*****Brendon's Point Of View*****
"Brendon, you have to okay? She said this will help you. I'll be right there."
"But what if I'm not so lucky this time? Should I write a will before we go?" I said, frantically searching for a pen and pad.
"Brendon, It's fine, truly. You can do this." Sarah stated, almost as if she was giving me a pep talk before a game.
"Can't it wait? We can do it another time?"
"We have to be there in 20 minutes, and it's a 20 minute drive. Come on Bren, let's go!"
I got into the driver's seat and squirmed around nervously, knowing where we were going to end up.
"Are you sure Sarah?'
"Yes. Let's go. Put the car in drive. That's it."
I travelled down our street nervously, dreading the eventual trip down the highway. I turned onto the road and began steering to the outside lanes.
"Brendon, this isn't going to work if you aren't going to do what she said."
I turned the car back into the middle lane and began shaking wildly. I could barely control the car. I became really worried at the sight of any car going past and began panicking.
"SARAH! Help. Please!" I sobbed.
"JESUS BRENDON!" She shrieked, leaning over and gripping the wheel with one hand, trying to steady the car and stop it from going all over the road. She ended up driving us into a rest stop on the side of the road.
"Get out." She commanded.
I climbed out of the car and went into the passenger side, hanging my head in absolute shame.
Sarah took a deep breath to compose herself.
"Why didn't you tell me beforehand that you weren't going to be able to drive down Parkinson's?" She asked gently.
I bit my lip. "I just wanted to show you I could do it, and that I didn't need the medication."
"Brendon, you should've just told me babe. I know you don't like the medication but it's for the best. Are you okay for me to keep going?" Sarah asked comfortingly.
I nodded glumly and sat in the passenger seat, not saying a word. I could tell Sarah was worried about me, she kept shooting occasional glances in my direction.
"I'm sorry. I'm so stupid." I said, throwing my face into my hands.
"You're not stupid Brendon, you've just been through a lot, and it's understandable, okay? I'm not judging you, and neither is anybody else. Anyway, we're here."
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*****Kaitlyn's Point Of View*****
"THEY'RE HERE KAITLYN!" I heard Mrs Hungin scream from the other room.
I looked up from the TV and looked towards the front door. There was a light knock, probably Sarah, and Gretchen rushed to open it. She had mostly recovered from the fight, with only a couple of bruises and a small gash on her forehead. I was still badly injured, and it hurt to move honestly.
"Hey Bub! Ready to come home?" Sarah asked as she walked in the door, completely ignoring Gretchen.
I gave her a half smile and pushed myself off of the chair, ignoring the screaming pain from my abdomen. Mrs Hungin had decided to not give me painkillers as a punishment for the fight, which was not fair at all, but I didn't want to push her further. I had been annoying enough.
"Where's Brendon?" I asked, wondering where the one man I was supposed to know had disappeared to.
"He's coming, he's just making room in the car for your bags."
I snorted. "Bags? Plural? I have one. Oh wait, and my school bag. They're upstairs. Hang on, I'll go grab them."
Sarah noticed the imminent pain on my face as I began walking towards the stairs. "Oh, I'll come with you. You really shouldn't be carrying anything heavy."
I sighed in relief as Sarah followed me upstairs to my 'new' room. I picked up my backpack and Sarah grabbed my worn duffle bag. I folded my blanket up and tucked it under my arm.
"This is all?!" She asked in disbelief.
I shrugged. "Yeah, I'm not really the favourite around here."
"Jesus, we'll have to go shopping then. Sound alright?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe. Who knows. This will do for now."
"If you say so." Sarah responded. We were greeted by a worried Brendon in the living room..
I nudged Sarah. "What's up with him?"
"Oh, nothing. He's just stressing." She replied. The answer was simple enough yet I still looked through her words and tried to pick apart her tone to work out what was wrong. I couldn't help but feel that I was the reason he was stressed so I bowed my head and just wavered near Sarah.
He tried to smile when he saw me. "Where's the rest of your stuff?"
I twisted my foot awkwardly on the ground. "This is it, actually."
He looked slightly concerned. "Oh, okay." was all he said.
"Now, where's that woman who runs this place? Do we need to sign something?"
I pointed to her office. "She's in there. She's probably going to try and tell you that I'm trouble and disrespectful and something, just warning you. I'm just going to wait out here. Her and I aren't really best friends right now."
***** Sarah's Point of View *****
I walked into the office with Brendon trailing closely behind. Mrs Hungin was busy at her desk, scanning through paperwork. Too busy to notice we had come in however.
"17th of April! Ah ha!"
"Um, hello?" I said. This caught her attention.
"Oh! Mr and Mrs Urie! You couldn't have come soon enough. My apologies for making you two kind folk wait. Please, take a seat."
I took a seat in one of the chairs facing the desk and prepared for her to speak.
"Here's the paperwork. Just a note too, she has been very disrespectful to me lately. I'm unsure if you encountered that but I am just giving you a fair warning."
I remembered Kaitlyn saying that she would probably tell us this. "Well, she's been nothing but a dear to us. She is honestly a lovely girl."
I watched as her face shrivelled up as she forced herself to agree.
"Sometimes, I suppose."
"Maybe she has just been having a bad few days. The hospital isn't exactly a delightful place." I suggested.
"Yes, well, she did cause herself to get admitted."
"No. She didn't. Gretchen attacked her." I said slowly.
"No, Gretchen wouldn't do such a thing without being provoked. Kaitlyn has never been a nice person to be around. Her parents were never much better."
"WHAT!?" Brendon interjected. "Her parents were the nicest people on this earth!"
"Her mother was a cow. I don't know what you knew of them, but her mother would always parade around the school halls acting like she was better than everybody else."
"So you already had a relationship with the child before you took her into care. Isn't that all more of a reason to be nice? Particularly if you weren't fond of them so she wouldn't grow up like them? And it seems like you had no reason to even hate her. How does your school life tie into Kaitlyn's?"
"She is exactly like her mother and has been since she arrived. She places herself above everyone else."
"If you say so. Anyway, I think that's the last of the paperwork." I said.
She quickly signed it off. "Alright. All yours. You can take her now."
The three of us walked out of the office to the entrance hall, where Kaitlyn was waiting patiently. She grabbed her backpack and the tattered blanket from beside her.
"Ready to go?"
"Yep! All sorted bub! Let's go!"
She smiled. "Awesome."
I grabbed her bag, and we started heading towards the door, but we stopped suddenly when Mrs Hungin asked a question.
"Where do you think you're going with my blanket?"
Kaitlyn looked down at the bundle of fabric in her hands.
"Y-you bought this for me when I was 10."
"Because you wouldn't stop whining about how cold it was, even though I had already provided you with a blanket. And that belongs to me."
"No, I need it. Please, I can't sleep without it."
"Give it back. It's not yours. I will call the police and report you for theft."
"Please, I'm begging you, I won't take anything else, I just really need my blanket!"
"Give it back. It's mine, and will need to go to the next girl I take in. And you're on private property."
"She keeps the blanket."
We all looked up at Brendon, who had pulled his wallet out. He pushed a 50 dollar note into Mrs Hungin's hand, despite the fact that she probably paid less than half that for it.
"I, I, uh..." She stammered, clearly not expecting this reaction.
"Come on Kaitlyn, let's go." I said, pushing the door open and giving Mrs Hungin a dirty look as she glared at us. Brendon and I took each others hands, and finally left the building, satisfied that we wouldn't have to return here. Ever.
"Thank you for that Brendon, You honestly didn't have to do that." Kaitlyn said as we met next to the car.
"It's fine, I just didn't want to have to be there longer than necessary." Brendon mumbled nervously.
Kaitlyn weakly smiled toward him in return before climbing into the back of the car.
"Is everyone buckled up?" I asked, hoping to break the silence.
"Yep." Kaitlyn and Brendon both replied. I steered my way out of the carpark and onto a desolate street that headed to the highway. I noticed Brendon getting a lot more nervous and Kaitlyn was squirming in her seat.
I felt so bad for the both of them and I wanted to just stop the car right here but Brendon had to get to therapy soon. I found myself getting stressed as I looked at the time.
"Um, is there another route we can take?" Kaitlyn asked from the back seat.
"Afraid not. We're going to have to take Parkinson's Road."
"I don't know why, but driving down this road always freaks me out." She admitted.
Brendon let out a muffled sob.
"There is a shortcut but it's about halfway through. I'll make sure I make the turn okay?" I offered.
I saw Kaitlyn nod in the back but didn't get much of a response from Brendon, not that I expected much of one while he was like this. I didn't check that he took his meds this morning either.
We drove past the exact scene of the crash and Brendon just broke down. I quickly made the turn off the road and hoped Brendon could settle himself.
"What's wrong Brendon?" a small voice asked from the backseat.
"I-I," He stumbled, trying to come up with an answer. "I can't tell you right now."
"Oh, okay, that's okay." She said, realising he was a ball of nerves.
I pulled into the nearest mall and tried to find a car park near the front.
"Why are we here?" Kaitlyn asked.
"I told you we would go shopping, did I not?" I responded.
"Oh, okay then." She said nervously. I pulled into a parking space, and nudged Brendon to come up with his little cover story.
His phone binged, probably from an app or something, and he pulled it up.
"Uh oh, I have to kind of go see my manager?" He said unconvincingly.
I mentally face-palmed. "Right now?"
"Yeah..."
I handed him the car keys. "Okay babe. Have fun. Can you pick us up when you're done?"
"Uh huh." He nodded, climbing into the driver's seat.
"Come on Kaitlyn."