Savior (Book One)

Chapter Thirty-Three

It was only five more minutes before Henry arrived. He wasn’t exactly how I expected him to be. He was scrawnier than Bud and...Allen had been, looking to be only one-hundred thirty pounds. I didn’t really think that was healthy for a grown human male, but then again, what did I know? Human anatomy was a little different than an angel’s. For example, while an angel’s bones were hollow, bones in a human weren’t. The reason for this, is that an angel needed hollow bones in order to fly. Our wings were made from feathers, and normally wouldn’t hold up a two-hundred pound male without being literally gigantic. Think of our bones as that of a bird. A bird’s bones were hollow in order to help them fly normally.

And I’m totally getting off topic.

I really do need to see if I have ADHD.

I looked up from my spot on the couch I was on, glancing up at Henry to see him in deep conversation with Bud, the other man interrogating him as if he were a suspect in a crime. I looked down and over a few feet to see Henry’s youngest daughter, Ivory, giggling and waving a Barbie doll around. I looked to Ivory’s right to see Henry’s other daughter, Jessica, sitting there on one of the other couches, her attention solely on her phone, almost like she didn’t care that I was going to be living with them. Maybe she really didn’t care. Maybe she thought it was a one night thing, or maybe she was only pretending not to care. Either way, I was going to be living with them. What was it like to have younger siblings? I was the youngest out of my family, so I really didn’t know what it was like to be an older brother. Was it the same as being the youngest? What did older siblings do differently?

“Skylar.”

I blinked out of my thoughts and looked up to see Henry standing over me, Bud in the background watching the other man like a hawk. I blushed to the tips of my ears and averted my gaze to the floor, twirling my fingers around each other. “Um...yes sir?” I asked, biting at my bottom lip.

Henry smiled and sat down next to me, making me tense up and tuck a strand of my hair behind my ear. He folded one of his legs over the other, his khaki pants riding up to show badly colored checkered socks that peeked out from his black loafers. He tapped his long tanned fingers on his knee, clearing his throat so I would look at him. “Hello, Skylar. How are you today? I heard about what happened. Such a tragedy, you know?”

I frowned, but remained respectful as he shifted his weight on the chair, scratching the back of his greying blonde hair.

“Please refrain from talking about that. He’s in a fragile state at the moment.” Bud muttered, glaring daggers at the other male.

Henry pursed his lips, and for a moment, I could have sworn he rolled his eyes. Maybe I imagined that. He wouldn’t be that rude...would he? The man then turned back towards me, a smile forming on his lips. “I’m so sorry for bringing that up. I did not mean to bring up bad memories.” He brought up his hand and patted my knee, making me glance down at his hand then back up at him when he spoke. “All I want is to give you a roof over your head and a meal in your tummy. I hate seeing such sweet kids, such as yourself, on the streets, in the cold. I do hope that you enjoy staying with me. All I ask is that you don’t touch my daughters. Shall I hear that you intimately touched one of them, I will castrate you and hang your balls on my wall. Understood?”

My mouth dropped open at that, speechless that he would even assume that I would inappropriately touch either one of his daughters. I was more modest than that. Besides, they were still too young to learn the touch of a man. They were mere children. I would never think to take away their innocence like that. And I couldn’t believe that Henry would assume that I would do such a thing. I was a gentleman, thank you very much. I wasn’t a pedofile. However, before I could speak for myself, Bud spoke for me.

“How dare you assume that Sky would do such! He is a respectable young man, and I expect you to treat him as such while he is in your care. Elsewise I will be the one you have to face. And trust me, I won’t go easy.”

Henry narrowed his eyes, pursing his lips together before he sighed and stood up. “I was only doing what any father would do for his daughter. Skylar is a teenage boy. Teenage boys are hormonal and would do anything to sate their need. You were a teenager once. Don’t tell me that you never did some stupid stuff during that age.”

“Sky would never do the things I did at his age.”

“And how would you know?”

I looked between the men with a frown on my face. “Um...I’m right here, you know. And sir,” I shifted my gaze to Henry, who looked at me with a raised eyebrow, “I promise you, I will never do anything to your daughters. I’m not a pedofile. Besides, I don’t want to give up my purity just yet. Not...Not for a while, at least. I’m not even interested in any kind of relationship right now, anyway.”

Henry tilted his head to the side, his grey eyes staring intently at my form. He raked my form, meeting my eyes before he pursed his lips and nodded. “Alright. I’ll trust you. But the warning is still in place. Though...you won’t be seeing too much of them anyway.” He muttered the last part so quietly that I wasn’t quite sure if I had heard him right.

Not seeing them? Do they live with their mother, or something? A different guardian, perhaps? Then...why would the girls be here if they didn’t live with him? Were they visiting him, or something? I was so very confused, however I dared not ask him. It wasn’t my business, anyway. I was only going to stay with them until Father said otherwise.

I frowned when my heart constricted painfully as I remembered that I had thought the same exact thing when I was going to live with Allen. I felt tears in my eyes and I shook my head, willing my tears to disappear. Crying wouldn’t bring him back. It wouldn’t do anything except make me depressed. When I got a hold on my emotions, I stood up and folded my hands against the small of my back. “Um, I’m ready whenever you are, sir.”

“Henry is fine, Skylar,” Henry muttered, getting to his feet and waving his daughters over. Ivory leaped over to us with a wide smile on her face, while Jessica glanced up and shrugged as she walked over.

Just when we were about to leave, I took one more glance at Bud, who looked at me with this...this look in his eye, like he wasn’t sure if he wanted to stop me from going, or not. In order to reassure him and myself, I gave him a small smile and waved at him, making him sigh and wave at me in return. Feeling a small bit better, I followed Henry to his car, a red Ford truck that looked relatively nice. I got into the front seat and waited in silence as Henry got into the driver’s side, and as Ivory and Jessica got into the back seats. I took one more glance at the DSS building and prayed that it would be my last time going through those doors. I hopefully would not be coming back. I didn’t like that place, and every time I visited, it seemed to get even more depressing than the visit before. Maybe I struck lucky and got a good family. Maybe my siblings, and creatures after me, would not know where I went. It was very unlikely, but I couldn’t keep seeing the dark side of things. I had to see the positive, even if I didn’t want to.