T H I R D P E R S O N

A smirk grew upon his face as he heard his room door buzz open, "Duval, you ready?"

The brown haired teenager sat up from his cot and stared at the bald, pudgy man that glared back at him.

"Do you have my clothes?" Elijah asked, he didn't really care about his appearance, but his mother was waiting just outside of the Juvenile Detention Center with his little sister and they planned to go to his favorite restaurant afterwards.

The man sighed as he tossed Elijah the plastic bag full of clothing that contained a pair of jeans, a shirt, boxers, socks, and sneakers. "What's this?"

"Your clothes," he said back to the boy in the orange jumpsuit.

"No," Elijah said, "I wore these the day I came here. The smell terrible, did you even wash them?"

The correctional officer shook his head, "Just get dressed Duval, before I tell your mom that you're not ready to go."

"Alright, alright," Elijah said, "will you leave the room?"

"No,"

"Okay, then. Have it your way." Elijah smiled and unzipped his jumpsuit and in one second the outfit fell to his ankles.

✖️ ✖️ ✖️

"I missed you so much, baby," Elijah's mother swooped him into her arms, his head being lightly shoved into her shoulder.

"Yeah," he replied dully, "I missed you, too. How is Dad?"

"He's doing fine," she answered, but Elijah knew that his mother was lying, to protect him from being hurt.

Elijah nodded and kneeled on the pavement to look at his little sister, his arms spread wide. The little girl giggled and ran into his arms, he soon engulfed her into a bear hug and stood up to spin her in a few circles, her legs dancing around.

He came to a stop and lowered Annie to the ground, "That was fun! Can we do it again?"

"I'm sorry, Annie, but we should probably get going," their mother interrupted, "we have reservations, remember?"

Elijah nodded his head slightly and grabbed his sisters' hand, "I bet I can beat you to the car," and with the the older child ran to the old family car with the little girl following far behind. The mother shook her head and puckered her lips in an exasperated manner.