Breath Into Me

Chapter Two

Gerry ushered me into the house and kept apologizing prefusly for Justin's outbursts. I just kept having to tell him to not worry about it, that his outbursts didn't bother me. But we both knew that was a lie. A big, fat, lie. Justin's words stung more than when the other Angel's told me my mom was dying. And that was just becuase Justin was my brother...

"How long has this been going on?" I asked Gerry as he handed me a cup of tea. "The files never said about how long."

Gerry knew that I was a Guardian Angel. In fact, everyone that knew my family knew. Gerry sighed and sat down across from me at the table. "About two or three months after your mother died he started acting like this. At first, I thought he was just doing it as a joke, you know, to see you again so you two can condole each other. But after a while, he started cutting classes, failed about two-thirds of his grade ten courses, started hainging around Tyler Grey...the druggie that lives a few houses away from here."

I nodded. "I read that much in the file, that he was hanging around Tyler, at least. Then what happened?"

"Well, then he started staying out later, staying out past curfew, and drinking, and doing drugs. He's even gotten himself into trouble with the police fairly recently, for the death of a young child, found in Tyler's basement. Apperently, the girl was used for a sacrifise to Lucifer."

My thoughts instantly flooded to Joey and the little girl that he was suppossed to be helping. I prayed to my Boss that the girl found in Grey's basement wasn't one of Joey's cases. "Yesh, that's pretty bad."

"Oh, it get's worse." Gerry stated, sighing. "He also got into stealing. At first, it was petty theft. You know, a bag of candy here, a candy bar there, a shirt or two...but then it got worse. He's a suspect in a bank robbery as well with Tyler. Skylar, I'm worried about him."

"Have you tried anything to stop him?" I asked, remembering about what I read about what Gerry's done to get Justin out of his hair.

"I have been, however he just doesn't listen. I've grounded him, taken away his cell phone, locked the window's with alarms...the whole chi-bang." Gerry sighed. "And yet, he always gets around the alarms, he just steals his cell phone back, everything!"

"Yikes..." I stated, folding my hands in my lap. "That's rough."

Gerry nodded. "Yeah, tell me about it. Then he believes I cheated on your mother shortly after she died becuase of the fact that an old high school girl friend of mine had phoned several times."

"Girl friend as in girl space friend or girl, no space, friend?" I asked, my eyebrows knitting together.

"What's the difference?"

"That space between the words is a certian space called 'the friend zone,' Gerry."

"Oh. Girl space friend, then." he stated firmly.

"Alrighty then." I stated on a sigh. "What do you know of Tyler Grey and his family?"

Gerry took a sip of coffee. "Nothing much, really. Just that his dad left him and his four younger brothers at a very young age, around five or so. And his mother passed away three months ago, same as your mom. As we speak, he's roughly around your age, nineteen."

"Are his siblings the same way as him?"

"His siblings are in foster care." Gerry stated remosrly. "They were taken away when Tyler was suspected of murder."

That must have been awful...I thought,putting myself into Tyler's shoes. I could never imagine Justin being placed there because of something bad I did. "How far West does Tyler live from here? Like, how many houses?"

"Five, or so." Gerry stated. "At first they lived next door, but after his mom's death, he moved."

I nodded, the stood up. "I'll go pay him a visit, maybe even bring Justin back home."

"Thank you, Sky..." Gerry stated. "Just, please be safe."

I smiled at my step-dad. I always knew he cared for me and Justin, just not this much. "I will be. If Justin comes home alone, don't let him go anywhere and lock him in a room with no windows, okay?"

Gerry nodded, and watched as I ran outside, and headed West, towards Tyler Grey's house.