The fall (pt 2 To The asylum)

Chapter 10

"Hey yo FREAK!" Carlisle heard the guy screaming from down the freshman hallway before he even finished putting his stuff in his locker, and he froze in fear. 

"Yeah that's right. Don't move, you bloody psycho." Spencer, his daily assaulter, groped the collar of Carlisle's thin white shirt and shoved him against the lockers. 

Carlisle was used to this. Every kid in his school knew about his mother, because news spread pretty fast in his small town, but mostly kids just kept their distance. Except for Spencer. He insisted on torturing the kid every. single. chance. he got. Carlisle didn't let him know that, though. He refused to cry in his presence, and he never let him go without spitting in his face or coming up with some other form of meagre attack. 

After Spencer had slammed his head into the lockers, thrown him on the floor, and sent a few harsh kicks to his ribs, Carlisle got up and stumbled to the bus stop, which is no use, because he already missed the ride. He groaned, shouldering his bag and attempting to ignore the flaming pain in his face and stomach. He would just walk back to the orphanage. He did it nearly every day anyway. 

When he finally reached the old, run down building that was his home, he was greeted with a worried look from one of the nuns. As usual, she asked him if he was ok, he yelled at her, took his medicine, and stormed upstairs to his designated room, ignoring the stares from the other orphans. He didn't need their sympathy. He didn't need anyone. 

When dinner time rolled around, and Carlisle heard the hurried footsteps of all the hungry children rushing down the hall, and he shook his head, grumbling to himself where he was sprawled out on his bed, examining the damage. He pulled his shirt back on and trudged downstairs, taking his usual seat at an empty table, deciding not to eat. He didn't mind being alone, he actually preferred to stay unnoticed. 

Things were going pretty well until he heard something clatter on his table, and he looked up to see that a thin girl, looking about his age, had taken a seat in front of him. His first thought was 'why the hell is this girl sitting at my table'. His second thought was 'why is she wearing a long sleeve shirt when it's ninety degrees outside'. 

"Um, can I help you?" Carlisle questioned rudely, moving his hands from his lap to his sides. 

The girl shrugged. "The table was mostly empty. I don't like socializing. End of story." 

Carlisle was dumbfounded. Did this girl not know who he was? Who his mother was? Usually people just took one look at him and went the opposite direction, much less wait for a question. 

He studied the girl. She had shoulder length dark brown hair and dark eyes, and she was wearing black long sleeved shirt and ripped jeans. "She has to be new", he thought. "Nobody here dresses like that". Not to mention nobody here wore any makeup at all, and she was wearing tons of eyeliner and eyeshadow. 

"Who are you?" Carlisle asked, tone a lot less rude now. 

To his surprise, the girl smiled. "Jade. Got here this morning. You?" 

He grimaced. "Edgar." 

The girl chuckled, picking up the shitty pizza the nuns served and biting a chunk off the end. "I think I'll just call you Ed." 

Well, maybe this girl wasn't so bad. 

Carlisle and the girl talked throughout the entire dinner period, and he learned a lot about her. He learned that her parents abandoned her about a month ago, and she was roaming the streets until someone found her and reported her to the orphanage. He learned her parents were drunks and only cared about sex and never payed any attention to her, until they moved across the country and left her to die. She told Carlisle not to tell anyone, because she had lied and said she had no parents so she could get into the orphanage, which Carlisle didn't quite understand, because the place was like a living hell.