Building Bridges

Chapter Fifteen

Eva stayed frozen there after hearing what I said.

Then, she lifted her hands from the steering wheel that she was grabbing so hard her fingers became white, and she started rubbing her face and shaking her head, as if it was too much for her brain.

-"Dylan" she whispered.

-"Yeah?" I whispered back.

-"Your stepfather is waiting for us, should we go or should we run away together?" She said suddenly and I found myself laughing sincerely from what she said.

She looked at me as if I went mad, but then, she joined me in my hysterical laughter.

-"Oof!" I finished by wiping the tears that gathered by the corner of my eyes.

-"You okay now?" She asked after sobering.

-"Yep! Let's go see what happened" I said, and Eva started the car again.

The ride back to the house was heavy with silence.

Once we reached the house, Eva parked, but we got a text from Steve asking me to meet by the bridge.

Eva took me there and went to return home to meet Vivian and Matt.

I walked to the bridge, and found Steve there looking down at the deep dark water that were meters down from the bridge.

-"Hi Steve!" I said cheerfully.

He turned to me while adjusting his backpack over his shoulder.

-"Dylan!" He said with a two fingers salute and a forced smile.

-"What's with the backpack?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

-"It's time for me to leave" he said while looking at his feet.

-"What?!" I asked in surprise.

-"Listen Dylan, I always knew that my place isn't here" he said and I walked to him.

-"I did to, but you know what I discovered?" I told him while putting my hands on both his shoulders obliging him to look at me.

-"What?" He ended up asking.

-"I discovered that I spent my life  supporting and taking care of people that aren't even my family" I said and he looked aside.

-"Look at me! You see this bridge? That's where they found me, and that's where I end up every time I get in trouble, and that's where I went to end up my life the night I met you" I told him and his eyes grew wide and his mouth opened and closed, and no word came out.

-"You what?" I felt chill travel down my spin at his voice.

-"Steve, it's nothing, I-"

-"You think that it's something normal to talk about lightly?" He said with anger in his voice.

-"Listen! I didn't have a perfect life like yours, and I had a lot of shit to deal with! It's not like I made the decision in a moment! I was in the verge of loosing my sanity! I am a kid too, and I deserve to have a life that a normal kid have, not take care of a whole family while I needed to be taken care of too!" I ended up screaming and I felt my throat closing and the feeling of something heavy in my throat, and a painful tightening in my chest, and breathing became painful, and my sight became blurred, and that's when I discovered that I was holding my sobs, so I let it out, all of it, all the screams, the pain, the tears, all of it.

-"Dylan-"

-"I don't even know if that's my real name!" I sobbed.

And I felt a hand on my shoulder, so I lifted my head and looked at him straight in the eyes.

-"So don't tell me that I did something wrong, I didn't have anything to keep me standing, and the water down seemed ready to embrace me better than my family" I said to him.

-"I'm sorry" he hugged me and kept repeating his excuses.

-"I was ready to give up, until I met you" I told him, and we separated from the hug to look at each other.

-"Really?" He asked with hopeful eyes.

-"Yeah, I've never been to a school before, I've never had friends before, I only read books and watch movies and dramas to understand relationships, so, when you asked for the lighter that day, I just gave it to you, and when you told me 'see you next time?' I started questioning my decision, you changed the course of my life Steve, I started to think that the missing part of the bridge didn't stop us from reaching each other, and we met, again and again, and you made me your friend, and made your friends mine too, I could never hoped for such a treasure" I said sniffing and rubbing my face to clean it from anything unwanted.

-"I have never thought that I did all this to you, wow, and to say it like that...well, I feel like my ego became the size of the moon!" He said with his dimples showing in a cute smile and I threw a light fist to his shoulder.

-"Stop it!" I whined and he started laughing out loud.

-"Ah! By the way, here's your lighter, and if I may ask, where have you found it?" Steve asked with curiosity while handing me the lighter.

-"On a nightstand in my mother's room, why?" I asked while taking it.

-"Well it seems like something important" he said.

-"I believe so, my mother told me that my stepfather was looking for it like a mad person" I said looking at it.

-"Well, if my informations are correct, that lighter got a double A craved on it with a logo, and it disappeared about fifteen years ago, and it belongs to the last heir of our family, the original family, A-"

-"Alexander Adamus" a voice said behind us that made my limbs trembling.

Steve returned to the voice, but I didn't,  or should I say couldn't because it belongs to none other than my stepfather.

-"And you are?" Steve asked in surprise.

-"Solomon Stevenson, the last direct heir of the original family, the Stevensons" he said and walked to us, while I took a step back.

But I was surprised to see Steve gives a punch, a direct one to my stepfather that made him stumble back on the dirt.

-"Well thanks f***! I waited for this moment for a while now! Remember what you did to him?" He seethed in anger.

-"I asked to see Dylan to apologize, that's why when Eva told us you were here, I came myself to beg forgiveness" he said and stood up.

And I looked at him, and he seemed strange, like he became more manly, like a human for once.

-"Yeah, I stopped doing drugs, and I heard that you didn't tell the police, I felt like you gave me a seconde chance to live like a human, so, I thought that the first step to a new life is to make others forgive you" he said while cleaning the blood from the corner of his mouth where I'm sure is going to be bruised.

-"Have you talked to Vivian?" I asked and he nodded.

-"I am willing to give back the lighter if you tell me how you know Alex Adamus" I said.

-"He was an old friend" he said with a pained expression.

-"Was?" Steve asked in surprise.

-"Yeah, Alexander Adamus died fifteen years ago" Solomon said grimly.