Being forced to move so many states away from all that he once knew, Nessa was nervous to tackle his new life. Fortunately, it didn't take long for Nessa to meet a plethora of unique individuals who welcomed him into their lives:
The optimist, the k...
After their exchange at the park, the two boys walked back to Nessa's home. When they reached his bedroom, Nessa finally admitted to still having the stuffed animal that Kris once gifted him. Together, they lit it on fire.
And they tossed the ashes into the evening sky, where the black speckles took flight like the butterfly Nessa had on his hand, as well as buried within his heart.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
She was pissed off, but the feeling was certainly nothing new. Emi almost only ever knew rage and hardly anything else. Dr. Wallow would always tell her that it was unhealthy, and she needed to learn how to cope better with her anger. Emi would respond by spitting in his face and calling him a prick. He was a great example as to why she hated men.
Her mother, on the other hand, was trying everything imaginable to make excuses for him. She would insist that Dr. Wallow wasn't all that bad, because he was just doing his best to offer his help. Emi just rolled her eyes and flipped her off. "He'd be more helpful six feet below."
"You can't just send death threats to every person that gets on your nerves." Her mother responded, following closely behind Emi as she made her way for the front door.
"Watch me." Emi replied.
"I have been trying everything to get you to open up to me!" She yelled, crossing her arms as Emi sat next to the door so that she could desperately pull on her combat boots. "I don't understand what happened."
"What happened?" Emi scoffed, hardly even listening to anything her mother was saying. "Are you fucking serious?"
"Shit was bad back in Scotland. Your father was bad. I took every penny I had and moved us across the world so that we would be away from that jackass." She was shaking with rage of her own. "But you just shut down."
"Shut down?" She got back onto her feet, staring her mother directly in the eye. "We moved across the damn world, and you started working nonstop. You stopped buying us grocery's, or taking me to get new clothes. You stopped saying that you loved me, or that we were going to get through this. If anyone shut down, it's you."
With those words echoing in the narrow hallway, Emi turned and left.
It was late into the night, the absence of stars leaving Emi to think back to her childhood. Her father's estate was massive, and it was located in the rolling hills of Scotland. There was always stars out, and she loved to climb onto the roof and stargaze when she was just a child.
She visited her father once a year, usually during Christmas time. She wasn't looking forward to it, but she missed the way people talked and the way the land looked. Chicago was just so disgusting.
Emi didn't really have a place in mind as she walked. She was tired and lonely, wandering the city streets with her eyes sharp. It wasn't safe for her to be walking around so late, but she couldn't stand to stay in that house for a one more second. Besides, she kept pepper spray on stand by just in case, as well as a switchblade that Venice had gifted her on the previous Christmas.
