"We fought an uphill battle. One we had no hope of winning."
~~~
Felicity-Flick as most call her-Carter, has learned a thing or two in her 12 years of life. How to deal with drunk parents without waking the neighbors, how to smoke a cigarette withou...
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"Are you hiding from us?"
Jules stuck his head out my bedroom window, an irritating smirk plastered on his face.
I turned to him with an impressed glare and blew a cloud of smoke out of the corner of my mouth. "Usually. Are you looking for me?" I'd been sitting on the fire escape for the last 15 minutes just waiting for one of the invaders to come and get me for more 'family time'. As if dinner wasn't bad enough. No one had come to talk to me since we split off. I think we all needed some time to emotionally recover before we tried to be civil again. Well, before they tried to be civil. I refused to even bother. I wasn't surprised that it was Jules who had come to get me. He was the only one who hadn't been witness to the angry chaos of our holiday meal, and therefore, was probably the only one brave enough to come and bother me.
"I was sent by the masses to see if you were coming out for presents." He grunted loudly as he swung his leg over the windowsill and leaned his back against the railing of the fire escape. It gave me deja vu when he'd done the same thing a few days ago after he first arrived. It was impressive how little my anger towards him had diminished in all that time. I still hated him just as much as I had the first time he invaded my personal space without my permission.
"And where have you been? You missed all the fun at dinner." Truthfully, I could care less where he was. I hadn't even noticed he wasn't there until after dinner was over. I was just trying to waste time so I didn't have to rejoin my family just yet.
"I went out with a friend, and it was a good thing I did," I saw his eyes lock onto the cigarette sitting between my fingers. I rolled my eyes and took an especially long drag off it, just to annoy him. He frowned but didn't say anything about it.
"Emil told me what happened. He was pretty upset about it." Jules sighed and shifted a little closer to me as if he was afraid I would pounce if he moved too quickly. The thought of them being afraid of me would not be entertaining.
I shrugged. "So? What do I care if he's upset?"
"Flick, he's trying to make things better with you. I know you have your...oppositions to us, and rightfully so, but we're trying. Most of us anyway." He muttered the last part to himself sullenly, lowering himself to the metal floor of the fire escape in front of me. I was tempted to move up a step, further away from him. But stubbornly, I stayed put. "I'm sorry about what Noel said. He didn't mean it, Flick, he was just-"
"Don't bull shit me, Jules. I don't need excuses." I turned my attention away from him and back to the city in front of me. My city. My home. Cool air swept across my face. I suppressed a shiver. A sour inhale of smoke filled my lungs, making me gag on the polluted air in my chest. Jules looked at me worriedly as I hacked into the crook of my air, gasping for air like I was underwater. He reached out to touch me, but I shook my head, shifting away from him and taking a deep breath in an attempt to stop coughing.
