Curiosity

Free?

When I open my eyes it's my father whose on the ground. Jullian is standing in front of me while my father moans on the floor, holding his face.

“C'mon, go get your things.” Jullian says, tugging on my hand. I let him lead me numbly up to my room.

“Do you have a bag or something to put your clothes in? He asks me. I nod and point to an old messenger bag in the corner. Jullian walks over and picks up the tattered bag. Its strap is broken, and the zipper wont close all the way, but Jullian still places it on the bed.

“Put your clothing into it.” He orders. I just stand there, numb. This boy, this HUGE boy, just punched my father in the face. Someone finally hit my father back, and it was for me. When Jullian saw I wasn;t going to move, he went over to my dresser and grabbed a handful out of each drawer, then shoved it messily into the bag.

“Anything else you want to take with you?” He asks, holding the bag up. I shake my head, my skateboard is already in my locker and nothing else is particularly important to me. I consider mentioning my cover up, but since I'm not going to be around my father there really wasn't a point.

“Then let's go.” I follow him out of the house, still in a state of shock. I pass my father, who is leaning against the wall, cradling is nose which was the source of a steady flow of blood.

“Katty, plez don' leave me. I can get help, we cen fix this.” He cries, reaching out for me with a blood covered hand. Jullian put's his arm around me to steer me away from my father and towards the door. I hear him start to sob as Jullian shuts the door behind us.

We had been walking for about 10 minutes when I finally snap out of my daze, and speak up.

“Where are we going?” I ask, looking around for the first time since we left my house. The past ten minutes I had just been shifting between looking at my feet and Jillian's back. We're walking along side a country road, dirt. Surrounding the road was just open fields, and in the distance trees.

“I was wondering when you were going to speak up.” He mumbled. After a minute I ask him again.

“I said where are we going?” When he doesn't answer me, so I just stop walking, crossing my arms over my chest. After a couple steps Jullian realizes I'm not following him anymore and stops too, turning around. I can hear him mumbling under his breath as he walks back to me. He stops in front of me and I tilt my head back to look up at him.

“We're going to my house.” He says plainly, then turns around and continues walking. I follow after him, running to get in front of him.

“And where exactly is your house?” I question, walking backwards so I can face him as I talk.

“I stay in a cottage down here. I usually catch a bus home, but the bus that goes by my house left an hour ago.”

“Couldn't your parents of came and picked us up? It's only 7 pm.” I whine. I don't usually whine, but I figure now was as good a time as any.

“I'm staying with my Aunt and Uncle. That's why I came to Oakdale mid semester, I just moved in with them.” He says quickly, though something about the way he said it just didn't seem... normal.

“Oh. Sorry.” We continue walking in silence. I scuff my feet as I walk, making little puffs of dust. I can see a house in the distance.

“Is that your house?” I ask. Julian grunts and keeps walking. How charming. We arrive at the house, all the windows are dark and whole house seems pretty old and decaying.

“You live here?” I question, looking up at him. We had both stopped at the end of the driveway.

“Yes. My Aunt and Uncle are gone for the month. You can stay in their room until I can figure out what to do with you.” We arrive at the door and he takes a key out of his pocket, unlocking it and pushing open the creaky door.