The Complication

~Chapter 18~

Jay POV

        He was trying to be compassionate, but he couldn’t. How come she could sit there complaining that she had family issues? At least her mom didn’t beat her; at least she had a nice caring dad that wasn’t drunk all the time!  Jay’s hands clenched into fists and he saw Drake watching for his reaction. He bit his lip trying to hold it back but he exploded anyways, “You think you have family problems? If you want family problems come live with me for a day!” Now everyone was looking at him. Great.

        “Jay?” Sadie asked. He looked away, feeling bad. He’d obviously hurt her feelings.

        Drake looked at him, the unspoken question hanging in the air. Jay shook his head. He wouldn’t let Drake tell the story for him; he had to man up and do it himself.

        “My parents abuse me; my dad’s drunk all the time and they’ve been arrested more than once.” He said quietly his voice cracking.

        Jay heard Sadie gasp. He didn’t look up because the last thing he wanted to see in his friends eyes were pity.

Sadie put her hand on his shoulder. He looked at her. Her gaze wasn’t pitiful; it had a light that said everything would be all right. Her eyes were tinged with sadness, but Jay knew that would fade.

He looked around the table at his friends and gave them a shaky smile. His smile dropped when he saw Brendon’s face. His jaw was clenched, and he had a faraway look in his eyes.

“Brendon? Are you okay?” He asked slowly.

Brendon POV

He tried to swallow but his mouth was too dry. He always hated it when people talked about their families, but it was different now.

Everyone was trying to comfort Jay and Sadie, but what about him? At least with some family counselling maybe their families could turn out alright, at least they had hope.

What did Brendon have? Hopes that someone would adopt him? They still wouldn’t be his real parents, and besides no one adopted teenagers anyway. They all went for the babies.

Bridgette leaned her head on his shoulder. She was the only one that knew. He didn’t want people to think he was an outcast. People would make fun of him because he didn’t have parents; either that or they’d pity him. He didn’t want them to do either.       

That had been the secret Bridgette had been talking about, the one she’d ended up keeping. He looked up at the group of good people that he and Bridgette used to torture. Brendon owed them at least the truth. He took a deep breath and told himself not to get too emotional.

“I’m an orphan,” he said.

“I’d rather be an orphan,” jay muttered.

Brendon glared at him, “you don’t know what you’re talking about, you don’t know how it feels to know that the two people that are supposed to love you no matter what abandoned you!”

“You don’t know how it feels when the two people that are supposed to always be there for you, disappoint you every day!”

“Yes I do! I didn’t even get the blessing of being abandoned at birth! My mom tried to keep me ‘till I was fricken ten! No one adopts ten year olds; they only go for the stupid babies!” His bottom lip started to quiver and he bit it determined not to cry.

Jay’s face softened, “sorry man, I shouldn’t have said that.”

Brendon shrugged.

“Can you tell us what happened Brendon?” Madison asked gingerly.