Cliche {rewritten}

Chapter Two

Alex ate in silence, somewhat waiting for Mulligan to strike up a conversation but at the same time, not wanting to talk at all. It almost felt awkward.

Mulligan had taken the papers he had signed to foster Alex, out of the room and in a desk. It had lists of Alex's old foster parents, names, reasons why he was taken out of the home, phone numbers, and his record of abuse. Mulligan decided that Alex probably wouldn't want to see that during breakfast.

He wanted to talk about the abusers, yes but didn't want to make Hamilton uncomfortable or trigger anything.

Alexander was wolfing down his breakfast, taking advantage of eating now. He was used to eating below the bare minimum of what he needed to survive. Hamilton had passed out from starvation before, and had once been beaten from vomiting on the carpet due to lack of food. He had to be hospitalized after that and that, was the end of living- no, surviving at that home. He hoped that Mulligan wasn't food poisoning him. That would be less than ideal.

Mulligan looked at Alex and laughed lightly, "Slow down kid. You might hurt yourself."

Alex looked up at him, and wiping his mouth. He smiled sheepishly.
"Tastes good. I uh..I'm hungry."

"I can see that," Mulligan said, still smiling and trying to make Alex more at home.

"Oh. Yeah. That..that would make sense. Sorry for..Yeah." Alex stumbled, starting to become more nervous.

"Hey. It's alright. You don't gotta apologize when you haven't done nothin." Mulligan told him.

Alex nodded, biting back another sorry.

"So uh..you like school?" Mulligan asked, not knowing what to talk about.

"It's alright. It's June now, which means no school. Which is my favorite part of school. The breaks." Alex told him, wiping his nose.

Hercules laughed, nodding, glad that some sort of a conversation was starting.

"You have any friends?" Mulligan asked, taking a drink of his orange juice.

"Uh..I've had friends. I've moved at lot," Alex explained, messing with his bracelet again.

"Right. My bad. Can I ask a question?" Hercules asked.

"Shoot," Alex shrugged.

"You sure? I don't want to make you..upset," Mulligan said slowly.

"It takes a lot to make me upset." Alex said, staring at his hands, clenching his jaw.

"How..how physical were your past foster parents? Past abusers I suppose," Mulligan asked, choosing his words carefully.

Alex laughed humorlessly and rather breathy. "That conversation already?"

"You don't gotta answer." Hercules told him, trying to be nonchalant.

"It was.." Alex trailed off, biting the inside of his cheek and furrowing his eyebrows slightly. "..Not exactly ideal, I suppose. I guess the —the beatings were the uh..were my least favorite."

"Beatings?"
"Belt."

Mulligan nodded slowly. He knew what he was unpacking by asking. What he didn't know, was how to handle hearing a kid talk about being a survivor of abuse.

"I'm sorry." Mulligan said.
"You haven't done anything." Alex said, forcing himself to keep the word 'yet' out of that sentence.

"I'm sorry that you had to go through that." Hercules told him.

Hamilton looked up from his hands, meeting Mulligans eyes for just a moment before he quickly shifted them back to his hands.

Mulligan sighed softly and asked, "You Erm..take pills right?"

Hercules was fully aware Hamilton definitely took pills. It was one of the things Katherine had told him about. Post traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression. Mulligan was determined to help this kid recover and heal. Yes, Mulligan was afraid that he'd mess up but all parents make mistakes. He was adamant in being a parent that would have a strong bond with their kid, or in this case, foster kid, and of course he was going to make mistakes along the way but all in all, he was going to help Alexander build himself back up and move past the abuse.

"..Why?" Alexander asked hesitantly.

"You want to take them after breakfast?" Hercules asked.

"What?" Hamilton said in surprise.

Most of his foster parents refused to give him his pills or would 'forget' to refill them.

"Your pills." Mulligan said, raising an eyebrow. "You know."

"Oh. Right. I'm sorry. I..uh..yeah. Sorry. I do know. I don't take them often. I'm sorry." Alex stammered, fiddling with his bracelet again.

"No stress kid. It's all good. You- er..we should get in the habit of taking those more often, right?" Mulligan said, smiling softly.

"..Right."

"So do you want to do anything today? I could introduce you to some people I know." Mulligan said.

"No thanks."

"..Okay. Do you have a phone or somethin' so you can talk to your old friends?" Mulligan asked.

"Nope." Alex said, his eyes fixed on his bracelet.

"Really? Nothin? You want to meet up with any of your friends? Or uh..girlfriend?" Mulligan asked, smiling again.

"No, I don't. And I don't have a girlfriend." Alex told him.

"..Do you want to talk about your old friends?" Mulligan said slowly.

Alex sighed, resting his chin on his hand and looking at Mulligan.

"What are you trying to do?" He asked.

"What?" Hercules asked, having a slight idea of what Alex meant.

"Look, it's only a matter of time before you start beating me and to be honest, I'm not sure I particularly like the awkward conversation we're having before hand." Alex said, in almost a deadpan.

Mulligan looked at him confused. "What?"

"When are you going to start beating me?" Alex asked, sighing lightly.

"I'm not going to- I'm never going to beat you Alex." Mulligan said, furrowing his eyebrows.

Hamilton rolled his eyes, getting up.

"I don't believe you."