Alice's POV
I walked through the door of Lucas' house with the weight of a herd of elephants on my shoulders, and an enthusiastic Torin venting on my heels.
"Okay, but the fact that everyone pretended they didn't even know L' makes it obvious he's still alive! Something's up." We had just finished asking every single person at Cane HQ about Lucas' whereabouts.
"Or, they got killed and the gang members are keeping their mouths shut about it."
"How would that make any logical sense? They didn't look guilty, they looked clueless. I mean, I gossiped about L' to Charlie just a couple days ago! And today it was like she'd never heard of him before." He has a point. Other than their blatant ignorance of the brothers' exhistance, It was as if they didn't know their leader hadn't just been killed. They didn't seem to recognize me as his killer either. So the options are, they're all really good actors, or the details of his death haven't been made clear yet.
"Even if he is still alive, we have no way of finding him and no way to know if he's ever coming back here." My pessimistic side had taken over as we asked the last person in Cane about L' and his Brother. I was surprised when over half the people either didn't know Gavin or claimed he died a long time ago. He's like a paradox around there.
I plopped down on the couch and pinched the bridge of my nose. I don't think it actually helped the pressure in my head, but it helped psychologically.
Torin came and stood at the arm of the couch "You're not giving up, are you?"
"No. I can't. Lucas and Gavin are the only friends I have right now. I'm not going to give them up." Torin nodded and continued standing there awkwardly. "You know you can sit down if you want. Sitting doesn't mean surrender."
"Right. Thanks." He sat in the chair adjacent to me, still seeming tense.
"If you have any more ideas, let me know. I'll listen to just about anything." The silence that followed was deafening. I could feel Torin's eyes shift from me to other random spots in the room. I personally didn't feel uncomfortable, but this dude was seriously tense.
After a minute or two I turned my head to look at him as he continued to fidget in his seat. "How are you still alive?"
"What?"
"No offense, but you are the pewniest gang member I have ever seen. Granted I haven't seen very many.."
"Ah yeah. I just, don't do well with silence."
"You look like your in pain. Does silence really bother you that much?"
"It's just.." He hesitated and sighed before saying, "It's a long story."
"Well.. I don't know if or when the boys will show up, so why don't you start the story and we'll see how far we get."
"I-I don't think you'd be interested. It's a classic sob story." He shrugged
"If you want to hear a sob story I'll give you one. You tell me yours and I'll tell you mine. Deal?"
He breathed out a laugh. "Okay. But you asked for it."
That day, I finally learned Torin's backstory. I learned about how his older siblings used to use him and bully him. How they would blame all of their faults on Torin and their parents believed them whole heartedly. The punishment he got almost everyday was the silent treatment. His parents would sit on a couch in the living room with Torin in front of them and they would simply stare at him. No talking, nothing more than staring him down with disapproving eyes. After a while his parents quit even acknowledging his presence. Unless, of course, his siblings got him in trouble. Then it would be the same blank stare in a quiet room. Eventually, he became insecure and the punishment he got when he was little gave him a phobia of silence.
YOU ARE READING
Consequences
General Fiction[FINISHED] :) I kept my eyes glued to the scene behind my eldest brother Colton. My youngest brother Jared was dragging a man into one of the rooms in my brothers' house. The man was blindfolded and his hands were tied together. He was hunched over...
