Living through Lenses

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Today instead of being excited at meeting Ethan I was curious and I felt even a tiny bit scared. Home is a place where you can return to so one would only run from home if there were something seriously horrible to return to. I found myself dawdling to that place of secret and as I dawdled I thought of all the possibilities or reasons of why Ethan would’ve left home and something he had said popped into my head. Only people who are desperate will be able to find this place. Just how desperate was he?

I squeezed through the little gap and found him staring off as if in some kind of past memory. I tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around like he was scared of something. He rubbed his neck and started to breath deeply.

‘Hi Ethan.’

‘Hey.’

‘You don’t have to explain anything you know?’

‘I want to.’

‘You sure?’ He nodded and looked away.

‘I, um, loved my dad and my little brother and my mum. But I found out something that caused deep hatred for my dad and that something was that he abused my mum. I mean, he loved my little brother and I very much but he just seemed to abuse my mum, heaps.’ He closed his eyes and I guessed he was imagining it.

‘Ethan you can stop, you know?’ He shook his head and kept going.

‘One day my mum had enough and committed suicide, it hurt me so deep but it hurt my brother more because he saw the incident. After that he refused to eat … anything, so he was diagnosed with anorexia and they had to force-feed him. But soon after he died from starvation because he just somehow puked it all out.’ He looked away from me, and I could tell he was crying.

‘Ethan its alright to cry.’ He kept sniffing but didn’t stop.

‘My dad became very depressed because he lost one of his sons but he didn’t know that I knew that he abused my mother. He didn’t know that I knew that this was all his fault. He loved me very much but … I couldn’t go back home, I couldn’t go back to a place with so many memories. He was the reason I lost everything!’

He started pinching himself on his arm and I didn’t no what to do or say. I held his face in my hands and I hugged him. I felt the hesitation, him holding his breath but he finally gave in and returned my hug. We stayed like that for a long time and after he let go at last my shoulder was soaked and his eyes were red.

‘Shouldn’t you report this?’

‘I have no proof.’

‘Right.’

‘Yeah.’

‘Are you going to be alright?’

‘Yeah.’

‘I have to go now but I’ll be back tomorrow.’

‘Promise?’

‘Promise.’

On my way home I thought of a lot of things, like how he can still smile after all that, or how his father could be so cruel. As I walked in the front door of my house I got screamed it.

‘Kayla, I have had enough of you going out to some place everyday! You don’t even tell me where you go! What if you go missing or something and I can’t even pinpoint where you were? What are you doing everyday, Kayla? I demand you tell me now!’

‘You don’t even know anything! You can’t just shout at me for nothing! I come home before dinner and don’t cause any trouble!’

‘You hang out with that runaway don’t you?’