Haven

Chapter Two

I stare into Fitz' eyes. Rules. Not exactly something I deal well with. Although I genuinely feel as though I was set up to fail, given the horrendous 'childhood' I had, I doubt the man sitting in front of me would care for that excuse. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure he'd care for any excuse I could offer up at all. And I can think of excuses for everything.
"Jaida!" He says, in a stern tone. "Rules!"

I blink my eyes a few times, refocusing on him. If only he knew how long it was since I'd slept or eaten. "Okay relax! Jesus." I mutter, trying desperately to stay in touch with the foster kid toughness I've learned over the years, yet my foot was anxiously bobbing uncontrollably. Like literally, I couldn't stop it.
"Watch it." He warns, giving me what would become 'the look.' "Look, I'm gonna be reasonable with you until you give me a reason not to be. You look exhausted, and I know this is a new environment and it's not going to be the easiest of transitions. That said, I don't want any bullshit. Keep the attitude under control, watch your language and do as I tell you when I tell you." He says, in an almost exasperated voice.
"Okay, you got it." I agree, simply because I wanna skip to the part where he shows me to my room and I can take a real shower. Without a queue of girls behind me and the water being luke warm. Etc.
"Good." He smiles, a real smile. "Also, you'll be giving me your phone at 10pm each night, you can complain and moan but your fifteen years old and you need to be resting properly. I've plenty of books here you can read if you don't want to sleep that early but you will be ready for bed without your phone by 10pm each night. No whining or begging will change it." His tone leaves no room for argument, but my pure will to not allow that to happen leaves no chances of this going down without an argument.

"Nope." I say simply, flopping back into my seat, and looking over at him with a bored expression on my face.
He smirks, nodding his head as if he knew that would be my reaction. "This isn't a choice. If you want to do it the hard way, you can give me your phone now and not see it for another week." He explains, sporting the same bored expression I gave him.
Fuck! The way he says things with such confidence bothers me. Like he knows one way or another he'll have it his way when the conversations over.
"You're not supposed to take my personal things." I say, almost timidly. Mostly because I know I need to save my fight.
His hazel eyes pin on mine. "Honestly?" He almost laughs. "This is your literal last chance here, are you planning to ring your social worker and expect him to take your side given everything that's happened? Come on, kid. The games up." I just stare at him. Feeling beaten, and not even having the will to do anything about it.

I reach into my pocket and toss my phone onto the table, glaring at him. "Fine." I hiss, once again flopping back in the seat.
Fitz shakes his head, half smiling. "I'm taking it for tonight, your attitude stinks." He informs me, snatching my phone off the table as he stands up, making his way to the fridge.
"Are you hungry?" He asks, his back turned on me.
"No." I say, petulantly. Some might say pouting.
"Hmm," he muses, rooting through the fridge and pulling out various vegetables and chicken fillets. "Well I'm making dinner soon, and you're eating." He tells me.

Suddenly the frustration hits me. This guy has the audacity to stand there demanding respect but hasn't even told me his name, where my room is or why the fuck he's taken in a teenage girl.
"Are you serious? Do I have a room? Do YOU have a name? Why the fuck am I even here?" I explode, jumping out of my seat, unable to contain myself.
Fitz turns to face me, an eyebrow raised as he crosses his arms over his chest.
"You do have a room, upstairs, one I was planning to bring you to any minute now. It seems we'll have to push that back in order to have a much needed conversation." He muses. "And your here because you needed somewhere to go. Because you need to learn a lot before you can live your life to your true potential and figure out who you are." By then, he had moved to right beside me. He pulled me up by the bicep with the firmest grip and shocked me more than I've ever been shocked in my life. By starting to literally smack my ass, hard.
"Eh hello?" I hiss, trying to move out of his way, to no avail. "What the fuck are you doing this is assault!" I yell, twisting and turning to avoid his heavy hand. But the swats keep coming and it gets increasingly more painful.
Surprising myself, I feel my traitorous eyes begin to tear up. "Stop!" I whine out. "I'm sorry, please just stop." He scoffs, but finally gives up after a few more hard smacks.

Once he's done, he pulls me by both my shoulders to face him, despite my attempts to hide my face and turn my back on him.
"Now!" He says, pulling my hands away from my face and holding them together in one of his. "That was for the cursing, and the complete lack of respect." He explains, letting my hands go.
"We can talk about any concerns or questions you have. But I want you to think before you speak. I know your more than a capable of having a civilized conversation, okay?"
I nod my head, feeling more emotional in that moment than I ever had in my life.
"Okay then, come on." He says softly, leading by my hand back out to the hallway where to bags are. He picks them up and beckons me to follow him up the large staircase. I notice all the photos of a him as a child on the way up the carpeted stairs. Photos with his parents, friends, girlfriends.

I have to shake the negative thoughts from my head, knowing it's leading nowhere good. The type of thoughts that lead me to that house, to him.
He opens the door to what would be my room, and steps aside for me to go in. It was a big room, with a queen sized double bed in the center. The room was carpeted with soft grey carpets, painted an ocean blue with a large window overlooking the ocean. That was the first time I noticed the noise was literally a step off the beach. Pretty, I thought to myself.
Fitz put my bags down, by one of the two doors inside the bedroom.
"The closet is in there, I'm sure you'll need more clothes so I'll try to organize a day for you to meet Madison, she can take you shopping for whatever you'd like." He tells me, before walking to the other door and opening it. Revealing a bathroom. It wasn't huge, but it had a big waterfall shower. The rack inside it was stocked with shampoo, conditioner, soap, loofas. Everything. The bathroom itself was tiled top to bottom. The floor had large white tiles, and the walls were tired with large navy tiles. Inside the shower there was a strip of mosaic tiles. It was really nice, too good for the likes of me, I said to myself.
"Wow." I murmured, looking around the room again. It was the first moment I felt like I wanted to be somewhere. Never in my life had I been in a place I actually wanted to live in. This felt different.
"You like it?" He chuckles, sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Yeah it's really pretty, thank you." I say looking down at shoes. Really beat up old skool vans.
"Come here," he gestures for me to sit next to him. And I do. Partly because I was scared he'd wig out and beat my ass again, but partly because in the two hours I'd spent with him, I began to feel attached to him. He seemed to actually care for me, why else would he be doing all this.
"My name, as you keep asking for, is Alex." He says gently, putting an arm around my shoulder. "I know you've not had it easy, my goal isn't to make it worse for you, I want you to have a good time here. In order for me to give you what you need, things are going to be hard. For us both. I need you to remember that, when you're arguing with me and getting pissed off, I need you to remember everything I do is for your own good." I lean into him, feeling those tears threatening to spill over again. I hadn't eaten in days, nor slept. I felt vulnerable and exposed.
"Okay, I will," I agree, not something I'm used to doing. "I just don't understand what you have to gain from this." I admit, my voice sounding weak.
"Does everything have to be about gaining something?" He asks and I shrug.
"Nobody has ever done anything for me. I don't know who my dad is, my mom is a drug addict that I haven't seen nor heard from since I was 12 years old and my sister buys me things to make sure I stay away." I sigh, why would a stranger be any different. None of the other strangers I'd been forced to live with were different. I was a paycheck. I still am.
"It's not fair that you were given this life. Think of me as the first time you're catching a real break." He nudges me, smiling. "You're officially free to just be a teenager, you'll always have a bed, you'll always have clothes, there'll always be food in the house. All you have to is abide by my rules, and simply be." He tells me and I nod.
"Okay then." I smile. "I'll try."

He nods, standing up. "So take a shower, settle in and meet me downstairs at 6 for dinner, okay?" He basically orders, raising an eyebrow.
I know what he wants to hear. "Yes sir."
"Good." He winks, making his way to the door. "I'll be hearing those words a lot Jaida, you'll see." And with that, Alex, disappears downstairs, leaving me in the nicest bedroom I've ever been in. Things could be worse, I think myself.
After rummaging through my bag for a pair of sweats, a tshirt and clean underwear, I make my way to the amazing little bathroom that is my own. I stripped off, watching the room steam up from the scalding water flowing from the waterfall shower. Then once I stood in that amazing shower, I felt all the tension and stress dissipate. Things could be way, way worse.