The Immaculate

Chapter 6

(Eros)

As we walk home, I can't stop thinking about how Nicolas never got back from his test. So, against my better judgment, I walk over to his apartment and knock on his door. As I stand there, I am filled with fear that he won't answer. However, he does answer and we talk in the doorway for a while.

He offers to let me come in and I lie when he asks me if it's against the rules. I don't normally disobey the rules on purpose, but for some reason, I want to talk to him and get to know him better. He seems different. He is not like any of the others in The Immaculate. Something is intriguing about him. I don't know how to explain it but he just draws me in without even trying.

We sit and talk on his couch for a few minutes. I ask him about his life and he starts to tell me his story. He seems nervous and a bit uncomfortable sharing. His story is one of the saddest I have ever heard. He was adopted at seven years old from an orphanage where the kids were underfed and mean.

He was bullied in the orphanage until he got adopted. Thinking adoption was the escape he had always wanted he was sorely disappointed when he finally was adopted. To be adopted, he had to be separated from his younger sister who he had raised since their parents died when she was five and he was seven.

He barely remembered his parents. All he knew is that they had similar eyes and that they had died in a car accident. His sister was also being adopted and he was happy for her.

Nicolas was adopted by a loving mother and father and their son whom he did not get along with. But the mom died a year after he was adopted and his dad remarried a horrible woman. His stepmother was incredibly mean to him. She was nice to the other son, however, because he wasn't, as she said, adopted scum nobody wanted.

Turns out, his brother was biological because his father had an affair with his mean stepmother. After a few months the dad became even worse than the stepmother was. He began to get drunk all the time and started beating Nicolas. He did not, however, beat the wife or his other son. He merely called them names.

Soon the stepmother got sick of it and left the guy taking the biological son with her. Nicolas was stuck with his horrible, drunk, abusive, dad for years. His father was the reason he graduated early. So he could get away from him.

In high school, Nicolas never wanted to go home because that's when his father would beat him. To vent his anger he would box for money. He saved his money so he could go to college and he studied so he could get as many scholarships as possible. He wanted to graduate early from both high school and college.

Nicolas went on the fast track out of high school and graduated halfway through his junior year. He was on his way to his first year of college when he came here. He likes it here but at the same time, everything is foreign and seems strange to him.

I am glad he came through. I think I have a friend. I have always been a loner here. I don't like a lot of people. They bug me, but Nicolas, he's different. He doesn't want anything back from me. I can be myself and bend the rules and he doesn't care. I am not sure what all of his stories mean, since we don't have alcohol or abuse here, I had to ask him what they are and I still don't understand.

What I do know is that no one should ever be treated like that. But I could tell he didn't want my sympathy, so I didn't give it to him. It is very rare to be sad or sympathetic here. Usually, we only feel sad on Departure days. Funny, the girl Dextion helped this year doesn't remember a single thing about her old life. Other than Nicolas, none of the outsiders have remembered their old lives.

He told me his story and I feel the need to share mine as well. Mine is not as eventful as he is, but I feel like he will listen anyway. We aren't supposed to complain and there isn't much to complain about either. Yet, somehow I can still find plenty of things to complain about. I feel bad about it, I do, but I cannot help it.