Broken souls

- Chapter 13 -

I haven't seen Caden in the past three days.
He hasn't been to school and I don't have his number.
I'm seriously worried.

Rosie has been trying to calm me down, by reassuring me, that it isn't uncommon for him to skip school. However it doesn't help with my bad feeling.
It's a deep uneasy feeling in my gut that for some reason, I can't seem to shake off.

Shouldering my back, I push through a simple pair of glass doors and walk up to Miss Doris, who is in charge of all the student timetables and school files.

"Hey love, how can I help you?"
Miss Doris is mid fifties, with grey hair and a sincere smile, that never seems to leave her lips.

"I had hoped you could help me out, by finding a student. More like finding out where he lives?"

"Oh love I'm sorry, but I'm not allowed to give privat information about a student out to another."

"I expected as much. It's just..he hasn't been to school for the past days and I was hoping I could bring him his homework and I wrote down some notes for him."
That's partially a lie, but she doesn't have to know that.

"I'm not sure..."

"You would really help me out. It has hit him bad and he might need to stay in bed for another couple of days. We don't want him to mess up his grades in his final year, don't we?."

Now I'm straight up lying but I'm desperate. Which calls for desperate attempts to convince her, which also causes me to say the next thing, when she still regards me with an unsure look.

"I was also hoping to impress him...I liked him for some time now...but he doesn't know...so..."
Her smiles warms and I mentally cheer.
"Okay, but it will have to be our little secret"
I greedily nod.

Three minutes later I'm walking back out the doors, with Caden's address in my pocket.

Deciding to go immediately to Caden and skip the rest of my school day, I take the bus to the opposite side of town.

From my knowledge it's not the best area and some very bad people live there.

My thoughts are confirmed, when we slowly pass through the streets, where the houses grow smaller and more run-down.

Walking from the bus stop to Caden's house, I feel people's stares on me, judging my every strep. Clearly noticing, that I'm not from here.

Caden's house is a small two story house, with dark beige paint peeling from the front.
The lawn in the small front yard is overgrown and in clumps of yellow grass patches.
The driveway is empty.
Slowly I walk up to the front door and hesitantly knock.
No one answers, so I knock again. This time a little harder.
I'm about to knock a third time, when the door suddenly swings open and my fist freezes in the air.

I can't help the sharp inhale that I make at the sight that greets me.

Caden is standing in front of me with a huge bruise on his cheekbone, a split lip and an other nasty bruise on his temple.
I'm betting there are more under his clothes, but I'm to shocked to utter a word.

"Avery? What are you doing here?"
I'm gaping at him like a fish, unable to form words.
"Av?"
"I-I'm here to check on you"
"Check on me?"
"Yup"

Brows furrowed he gives me a confused look.

"You haven't been at school" I explain "I was worried" i whisper the last part, feeling suddenly embarrassed.
"You were worried?...about me?" He looks kinda lost, not sure what to make of my sudden appearance. "Why?"
"Well...you are my friend" I say. "We are friends aren't we?"
"I...yeah, I guess we are"

I'm still standing outside of his door.
He suddenly notices it too.
"D-Do you want to come in?"
"Sure"

Opening the door wider to let me in, I step past him into a narrow corridor.
The house is surprisingly tidy and in a way better state than the exterior.
From where I'm standing I can see into the living room, where a brown leather couch is in front of a TV and some small dark wooden cupboards.

Caden doesn't show me around but instead leads me up the stairs and into what must be his bedroom.

The room is small but fits him perfectly.
Dark grey walls and a black bed with grey sheets and some pillows.
On the opposite wall of his bed is a tall black wardrobe and a shelf, containing CDs and some pictures with two little kids.
A girl and a boy.
The rest of the room is pretty bland.

"I didn't know you had siblings" I blurt out.
"They are 8, Rylie and Elias"
"They look adorable"

"Do you want to tell me why you came all the way over here? When you should be at school"
Sighing, I drop onto his bed.

"I told you I was worried and for what it appears I had every reason to be so. What happened to you"
I want to reach out to him, touch his bruises but i refrain, tucking my hand under my thighs.

Flopping down next to me, he heavily breathes out.
"I got into a fight" he says after a while.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I didn't want to come into school, looking like this" he admits.
"Why did you get into a fight?" I carefully ask.
"I don't really want to talk about it" he says, sounding defeated.
"Okay" I'm not going to push. If he wants to talk about it, I will gladly listen, but if not I'm going to just be there for him. For now.

"Do you want to do something? To get distracted?"
"I think I would like that" he replies.