Leave What Was Found

26: What We Had

"My mom and I finally left Frank a few months after you left," he began to explain. "She didn't know she was pregnant until after, which was probably a good thing. Mickey is a great kid, and with Frank out of the picture, he's got a great dad now."

It felt wrong to ask what had happened to his father. Avery knew Frank was a temperamental asshole; however, whatever had become of him was none of her business.

"So, Meredith met someone new?" Avery asked.

She had always thought fondly of Julian's mom, and it was something they could talk about.

"Yeah, Will is nice enough, he treats Mickey real well, they are super close," Julian said, nodding.

"But you don't consider him to be your dad?" Avery questioned.

"One dad was enough," he grumbled.

Avery nodded. She understood that.

"So, why did you go to boarding school?" She asked curiously.

"Will suggested it actually, he knew how bad things were for me, he helped set things up and even paid for it," Julian explained.

"He sounds like a good guy," Avery noted. "Do you guys live with him now?"

"Yeah, we live in the town over from where we used to actually," he said.

"You know, I went back when they finally gave me the keys to my old house," she admitted.

"Was it weird?" he asked.

"The house is so empty," she said somewhat longingly. "I always thought I missed home, but I think now I realize I just missed the people who made my home so full of life."

Avery glanced over at him. A small smile appeared on his face.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing," he murmured, although the smile had yet to disappear.

"Have you gone back at all?" she asked.

"I used to walk by your old place a lot before we moved in with Will, sometimes I would sneak in to see if you had come back," he admitted.

"That must've gotten hard to do after a while," she said softly.

"Yeah," he said quietly. "How come you never called? Or wrote a letter? Or even came back?"

Avery sighed and looked away, she knew he was going to ask that sooner or later. After everything, she knew he deserved an answer now. "I forgot my phone," she admitted. I thought about calling from the first hotel we stayed at, but I didn't know what to say. I thought maybe it would be easier to write a letter, but that was hard too." Avery glanced over at him. "I wanted to tell you why we left, but I never knew just how long we'd be gone and the longer I waited, the harder it got to say goodbye," she said quietly.

"It was harder sitting in that house not knowing what happened to you," he mumbled.

"I'm sorry," she said, glancing over at him. "I did come back once though," she said quietly, remembering a sour memory now.

Julian glanced over at her. "What?"

"I forgot about it, but we came back for a day when we passed through Colorado," she explained. "I went by your place and there was a new family there, I thought Frank might have-"

Avery didn't have to finish, she knew that Julian understood what she meant. After all, Avery had seen the marks of abuse all over Julian's body.

"Anyway," Avery continued quietly. "I wanted to tell you everything, but after that I almost convinced myself that you were also living your best life than the alternative."