The Scars That Broke Her

Chapter 1

My eyes trained on the various houses passing by as we drove through town. Each house we drove by was different, showcasing its unique characteristics. Some were big, some were small, but each had their own story. Each had lived through a lifetime of memories. The road we drove down was lined with white oak trees, whose leaves had only begun to change color from a bright green to various shades of oranges, reds, and yellows.

After my father died, everything blurred together. Seconds turned into minutes, minutes turned into hours, and hours turned into days. Before I knew it, we were forced to pack our belongings from our house and escorted away from everything we knew. Maggie, our caseworker, had placed us in a temporary foster home while they got in contact with Cale. 

Heaven forbid they had two minors wandering the streets.

Our car slowed to a stop, resting at a red light. My fingers played with the rubber band wrapped around my wrist, as I watched as a young boy played in his front yard. His foot slammed against a soccer ball sending it flying across the yard only to be stopped by his dad, sporting a smile from ear to ear. His mother watched from her flower beds, where her hands mindlessly patted the dirt surrounding her blooming flowers. They were the perfect family, the definition of the 'American dream'. Their laughs could be heard from inside the car, sending a wave of nausea through my body as I quickly looked away. They were so happy. Going about their happy, perfect lives, with no cares in the world. I used to be like that. My attention turned straight ahead, looking out the front windshield as the car jutted forward indicating the end of the red light.

"Will you stop that?" Tate's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. He sat in the back seat beside me, his head leaning against the window. I shot him a confused look, before realizing that his eyes were closed and there was no possible way for him to see it. As if sensing my confusion, he popped one eye open flicking his gaze down to where my fingers still mindlessly played with my rubber band; a bad habit I had picked up in recent months. "You're making me nervous with all your fidgeting."

Quickly, I removed my hands, clasping them together in my lap. My eyes wandered back out the window, I was thankful we had passed the happy house. I could feel Tate's eyes on me, watching. I did everything in my power to keep my body still and my eyes focused out the window. I needed to be strong. I couldn't let him see how much I was actually hurting.

"Noa, it's going to be fine." Tate said gently, trying to help me calm my nerves. He knew my thoughts on going to live with Cale. It definitely was not my first choice. To be completely honest, I would rather do literally anything else than live with him. When Cale left for college, three years before my mother's arrest, we barely saw or heard from him. He had left us behind completely to start his new life. In fact, the first time I saw Cale in almost four years was at my father's funeral a week ago. So, imagine my dismay when Maggie told us he had taken over guardianship. I tried to reason with her, to tell her he didn't want us, we only had a couple years until we turned eighteen anyways; but nothing I did seem to sway her.

"Easy for you to say." I rolled my eyes. Tate got along with everyone. His charming personality made him the center of attention at our old school. Well, that and the fact that he was captain of the soccer team. Everyone knew him; and he knew everyone. I had learned my lesson early on to refuse to go places with him. Whenever we went somewhere together, there were at least twenty people coming up to him and slapping him on the back like they were old pals. It was infuriating. It would take us an hour just to run one errand. Even after we stopped going to school, when our dad got really bad, his friends would still come up to him when we were out and talk to him like no time had passed.

Mine didn't.

"Noa-" Tate started, before I cut him off.

"I don't see why we couldn't just stay." I said, meeting Maggie's brown eyes in the rearview mirror. Tate just shook his head. The number of times we had talked about this was uncanny. I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I had to move, to a completely different part of town, away from everything I knew.