Step Into the Sun

28

"In just one short hour, we'll be home," he sighed happily. "We can do all the things that remind me of home. Like we can go to the park in the woods and Connor can meet Oregano and Grandma and we can bake cookies together and build a pillow fort!"

"Heidi, please tell me you have embarrassing baby pictures of Evan to show Connor sometime this week," Jared commented from the back.

"Oh god, no," Evan disagreed. "My baby pictures are the worst. What isn't the worst, though, are those videos we used to make together."

"You are not showing those to Connor," Jared protested, pointing at Evan threateningly. "Those are actually the worst."

"Wait, wait, wait," Connor cut in, grabbing both boys' attentions. "Ev, why did you say I get to meet Oregano?"

"She's our cat!" Evan told him excitedly.

"What the f- I mean heck," Connor chuckled. "What kind of a name is that?"

"I chose it when I was seven," he explained. "We got her as a therapy cat after my dad left. For some reason, Mom let me choose the name, so I pulled a random jar out of the cabinet where we keep spices, y'know? And it was Oregano. So I chose that as her name."

"That's... An odd way of deciding a name," Connor commented, smiling at Evan. "Maybe I'll do that in the future if I ever have kids."

"Hey, I was only seven," Evan repeated, sticking his tongue out at Connor. Connor poked his tongue back into his mouth.

They fell into silence as Evan turned back around to watch the road in front of them for a while.

"So, Connor," Heidi started, glancing up to make eye contact with him in the rear view mirror. "Tell me about yourself."

"What do you want to know?" He asked quietly, beginning to fidget with the hair tie on his wrist nervously.

"I dunno. Just break the ice. We're housemates now, I don't want it to be awkward between us," she admitted, laughing lightly. "I mean, Evan has told me a lot about you already, but I want to hear what you have to say about yourself."

"Um... Well, my full name is Connor William Murphy. I'm nineteen, my birthday is in January. I have depression and I like to draw. My sister is Zoe Murphy. Evan and Jared are basically the reason I'm still alive," he listed, smiling softly at Jared, whose face went red at the compliment. "And, uh... I've basically been a prostitute for the last two years of my life, since I left my parents' house."

"See? I didn't know most of that." Heidi nodded. "What was your life like before you left home?"

"I went to high school. But I hated it. I had a couple of friends who got me into weed and I would ditch class to smoke with them under the bleachers. I was horrible to Zoe when I was high. Eventually I dropped out of school without telling my parents because I was failing all of my classes anyway. Then they kicked me out."

Connor looked up to see Evan peeking at him from behind the passenger seat, his eyes wide. He continued, not bothering to break the eye contact.

"I found this guy who took me in and we became friends. We would joke about how I should sell my body. I would make way more than at some fast food place, and I'd be having fun every night. I agreed. He found some girl who was willing to pay me to..." He cleared his throat. "Um, yeah. It became a thing. I turned eighteen a few months later, so it was somewhat less risky to make it a full-time thing. And I liked it at first... It was thrilling. I got as much of a rush as when I smoked. But after long enough, it... Got bad. And he started doing things to me... Things I didn't want..."