The broken ones

Chapter 4: Home isn't home

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At that same moment. Jenny was headed towards her home, the place she'd always want to escape from.

When she arrives, silence was the only thing that welcomed her home. Her parents weren't there yet, but she knew her brother is. She walks to the door of his bedroom to check if he's alright, but no sound was heard on the other side.

She opens the door instantly and there he is, laying on his bed asleep as always.

Without making any noise, she closes the door and made her way to her own room.

But the moment she steps inside, the emptiness and sadness overwhelms her immediately. It was never like this, but she has no idea what changed. Every moment of her life, she spends it in this tiny room of hers, and it's draining her emotionally.

Her phone buzzes. A message from her mother.

Mom:
Me and your dad will be home late. Make sure you cook dinner for yourself and your brother. Make sure he eats because he hasn't eaten for 2 days now. Do chores too.

Jenny sighed in frustration as she tosses her phone on top of her bed. She has a lot of school work to finish up, but now she has to take care of her brother and do some chores?

She took her uniform off and put on some house clothes to make herself comfortable. She walks out to the living room and started cleaning. Doing all the chores her mother told her to do.

While she folded some clothes afterwards, the only thing she can think about was the time they broke out of detention.

The adrenaline. The fear. The excitement. From that very moment, Jenny knew she was missing a lot. She needed that fun in her life. She wanted something exciting. But how can she when she has no friends by her side, school work piled up on her plate, and a bossy mother in her way.

Everything sucks.

It's her last year in high school and the only fun thing that happened was her breaking out of detention. How embarrassing.

This town isn't the place for her. She needed to get out of here, and she wishes that someday she will. California would be nice. Los Angeles too. Anywhere but here. Hell, even a cabin in the mountains is even better.

When night falls, she started to make dinner, and finally her brother managed to get out of his room.

"How are you doing today? You hungry?" Jenny asked as she playfully swings the batter on her hand, trying to cheer her brother up. But he doesn't say anything. There was nothing in this world to cheer him up.

He grabs a cola from the fridge and begins his way back into his room.

"Are you going to eat?!" Jenny shouts for him to hear, but the only thing she got in return was silence that followed by his bedroom door slamming shut.

It's always been this way. Jenny has no idea why her brother shuts himself out from everyone, or from the whole world.

She wishes she can do the same, but it'll only make things worse for her parents than it is right now.

Once she finishes dinner all by herself, she heads back into her room to finish the rest of her school work. But now that tiredness is taking over her, she had no energy to do anything.

She lays down on her bed and stares at the plain white ceiling above her. Eventually, darkness overcame every corner of her room and her eyes shuts peacefully, pulling herself into a deep slumber.

~~~

Neil wasn't home yet. After the whole chase thing with the guards. He didn't want to head home just yet. Instead, he roams the empty streets of town square.

It's the only peaceful thing Neil can do. It's a way for him to get things off his mind.

He passes by a group of guys huddled together just along the sidewalk, but one of them manages to bother Neil anyway.

"Hey kid! Come over here," The guy said, a cloud of smoke coming out of his mouth. Neil stops walking and turns around.

"Are you talking to me?" Neil asked.

"Who else?"

"Well sorry, I don't talk to losers and drug dealers."

The guy started to walk closer, an ugly psychotic grin displayed in his face, and Neil felt a tinge of regret about what he said.

His whole gang followed behind him. There's exactly 6 of them and Neil can't possibly outrun them at all. If only he had shut his darn mouth up, things wouldn't escalated to this.

"wowow boys. I was just joking you know," Neil raises his hands up, a sign of surrender. "Have some humor?"

He hoped that the guys will let him go, or someone else will jump in and save him, but that only happens in movies.

The guy rolls his hand to a fist and swings it onto Neil's abdomen, causing him to stumble to the ground. Before Neil can even escape, the guys hovered before him and started kicking him everywhere.

This town is horrible. Everyone knows that. A place full of crime, toxic people, broken families, tortured teens, problematic adults. But Neil can't seem to understand that. A boy full of pride, he thought he wouldn't get himself hurt.

After a few more hits. The guys finally gave up, leaving him on the cold pavement of the sidewalk. It's getting dark, and no one is around to help him out.

He grips his stomach in pain, and pulls himself up with tears streaming down from his eyes.

"Kill me too while you're at it," He grunts under his breath, but they weren't there anymore. He limps his way down the sidewalk, heading to his house. There is no way he'll be able to roam around even more.

As he arrived home, he found his father asleep on the couch. He sighed in relief and walked towards his room quietly, still gripping his stomach. He opens the door to his bathroom and looked at his reflection on the mirror, eyeing the blood streaming out from his cut lip, and his right cheek is all bruised up.

He cusses under his breath. "Now I'm fucken ugly." He sighed, and started rinsing all the blood and dirt out of his face immediately.

Now that he's all alone in his room, his safe place, he can finally be who he is.

He washed more of the blood out of his face and applied some medicine on his cuts and bruises.

This happens quite often. Young guys like him roaming the streets alone at night will likely get jumped, if only Neil had his pride down, this wouldn't have happened.

The thing he hates the most is when his face is all bruised up. Now he has to go to school looking like a fucken eggplant and everyone will start making fun of him.

After applying some medicine, he heads over to his room and slumps his whole body on the bed. The pain started to disappear as he begins to drift away.

He turns off his lamp stand, and quickly sets off to sleep, another way of him escaping his thoughts.

Escaping all the pain.