I'll just keep changing these colors
I'm not in the same place that I was

Chapter 22 ~ Old Ways

Owen Bailey

I was five years old when my parents broke up.

It was such a long time ago, but I still remembered the day when my mother returned from work and told my father that she had cheated on him. At the time, I didn't know what that meant or why it had made my father so mad; all that my five-year old mind was able to process was that he told her to leave, and she never came back.

Dad was never the same after that. He turned to alcohol to make himself feel better, and he neglected me more and more each day. I remembered asking him where Mom had gone and when she was coming back, and his response was a blank stare and an irritated grunt, so my prepubescent self took that to mean that Mom went to a better place.

Of course, my assumption was proven wrong when my mother reached out to me when I was eleven years old. She wanted me to attend a family reunion with people from her side of the family. It took a lot of convincing to have my father let me go, but he was too concerned with where he was getting his next fix of alcohol to truly worry about me.

And that was when I met Liam.

My mother ushered me into the house that had been packed with family members that I had never seen before, aunts who claimed I had grown up so much, and grandparents who wanted to give me gifts even when I didn't even know who they were. She led me to the "play area" where all the little kids were, and then she tapped one of them on the shoulder.

"Owen, honey, this is your brother," she told me as she knelt down to the floor to be eye-level with me. My "brother" spun around to look at us, and when his turquoise eyes met mine, he ran up to me and hugged me like he hadn't seen me in years.

I stared down at the little boy, then flicked my eyes to my mother. "What is he doing? Get him to stop."

She sighed heavily. "Liam, why don't you introduce yourself?"

Liam pulled away from the hug and nodded. "I'm Liam, and I'm..." He held up six fingers, "...six years old! Mommy told me that you're my brother. I always wanted a brother! We can be best friends." His hand found mine, and he began to tug me along with him.

I glanced back at where my mother had been, but she was gone. "I don't want to be best friends," I spat at the boy as I ripped my hand away from his. "I don't even know you. You're not my brother."

Liam turned around and frowned at me. "But mommy says you're my brother."

I rolled my eyes. "Stop calling her that. She's my mom, not yours."

His frown deepened. "Why can't she be both of our mommies?"

I had prepared myself to respond with another reason why we couldn't be related, but I stopped myself once I realized how much this kid seemed to care about me without even knowing me. He was so eager to be my brother and my best friend without knowing a single thing about me. That kind of love was something I had never seen before, certainly not from my dad.

And so I gave in. "Yeah, you're right," I agreed, "she can be both of our mommies."

Then Liam's lips stretched into the biggest grin I had ever seen. "Yay! We're gonna have so much fun!"

And that we did. Even though I drifted away from my mother over the years, Liam and I had always been close; we had always been "best friends", or so the six-year-old Liam had put it.

I didn't hold much against my mother. I was angry at her for abandoning me in such a prime time of my life and making my father turn into a crazed alcoholic, but I was happy for her. She was happier now than she had ever been, and I wouldn't have had such an amazing brother if it wasn't for her.

The second I stepped into the Slater household, my mother greeted me with a tight hug that lasted way longer than I wanted it to. "Honey, I thought you'd never stop by." Her green eyes beamed with excitement as she spoke, and even after she ended the hug, she continued to give me her motherly touch by running her hands along the length of my arms.

"Where's Liam?"

"He's taking a shower," she said so quickly that I barely caught it. "Hey, come in! I can make you something real quick to eat." She gave me a reassuring nod and continued to pull me into the kitchen against my pleas.

As she released me to venture further into the kitchen, I glanced back at Trey who wore a pitiful smile on his face. He didn't make an effort to follow me into the kitchen and stood still at the front entrance, probably deciding to keep his distance while I interacted with my family. After I returned his smile, my eyes roamed around the kitchen where framed photographs of my mother, her husband, and Liam were displayed along the walls. I never wanted anything more than to be apart of that togetherness, that feeling of belonging somewhere.

"Good evening, Owen," a strong, deep voice bellowed from the attached family room. One quick glimpse confirmed that the voice belonged to the man of the household who was just making his way into the kitchen. He wore a pair of thick glasses that sat at the tip of his nose, but I doubted he actually needed them to see. His full head of hair was greying at the sides, almost matching the slate color of his eyes, and his lips were pulled into an elated grin.

I gave him a slight wave. "Mr. Slater."

He set a stack of envelopes onto the island and sent me a glare. "How many times do I have to say this? You can call me Billy, I don't mind. You're part of the family—no need for formalities."

"Right," I agreed to save face, but it wasn't like I actually believed we were a family unit. We certainly didn't act like one.

I switched my attention to my mother who had miraculously retrieved a countertop of ingredients. "You have to stay for dinner," she insisted.

I didn't plan on staying long because I needed to get back to think over the possible actions I could take now that Lucifer knew about my involvement with Matthew. "Not really hungry, Mom," I told her, instead, in which she replied by waving a dismissive hand in the air and insisting that I was hungry. Sighing, I turned away from her and her husband and moved throughout the house until I found Liam's room. I didn't bother to think and threw the door open.

At my sudden presence, Liam was quick to hide himself under the sheets, but I had already seen enough to know what was truly going on here. "I didn't know that you masturbate. I thought depression was supposed to make you sad, not happy."

Liam growled at me, hands moving to shut the screen of his laptop. "I wasn't masturbating ... I was Skype-ing Max."

"With your dick out?"

"What do you want, Owen?" he inquired instead of answering.

"Just wanted to drop by, you know, see if you want to smoke some weed." It was a lie, of course, because I didn't have any drugs on me. The truth was that I needed to see Liam's face before everything made a turn for a worse, but I couldn't tell him that so I sufficed for a weed joke.

"Don't want any weed," he muttered.

Nodding, I sauntered over to his desk and took a seat in the accompanying chair. "How's everything?"

He shrugged. "It's fine."

"Do you still get sad?"

"Yeah..." His gaze dropped to his sheets, "...but Max makes me happy when I talk to him. We don't get to talk much anymore because he's always busy."

I nodded. "I'm glad he does that for you because I know I'm not always around to be your best friend."

Liam gave me a tight scowl, but there was a smile beneath the surface. "I was six," he noted, "I wanted to be best friends with everyone at the time."

Laughter permeated the air shortly after on both of our behalves, but it died down when we realized how awkward this conversation was becoming. I wasn't the sentimental type, anyone who was close to me knew that. I wasn't one to deliver the, "If something happens to me..." speech, and so Liam quickly picked up on my odd behavior.

"So, uh, what did you stop by for?" he questioned. "I usually have to beg you to come over."

"I can't show up unannounced to surprise my little brother?" I countered with a feigned offended look just before I reached over to ruffle my hand through his dark hair. He flicked my hand away almost immediately.

"'Course you can, but you never do."

"Have you been drinking mom's kool-aid? Because you sound like you don't have any faith in me."

"I know you're getting yourself hurt," Liam said, his facial expression growing stern and serious, "and I want to know what it is. I want to know what's going on, so I can help."

Little did he know, I was far past the point of redemption, but I smiled anyway just to ease his mind. "I appreciate the concern, brother, but I'm doing all right."

Liam's sea green eyes searched mine for what felt like an eternity before he finally decided to let the subject go. "Okay, but if you're in trouble, you promise you'll tell me or Mom?"

"Of course," I lied.

His lips stretched into a smile. "Okay, cool."

Briefly returning the smile, I slapped my hands on my lap and slowly got to my feet again. "Well, Mom's trying to cook some food for me, so I gotta leave."

"You should stay for dinner."

"Negative, brother. I've got a date with my boyfriend." Liam's smile quickly turned into a grin that stretched from ear to ear. He didn't say anything, just grinned at me. "Don't give me that look," I hissed, but to no avail, Liam continued to smile that cheeky little smile like he had just discovered the cure to cancer.

"Well, get outta here then. I got a video date to tend to." He reached for his laptop again and slowly opened it. His eyes left mine to give his full attention to the person on the other end of the call. "Hey, babe, did I tell you? My brother's dating Trey." Liam's boyfriend started to say something in response, but I simply rolled my eyes and stepped out of the room before this conversation could take a turn for the worst.

I ambled through the house to meet up with Trey, who hadn't moved from his spot in the main foyer. I intended on slipping out of the house before anyone could notice, but of course, my mother just had to catch a glimpse of me from the kitchen. She caught up to me and grabbed onto my arm to force me to look at her, eyebrows drawn together in concern. "You're not staying?"

I shook my head. "I got important things to do."

"Smoking weed is not important," she retorted. "You haven't had dinner with us in a while."

I rolled my eyes. "I can't stay, sorry."

She heaved a sigh, but eventually nodded. "Okay, drive safe. I love you, and God loves you too."

I narrowed my gaze at her, but I refrained from truly speaking my mind. "Yeah, okay. Bye, Mom." Swiftly turning on my heel, I led the way out of the house with Trey following closely behind.  Halfway down the driveway, I spun around, grabbed Trey's face, and planted a kiss on his lips. It lasted all of five seconds, but it was well deserved.

"What was that for?" Trey asked after I pulled away from him.

"It's a thank you." I continued down the driveway to the stolen car and propped open the driver's side, easily sliding into the vehicle. I kept my response short and to the point on purpose, just so Trey wouldn't get any ideas.

"You know..." he began as he buckled his seatbelt, "...for someone who says he's not gay, you sure are—"

"God dammit, will you ever drop that?"

A smug smirk curved his lips. "Nope. It angers you and you're so much hotter when you're angry." My gaze burned a death stare into his face, but he still managed to keep his dumb smirk. Deciding to just ignore him, I started the car and then we were on the road again.

There wasn't much to talk about this time around. My mind was filled with discomforting thoughts about how these next few days were going to unfold. As of now, Lucifer didn't know about where I was currently staying, but he did know about my family's residences; therefore, I could be safe for a little while. My family, on the other hand, not so much, but it wasn't like I could just convince them to rent a room in a hotel without telling them what was really wrong.

And then I thought about the boy sitting right next to me. He was so naive in so many ways, but he was smart enough to know what I needed and when I needed it. In that very moment, I couldn't imagine myself selling him to Lucifer. I couldn't imagine betraying someone who had been with me through it all, unlike Matthew, so I needed to show him that I was grateful for all of his help.

As soon as I pulled into his driveway, Trey jumped at the opportunity to get out of the car. When he realized I wasn't following him to the door, he spun around to face me. "What are you doing?"

"I got a few errands to run, and I gotta get rid of this car!" I shouted back at him.

"Are you sure? I can come with, you know."

"Appreciate it—" I put the gear into reverse and flashed him a smile through the windshield, "—but I need to do this by myself."

Trey appeared to be conflicted with his brows drawn together in confusion and his face crinkled in concern. He laced his fingers together in front of him, and then he shrugged. "Well, okay, but hurry back because Rita's making stir fry tonight."

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," I commented, my smile widening. With that, Trey returned the smile and continued his journey to the main entrance while I backed the car out of the lengthy driveway.

* * *

"So, let me get this straight. A man walks into a jewelry store and asks if we have any girl stuff?" the salesman relayed back to me, his eyebrow perched at its highest point and his dark eyes trained on me. "Do you see all these necklaces and rings?"

I leaned against the counter to brace myself for what I was about to say, but the man slapped my elbows away. "I just want something guys can wear," I growled at him, "no need for the sarcasm."

The salesman, whose name tag read Kenny, folded his arms against his chest and rolled his eyes at me. "Guys can wear anything from this store—it's just a matter of how other guys will react to you wearing it."

"I'm not the one wearing it," I barked, "a friend of mine is."

Kenny challenged me with his intense stare until he finally had enough of our banter. He turned on his heel and sauntered over to one of the display cases, expecting me to follow suit. "These," he said as he pointed at the case, "these can be unisex."

"Okay, then..." I glanced over the options and pointed to one on the far left, "...I want that one."

Instead of complying with my request, Kenny rolled his eyes once more and retrieved a huge binder from beside him. He dropped the binder onto the display case and flipped it open. "You can't just choose one that looks pretty."

My eyes glossed over the information on the page he was referring to, and then I flipped the pages until I landed on the one I was supposed to get. "Okay, that one."

Kenny smiled for the first time in our encounter. "Excellent choice! Now all I need is your name, a payment, and then you can pick up your item on Saturday."

"On Saturday?" I questioned, confused. "I don't have that kind of time. Why can't you just give it to me now?"

Kenny's smile morphed into a fake one. "These are custom made. The ones in the display are only for display. You can come on Saturday to pick up your item, or you can get out of my store."

I sized him up with an intimidating stare, but he stood his ground. "Okay,
whatever, how much is it?"

"One fifty."

"One fifty? For what?"

"For being an asshole." Kenny skipped to another part of the quaint jewelry store to help another customer.

I shook my head in disbelief as I fished out the money from my wallet. This would certainly put a dent in my pocket since I barely had cash anymore, but I forced myself into thinking that this would all be worth it.

In the corner of my eye, I saw the outline of Kenny's figure, probably just waiting for me to give him the money so he can continue to be a duck, but I came face-to-face with a blond-haired man that had a history of making me
cry myself to sleep. His colorless eyes stared at me in the most emotionally- detached way, and several unsettling faint lines appeared when his lips twitched into a smirk.

"Lucifer," I breathed out, completely taken aback.

He took a step closer. "It's so nice to see you."

"W-what do you want?" I tried my best to show my bravado, but I was shaking inside.

"I want to kill you, but until I do, you and I are gonna have a little fun." He latched onto my arm with the power of a god and pulled me closer to him. My eyes searched the store for someone who could help me, like Kenny, but Lucifer heightened my fear when he said, "They don't care about you. I have eyes on everyone in this town because it's my town, you hear me? No one can stop me."

"Kenny!" I shrieked, and at my call, the man brought his attention to me, but he quickly cowered away when he saw Lucifer.

"Oh, how I love revenge," he said in a voice so thick and dirty that it made me queasy. He snapped his fingers and in just moments, two tall men dressed entirely in black appeared by my sides.

They gained a tight grip on me, no matter how hard I tried to resist them, and then they blinded my vision by throwing a sack over my head. I was stumbling now because I had no idea how to escape this and because these men were set on doing what Lucifer had told them to do, which was to make me weak. After several moments of thrashing and screaming, I felt something cold and sharp press against my skin.

Then I blacked out.

_________

a/n: And trouble arises! Next few chapters will be action packed, which isn't something that I'm used to, so I'm gonna try my best to deliver!

Guys, I move into my dorm on Wednesday and I'm so excited to start college. I just wanna let you guys know that I'll be attending University of New Haven in Connecticut (a long ways from home) and I'm going to be majoring in forensic science in hopes of working for the FBI crime lab sometime in the future.

Anyway, I don't have a question for today's chapter so I'll just let you guys tell me your thoughts on what'll happen in the following chapters.

Enjoyed this chapter? Why don't you vote and comment?

Until next time,
Lara <3