"We fought an uphill battle. One we had no hope of winning."
~~~
Felicity-Flick as most call her-Carter, has learned a thing or two in her 12 years of life. How to deal with drunk parents without waking the neighbors, how to smoke a cigarette withou...
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"So Flick, what else is there to know about you?" Emil smiled at me across the table sadly. It sounded unnatural for him to call me Flick. But it was right. Felicity was another girl. Someone I was no longer. It was time for him to know who I am now and not just who I was then.
"Not much." I said softly. My anger had not diminished much since we left the market. That wasn't how anger worked. I would be angry for a little longer, and I was more than entitled to that. I think Emil realized that too. He was always good at emotions. Not like me. I sucked at reading people.
"Play any sports?" He was scraping for information that didn't exist. I was nothing. I mean, I spent all my time with Jackson, sometimes Amber, goofing around and taking advantage of our youth. That wasn't much to tell someone. Cigarettes and rooftops are not personality traits or hobbies. They were just trouble if you ask most.
"Nope." I was still unwilling to work with him on this. I hate talking about myself. It makes me feel so measly and unaccomplished. He sighed and slumped back in his booth, taking a sip of his coke. I sipped slowly on my root beer, looking for a way to switch topics. "I do play soccer sometimes." I decided to throw him a bone. It was better than sitting here in silence.
"You do?"
I could immediately see his face light up. I sighed and nodded.
"But only when the coach needs me. I'm not on the team or anything." I was the spare, but that's what I wanted to be. I didn't try out for the team in the first place but the coach, who also happened to be my gym teacher, had asked me to play once or twice. I didn't mind it, but school sports were just not my cup of tea. And because of my poor attendance record, I wasn't eligible to play very often anyway.
"That's really cool, you know, me and Jules both played soccer in high school."
Ah yes, the third oldest of the family who had escaped the same as all the rest. Honestly, he pissed me off a little less than the others. He was about 19 when he left, even before Emil did, and he had been pretty transparent that he didn't have many plans of visiting. He said he'd call once in a while, which he did until about a year ago, but at least he didn't lie to me like the rest. Don't get me wrong, I still despised him for his role in the hell that would become my life, but his upfront honesty now seemed like a dream come true compared to the others. He had always been unruly and freepspirted. Or, that's what Emmet and Emil used to say. Being so young, I don't remember much about him but it didn't seem so crazy that at least one of the boys would be considered a troublemaker of sorts. I knew I was and I had to get that from somewhere.
"Cool." I stirred my drink, watching the ice tap against the sides of the glass. "What about you?" I muttered softly.
He raised an eyebrow. "What about me?"
I shrugged, still not looking away from my drink. "I don't really know you anymore. Tell me about yourself." Like I said, he was a stranger now. I didn't know who he was.
