FREAK SHOW

Chapter 6: Different Kinds of Wolves

Chapter 6: Different Kinds of Wolves

~"he came home smelling like rain and cigarette smoke and teenage love and his mother grabbed him and said, "sweetheart, don't you fucking dare fall in love." and he smiled and stuck his hand in his pocket and touched the picture she had drawn. and he came home smelling like vanilla vodka and the lavender flowers he had brought her and smudged lipstick. and his mother noticed the way his hair was messy and his shirt was inside out and she brushed his hair out of his eyes and said, "darling, don't you fucking dare fall in love." and he kissed her cheek and tried to put back the necklace he had got her. he twirled it around his fingers, they'd still taste like her skin if he put them in his mouth. and he came home smelling like thunderstorms and fire and breakup songs and cheap vodka that made him throw up and blood and rose thorns and smudged blood dropping down his nose and his mother just looked at him and she shook her head." ~ (unknown)

The feeling of hands combing through her hair woke Scarlett. The sensation finally registered to her sleep-riddled brain and her eyes grew, sitting upright, looking around wildly. What the- She didn't know what to say when she saw Birdie was the one crouched over her and stroking her hair. Birdie was silent but greeted her with a twitching smile on her small face. She didn't bother Scarlett.

Instead, Scarlett found that she was adorable. Birdie was gentle touching her hair, and she could tell that she was kind and shy, simply misunderstood. She probably wouldn't harm a fly; the only thing intimidating was her strange features, the large nose, protruding teeth, and the pinhead with a tiny twirled bun sitting on top.

Letting Birdie caress her hair, Scarlett looked around. Scarlett hardly remembered agreeing to sleep over, but shr did still feel the quaint aftermath of contentment from last night. Nia's home was apparently very welcoming seeing the amount of people still in the room. Alexandra was sleeping at the other side of the couch, next to Scarlett's feet. Nia and Nina were sharing one of the beds and Felicity took the other. And Charlie was on the floor on a spread blanket, his strong back towards her, probably not having wanted to stay the night with his mother.

Scarlett laid there for a few minutes, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and stretching, careful not to hit Alex. She jumped slightly when the door suddenly opened. Bruce strolled in, his hands in his pockets and a smirk on his bearded face as his eyes took in the sight of them. He was wearing work clothes, a white tight t-shirt stretching over his wide shoulders and his pants were stained with dirt and sweat. "How sweet," he snickered, looking at all of them sleeping. Scarlett became more alert once seeing him walk towards Charlie's sleeping form. She wanted to yell at him but instead winced when she saw Bruce kick him hard with his boot.

Charlie bolted up, waking with hands balled in fists, like he was fighting demons even in his sleep. He looked up and sighed, seeing who it was.

"Come on bitch, we have to set up, you shouldn't have been here last night when you knew that," Bruce said gruffly, kicking him again, this time lightly, for good measure and then walking to the door to wait for him. Scarlett began to see that Bruce's favorite word was bitch. Charlie slowly got up, Scarlett feeling bad cause he must hurt from sleeping on the hard floor.

Charlie made eye contact with her as he walked towards the door, seeing that she was awake; a smile was hidden in his eyes almost as if remembering yesterday, a good day. They didn't need to exchange words with each other. And then he was gone, and she was alone in a room full of sleeping people.

Scarlett didn't stay that long. After a couple minutes, she eased Birdie's hands away from her hair and left the room. She quickly took a shower in Irene's caravan, seeing that she wasn't there at the moment, and slipped into another pair of tattered shorts and a white tank. She weaved her hair into a braid, to relieve her neck of heat. It was still quite hot outside even though it was growing closer to winter, the fall season beginning to drop the leaves on trees and darken the shades of nature.