The Phoenix Returns

Chapter 14 - I Can't Just Be Your Friend

(Scarlett's POV)

A brother?

My brother?

I don't have a brother.

I don't have any family except for the family that I adopted through relationships. I have no blood family except for my boys. My real family left me behind, they gave me up for adoption.

They didn't want me. And that's what I was told.

*********** (FLASHBACK)10 YEARS AGO**********

It was cold, freezing.

No one was there to pick me up from school again. I had to do like I did everyday; walk home alone, shivering, and sad.

Alone because I had no one.

Shivering because it was almost below twenty degrees here.

Sad because I know that no one will ever care about me.

I shouldn't be surprised that no one was here to pick me up, no one ever is, but like the eleven year old that I am, I hope everyday that my foster parents will magically change their minds about me.

I hold some much hope and faith that they will meet me at the school gates.

And everyday, I am disappointed.

Everyday I walk home upset at myself because I let my mind wonder. I look at the other kids at my school with jealousy and envy. They have parents that will come to the school to pick them up, hug them tightly, kiss them, and look at them with love in their eyes.

My entire life, I have never had an ounce of what they feel, and I never will.

I am forever alone.

Walking up the steps on my foster parents' house, I took a deep breathe before opening the front door. My heart beats erratically in my chest, my hands slick with sweat, and my breath stuck in my throat. I hate this feeling, I hate the anticipation. I know that Jim, my foster dad will be sitting on the couch drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette like he does everyday he gets home from work.

Most days I can sneak in without waking him up, but then there are those days when he is already up and waiting for me.

Walking in the house, my stomach turned in knots as I seen him sitting up in his infamous chair watching TV. A beer was in one had and his cigarette in the other. I didn't even get a chance to try and get passed him, he was already awake.

I wanted to just run and cry, but I know that he would just call me back down. And what ever I had to do, I have to obey everything that he says otherwise worse things happen.

"Scarlett..." He breathed, sitting down his beer. "Come." Jim pointed to the wood stool next to his chair.

It was always too close to him, close enough where he could reach down and touch my leg.

I hate coming home from school.

If I could live at school, I would.

I sat down on the stool, slowly and sadly. I tried to sit on the farthest edge on the seat away from him. He smelled the same as he always does, like dirty armpits, beer, and smoke. I could never see myself doing those bad things when I get older, I learned in school that they are not good for your body. But they never told us that they make people have completely different personalities and behaviors.