Burned Ones

Chapter 04

Annabeth Taylor.
Thirteen years old.

One year had gone by without Cam. I had filled up a one and a half rows on my bookshelf with new stories to pass the time.

If I wasn't at school or hanging out with Alex, I tried to bury my head in a novel in my room so everyone would leave me alone. Today, I hadn't been lucky enough to get to hide away in my room. My dad had found me after school and realized it had been three days since someone kicked my butt on the training mat so he dragged me down there.

After, I retreated to one of the bathrooms nearby to wrap up my raw knuckles. My arms were sore and my muscles were tight. I had fallen on my hip at one point and my body was still yelling at me about it. Once my hands were wrapped, I exited the bathroom and looked up at the stairs that would take me to my room. A bath sounded wonderful right now but my hip ached even more thinking about the movement required to walk up the stairs. Those needed to wait.

Instead, I turned and went out of the front door and sat on the cold concrete of the porch. My legs welcomed the relief. It wasn't as nice as a bath, but it would do. I looked around to see if anyone was nearby. No one was. Eager and greedy to feel the cold along the rest of my tired body, I laid back flat along the hard ground. I closed my eyes and let out an audible sigh, soaking up the chill from the ground as my muscles relaxed.

"Um. Hi." A voice said above me.

My body went rigid all over again and I sprung up, nearly falling back down as my hip fought against my sudden actions. My heart and stomach dipped so hard I wasn't sure if anything remained. If my father or uncle saw me on the ground like that, they'd have a field day with it.

Only, the man that was standing in front of me wasn't someone I recognized. Or was he a kid?

I crossed my arms over my chest and stood as tall as I could, raising my chin. I was aching but I was strong and I wasn't going to let my guard down around someone who may have snuck through the gates.

"What do you think you're doing here?" I bit out with as much hate as I could, trying to sound just like my dad did.

He did a double take at me, because at thirteen years old, I had more bark than I looked like I had. I just didn't have the height to back it up yet.

"I've been flashing this and they let me through?" the guy asked.

He showed me a napkin with my cousin's handwriting on it. I recognized it immediately because it was the same handwriting on the first page of many of my books I had: 'to annabeth. -cam' which he only did because I hated writing on books but he bought them for me so I had to suffer in silence.

The note the man held just had 'Cameron Casey' and a check mark written on it. This was a variation of a few notes Cameron had given to guys that showed up at our doorstep ever since he'd gone to juvie. I took the note from him and saw him glance at my knuckles. Just as I was about to suggest he mind his own business and keep his eyes to himself, he spoke up.

"He told me the address and said I should talk to someone about a job if I couldn't find one on my own once I got out?"

Was he asking or telling me? I narrowed my eyes. "Who are you?"

"Jay Costello. I was his cellmate at juvie. Is this like, interview number one?"

My eyes lit up at the mention of him being Cam's cellmate. "How is he?"

Jay shrugged. "Making some friends."

I nodded, wondering how many more of Cam's juvie friends would be showing up.