DAMAGED

chapter26 ☪

•••
Kassie's POV

"Are you sure we should be here?" I asked as Wolfie helped me climb the fence.
"Does it matter?" He retorted.
"Why do we have to climb the fence? Can't we just knock?" I asked as he lifted me up.
"It's more fun this way." He shrugged.
I sighed, heaving myself up the fence.
Wolfie rolled his eyes. "C'mon, learn to live a little."
"But it's hard to climb fences!" I protested.
"Stop whining and enjoy it." He told me. "Okay, jump."
I looked down and shuddered. "It's higher than the one at your house."
"There's grass to break your fall. Just trust me. I won't let you get hurt." He reassured me.
"Okay." I said, trying not to lose balance.
He easily jumped it like a pro. "Your turn."
I looked down and took a deep breath before jumping and falling on the ground clumsily.
"You did it better than last time." He mused, helping me stand up.
I laughed and looked at the scenery that lay in front of me.
Little kids were running around a tiny little playground in a backyard. "Whoa, these are all the kids you're staying with?" I asked as one ran around us before skipping to the slide.
Wolfie nodded. "Pretty much."
I caught sight of a woman walking towards us with an "oh my God, what in the world is this" expression. "Who is that?" I whispered, trying not to point straight at her.
"Some annoying lady." Wolfie replied, his arms crossed as we awaited the angry woman.
"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be in school! Who is this?" She interrogated him.
"My girlfriend." He answered.
The lady was speechless for a few seconds. "You can't just skip school whenever you want to anymore."
Wolfie sighed, clearly annoyed. "Listen, miss. I'm seventeen years old. I know what I'm doing, and I don't like it when people tell me what to do and get all up in my business. So just leave me alone because I honestly could care less about your scornful face. No matter what you tell me, I'm still going to do whatever shit I feel like doing when I feel like doing it."
I blinked, a bit taken aback by his rude response.
She looked just as surprised as I was. "Well, this girl-"
"This girl is looking because she has to go to one of these homes soon." Wolfie finished her sentence, grabbing my hand and taking me inside.
"That was rude." I told him, freeing my hand. "I mean, we really shouldn't be skipping school."
He rolled his eyes. "The last thing I need is some crazy lady trying to make changes in my life. You can't teach an old dog new tricks."
"You're not old." I disagreed.
"Old enough. Kassie, you're going to make a big deal out of nothing."
"No, I'm not! But I don't want that lady thinking that I'm..."
"You're what? A bastard like me? Don't worry. The words came out of my mouth, not yours." He said coldly. "Come."
He took me inside a room with a bunch of beds lined up in a row.
"This is pretty much it."
"Where do you eat?" I asked.
"I dunno, what do you think this is? A hotel?"
"Sorry for thinking kids without parents are provided food, then." I fired back.
"The dining room is over here." The woman said from behind us, leading us straight into another room.
"If you don't mind me asking, why are you trying to be in an orphanage?" She asked me.
Wolfie was about to say something, but I stopped him by answering first. "My legal guardian's daughter is sick, so he can't be devoting time to me."
The lady nodded in understanding. "Well, my name is Missy. If you do come here, I'll be your guardian."
"Okay." I said, looking at a little girl playing with her toys.
The little girl began to run around with an airplane action figure. "No more yellow rice for the whole wide world!" She yelled excitedly, her words a bit hard to understand like every little kid's.
Missy sighed. "The dining room is not for playing, Rosie, and you know very well you can't run. Now go ahead and gobble up your yellow rice."
So that's Rosie...
Rosie stomped her foot, crossing her arms and pouting. "But I don't want to eat! I want to play! Outside!" She looked at us and immediately perked up.
She ran to Wolfie and hugged him. "Silent hug!" She whispered to him before turning to face Missy. "Look, Missy! He will take me to a real, live, actual park!"
Missy frowned. "No, sweetie, he isn't." She got her off of his leg and sat her back down.
"Wait, why can't I?" Wolfie asked with a mischievous tone.
"Like I said last night, she has a very intense asthma. If she has an attack, what are you going to do? Complain that there's something wrong with her like you did last night?" Missy scoffed.
"Do you have a problem with the way I speak?" Wolfie growled.
"Maybe I do!" Missy retorted.
Wolfie laughed bitterly. "Well, then suck it up."
I cleared my throat, trying to break tension.
"You look like mum!" Rosie suddenly said, pointing straight at me.
I looked at Missy, unsure of what to make of this. I felt tingly at the thought that Rosie might really be my sister.
"She pretends her mom is here with her sometimes." Missy whispered to me.
I gave a small smile and looked down.
"Come on. Let's go take a nap." She told Rosie before looking at us. "I'll be right back."
"What's up with you?" I told Wolfie once she'd left. "You're being really obnoxious."
"I'm sorry. Next time someone tries to waltz into my personal life, I'll greet them with a smile on my face." He replied.
"She's not trying to get into your personal life. She has all reason to say what she did." I argued, crossing my arms just as he ran his fingers through his hair.
"Well, it's not your problem, Kassie. I can do what I want because I know my own limits."
"So, when you slept with a variety of girls, you did it because you just knew your limits?" I challenged, mixed feelings bubbling inside me.
"Can you stop meddling in every single thing I do?" He asked, our voices getting louder.
"I'm not med-"
"Yes, you are. You keep judging everything."
"Maybe I wouldn't judge anything if you stopped being so rude to everyone else." I responded, and just then I could feel the heat from the fire we'd ignited with our anger.
Both of us stayed quiet, and I hoped my heart wouldn't beat loud enough to hear. You see, arguing equals negative energy. Negative energy influences those within range, causing different effects. A common effect would be vile, hurtful thoughts. I don't have this, however odd it may be; instead I get nervous.
My heart begins to beat strangely, a new uncertainty arising. I feel shaky, yet I'm not actually trembling.
That's what a cliffhanger is. That frustrating moment when you have no clue of what's going to happen, whether you'll lose a person you love, or whether that person will lose someone they love.
It scares me because it makes that negative energy, the one that produces countless effects, control everyone within its very powerful range.
Missy still hadn't returned, and I figured she must be having a hard time putting my might-be sister in bed.
Wolfie sighed, heading over to examine the dining room table. "Too soon." He frowned, crossing his arms.
"What?" I answered, still a bit annoyed.
"It's all happening so soon." He explained. "I don't know how I can say I love you and mean it despite the sum of all our differences."
I remembered when he told me for the first time. I said I felt the same, and I knew I felt the same, but wasn't it too soon to be true? Maybe he's right...We're going too fast. I mean, we don't know anything else beyond our family drama.
"What if...What if we tricked ourselves?" I spoke quietly.
He shrugged. "I don't know."
"It seems like a reasonable thing we'd do -- trick ourselves into believing we loved each other just because we needed to. Did we need to?" I asked.
Wolfie stayed quiet for a while, and I wondered why Missy hadn't come yet.
"I don't know about love, and I don't think neither of us ever will, based on our pasts. I mean, we didn't - we didn't have any examples. I just know that I don't want to lose you now." He told me, looking clearly into my eyes as we got closer without meaning to.
I nodded, my heart beating faster at the sight of the three-inch gap between us.
"I know, but I'm scared." I confessed.
He nudged my chin so I was looking at him. "Kassie," he spoke in a whisper, all the traces of anger vanished completely from our voices, "Love sucks anyways. Forget love, and concentrate on what you need."
"Need?" I frowned, unsure of what he meant.
"Sure. Without our needs, we wouldn't be alive." He explained.
I took a deep breath, glancing at my damaged wrists, and a brief memory of him kissing them so they'd heal popped into my head.
I bit my lip before looking back at him and wrapping my arms around his neck. "I need you." I told him carefully.
"I need you." He repeated before putting his hands on my waist. I exhaled slowly and buried my face in the crook of his neck, still trying to process what was going on.
"I want to kiss you." He said finally.
Well, why doesn't he just do it? I looked at him with a very confused expression.
"I can't, though. I lost my limits, so you know what that leads to." He explained with a smirk, making me laugh.
"The lady either forgot about us, or doesn't want to see my face again." Wolfie said after a while of silence.
I shrugged, still thinking about us.
The most interesting idea came to me in yet another moment of silence. I looked at him, smiling.
"What?" He asked.
"Love is something people want, so to love is to want, right?" I asked.
"I guess?"
"Needs are more important than wants." I grinned, and he took a few seconds to think before I felt his lips smoothly moving along with mine, his hands cupping my face.
I felt weaker with each passing minute. He carried me to the table, and I was able to sit down for a second before I tasted his lips once again, my eyes closing.
"What is the meaning of this?" I heard someone say from behind us. Oh, sure, now she comes in.
Immediately, I jumped off the table, hoping I wasn't blushing as much as I thought I was.
"The meaning of the word 'this' is 'a commonly used word to refer to something.' You can look it up in the dictionary if you want to." Wolfie explained very seriously.
I stifled a laugh. Did he just
He actually went ahead and just
He defined the word "this."
Missy groaned in frustration. "I'm sorry, Miss." I apologized.
"Just go somewhere private before you two break my table next time." She huffed.
"We weren't even-" Wolfie began, but I interrupted.
"Do you by any chance have any background information on Rosie's family? She-she might be my sister."
"Really? Well, sure. Just come to my office." Missy said, and we did as told.