The Bryne Runaways (Updated)

Chapter 58

Once our plates arrived I am the first one to begin to carve right into the food. I miss food so much all we have been eating since we got here was dried beef, crackers and water. Right now this is an actual meal with cooked meat, mashed potatoes, beans and baked bread. I'm lucky to actually be eating another meal. I thought my last one was held at camp. Mashed potatoes go in my mouth and Cruz is right, the chef is one of the greatest. This is very good. I pick my head back up to see Uncle Ben's eyebrow raise. I look over at the kitchen where I catch Pots smiling at me eating. I stop eating like a pig and swallow what I have in my mouth. Pots looks away but I can still feel his smile from here. Such a bright smile. Never seen one of those on people in a while. It's rare.

My eyes go to Uncle Ben who is not eating yet but looks at me eat. He always does that. I want him to eat instead of watching me.

"You're not going to eat?" I ask him.

"You eating fulfills my own hunger" He says and that's very kind but he hasn't ate so he needs to get to it before I do.

"Uncle Ben" I stop him.

"Norman" He mimics the way I said his name.

"You need to eat something" I say in such a calm way.

"I'm fine like this" He says to me but I don't accept it.

"Fine, if you don't eat, I won't eat either" I push my plate away and look at Uncle Ben who grins widely at my nonsense which is real that I don't lie about. I'll do it if I need to. I don't want to let anyone or anything break our bond. He's got my back and I got his. I promise that I do. I smile at him and he shakes his head, grabbing the clean spoon on the table.

"Where did I get so lucky to have a nephew like you?" He tells me and I pull my plate closer to me. I then think to myself how would it be like if I weren't in the picture. What would Uncle Ben's life be like if I wasn't around?

"What if my mother didn't have me?" I ask him.

"I'd raise a child and name him Norman?" He jokes around.

"I'm being serious" I say ripping a piece of my bread and stuffing it into my mouth, devouring the soft texture of the warm bread.

"Well I don't know, I didn't really have a purpose back then till now"

"What's your purpose now?"

"To live for you" He says and my eyes look at his for a quick second and I then look away continuing to eat my food looking around at the diner. It's very comfortable and cafe like. Colorful lights, red colored booths around and the incoming rain that falls on the window panes that makes it feel real. My feet swing under the table and I glance at my cast. My injury still hurts. I can't really move my wrist a lot or I'll have the feeling of pain all over again. I have to eat with my other hand and that's difficult because I don't use this hand to eat.

"How's your wrist?" Uncle Ben asks me and I just shrug my shoulders.

"It's not broken, but still hurts" I say nonchalantly taking a bite of the meat. I see someone coming over that I don't know of. I do know that he is coming directly to us because he looked at me. I look as he stands in front of us, he has messy black hair, quite young, and looks like Harry in someway. He holds two bottles of liquor in his hands, looking at Uncle Ben.

"Care for one?" He asks Uncle Ben with the same accent Harry has.

"I'm good" Uncle Ben declines the offer then the guy turns to me, raising his brow at me. Wait is he offering me to drink liquor with him? I'm confused.

"I'm just messing with you" He says and slides a glass of chocolate milk over to me and takes a load on the red cushion seat next to me. I look at the glass and then take a small sip of the delicious chocolatey milk.

"What's your names?" He asks taking another sip of his drink

"I'm Ben, he's Norman" Uncle Ben introduces us.

"I'm Tom" He takes off the bottle cap with his bare hands. So his name is Tom. It fits him.

"Nice to have both of you here" He takes another swing at his liquor. He drinks so calmly not like a mad person. I thought he would be some type of alcoholic but not really. He's different. I notice on his hands that they are seriously messed up. They have scars and new wounds there. What does everyone here have anger issues or something? I look away from his hands and pretend I didn't saw that. I'll just keep on eating.

"Where do you guys come from?" Tom asks us.

"We are from camp 5" Uncle Ben tells him and Tom's eyes widen.

"That's pretty far from here" Uncle Ben nods at him holding his spoon.

"What route did you both end up going?" Tom adds on.

"Through the city" Uncle Ben spills and Tom almost chokes on his drink.

"That's real tough, you both are harder than I thought!" He seems to joke.

"What about you? You're not much of a talker are you?" Tom turns to me and my fist tightens on my sleeve. My nervousness gets to me sometimes. I look at him but me with new people is very intimidating and scary.

"He's quiet" Thankfully Uncle Ben saves me.

"Well pup, around here you'll need to talk" He says and I nod slowly.

"Leave the kid alone Tom, he could still be in shock" Another person accompanies us leaning on the booth. He has slick brown hair, brown eyes and wearing a black t shirt. I saw him earlier, he was the one who basically saved me. He convinced the others to let us stay.

"How's the wrist pup?" He asks me.

"It's not broken" I say silently and he chuckles.

"He talks!" Tom eyes widen in a surprising way.

"You can really take a hit, also Titan had to get stitches for that stab on the back you gave him" The guy says giving me a smirk. I gave Titan stitches. How deep did I insert my knife? Must've been a good hit since it earned me a sprained wrist.

"Is he okay?" I manage to say.

"Does it matter?" Tom says taking another swing at his liquor. Well I guess not to you guys but people like me regret what they did in the past or should I say hours earlier.

Speaking about Titan, he enters the Diner dripping wet from head to toe. He makes his way to Henry. He speaks to him something I'm not able to hear and Henry leaves the Diner. What happened? Did something go wrong? By the window I see Henry making his way through the rain to the medic where Dr. Chris is at. I look away and I receive a final look from Titan himself. It isn't a bad look nor a good one but a blank one.