Twenty Seven Days

Why'd it have to be a coffee shop? -Colby

Harmony drags me toward a tiny coffee shop after school. The dragging isn't going well since I'm on crutches and I can't move very fast. I find it entraining. Harmony on the other hand doesn't.

She opens the door to the coffee shop for me. As I hobble in the smell of coffee hits me and starts to make me sick to my stomach.

"Why'd it have to be a coffee shop?" I groan as Harmony leads me toward the back of the coffee shop through the coffee filled air which I'm trying not to breathe.

"Because, I figured it would be quiet and it would be better than meeting on the street," She huffs as she pushes open a glass door and leads me outside once again.

"Why are we outside?" I question glancing around.

"The place is called the garden coffee for a reason, Colby. This is the garden," She says gesturing to her surroundings, but my attention is fixed solely on someone who has not noticed us our presence yet.

A few feet away stands a white trellis, a stone bench underneath it. Dying grape vines cling to white wood, but a few hang helplessly from it. Sitting on the bench behind those helpless vines and under the arch is a young man. 

I can't see his face. From his position though, he looks moody.

One knee drawn up to rest his chin on while the other hangs over the bench touching the browning grass.

His black shaggy bangs hang over his face obscuring its features but I can tell all I need to know by the scare visible on his hand.

By this point Harmony has stopped talking. Figuring out I was no longer listening. She leans up and places a kiss on my cheek and whispers gently to me.

"I'll be inside," Then she's gone.

I stand there for a moment. My heart in my throat and hundreds of thought racing around my head doing all but tell me to man up and say something. I still don't move.

"I know you're there," I stiffen as a bone chilling voice rings in my ears.

Lifting my head, I met the most hollow eyes I'd ever seen.

"Lee," I breathe out. He stands and strides toward me. Stopping only short of four feet from me. I finally can see his face.

I suck in a cold breathe.

Dark shadows ring under his eyes and fill in his sunken checks. A white scare run from his temple to his cheek, stark against this face. A black nose ring pierces over his nose.

He looks like he's been beaten over the past eleven years but I know it's only been his doing. He's never forgiven himself. He's beaten himself up.

His pale sickly skin looks transparent with his black falling past his eyes. His jaw recedes back like our fathers and he has her blue eyes. He couldn't look more like them.

Brushing his hood back away from his face, I see the gauntness in his frame. He hasn't been eating. I can tell but what shocks me is his eyes.

They're still completely blocked off just like eleven years ago hiding in the dryer at the shelter.

But he doesn't look like that kid anymore. He's rougher, taller and older but he still looks broken. Like he hasn't once tried to put the pieces back together.

I close my eyes as I try to keep my balance on my crutches as I try to push back the tears threatening to spill down my cheeks. I wasn't prepared for this. I didn't expect him to be like this.

"Colby," He chokes out his voice raspy and thick. I open my eyes to look at him and see tears on his cheeks and his eyes shining.

He moves quickly and before I can register it, Lee pulls me into a hug so bone crushing, I can't breathe. He's much stronger then he looks.

With tears stream down my face I hug him back. He's boney arms dig into my rib cage causing me much pain but the pain is minimal compared to the pain of not seeing him for so long. After eleven years. I kept my promise to Lee.

A vibration against my chest alerts me to the fact Lee is laughing. I start laughing too because in between his bellows of laughter are pig snorts. Just like when he was little.

Holding him back by the shoulders as much as I can without losing my crutches, I look at his now smiling face.

My day seemed to have gotten brighter. After eleven long years my day seems brighter.

"Trying to have a brotherly moment and you start laughing," I chuckle hoarsely as I shake my head. He shakes his back at me.

"I couldn't help it," He quips back. "We sound like girls.

"You still have that sharp tongue," I muse as I ruffle his black hair which makes him frown, something that seems familiar to him.

"Don't touch my hair," He grumbles as he tries to straighten it out but I can see the laugher in his eyes.

I stick my tongue out at him.

"I'll do whatever I want, Lee," I smirk.

He's eyes quickly narrow at me. A warning.

"Don't try that with me," Lee warns lowly.

Quirking my eyebrows I stand straight up and look down my nose at my brother, accepting his little challenge.

"I'll try whatever I want, little brother," I say ruffling his hair again.

He growls and swats my hands away furiously, making me bellow out in laughter.

"Just as easily annoyed as you've always been," I chuckle watching him glare at me out of the corner of his eye while fixing his messy hair.

"Just as annoying as you've always been," He grumbles back at me.

That does it.

Letting go of my crutches, I grab Lee around the neck and ruffle his hair while he squirms in protest. Luckily I'm bigger then him.

"Let go!" He spats angrily while trying to free himself but I've firmly gotten a grip on him.

"Colby!"

I instantly let go of Lee and stumble backwards tripping over my crutches in the process and end up falling clumsily through the air. Next thing I register is the fact my butt is on the ground.

Looking up sheepishly I met the scolding eyes of my dear, sweet girlfriend. Harmony. Boy did she look gorgeous.

"You deserved that," Harmony says shaking a scolding finger at me.

I frown.

"Yeah he did," Lee mumbles as he tries to fix his black hair.

"I didn't deserve nothing," I say arrogantly. "Umm...could I have some help up?" I inquire while my cheeks flame up in embarrassment.

"Sure, helpless boy," Harmony coos as she links her arm under me and helps me up.

"Shut it," I grumble.

"He's always been helpless," Lee chuckles to Harmony, who giggles loudly much to my irritation.

"That's it!" I bellow and run/stagger toward him faster than I thought I could as he dodges out of the way, taunting me further.

That was the moment that my life began to solidify as a whole again. Sure, I still don't have my parents, but I have my brother, Harmony and two wonderful foster parents. There isn't much more I could ask for...well except to be able to catch my bratty brother Lee but some things never change.

A/N
The end! After a year or so I finally posted the last chapter!