his shirt, the rest of his torso and arms looked the same way.
He had a bad headache already but knew he couldn't let the kids see him like this. Using a damp cloth, he wiped the blood away. He managed to find a few bandaids in one of the cabinets and put them on some of the bigger cuts he got. There wasn't much he could do for the bruises though.
Bella was a lot better at this, but it would have to do. He winced as he put his shirt back on and did his best to make small movements.
Glancing at himself one more time in the mirror, he saw that he didn't look much better than before. With a sigh, he just gave up though, figuring he couldn't do much about it anyway.
The next morning felt like hell. Any small movements brought among his sore torso or arms hurt. He had a ton of bruises, but he was glad most of them could be covered by his hoodie.
His face was a different story though. There was nothing he could do to cover the multicolor bruises and cuts. People at school would definitely notice; they'd have to be blind not to.
Maybe he could say he got in a fight. It might work, as long as he didn't give too many details.
With that in mind, he got everyone ready and they left for school. It was a bit warmer today than it had been recently, and he started sweating a bit from the walk to school.
As soon as he walked through the doors of his school, he felt eyes on him. As he walked, it only got worse. People would look up at him, point him out to their friends, probably saying something along the lines of "I wonder what happened to him," and continue on with their conversations. All Peter could do was keep his head down though, trying to avoid their gazes.
When he got to his locker, he could still feel people around him staring, and could hear hushed whispering, but at least it wasn't too bad.
But soon, Adam and Spencer walked up to him and Spencer started, "Hey, Peter. Do you know what everyone's talking about?"
Peter was still facing his locker, grabbing some of his books. With a sigh, he turned towards them, and they both immediately gasped. "Nope. No idea," he joked sarcastically.
"Oh my god, Peter. What happened?" Adam asked, mouth still agape a bit.
"I got in a fight," he tried to say nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders. It seemed to work because both their expressions instantly shifted.
"Wait, really? That's so cool. Did you win?" Spencer questioned with a small smile. Peter gave him a look, and Spencer added, "okay maybe that was a dumb question."
"Who was it anyway?" Adam asked this time. Peter sucked in a breath at his question. That was the question he had been hoping to avoid, but it really was inevitable.
After thinking for a second, Peter answered, "I don't know. Never seen him before." Peter shrugged again, hoping that they'd believe his answer. The bell rang at that moment though, saving him from any more questions. "See you guys later."
They both waved to him before splitting off in the other direction. His first few classes were pretty boring. Some teachers and other students asked him what happened, but he used the same excuse he told Spencer and Adam. By lunch, it seemed like everyone knew what happened.
It helped a bit because now he didn't have to deal with more people asking. Except now, he had to deal with Caleb. Apparently, he was offended that he got beat up without him. Although Peter was lucky he didn't hit him. Caleb did push him into the lockers though.
After that, his day was pretty average. Although he had to wonder if things would ever get any better.
He missed May. Even with school bullies, life was great because he had May. His new life kinda sucked, and so far it seemed like it would stay that way. There was a part of him that hoped it would get better, but by now he knew not to believe in hope.