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Tuesday, March 25th
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We managed to hang for a couple more hours until the sun was beginning to set. The group told countless stories about our wild and chaotic preteen years.
Evangeline got to hear it all and even laughed at some of the stories. Logan was our storyteller and everyone was easily entertained by him.
When it came time to finally leave, Evangeline was pulled to the side by Jezabel. I didn't know what that was all about, but I didn't interfere after I paid close attention to Evangeline's body language.
I knew when she was uncomfortable, bothered about something, or when she was annoyed.
Instead she wore a smile on her face as she chatted away with my ex-girlfriend. I didn't think that this day would come or that I would run into Jezabel ever again. It wasn't my intention to, it just sort of happened.
Logan was there and so was everybody else. I should've seen it coming when I saw her close friends sitting beside each other. She thought that I had returned for her and I felt guilty for making her think that.
Yeah, I made a mistake getting into drinking again to forget about what Evangeline had done. Jezabel almost used that to her advantage, but it was most of my doing. I didn't want to go back to Evangeline that easily, but when she actually showed up my mind had been changed quickly.
I was relieved to see that Jezabel wasn't like her old self. Almost a year of not seeing each other seemed to do her good. She was back on her meds and was mentally doing better. I still didn't like that she was hanging with people that used to feed her drugs whenever she would ask for them.
"Hey, I'm ready," Evangeline says, slipping her hand into mine. She offers me a smile pretty much letting me know that everything is well.
Jezabel follows right behind and has a small smile on her face. Something that was very rare to see.
"So will you ever come to visit again?" Jezabel asks.
I shake my head. "Probably not."
She nods understandingly and gives Evangeline a final glance and averts her eyes back to me. "Maybe it was best you moved away. I'm sorry for pulling that kind of stuff onto you." She wears a melancholic smile.
I hope you find your peace.
She takes a second to read my hands and surprises me when she responds. "I'm trying. I actually took a class to finally learn sign language. I wish I would've put more effort into our relationship."
I really wondered what Evangeline and Jezabel's conversation was all about, that she was apologizing for the past.
"We should get going before the cops come on this side of the town. They like to get you for breaking curfew," Logan says, jiggling his keys in his hand. "Not all of the houses are abandoned like they think they are."
After we exchanged our goodbyes with the rest of the group, we all piled into Logan's truck and headed back to Logan's studio apartment.
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Wednesday, March 26th
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"The waitress seemed bitchy to me," Tiffany grumbles as she slides into the booth.
Evangeline and I sat across from her and Logan. We all came out to eat breakfast one last time before we head back to Hollow Grove later today. We would leave the next morning instead, but Tiffany was already itching to go back home and not waste another precious day in 'stinky Texas'.
"I can't wait to jump into the pool and sleep in my bed," Tiffany says.
"What's wrong with mine?" Logan asks, looking a bit offended at her statement.
"It's not even a Tempur-Pedic," she says, rolling her eyes.
"You didn't seem to complain when you climbed into my bed last night," Logan shoots back.
Evangeline looks at Tiffany with a surprised look on her face and Tiffany shrugs at her. "Game is game."
"Y-you don't seem the type to like g-guys like Logan," I comment.
"I didn't at first, but I found him to be kind of cute when he wouldn't open his mouth," Tiffany chuckles.
"I guess I could pay a visit to Hollow Grove when school is over. Maybe you can give me a tour of your bed," Logan says, a smirk on his face.
"Ambrose, put your friend on a leash. He's acting like a horn dog," Tiffany scoffs.
"Oh, that's not—" Logan is interrupted by the waitress who stands at the edge of the table, waiting for us to order.
After we ate, I had told Evangeline that I would take her someplace that meant a lot to me. Logan was going to head to the tattoo parlor to get something done on his back. Of course Tiffany wanted to tag along.
So we split up and Logan let me take his truck while Tiffany and Logan stayed at the tattoo parlor.
"So where are we going?" Evangeline asks, clicking her seatbelt as she settles into the passenger seat.
"My old house," I say.
Her curious glint in her eyes seemed to disappear when she realized what I had said. She knows the horrors that went on in that house.
"Ambrose," she says softly, "we don't have to go there if you don't want to."
I shake my head. "I need to."
She reaches for my hand that rests on the gearshift. "I won't let you do it alone."
With the confidence that she would be by my side, I turned the truck on and started heading towards the direction of my old neighborhood.
When we got to the quiet suburban neighborhood, I noticed that my old house was still on the market. I remember overhearing Jen and Sandra talking about how once they sell the house, they wanted to put it towards their retirement fund.
A real estate agent stands outside fixing the open house sign and makes sure that the front steps of the house are clear of any trash. The light blue house stood two stories tall with a large front yard and bushes lining up the exterior walls. I could see the window of where my old room was.
Evangeline and I exit the truck and walk up the steps.
"Oh," the agent looks at us with a surprised look. "Are you guys also here to tour the house?" She asks.
I could hear the chatter of other people in the house that were also touring the house. I guess it made me feel a bit more at ease that I wouldn't be alone in this house surrounded by my dark memories.
"Y-yes we are," I say, lying to the agent. Evangeline gives me a look, but plays along.
"Cool. So the house was built back in the 80s and it's only had two owners so far. A couple owned the house for about 18 years and did a few renovations towards the end of their ownership. The others were a small family with a child," the woman says, seemingly excited to talk about the house.
"Were there any other renovations done after the family moved in?" Evangeline asks, pretending to be interested in the house.
Her question struck me and my mind went back to one of the memories that had been dug so deeply, I almost forgot.
"Just a few, I believe they redid the kitchen tiles and the bathrooms. There was an unfortunate incident that stained the bathroom tiles and it had to be ripped up and replaced," the agents says, "but everything else is untouched."
We stand right at the small foyer and face the living room to our left and the kitchen to our right.
"The living room is big enough for any sectionals you would like to put in and you can easily hang a large flat screen tv up on the wall. There is a small fireplace that doesn't seem to have been used a lot, but it's there if you need it," the agent says.
The Texas heat wouldn't allow us to ever use the fireplace and Jen would always be paranoid that I would burn myself because she thought I was too clumsy. She only lit it a few times when we had those cold storms every once in a while.
"Let me go check on the other potential buyers and I will be right back," the agent says, walking away from us.
"What happened in the bathroom?" Evangeline asks, not wasting any time to ask the real questions.
I tried to cut myself when I was twelve. Things were getting bad with Sandra. I thought that that would get me away from her.
Evangeline furrows her brows and reaches for my hands. She inspected my wrists, but the scars weren't there. Instead they were on my forearms, vertically. The scar had been fading since it was six years ago and I used all sorts of ointments and topicals to make the scar fade away. I hated the unwanted attention and the annoying pity looks I would receive.
She runs her thumb over the dark line and I feel a tingle run through my body. It gives me the chills.
Come on, I'll show you more.
Still with our hands interlaced, I guided her to the staircase where it all happened.
"T-this is where I was p-pushed off. I almost broke my neck on that step." I point out the second to last step where I had landed wrong.
If it wasn't for my hands that I put out in front of me, I would've suffered a spinal injury instead of damaged vocal chords. I think my life would've been even more hellish if I had become paralyzed.
I could only imagine what Sandra would've done then.
Evangeline studies the staircase and keeps quiet for a bit. I think she's trying to imagine how the fall happened or how I was pushed.
I ascended the staircase and stopped when I got to the top. "T-this is where she pushed me."
Evangeline's eyes round in horror as she takes in the grand height of the staircase. When I was four it looked much bigger to me. Now, it doesn't look as bad as it did. I grew used to climbing up and down the stairs afterwards that I didn't really think twice of the staircase.
"Ambrose, I'm so sorry," she says quietly.
I lead the way into my old room. Once I stepped foot inside, it felt like I was taken back to the darkest times of my life.
The room was empty of any life that it once held. The walls have been painted over removing any dents on the walls caused by my fist, holes that were caused by thumbtacks on my posters, and the carpet had been ripped out. There were no bloodstains on the carpet from when I would come home beaten up by other people or when I would do it to myself.
It was like the room had been cleansed and rid of all the disease that it carried.
I wish I was able to do that to my body and my brain.
Little by little Evangeline has been doing a good job at doing that. I've been forgetting what Sandra's touch felt like and more what Evangeline's does to me.
I'm stuck with her scent rather than Sandra's disgusting perfume.
I lived for the things that Evangeline has done to me and I hope that I was doing the same to her.
I guess two broken people can fix each other.
"It feels heavy in here," Evangeline comments. She steps more into the room and takes in everything even though the room was vacant. "Is this where it happened?" She whispers.
My silence is an answer for her as her eyes look at me with a deep look of sadness in them. I understood that look very well. It was the same one I gave to Jen when I first told her about my assault.
I hear laughter coming from down the hallway. The same hallway in which Sandra's room used to be. She was underneath the guardianship of Jen and had let her stay with us. What I thought would be a fun experience turned out to be the worst idea ever.
"Oh," a surprised voice speaks out, "I'm sorry I thought this room would be vacant." A young pregnant woman chuckles.
A young man appears right at her side and gives us a polite smile.
"Sorry we're just leaving," Evangeline apologizes.
"No, it's okay. If you both want to tour the house and make sure you want to put your offer in, by all means go ahead," the woman says, "It just seems like the perfect house to raise our twins."
Twins. That was right. One major detail I managed to push to the back of my mind was that I had a twin brother out there in the world.
Jen said she was trying to track him down, but he would always run away whenever she tried to pinpoint him.
That would be my next step after I move out and figure out my living situation. I knew I couldn't stay at the house anymore. According to my real birth certificate I was already a legal adult. I turned eighteen back on the 4th of January.
I would have to grow used to celebrating my birthday on a different day than what I was used to.
"Boys or girls?" Evangeline asks, snapping me out of my train of thoughts.
"Boys," the couple smiles gleefully, "I was infertile for years until we did treatments and it finally worked. We couldn't have been more excited when we found out that we would be blessed with two."
I feel a sense of jealousy that emerges deep inside me for the unborn twin boys. They were already wanted since before birth and would have the perfect life to grow into.
I guess something my brother and I had in common was that we weren't planned nor wanted to begin with. I wonder how he grew up and what he's currently doing right now.
"C-congratulations. Y-you should put in your offer," I say.
The couple looks at each other and looks back at me. "You're not interested in buying the house?" The young man asks.
I shake my head. "I'm looking for something more modern."
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"Let me know how you feel about the songs," Logan says, handing me a CD that he had burned his demos onto.
We should start that band.
He smiles widely. "I'm your drummer and you're the lead guitarist. We just need a bassist and a singer and we're set."
Logan always had a dream of starting a band between the two of us. He wrote the majority of the lyrics and shared them with me, but I was useless when it came to trying to sing the lyrics. I guess now that I have been growing used to talking, I can give it a go.
"I'll be stopping by soon after graduation and we can talk about it then," he says.
"You got it," I say, giving him a smile of approval.
"Thank you for letting us stay at your place, Logan. I appreciate it." Evangeline smiles at Logan.
"Of course. I'm your knight in shining armor whenever you need me," Logan says, doing a weird curtsy.
Evangeline giggles and Tiffany rolls her eyes. "Anyways, it was nice meeting you, but don't think that this changes things between us. You're still not my type." Tiffany crosses her arms over her chest.
"Don't worry princess, I'm sure I'll be living rent free in your mind during our time apart," Logan winks at her.
Tiffany scoffs. "I'm going now. I'll see y'all back home."
Tiffany gets into her car and drives off. I helped Evangeline put her bags into Jen's car, which I took after the situation at the party. I didn't see a reason to take the car back without hearing Jen's unwanted pleas so I drove it all the way to Texas.
"Are you ready?" I ask.
Evangeline is already putting her seatbelt on and getting comfortable in her seat. "Ready as you are."
The drive back to Hollow Grove felt quicker than when I had to drive to Stoneheart. I had millions of topics I wanted to address with Aaron and Jen, but once I sat in front of them in the living room, I drew a blank.
Evangeline sat beside me to support me and make sure that I could talk to them without having trouble.
"I'm glad you're back home," Jen says. I could tell the guilt was eating her alive.
Her eyes were dark and sunken in. Her hair was messy and pulled into a messy updo. Her clothes were wrinkled and I doubt she had been at work. Aaron on the other hand, looked like the situation didn't faze him at all except for the slight fidgeting of his hands.
"Jen, stop. Just get to the chase already," Aaron mutters.
"Ambrose and I talked on our way back here and he has some things he wants to discuss about," Evangeline says, nodding to me.
"I-I'm moving out. I want my college fund money."
"You can talk?" Aaron raises an eyebrow. "Jen he can talk."
"Yes, I know that! I've been trying to tell you that," Jen says.
"Fine. You can have your money. What else?" Aaron asks.
"What? No? He can't have the money. He can't move out yet," Jen shoots back, "he's not old enough to move out."
"Y-yes I am. M-my birth certificate states that I'm eighteen. I can move out," I interject quickly.
"Just let him. You already caused him enough harm. All I ever wanted was a son and you took that away from me," Aaron says, looking at Jen with disgust. He gets up from the couch and walks away.
I hear the backdoor open and close shut.
"I'm sorry," Jen mutters. Her lips quiver and her eyes fill up with tears.
"Ambrose wants to know the last thing you know about his twin brother," Evangeline says.
"Just the houses he was in when he was in the foster system. They were all dead ends though," her voice breaks, "majority of those foster homes have been shut down. I only have your biological father's name that was given to me through your biological grandmother."
"I'm going to need that information," I say.
Jen nods. "I'll gather the documents now."
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A/N: 5 CHAPTERS LEFT!
Thank you all so much for 5k reads! Wow so many people have been reading my books and I think that's insane.
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- N ♡