I Survived

Chapter Six

Taylor sat in a quite comfortable chair in front of a policeman's desk, although he was nowhere near comfortable. When they had first arrived at the station the younger officer, who had introduced himself as Cameron, escorted him to an interrogation room like in the movies, but he wasn't interrogated. They just had him empty his pockets and then left him alone. He wasn't sure how long he sat there before Cameron came back for him and took him to where he sat now. The older cop, who's name was Olive, sat in front of him with his hands folded neatly together. He studied Taylor for a few minutes before reaching next to him and holding forward a plastic bag of Taylor stuff.
"Alright, we have-" opening the bag he began to take out things one by one,
"-a phone, headphones, wallet with cash, and this thing." He set down a small, blue, L shaped contraption.
"What's this? Something you smoke out of?" Taylor stared at him dumbfounded,
"It's an inhaler. I need it to breathe properly." Olive narrowed his eyes at him,
"What, you been smoking too much or something?" Taylor laughed slightly,
"In a way I guess." Olive looked unamused grabbing a pale yellow founder and reading through the front page,
"You're lucky the fire station didn't want to press charges. They just want you to clean up your mess and do some community service throughout the summer for them." Taylor gaped at him,
"The whole summer!" Olive looked up at Taylor, eyebrows rising slightly,
"There are consequences for your actions. You want to vandalize you will pay the price." Taylor felt his hands shake slightly, he wasn't going to be with the kids often anymore. What if something happens while he is away?
"Now I need you to sign here, and then you're free to go when your guardian arrives. You start cleaning tomorrow after school-" Olive continued to talk but Taylor had stopped listening, his ears were ringing and anxiety was rising in his chest. He continued to space out thinking of how Mrs. Hartman was going to react and how he was going to continue to keep the kids safe and especially how he was going to face all the people he had been avoiding for three years.
"Taylor!" A shrill, almost panicked sounding voice rang through his head. Jerking his head around he was met with Mrs. Hartman hurtling towards him with wide eyes. Scooping him up she ran her eyes over his form, briefly stopping on his bloody knees.
"Oh thank goodness you're okay! You are in big trouble young man, we are going to have a serious talk when we get home!" Taylor tensed, meeting her fuming eyes. There was no talking that was going to be done.
"Thank you so much officer for keeping an eye on him. I know he can be a handful at times."
"It's no problem, miss, before you take him though I do need a signature." With shaking hands Taylor took the pen and sloppily wrote out his name, in a blur he was being rushed out of the station and into Mrs. Hartmans rusty, old car. The door was slammed shut on both his and her side and without a word she started up the car and drove away.

•••

He couldn't get that boy out of his head. Once he laid eyes on his face he was immediately sent into a state of shock, although he still couldn't understand why. He recognized his face, but that wasn't what he was looking at. The kid looked like shit, there was no other way to put it. His face had streaks of burn scars across both cheeks, as well as his arms, and he looked dead on his feet. Dark circles under his eyes, messy, tangled hair, his lips were cracked and dry and he was skinny as a twig. Kiara had pointed out after they had left that his knees were bleeding, and his unfocused eyes signaled a concussion. The way he held himself was also concerning, tense shoulders and averted eyes. Kiara had been concerned about his breathing, fast and erratic, eyes searching for an escape. The signs were there, they all knew what it meant seeing it countless times with others, but the proof is what they needed. It didn't take long to convince their captain not to press charges but to instead keep him around for a bit longer. And that's what made Cody feel a little bit better.

•••

"No dinner. Go straight to your room." Taylor scurried up the stairs the minute the words left her mouth. Carefully closing the door behind him and sliding down to the floor. For the first time that day he let himself cry, sobbing as quietly he could into his hands. He was scared and in pain. His knees were in more pain than before and the pounding headache striking through his scalp wasn't helping. Mrs. Hartman hadn't uttered a word the whole way home and that scared him more than if she was yelling. His chest hurt, a striking pain through his ribs as he heaved. Scrambling through his pockets he grasped onto his inhaler and attempted to put it to his lips, he dropped it almost three times before he finally managed to take a puff. Tears blurred his vision, streaming down his face and dripping onto his jeans.

Why

Why was he like this? Why did he have to get himself in the worst situations?

Taylor let out a pained cry letting his head fall back on the door. He didn't care how much noise he was making, he just wanted the pain to stop.

Why wouldn't it stop?

Angsty ending! Jeez, two chapters in a day. Yay! I feel like my writing is slowly getting worse, I haven't been planning out my chapters,  just writing. Idk if it makes them better or worse but oh well.

-Foxy