Never Too Late

Chapter Two

"My parents are alive?" Johan muttered shocked. "I don't understand."

"You should keep reading." Asher encouraged him. "There's more you should know." After Johan looked at him suspiciously he finally came clean. "I might've read through it a bit on my way here."

Too shocked to care, Johan continued before freezing at a line of words, dumbstruck.

"I...I have a twin brother." Asher leaned over to support his friend who seemed shaken by this revelation.

"Yeah, but the good news is you're the older one." Johan couldn't share his optimism as he felt a bitter taste fill his mouth. "Let me spare you some time and tell you that you've also got a little sister, and they all live at this address," Asher said, pointing at a sticky note attached to one of the papers.

"I don't...understand," Johan said shaking his head with disbelief.
He was always told that his parents had tragically passed away, and no relatives came forward to claim him, so he had spent his entire life moving from home to home unwanted.

"Why did they give me up?"

"I don't know," Asher confessed with lingering pain in his own eyes from questions he must've once asked himself.

Burying his face in his hands, Johan tried to process what he'd learned but he was feeling so much anguish he could barely focus.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up; this wasn't your fault. People are selfish and sometimes the world isn't fair." Asher said, choosing to be factual rather than comforting. "You can rest on my couch tonight, you need it."

***

Johan bid farewell to Asher as he left his house. The bright early morning sun bore down on him, but his mind was foggy from the information he had received the night before. He tried to convince himself that what he was experiencing was shock, but the deep despair in the pit of his stomach felt more like grief.

When he finally made it back to his foster home, he was met with a barrage of insults and questions.

"Where are you coming from at this hour?" Mrs Clementine shouted while following him as he made his way to the room he shared with the many other boys living there. "I bet you were out drinking!"

Johan didn't answer and instead sat on his bed. Then he noticed the mess his things were in, and he became angry. "Did you go through my stuff!?" He asked heatedly.

"I did," Mrs Simpson, the head caregiver, said, walking into the room. "I had to check if you were hiding drugs."

"We should check his arms for needle marks," Mrs Clementine added.

"Stay out of my stuff!" Johan shouted as he stood up infuriated. "I'm not a drug addict!"

"Your recent behavior has been deplorable and says otherwise. You walk in and out of this house like you own the place and you've been very disrespectful by staying out all night. What do you have to say for yourself?" She asked as she looked at him disapprovingly.

"Like any of you care what happens to me," Johan remarked while gathering his things. "Leave me alone."

"You're rude, lazy, careless and selfish! How dare you say that after all we've given you!" Mrs Simpson swung her hand at Johan to slap him but he grabbed it immediately. "How dare you!" Mrs Simpson fumed.

"You're getting chores for a week! Go make breakfast, and when you're done, you're cleaning the cellar and cutting the grass!" Mrs Clementine shouted. "Useless, arrogant child! I can't wait until you're eighteen to get rid of you!"

"Why wait? My birthday is only two weeks away." Johan said grabbing his bag off the bed. "I'm leaving now!"

"What you-" Ignoring their protests he packed his belongings up and put on his Jacket before walking out the door. "Johan! Don't you dare! If you leave this house, don't think about coming back!"