Broken. C h a p t e r 14 I stayed silent as Em rung the doorbell

Broken. 
C   h   a   p   t   e   r      14

 

I stayed silent as Em rung the doorbell and a surprised Avi opened the door, mouth dropping open at the sight of me, and I couldn’t help myself. I grinned at him and gave him a huge bear hug. 

“Kay-Kayden? What are you doing here?” he said, obviously shocked. I didn’t feel like explaining, so I let go of him and looked towards Em for her to explain.

 
“Well, honey bun, we’re adopting Kayden!” Em said happily, pulling him into a tight, motherly embrace.
 
Wow. "We’re adopting Kayden" sounded bad, even in Emmy’s sweet, cheery southern accent. Then again, I think Avi would be happy so I guess I’ll just have to set aside my awkward feelings for now. But one glance at Avi’s face said different.
 
He looked completely and utterly shocked, to say the least. His body was stiff under his mother’s hug and he didn’t bother to push his messy, dark brown hair from his forehead. I could just lean in and tuck it behind his ear…
 
No. Ugh.
 
Anyhow, Avi actually looked… upset? Unhappy? I thought we were friends! Though he obviously didn’t want me at his house.
 
“Uh-Uhm, I’ll show you your, um, room, I guess.” He stuttered. I sighed and hitched up my bag higher up to my shoulder.
 
-
 
Immediately after we got to the guest bedroom, Avi left and Em came to talk to me.
 
“How are you, darling?” She said lightly.
 
“I’m okay… it’s just a little different here,” I said truthfully.
 
“It’s okay. Differences are what make life interesting,” she replied softly. “Sorry that you had to take the guest bedroom, honestly it was the only one we had open. I changed the sheets on the bed, so if you want to take a nap, or unpack… feel free. You can basically do whatever you want.” She explained. Then she gave me a soft, motherly hug (much like the one she gave Avi earlier) and exited the small room.
 
I slowly approached the bed and peered at it nervously.
 
Back at The House, my bed was the best. Sometimes I just wanted to sink into my bed and lay there forever. Scratch that, I wanted to do that all the time. Usually it was the only place I felt safe, bundled up in warm sheets and covers, pajamas. As I walked over to The New Bed, I couldn’t help but think that this was going to be hard. I crawled under the duvet and eventually managed to fall into a light, uneasy sleep.
 
-
 
“Dad! Dad!” I called. “Come here! I need you, dad!”
 
“Your dad is gone,” She said, laughing. “He’s gone and he’s not coming back, that son of a b_tch. I don’t even know why you still love him. He left me!” I continued sobbing in the corner of the room. Only 8 years old, I didn’t know why my dad had left my mom. “Stop calling for him! He’s gone! Not coming back! He left me and you’re here now. Nothing you can do about that.”
 
I sobbed myself to sleep, not even in my bed, just lying in a ball on the floor. All I could think was, why did you leave when I needed you most?
 
But something about it wasn’t quite right. My father was a good person, I knew that. He wouldn’t leave me.
 
“Calm down!” someone whispered soothingly, stroking my long hair and brushing it out of my face. “It’s okay. It’s fine. It was just a dream, Kayden. You’re okay.”
 
My eyes fluttered open, my breathing heavy and I, out of instinct, shoved the figure off of the side of my bed, still too scared and sleepy to realize what had just happened.
 
“Kayden,” A disoriented Avi pushed himself up off of the floor, rubbing his head. “You had a nightmare. Calm down. Please.”
 
“Oh… Avi, I’m sorry for hitting you…” I said, awkwardly fidgeting my hands.
 
“It’s okay,” he said. “But are you okay?”
 
I shook my head slowly, deciding to be honest instead of lying because I was the worst liar, and Avi could see right through me.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked. I shook my head again, tears streaming down my face against my will. He pulled me into a warm, soft hug and I didn’t protest when he crawled into bed with me. Avi stayed there the rest of the night, arms wrapped around me comfortingly, and for the first time in a long while, I fell into a dreamless, very peaceful sleep.

A/N 
there's going to be a super long A/N in the epilogue ; _ ;
-Lia<3