Winning His War

53

Andrew's POV

"Mateo Torrez."

The name left my lips before I even fully thought it through.

I could feel Jem tense in front of me. Mateo froze mid lash as recognition flooded through Patrick.

I could se him now. Tall and skinny, lanky even, his hair was dyed red back then and was long enough to cover his eyes. He never looked people in the eyes and always tried to make himself as small as possible.

He's changed so much in only a few years.

His black hair was grown back out and it was clear that he no longer had a problem with looking people in the eyes. He bulked up quickly, nearly doubling in size while confidence fell off of him in waves. He was nothing like he used to be.

"Are you naming off people at random just to save yourself some time," he asked with a new glare covering his face. "It's pathetic."

Jem hardly breathed as he put pieces of the puzzles together.

"Toe," Jem mumbled mostly to himself before a glare covered his face as he stared up at the kid who still only paused with the whip in his hand.

"So now you remember me? Now that Andrew did the hard work for you."

"Toe," he said again, louder this time as he put a harsher tone on the word. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

Mateo's grip on the whip tightened as he glared right back at Jem, the shock that had filled the room was gone the second Jem raised his voice. Mateo's face dropped into the face of a child who was lightly scolded by a parent.

"Could you please stop with that stupid name? I told you I hated it," he sighed but Jem didn't care.

"Are you fucking stupid," Jem only yelled back. "Let us go you stupid brat. Dev and Barrett will be here before long; do you really want to be here when they get here?"

"I'm not afraid of them Jem."

"We both know you should be," Jem said with a sigh, the anger in his voice fading slowly. "You're being an idiot. I can forgive you for that but Dev won't and you know it. Let us go and we'll work something out-."

"No," Mateo said harshly, a new glare working onto his face. "You don't get to act like this! You are the one who abandoned us! Don't pretend like you have the right to parent me right now."

"You're going to get yourself killed," Jem reasoned, slight panic filling his voice.

Mateo rolled his eyes but didn't bother answer as he turned his attention back to Patrick.

"Come on Patrick. Jem and Andrew seem to remember now; surely they aren't the only ones. You were supposed to be the new savior but look at you now. Each of you have failed me."

"I took you away from Jem. He was using you. How am I wrong for helping you," Patrick asked weakly as he hung from the celling, arms shaking with exhaustion.

"I didn't ask to be saved," Mateo scoffed. "Being with Jem may not have been ideal but it was better than the death sentence you sent me to."

"What happened," I asked as I shrunk farther into the wall. Mateo's eyes cut into me as a sick smile covered his face again.

"I was hoping one of you would care enough to ask. Figures it would be the therapist but at least one of you had the sense to ask. Then again you should be able to piece it together yourself." I watched, completely frozen as he stalked closer to us.

Jem sat in front of me with a harsh glare but it didn't stop Mateo from crouching in front of us, the whip still firmly held in his hand.

"Tell them Jem. Tell them how all of this started. Prove to me you that you truly remember."