All We Are Part Two

Make sure you read the sneak preview first!



As I walked nothing really happened, so while we let that happen I shall fill you in on more of my personal story. Saying I was poor was an exaggeration. I lived in a two room house in the slums of the city. My 'mother' wasn't exactly there. She was incredibly distant and usually drunk. My 'father' was worse. He was always drunk and abusive. Usually I evaded it but some days I couldn't. I had learned to defend myself early on and how to stay out of the house when I needed to. Everyone in my family did. Peter had already booted it off to college and it was as if Morgan didn't even exist anymore. I did get caught sometimes and was then used as a punching bag. I didn't try to hide it. The fact that my life was messed up was just that, a fact. No one seemed to really care anyways. Vi had been abandoned as a baby so she gave me all the sympathy I needed. Dri knew about it but knew that I didn't need any pity so she pretty much acted like it didn't exist.

I heard the bus stop and pulled out the money I would need. Handing it to the conductor-y guy thing I went and took a seat near the back of the bus.

I had a dark blue hoodie on, a little lighter than the navy of Adria's wet umbrella. I was wearing some tee that actually fit (I managed to somehow be able to find those type of clothes) and jeans that had been in my possession for two years and were definitely starting to show it. On my feet were my old running shoes I had gotten from Goodwill last time my shoes wore out. No one seemed to notice that I only had two pairs of jeans and a few shirts. This was surprising considering how I was one of the popular kids at school (I'm still not sure how).

Slipping the hood of my sweatshirt down I leaned my head back and let my hair fall. I smoothed it out and pulled it up to represent a cylindrical shape named after a horse tail. I tightened the ponytail holder and added the other one from my wrist. Dropping my backpack to my seat I looked out the window to watch the world go by. Rain dripped down the glass aperture and I mentally raced the tiny tears. I remember an old friend once told me how it was like God was sad and the raindrops were his tears. I had laughed in her face. Needless to say we weren't friends anymore. That had happened with a lot of people. I was just so sarcastic and cold and rude and even cynical and I didn't really care what people thought that I just repelled friends. It was a miracle that I had Avia and Adria. We all had interesting tales on how we met.

The bus stopped and another person or two got on. It looked like a college student and someone my grandmother's age. I went back to watching the world go by. Shops and restaurants I had never once entered passed me by. Occasionally I would recognize a name or brand from something someone had once told me.

Several more times the bus stopped and people would climb on and off. It was never anyone I knew. No one ever sat next to me. Everyone was in such a hurry to get on with their daily lives that I was just another brick in the wall. After about an hour I saw the place and thought it may as well be a good place to get off. It looked like downtown with all the rich businesses. I knew a few kids from school lived down here and Vi and Dri had once dragged me to a party last year. That party was about the time Zoro met Dri. If love at first sight did exist then they certainly did have it. Their level of cuteness and perfectness was sickening sometimes. I stepped off of the bus and began to walk in a general direction. I walked across sidewalks and down streets. I cut through alleys and eventually ended up where my life totally changed. It was still raining and streetlights were beginning to turn on. In the area I was located there were a lot of houses that had businesses in front. It was the complete opposite of the slums where I lived.

"Are you alright, Hun? Do you need a phone?" a voice called out from one of the houses. It was a lady who was on the shorter side, maybe five foot four, and slightly pudgy. She seemed really nice.

"Oh I'm alright," I responded with a fake smile.

"At least come in and wait until the rain lets up! It's wretched out here!" Knowing that there was no use arguing I followed her into her house. From the looks of it she had some sort of small flower shop.

"I'm Delilah Cole," she introduced herself with a warm smile.

"Ravyn," I replied, shrugging my hands into the pocket of my jacket/sweatshirt/hoodie. I didn't know or care about the difference between them. All I know is that my jacket zipped up.

"Here, sit down here." Delilah motioned to a stool at her kitchen counter and I obliged. I didn't move my backpack. I didn't expect to stay long.

"What school do you go to?" She asked again.

"Windworth High," I answered. Her face gained an upgrade to her smile.

"Really? My son goes there. His name is Excalibur, any chance you know him?" I hid my emotions. Cal was the newer kid who was British. All the girls had a thing for him, except for Adria. Even Avia liked him, and we (you and I) both know (as of now) that she may or may not be very much infatuated with a kid named Gavin. I acknowledged his presence and the fact that he was incredibly good looking. That was where it ended. We hung out with the same people and he hated me. It was very simple. Instead of saying any of this I went with an easy one word answer.

"Yeah." Delilah nodded, her smile never ebbing.

"He should be home soon. He has some sport or something. I'm not even sure anymore." It was true that Cal did a lot of sports. He was probably one of the best athletes our school had.

"What's that on your cheek?" Delilah seemed worried as she stirred the noodles. I remembered the time I had been hit with a vase or something and gotten a scar on my cheek. It was from several years ago and wasn't the most noticeable anymore.

"An old scar." I just shrugged. Delilah seemed like the kind to worry over it unnecessarily.

"What from? No don't tell me. It's an issue at home. That's why you were walking around downtown wasn't it." Crap. This woman was good. I only nodded. No one had ever read me like that before.

"Well don't even think about leaving again! You can stay here until we can get everything sorted out. I take it you don't have any siblings left at home?" Another nod. This lady thought too much.

"Ah. My ex-husband was a psychiatrist and apparently I was better than him at figuring stuff out." I gave off a small smile, a real one.

"Well you'll just stay here for as long as you need. We have two guest bedrooms for when my daughters visit. They live with their father back in England." I nodded. I knew the type of person Delilah was. She didn't like the word no, in some cases. This was very clearly one of them or else none of this tale of mine would have ever happened.

"Mum, I'm ho-" Cal himself stood right there in all of his incredibly shocked glory. Just think about how he felt. The girl he hated for one reason or another was sitting there in his kitchen befriending his mother. And soon enough he was about to find out she would be staying with him and said mother for an undetermined amount of time. I would be shocked too, especially because I had been part of one of these situations before, and they weren't exactly common.

"Oh, Cal. You're finally home. You've met Ravyn. She will be staying with us."