The Perfect Gift

Chapter Two

Ashton

The ride to Adrian's house is so quiet, I want to bang my head on something. He hasn't said a word to me after picking me up from the park. I know he is angry and I'm almost sorry I didn't call him. Almost. If I had, I wouldn't have met her.

Adrian is the only family I've ever had. Besides Jason and Chase Parker, the twins I met at the foster home. To say we've had a rough life would be an understatement of the millennium. 

We grew up in Houston, Texas and I think we were happy for a while, until we lost our parents.  They died in a car accident when I was six years old; Adrian was eleven years old. 

We tried living on our own for almost a year before we were placed under foster care. Adrian was very protective of me. Still is. It was tough, we had to deal with a lot of angry boys, insufficient food supply and a terrible caretaker who used the money allocated to the kids from the state of Texas on hard drugs.

Survival was for the strong boys. We all wanted to leave but couldn't because Ms. Panabaker was smarter than us. She knew us leaving would mean no more cash for her so she kept us under lock and key, literally. She beat whoever tried to leave to pulp.

We weren't allowed to go anywhere. All the boys were forced into a dingy room where we were given food twice a week. Back then, Adrian would always make sure I had eaten, even if it meant sacrificing his own ration. He always defended me and beat up the old guys that bullied me. 

I was seven at the time and that was when I met Chase and his identical twin brother, Jason. We were the only seven-year-olds in the foster home and we bonded instantly.

We planned for weeks how to escape and finally we were able to. While she was away, we stole the money, she had been keeping from us, shared it equally among ourselves and went our separate ways. 

I, Adrian, Chase and Jason went together. We found some thugs who were willing to hire us; all we had to do was act like poor orphans and beg some rich people for money. We did this for a while until we were caught and thrown into another foster home.

The new foster home was better, the kids were friendly and we got more food. But we also got more freedom.  Some of the older boys brought cigarettes at one time and made us take it. Once the caretaker found out, he wiped us all with his leather belt and kept us in the "cold room" for a week.

We kept moving from foster home to foster home and by the time I was eleven, we had already been to three more. 

In the fifth one, a couple stopped by and wanted to adopt Adrian. He wouldn't go no matter how much we begged him. The couple wanted to move to Forks, Washington and he didn't want to leave me. I had to promise to be good and he promised to call as frequently as possible.

I broke my promise. Far too many times, I think bitterly.

A/N: Ashton Stewart played by Francisco Lachowski

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