The Ties That Bind

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

     Kasden's day started out the same as every other day; wake up to the sound of morning bells blaring from the old building's speaker system (the director, Mr. Milton, always let them chime for a full minute because some of the children wouldn't get out of bed otherwise). Shower quickly in the communal showers with all the other boys (if you weren't quick the hot water might run out), help some of the younger boys (it was a rule that the older children helped the younger children), get himself dressed and hurry down to the cafeteria for a filling breakfast (Mrs. Milton, the director's wife, always made sure the children were well fed), and then catch the bus to school with Simon and the three other kids from the orphanage who were also in high school.     Once at school, Kasden and Simon met up with their little group of friends to talk about their weekend, the latest games that were out, which teacher was the best/worst, etc. before making their way to their first class of the day.

Everybody in the group had been friends for years, practically as long as Kasden could remember. They'd met soon after he arrived at the St. Jerome's, and was enrolled in the same class as the other boys - the exception was Simon. Simon was a year younger than the others. Two girls eventually became part of their little clique and it had been that way ever since.

  From the moment they met, Kasden and Davy had become instant best friends; Davy was a real fireball, outgoing, vivacious and something of a daredevil. He was the archetypical redhead, and as a result, many of their misadventures were due to Davy's devil-may-care attitude. Not that they ever did anything truly dangerous; it was just that sometimes they went a little bit further than was prudent, and as a result, sometimes things didn't work out quite as intended. In any case, it was all just good fun, and nobody ever ended up with more than a few scratches and, perhaps a bruise or two, and nobody ever got into trouble for it (because they'd never been caught).

     Davy was also a little Cassanova and had regular hookups with a fair number of girls at school; none of them were ever serious and he made certain that the girls knew that before they did anything. That didn't stop them from chasing after him, if anything it seemed to draw them to the fiery-haired bad boy.     

     Luke, on the other hand, was the opposite of Davy; quiet and introspective, he was like the ray of sunshine that warmed you on the coldest days of the year. Something just drew Luke and Kasden together and they hit it off as soon as their eyes met; there was an instant connection between the two. Neither of them understood just what that connection was, but they each knew that they would do just about anything for the other. It wasn't like that with any of the rest of the friends; they were all close, but not as close as Luke and Kasden. Davy may have been Kasden's best friend, but Luke drew him like a moth was drawn to a forbidden flame - there was something irresistible about the boy, and more than once he'd caught himself thinking about the boy in the strangest of ways. Ways that made his heart beat faster, and his mind anxious with guilt.     

     Simon, the youngest of the group, was a year younger than the rest and was also an orphan at St. Jerome's. Unlike Kasden though, Simon had been at the orphanage his whole life, he'd never known anything else having been dropped off as a newborn. Like Kasden, Simon had never been adopted out even though babies were usually adopted out quickly. He was a sweet boy whose eyes were each a different color, which was probably why he hadn't been adopted as a baby. People may have wanted a baby when they started looking at adoption, but they always wanted 'the perfect baby', and Simon was not that baby. Simon knew what people said about his eyes, he'd been teased about at school often enough, and he assumed (correctly) that was why he wasn't adopted.     

     Kasden and Simon had shared a room at the orphanage since they entered their teens; the two boys were more like brothers than friends. Simon may have been younger than Kasden, but he had always been a part of the group of friends.