He's Just a Kid (Marcus Davenport X OC Book 1)

Please Don't Let Them Look Through the Curtains

To say I hate my home would be an understatement.

It's not that I don't like the fact that I have a home, I'm super grateful that I have a bed and food and clothes on my back. After all, there are people in this world that don't have those things. I'm not mad about those things.

I'm mad at my family.

My mother was still staring at me with daggers shooting from her eyes, the phone gripped in her hand. She looked like she hadn't slept in days, which she probably hadn't. She never slept well anymore. Not since she found me in the woods over a dead deer with its blood dripping from my fangs and claws, orange-and-black fur with cat ears and a tail. Yes. A tail.

Since then, she's treated me like absolute dirt. Like, yes I've killed something for food before, but that doesn't mean I'm a freaking cannibal, gosh. She won't let me go out other than school and study sessions with Bree---with the occasional shopping trip to the mall to get new clothes because she can't be bothered to check my size herself. And she's definitely  not going to let me live this whole "Marcus situation" down.

Mom threw the phone at me, forcing me to fumble with it before I finally got a grip on it. I stared at her with surprise.

"What the heck?"

"Don't 'what the heck' me!" Mom shouted at me. "Don't you even think that's okay for you to do right now!" She pointed a long finger at the house phone still clutched in my hand. "Who was that? Answer me!"

"Okay, okay, jeez!" I yelped, throwing my hands up in sarcastic surrender as she grew ever closer to my face. "That was Marcus. He---"

"Who's Marcus?"

"I'm getting to that, let me, will you?" This time I was the one glaring at her. "He's a guy I met at school. He asked me out to ice cream this weekend. Hold up"---I had to calm her down since her face was getting redder and redder as I talked--"I haven't said yes or no yet."

"Good! Because you're not going!" She snatched the phone from my hand and stormed off, slamming it back down in the receiver.

My blood was boiling.

"I hope you die tomorrow," I mumbled bitterly, stomping into my dark, small room and flipping on the light.

"I heard that! Listen to me you little---!"

The transformation happened before I knew what was going on. I bared my fangs and roared in my mom's face, slamming the door in front of her.

I was so mad.

I wanted to kill something.

Someone.

No one talks to me like---

I saw myself in the full body mirror on the back of the door I just slammed. I was vaguely aware of my mom's terrified, fading whimpers as she retreated back into her room.

I can never get used to seeing myself like this. The orange fur with black stripes painting my face, the long, pointy cat ears where my human ones used to be. My eyes. My used-to-be-blue human eyes were now green and catlike. I was always surprised to see my hair the same as it was before: Blond and wavy. But seeing my eyes like that . . . even under my glasses . . .

It wasn't right.

Tears started welling in my eyes and my ears flattened sadly as I pressed my forehead into the cool glass of the mirror. I never liked crying. I never liked it because of how it felt like I was letting my mom win. But this time, this time I had enough. It was a whole week of just letting all of the yelling, the berating, the verbal abuse roll over my shoulders without reacting. And now I had become the very thing my mother hated.

I had become the monster she had seen that day in the woods.

A sniffling that wasn't mine was coming from the back of the room. I jerked off of the mirror and whirled around, searching for the source of the noise in the small room. I saw him.

"Landon? What are you doing in my room?"

There, tucked in the corner behind my pink-covered bed, was my little brother Landon. His eyes were wet and puffy, a bit of snot was crusted on his upper lip. He was hugging his small legs into his chest. His brown hair was messed up, but his huge blue eyes were wide and afraid.

He's scared of me.

And who could blame him?

My body relaxed and I felt it shift back to normal as I approached him slowly. His eyes continued to grow larger with every step. He hadn't seen me like that much, and he definitely hadn't heard me roar before. I tried to keep myself contained at home because of him. He was the thing that made my entire life here tolerable. He was the sweetest kid ever and didn't deserve a sister like me or a mother like ours.

"Hey, Landon. It's just me," I soothed as I knelt down next to him, placing a hand tenderly on his shoulder. I felt him tense under my touch and my heart could have ripped in two right there. "Landon, I am so sorry you had to see that. You know I love you, right?"

He sniffed and nodded slightly.

"Good. Okay, come here."

I pulled him into a motherly hug, one thing he never got from our mom. I hated having to raise him for her. I hated everything about this place except for Landon. I would give my life for Landon any day.

"One day, Landon," I began quietly, "I'll get us out of here, okay?"

"Where are we going?" he asked into my shirt.

I inhaled through my nose. "I don't know," I admitted. "But we aren't staying here forever."