Finding Romeo

Chapter 16

(Romeo's POV)

I know I'm being a coward.

I can't help it though. After staying in the van for long enough to hear that she was safe through the computer mic, panic had filled me, forcing me out of the van and unto the street. There was no way I could meet her like this. I didn't have to look in my reflection to know how screwed up my face looked or how destroyed my body was, I didn't want her to see that I was injured and weak.

They say girls are self conscious with always worrying over their appearance, yet here I am, dragging my dislocated leg down the sidewalk, to scared to stick around. I didn't want to see her face if she saw me like this, everyone already thought I was a monster. I didn't know what I would do if she thought the same. It was best to be the faceless man behind a now broken computer screen than to risk her turning away in disgust.

I also didn't want her to know that Luka had did this. Right now, he was her hero and there was no reason for me to ruin that. Even after what he had done to me, I didn't hold it against him. If I had been him, with Talia's life on the line, I probably would have did the same thing. It didn't mean I had forgiven him, just that I understood.

I took a shaky breath and continued down the street, sinking down into myself so I could no longer feel the pain of my injuries. The sidewalk in front of me blurred and I let my feet guide me towards home. It would be a long walk back, but I knew I couldn't stop. The people roaming the streets at night would see me like an injured bird and I wouldn't make it through the night. It wasn't that I couldn't defend myself, but in my condition, I really wouldn't be a match for anyone out there, especially if they were eating better than I was.

At the thought of food, my stomach rumbled loudly, but I blocked out the sound along with the pain. Now wasn't the time to be thinking of food, I had to make it back to where I'd at least be safe resting. I would need to fix my dislocated leg, though I had no idea how to do it on my own. It wasn't like a wrist or shoulder that I could do on my own. Maybe I could tie my leg to something and pull it back into place that way.

I walked for awhile longer, lost in my own head before my mind wandered back to Talia. My mind always seemed to loop back to her, she was the brightness in my life that kept pulling me in. I had said before that I was her sun, but that wasn't completely true. Saving her had been the only beam of light I had shone on her life, in every other aspect I was pitch blackness that I could never see her wanting to be a part of. Who would willingly take a step into darkness when they had the chance at so much light?

Not that Luka was light, I had seen enough to know that he had to many shadows casting over him to be able to do that. Unlike his shadows, the dark, black tunnels that engulfed me was enough to cause people nightmares.

I knew I was thinking too much, letting myself slip down into the darkness of my depression, but I couldn't help it. Being beaten and having to sink into myself brought back so many memories of him and that house that I was having trouble pulling myself out.

I knew if I kept thinking like this that it would just make it harder and harder to pull myself back out, especially with no way to get into contact with Talia without walking two hours away to the nearest library. Even then, with the libraries 30 minute computer rotation, I would spend most of my time just building up walls incase she tried to hack and locate me and would barely get any time to actually talk to her.

Not that it mattered, Luka knew where I lived, it wouldn't be long before she knew too. She was smart, I had no doubt that she could easily pull that information from Luka, especially considering he had no reason not to give it to her.

Maybe I could move?

I knew that wasn't really an option though, I was lucky as hell to find Jack. He was old and had lost his hearing in a war, so he wasn't even aware that I couldn't speak or who I was. He was kind of an outcast in the town, no one bothered to talk to him, thinking he was just a hateful old man. Because he couldn't hear himself speaking, Jack wasn't aware of how often he did it. A constant stream of loud curses would come out of his mouth, making everyone else think he was crazy. In reality, he was just an old war veteran trying to survive in a bad part of town.

He had no idea how thankful I was for him allowing me to stay in exchange for handyman work. If it wasn't for him, there was no telling what ditch or dumpster I'd be in, and that was if someone hadn't killed me by now.

The sun was high in the sky by the time I made it back to the house, slowly limping up the steps. I shoved the door open and collapsed inside, gasping for breath from the effort of coming here. My vision blurred, exhaustion finally catching up to me as pain shot through the walls I had built up.

I saw a figure coming through the house towards me and recognized Jack's voice, distant, like through a tunnel. "Damn boy, what the fuck happened to you?"

Then everything went black.

* * *

When I awoke, the thing foremost in my mind, was the pain.

It felt like acid was burning my skin and my bones were crushed into sawdust. I opened my one good eye slowly, trying to cram the pain back down, to build that wall back up to protect myself.

My eye flickered around the room, which I recognized as what would be the living room in a normal house. I tried to just breath for acouple minutes, getting a firm grip on the pain I was feeling and shoving it deep down inside of me.

Then I sat up.

Dizziness hit me like a frying pan to the head and pain shot through my ribs and stomach, along my back and just about every other part of my body. My leg still hurt like hell, but not as bad as before and now I could move it, so I was guessing it wasn't dislocated anymore.

I heard Jack coming from the kitchen and turned slightly so I could see him. He moved through the doorway with a stiff shuffle, propping his cane up against the wall as he approached with a cup of coffee.

Then, to my surprise, another set of footsteps came from the kitchen. My heart beat hard in my chest as I stared at the doorway, praying that it wasn't Talia or the police. Then the person emerged, leaning against the doorway with a smug look on his face and I stiffened, hoping he wasn't here for round two.

This time I would have my hands untied, but that didn't mean I wouldn't fight.

"You look like total shit," Luka said, with a smirk.

Jack couldn't hear what he had said, but my face must have gave something away, because he turned to look and gestured to him, his eyes hard and unforgiving.

Luka moved from his place at the doorway and came over standing in front of me. I thought of standing up, but after the dizziness of just setting up, I knew my body wouldn't take it.

I reached over and pulled a marker board and marker that I had found on the top of a dumpster one day that me and Jack usually used to communicate, from some crates that served as the coffee table and wrote on it, showing it to Luka. 'Why are you here?'

"The man I work for heard about your willingness to help and I had noticed the smashed computer in your bag. He wanted me to give you this." Luka said, setting down a bag in front of me. The top of a computer box stuck a bit out of the top, but I didn't touch it, just stared up at him.

I wiped the marker board clean on my shirt, then wrote another question on it. 'How is she?'

"Talia is fine, she's back at her apartment, resting."

I nodded, but didn't respond, thank God she wasn't here to see me like this.

"Listen, you did good and I respect you for it," Luka said, seemingly struggling with his words as he stuck out his hand. I knew a guy like him would never apologize, so this was probably going to be as close as I was going to get to one. Respect was a good thing to have though, so I reached out and took his hand, both of us giving a short, but firm shake.

Luka nodded and turned to walk away, but paused, turning back around. "I won't tell her where this shithole you call a home is. That's between you and her."

I didn't even pay attention to him dissing my home, I was only relieved he wasn't going to tell her. As I nodded to him, he turned and walked out the door.

I closed my one good eye, sighing heavily as I leaned back and relaxed as much as my sore muscles would let me as I hoped he would do what he said and give me enough time to recover and maybe come up with a better plan of meeting her.