When Raven and I got to the house…my stuff was indeed on the front lawn, in trash bags by the can at the curb, but the tops were open showing that it was indeed my stuff, though the distinct scent of cigarette ashes on the trash telling me that my mother had probably emptied her ashtray into the bag.
“What do you want to do, James?” she asked quietly, I sighed softly as I brushed hair out of my face from where it fell from how Raven pulled it back.
“I don’t even know.” I said as I just heavily sat down on the sidewalk. Raven stepped off the sidewalk beside me as she had to squat first before sitting properly, a parasol open resting on her shoulder casting a dark shadow over the two of us. “I don’t want to go back in there” I said quietly. “I didn’t want to come back, I wanted to stay in Lakeview, but…I couldn’t afford it, my scholarship only covered when I was in school and nobody was hiring, I don’t have a car and public transport here is terrible so I couldn’t go to where they were hiring easily on my bike…I had no choice, but to come back here.”
“And you’re over eighteen so they are legally allowed to throw you out and all” she said with a heavy sigh.
“Plus the police wouldn’t help me anyways.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“You think I went through my life without the police being called on us before?” I asked, “Me showing up at school with bruises and bloody from my parent’s beating me, so starved I could barely stand and all…Father paid them off and they still wouldn’t help me, now they just see me as a bad influence for everyone in the town.”
“That is disgusting…bribery” she said softly shaking her head.
“What should I do?”
“Can I…speak honestly, James”
“I’d prefer you did”
“I honestly feel like one of the best things you could do…would be stay with us, but I know that that would probably be seen as even weirder because of how shortly we’ve known each other.” She said as she tilted her head back a little, softly perturbed by the sunlight around her as she parasol on her shoulder kept her shaded.
“I know, but…then I’d just owe you more.”
“You don’t owe us anything”
“You say that, but it doesn’t change how I feel.”
“I’ve got an idea.”
“Go ahead” I said as I rested my arms on my knees
“Well, as you know with my profession, I travel…quite a bit and I need to attend a large amount of events and things.”
“Go on” I said, a little confused
“My parents have often asked if I would want or am in need of a P.A”
“A personal assistant?” I asked
“If it would make you feel better about living in the house, my parents would love if someone like you would offer to be my P.A and it would also help you with that feeling of owing us.”
“But what’s stranger sounding? I got kicked out and a friend I made not even twenty four hours ago, let me move in and become her P.A or would people think that there is something more…nefarious go on?”
“People always think there’s more to a situation than there actually is.” She said, “You can never satisfy everyone.” She added as she let her legs stretch outwards, “Plus…my traveling would help you not be here a lot.”
“True”
“And my parents will work out a thing so you can live with us and all, but they would probably still want to pay you for being my P.A”
“So, I’d be a life-in employee.”
“Most people I know have their P.A live with them too because they usually handle a lot of the work of their houses too.” She added
“I mean, it would be nice to be out of here.”
“Plus you know my family aren’t bad people.”
“True, just…absurdly rich.”
“We’re only rich enough for a nonhostile takeover of a small country.” She said with a shrug making me laugh. “My parents do have a habit of taking in drifters when we were living in bigger cities, we used to live over in Baltimore a few years back, rented out extra rooms to college students, we’d go to their graduations in place of their parents a lot of times.”
“Was…what your dad said…upsetting to you?”
“About all of us being adopted?” she asked, I nodded, she shook her head, “No, not at all…my Dad was also adopted by Grandpa. Mom and Auntie were also adopted so…it just runs in the family to be adopted.”
“Really, all of them were adopted too?”
“My parents live by the pay-it-forward idea with all of us being adopted and all. I don’t even have any memories from beforehand.”
“Really?” I asked, she nodded, “Not one.”
“I was like…two or three when I was adopted, so…nothing concrete, but the most I can remember is seeing my parents and saying that they were my new mom and dad and that I’d have everything I could ever want. The others are around the same story, except Icky, he kind of…came to the family himself.”
“He did?”
“He did, I still remember, I was seven…terrible, terrible thunderstorm when there was a knock on the door, little boy on the other side of the door, soaked to the bone, extremely ill and in dire need of him, parents gone, no records of who he is or anything in the hospital or anything. He doesn’t even remember anything and he was six.”
“Did he…run away?”
“We’re not sure, nor does he...to the police and hospital, he never existed. No birth certificate, no fingerprints, nothing…just nothingness, but he saw the lights of the house on and ran to us hoping we’d help.”
“Your parents wouldn’t…be upset?” I asked, pausing to shuffle a little at the idea of living in that house.
“Would my parents be?” she asked
“No” I said quietly
“What were you even at college for?”
“Art”
“Really?” she asked, I nodded, “I’d love to see your work.”
“I always got in trouble in school because teachers were always saying my work was too morbid, dark and creepy.”
“Perfect for us.” She said making me laugh as she took her phone out and hit a number as she rose it, “Hey, Sulk…can you come by James’ house, his mother decided to use his things as her personal ashtray. There’s a bit much for us to carry back and I need to give his parents a piece of my mind.” She said before laughing, “Thank you so much, see you in a few.” She added before hanging up as she just hopped back up to her feet turning on a heel as she leaned over to be eye level with me as she held a hand out to me, “Let’s go terrify your parents.” She said with too chipper of a tone and too bright of a smile, but…like a moth to flame, or a magnet to iron…I was too drawn in by that gorgeous smile as I took her hand.
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