Memories

XXVII

LONELY BOY

'Well your mama kept you but your daddy left you
And I should've done you just the same
But I came to love you
And I want to flee'

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It was the third time she'd been picked up for petty theft. Thalia was trying as best as she could to stay out of her homes. One way to ensure that happened was to get sent to another one, or, preferably, a juvenile detention center. That hadn't happened yet, and she was slightly thankful. Secretly, Thalia didn't think she'd survive a day in a place like that.

Many times she'd gotten into fights a school, or just on the streets with anyone who bumped her or walked too closely to her. Thalia was trying to get into trouble so she'd be moved on to the next home. It was a routine. Something she was used to. Something she liked.

Like always, Pig showed up to interrogate her, though they really only ever had a little chat about Thalia's behaviour and how it needed to change - it never did - and Thalia would asked her famous question; how are the kids?

This time, though, Phil wasn't alone. There was a woman with him. To Thalia, she seemed oddly familiar, as if she should know her from somewhere. The woman hadn't been any of her previous foster parents, and she was quite sure she'd never seen her at a school, so Thalia was confused and annoyed. 

"Thalia," Pig started, sounding tired, though that was nothing new. Thalia was beaming to hide her tenseness and calculating feelings about the situation. "This is Stephanie Walker. I told her about you, and she said that she'd be happy to take you in." Thalia hummed as she pretended to think.

"How about...no." Thalia said and slumped back in her chair. Stephanie smiled and laughed a little. Pig looked annoyed at Thalia, though she only raised an eyebrow.

"My daughter used to have your spirit," Stephanie said in a voice that made Thalia want to gravitate towards her and agree to everything she said. It made her believed whatever the woman said, no matter the consequences, though Thalia knew better and she didn't move a muscle.

"She was very much the delinquent you are when I first fostered her. I then went on to adopt her, and she's calmed down a little since then. My little ray of sunshine is such a good girl now." Stephanie said, making Thalia hate her even more than she already did.

"I don't care about your 'little ray of sunshine'." Thalia said. "I don't want to live with you, Miss Walker. I want to live by myself, and I can't wait to get out of the system." Pig and Stephanie looked at each other, and Phil nodded with a sigh.

"Thank you, Stephanie. I appreciate it." he said as she left the room. She said something about bringing the kids up to North Dakota, but Thalia tuned them out and looked into her reflection instead. Her auburn roots were beginning to show, and Thalia made a mental note to get a bottle of blonde hair dye on her next 'shopping trip'.

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Andrew picked her up from the art studio at around eleven the next day. Thalia had, not for the first time, fallen asleep on her stool. She was very good at sleeping in one position, even if that position is upright on a tiny wooden stool.

"We're getting lunch." Andrew said, then walked out of the room again. Thalia grabbed her things and locked the door behind her before following Andrew to his car. The first thing Thalia noticed was that Kevin, Nicky and Aaron all looked absolutely shitfaced, and that Neil seemed completely sober. She'd noted that he hadn't drank the one time she'd gone to Columbia with Andrew's group, but didn't realise he didn't drink at all.

"You're a bit boring, aren't you?" she asked him, leaning over to talk to him in the boot of the car. Then Thalia switched to French, which she still never remembered learning. "We not have much alcohol on the run?"

"We had plenty," Neil responded. "But we only used it to sterilise things for stitching up wounds and to take the sting out of it." Thalia wished she hadn't asked, and remembered all the scars on her body that seemed haphazardly stitched back up. It made her wonder how many were from her life on the run, her father, and how many were from Riko back when she was living in Castle Evermore.

If what Kevin had told her was right, then Riko probably hadn't hurt Thalia as much as he did others, but it was clear that Riko's uncle Tetsuji wasn't as emotionally connected to anyone. She didn't doubt he wouldn't hesitate to lay a hand on even Thalia.

After lunch, Nicky seemed to have sobered up enough to drive, so Thalia was stuck between the twins as he took them to a party shop. Halloween was on a Tuesday, so there was a party at Eden's Twilight the Friday before. Nicky hadn't shut up about it for weeks, and though Thalia tended not to spend much time around him, she'd heard it enough for it to stick in her mind.

They headed inside and to the back of the store. Thalia didn't look around at the decorations near the front of the store like Nicky and Aaron were doing. She walked up alongside Kevin and saw that he wasn't in a much better state than the one he'd been in when they'd left.

"Hey," Thalia said, linking her arm in with his. Kevin seemed startled by this action, and didn't say anything in response. "You know it's not your fault we lost last night, right? They're better and meaner than us. We didn't really have a chance, but we put up a good fight."

"Our spirit was good, and everyone tried their best." Kevin said, looking ahead. "That's all that matters, really." Thalia didn't say anything, not knowing what to say, and her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out to see a text from Dan.

'y are the cops looking for u?' was what Thalia read. It made her stiffen and stop in the the aisle, causing Kevin to stop too. "You okay, Thalia?" he asked, unsure. She wasn't listening, and Aaron pushed past her, turning her more on edge than she already was. There was only one cop that would come all the way out to Palmetto to see Thalia, and he was one of the last people she wanted to see.

'Tell Higgins to go fuck himself' she typed back angrily and shoved her phone back into her pocket. Thalia kept walking and ignored Kevin's asks if she was alright. She wasn't, and didn't think she ever would be as long as there was somewhere for her to go back to if she was thrown off the team for some inexplicable reason.

"I'm fine, Kevin," she snapped. "Let it go, okay?" Kevin, to his credit, did drop the subject, and Thalia angrily searched through racks of clothing. "Why am I even allowed to get into Eden's? I clearly don't pass for a twenty one year old." she tried getting out of the event.

"Neither does Neil," Nicky said, cheerily looking through outfits on the other side of the rack. "And they keep letting him in. Also, me and the twins worked there for a while before coming to Palmetto. It's why we get the VIP parking passes." Again, Thalia didn't answer.

"We should invite the others to come with us," Neil said. Thalia, along with Kevin, Nicky and Aaron, all looked up at him like he was being stupid. He was. Thalia glanced at Andrew who was taking things off racks and dropping them to the ground. She knew he'd never agree to it, and if he did, it would only prove a theory that was beginning to form in Thalia's mind.

"We don't associate with them," Aaron replied to Neil's suggestion. Thalia had picked out her costume - a pair of ripped denim shorts and fishnets along with a white shirt with holes in it - and followed Kevin to the counter to pay. She didn't hear the rest of the conversation, but when the others joined them, Nicky looked surprised, and Neil looked confused. It was clear Andrew had said yes. 

"I told you even you had to like someone," Thalia said in a whisper, a smirk growing on her face. Andrew didn't react, though Thalia knew he'd heard her. Things were getting interesting, and Thalia was having fun for the first time in a long while.