Not Good Enough

Back Again

"What were you thinking, Devon?!", Uncle Craig shouts at me, not in the best of moods tonight. The elevator doors open and he leads me down a corridor to his apartment which he had bought sometime after the whole thing happened, so he could stay with me whilst I went to school.

Whilst he's opening the door, I lean against the wall next to him, hating that I had gotten caught. I could have ran off before he walked up to me on that street earlier on, but I knew he wouldn't let me go that easily, and I needed to save up on my money. So the best thing to do is to run away in the morning, after I've had some rest and connected to his wi-fi.

He lets us both in and I see the apartment that I haven't seen since days before the funeral. As soon as we're inside, he flicks the light on and I can see the apartment now. The expensive equipment and furniture. The great walls and floorboards with absolutely no holes in.

I hate it.

I hate him.

"What the hell were you doing all summer?!", Uncle Craig yells at me. I don't answer him.
"Give me that bag", he orders, holding his hand out for the bag that I carry everywhere with me.
"No", I refuse.
He tries to snatch it from me, but I pull away, and as I do, something falls out. He grabs it.

Oh great.

It couldn't have just been a pair of damn knickers or jeans. It had to be that.

"Fake ID?!", he exclaims, looking over it in his hands.
"That's it! You're....you're grounded!", he yells at me.
"You don't have any authority over me so get lost and get a damn life!", I hiss at him.
"I am your legal guardian now and I'll do what the hell I want!".
"Give it up. You're stuck with me and, because of that, you want to make my life a living hell. Well, guess what? It already is!", I yell at him.

"Ugh. I'm leaving", I mumble, heading for the door.
"No you aren't", he says.
I turn around about to ask him for my ID back.
"If you don't do as I say until after you've finished school, then I will call the cops on you. How about that?", he asks me.

Damn it.

"Oh, fuck off! You can go back to your perfect life if you let me leave now with my fake ID and don't bother me for the rest of my life!", I say.
He wacks my fake ID on the palm of his hand as he walks towards a picture frame, taking it off the wall to reveal a safe.
"You wouldn't dare", I growl.

He opens it, making sure I can't see it, and throws the fake ID in, before closing it again.
"Ugh! Do you know how hard I worked to get that?!", I yell at him.
"No. And I don't care. You are going to stay here and graduate high school or I will turn you in to the cops", he tells me.

"But-", I start, feeling my revenge plan slip through my fingers.
"No. That's it. And you can tell me what you've been doing all summer".
I smirk, swinging my bag onto my back.
"I don't have to tell you shit", I say, before walking away, to the room that I was supposed to be sleeping in all summer.

I lie on my bed, taking my laptop out of my bag. I turn it on and while it's loading, I take out the piece of paper from my back pocket and look at it. All these random numbers and letters, split up with commas and full stops. I start trying to break the code, looking up all types of different possibilities.
................

I wake up, gasping for breath, my heart in my throat. I can hear and feel my heart beat pounding right at the back of my throat and I try to calm myself down.

This has happened too many times. I take the pills out of my bag and pop one in my mouth, before swigging it down with my bottle of water.

I stay awake for the rest of the night, and I get nowhere. I've tried every code possible. Every code breaker. Nothing.
..............