Shattered (The Academy)

Chapter 50: Hello.

When I go back home... it's not my home anymore. I don't mean the house I grew up in, but the two story house where I lived nearly a year with someone I loved.
I don't even have to get off the taxi. I look to the window from the outside,  but it's not Owen I see in there. It's a family of four: the mother is blonde and petite, and he is dark haired with his arms covered in tattoos. He makes faces to the baby girl besides him with long brown curles, and the mother feeds the girl's twin on the other side.
  He sold the house.
I don't know why I feel so surprised. If it would have been me, I'd guess staying would be too painful as well. Too painful to stay, to painful to own.
  But now, where do I go? Where can I find him?
At the end, I go to my childhood house, the place I never thought I'd ever come back to. The place where my family died. Of course, except for my mother. I still pay for the clinnic where she is staying. The world is not ready to have her out there, not the way she is now. Not soon, according to the doctors.
I guess craziness is too hard to escape from in this family.
The key is still hidden in that loose brick at the back of the house, and going back there is the only think that keeps me from looking at the house in front. A sweet, sweet neighboor.
But how can I come back just like that, interrumping their lives? How can I just knock on the door?
Is it too soon? Is it too late?
Suddenly, I feel devastated. There is no light nor water and I feel even worse for some reason.
I can't even look at this house. This is what Owen was talking about: About houses and the people who live inside of them. The stories that those walls saw.
He tought me so much...
It's like I can see everything again: me on those stairs while the guys discussed my craziness; the skull of Marie hidden underneath the wooden floor, the spot where dad literally stabbed me in the back.
   And there is a blood stain right on the place where he died.
Why have I hold onto this place for so long? There is no more family alive and I'm sure a judge will consider reasonable to write my name on this property. It's my legacy, at the end. There is no coming back for me when it comes to this place, but as my house with Owen, it can be the home for another family here. They will just never know.
"Jefferson?" I call him on the phone while it starts to gently rain outside "I feel so alone"
  He whispers soothing words until sleep comes for me and drags me down.

The next morning, I convience myself to knock on Kota's door. But what are the probabilities of him staying in town for university?
His mother opens up the door. She recognizes me, remembering me as the girl who used to hang with the guys every now and then. Just another person who came and left.
"I was wondering if Kota's here. I thought I'd get in contact with the guys"
"Oh, sure, sweety. Right now he is working at Bob's diner. It's just a couple blocks from here over that direction"
  We small talk for a couple minutes untill we say our goodbyes, then I make my way to the diner. It's quite full and I don't see him, and I worry. What if none of this was ment to happen?
  A cute redhair guides me to a table by the window and I plop over it, hiding my eyes in my palm.
My insecurities eat me alive. And I let them.

Kota's point of view.

Luke puts the strawberries over the cake with a satisfied smile on his face.
"Don't forget to put it on the front when you finish it" I tell him "don't start another one until you finish that one" I warn him.
   He smiles at me lightly, making another sugar flower. He's done so many now that it stop being impressive. It has become a part of him just as his pickpocketing.
Unlike the rest of us, he didn't go to college. Mr. Blackbourne was silent about it, but he understood that there was something about the situation that made it okay. Maybe timing, maybe fate, if you believe in those things.North? Not that well. Not well at all. He's the protective grumpy brother, and dispite it is what makes him unique among us, sometimes it can be suffocating. He didn't understand. Today, he still doesn't, but he and Mr. Blackbourne say nothing because... He is happy. Victor talked to him about it and we believe he'll go when it feels right for him. But now, he dedicates his time in a part time job in a center for troubled/unestabled kids. Not teenagers, but little kids who don't even have pimples yet. Troubled kids with all kinds of problems whose parents or legal tutors hope they can reintegrate into society again. He came in as a favor at the beginning for other team, in which one of them is the director, and eventually, he decided to stay. We all wondered if it's one of those things Sang left behind: That desire to help unstable, scared people. The need to understand. To know that there are people out there that aren't like us.
 The other half of the time, he makes desserts for the diner that sell themselves as hotcakes. Please, laugh at the reference. 

"Done" He says "Will you place it at the counter?"
When I take the cake there, there is only one chocolate one left out of the three different flavored ones I had left there four hours ago. 
Bussines is good. Life is good, as well as this town. I'm glad I didn't go thousand of miles away for college and decided to stay at our local university. 

This family needs of each other.
"Kota, table six and eight, please" Uncle says, his hands on his apron pockets "Susie has to leave now. Family emergency. Can you take over her section?"
"Of course" I tell him, offering a smile.
"Thanks, boy" he walks into the kitchen, leaving me behind to cover for Susie. Susie, who jad asked me out a couple of days a go.
Even now, I blush and look at my feet as I walk towards table six. Why do I have to be so awkward?
Come on, Kota. Focus.
"Good day. Are you ready to order?"
But when the stranger in front of me looks up, I realize she is not a stranger at all. Not really. Her hair is shorter just above her shoulders and she's got bangs. But there is something different now. It's not anything she does, or even how she looks now. It's something in her eyes, something in the way she holds herself. There is certain knowledge, certain maturity, certain... peace.
And while is definetely different from the girl I once knew, it's still her. I can still see her.
She's here. She's back.
"Hello"
And even when I really didn't imagine I would find her again, not like this, today I can't say I feel shocked. It all makes sense now that she's in front of me. That I would see her again. That we would be here today.
Yes. She was always ment to come back, for worst or for better. I can only hope this will be for better.
"Hello" she says quietly, studying me the way I studied her. I wonder what she sees when she looks at me now. I haven't changed a lot, but it doesn't feel like that.
"Hello" I slip into the seat in front of her and I breathe her in "You've taken too long"
"What?"
"To come back. You've taken too long"
She looks surprised now. The way her eyebrows go up and hide beneath her bangs is adorable. Something inside me stirs, she still has that power on me. And I'm glad.
"So you've been waiting for me?" She sounds shocked. Surprised.
"We all have. Even if they don't say it out loud" Then, my hands falls over hers and I keep it there, my fingers between hers "I'm glad you're back, Sang"
"I'm glad I'm back too" She whispers, her eyes starting to water up.
"Don't cry, beautiful. Come on. Let's get out of here"
I take her hand and lead her through the door while dialing Luke.
"Luke, meet me at the front door. Now"
Out here, I wrap my hands over this beutiful stranger I know, and she lets her face rest on the neck of the boy who once lied and hurt her. And when she looks up, we lock lips.
It's wild at the beginning, but then it becomes faster, more desperate. I get lost in her.
She bites my lip before pulling apart and we rest there with our foreheads together until a couple seconds later when the door opens and Luke sees us. But his eyes don't focus on me, but her. Only her.
Always her.
His eyes widen and then he runs towards Sang and he's got her out of my arms and into him.
"You're here. I'm sorry. We're so sorry, sweetheart" He strokes her hair while Sang whispers kind words to him.
She's finally back, and now it's time to talk, to find each other again.
I wonder what happens next now.