Kid in a Locker (REWRITING)

14. Haven

"You should see the other guy." He greets.

"I would hate to." I wasn't lying. He looked worse off than when Peter threw down with Carson at that party at the beginning of the year. He can barely open his eyes, and he can barely give the breathtaking smile I've seen him give a million times without his life splitting and blood spilling from it. His shirt was dirty and stained with blood and was in such a condition that I had to believe it was the same shirt he wore when he disappeared.

"What are you doing out here?" He tries to carry on a polite conversation, pretending like he hadn't been gone for nearly two months.

"I could ask you the same thing." I cross my arms over my chest and tap my foot on the asphalt.

He sighs. The air around us stays silent, void of any explanations they were clearly needed. Instead he winks at me. "You've saved me again."

I kick harshly at his foot. I didn't want to hurt him anymore than he already was, and his foot seemed to be a safe bet. "People have been worried about you! Nick is out here every day trying to find you! What the hell, man."

"Get in the car." Peter says from behind me. For a second Troy doesn't recognize him, since his attire is so much different than what he wears at school. When he realizes it is my younger brother and not the oldest, he relaxes.

"You sure about this?" Troy asks him.

"Yeah, are you sure?" I turn to Peter, lowering my voice. "Maybe it's not the best idea to take him with us."

"You've been looking for him, correct?" He asks, not lowering his voice like how I did. "He's right here. Let's take him back to the house, get him cleaned up. Then we can tell Nick we found him."

At the mention of Nick, Troy becomes very unsteady. He looks up at us and I can physically see him changing his mind about coming with us. He now seems uncertain and ready to bolt at a moment's notice.

"Maybe Ophelia's right." He says quickly.

"Nonsense." I say. I pick on his mood change and am even more determined than before to not let him get away. Nick needs to know that his cousin is okay.

"You'll need to clean those before they get infected." Peter points to the cuts on his face. There had to be more all over his body if his face looked like this. "We can help."

I silently thank Peter. If my argument playing on his emotions would sway him into coming with us, maybe logic could. Troy was a reasonable man. He would know that what Peter says is true. Those injury were serious and if they didn't get dealt with soon, they could turn into problems. Peter and I couldn't save him from the scars that would surely form, but we could save him from some serious infections.

"Okay..." He finally agrees after a few painfully moments in silence. He holds out a hand to me and I help him stand out. He grunts in pain but manages to stand on his own, and even can shuffle to the car. I help him into the backseat and then get back into the car.

The boys shift uncomfortably as we drive. The house was closer to the convience store than it was from the school, but it was still at least a twenty minute drive away. The tension radiating from the two of them dance across my skin. I try to ignore it and find it extremely hard.

"So, I heard you stopped Romul from killing Nick." Troy pipes up. I curse. Of course that's what he would bring up right now.

"How do you know that?" Peter asks, narrowing his eyes at him over the backseat.

I grip the steering wheel tighter, eagerly awaiting the answer. There was no way he could have known that unless he saw it himself. The school had kept the incident under close wraps, only letting the essential people know what was going on. Since no one saw what went down the hallway besides us, keeping it quiet was pretty easy.