I hated returning home. Every single day, going home meant facing Ethan. And facing Ethan meant nothing but trouble. I wrapped my arms around my body as I slowly opened the front door. The floor was littered with beer bottles and empty tobacco tins. Although there was no longer the sticky spill on the tile, I was still disgusted. I couldn't complain, at least Ethan had cleaned up a little bit.

After I had realized that he wasn't in the kitchen, I figured I could make a quick dash from my the foyer to my room without him realizing I was home. I carefully shut the door behind me and ran to my room. I nearly fell over when I bumped directly into Ethan as he carried stack of my clothes out of my bedroom. I wanted to ask what he was doing. I knew better though, I was being moved.

"Oh." he slurred. He picked up a half full beer bottle off of the messy dresser and took a huge gulp. "You're back." 

"Y-yes." I stuttered quietly. I was afraid of him. More than anyone knew.

He slammed the bottle back onto the dresser, which knocked another one off and it shattered. "Damn it Elliot. When are you going to learn that I don't want you here?" he shouted. He shoved a long finger into my chest. His face was so close to mine. He spit on me. It smelled strongly like bud light. I had to admit, it smelled better than the tobacco or the weed his friends came over and smoked.

"I'm s-sorry, E." I stammered. Confrontation terrified me. I could feel the tears beginning to form in my eyes. "I-I don't have anywhere e-else to g-g-go."

"Make yourself useful." he shoved my clothes into my arms and walked back into my room. "Take 'em to the garage. Mike is moving in tomorrow."

I didn't dare argue, I knew how this went. I ran quickly to the garage and set my clothes on my deflated air mattress. At least this time, I got the garage. Last time he had a friend move in, I was stuck living out on the back porch. However there was nothing I could do, so I sat down and cried. The door to the garage opened.

"Get off your ass and help me!" Ethan grabbed my arm and pulled me back to my old room. I quickly wiped the tears off of my face. He piled stuff on top of stuff into my arms, demanding that I take them into my new home. The bruises on my arm began to ache from all of the weight I was carrying, but I knew that if I refused, there would be bruises in more places than my arms.

My first night in the garage was tough. November in Georgia wasn't freezing yet, but Mother Nature couldn't seem to decide whether she wanted it to be hot or cold. I spent half of the night covered in blankets and the other half covered in sweat. When I finally got up the next morning, I leaped off of the air mattress, careful not to pull off the duct tape seal I had placed on the holes. The mice here were awful.

I could finally leave. No one understood why I was always thrilled to go to school. I always arrived at least twenty minutes early, and I never returned home until six, and school got out at three.

My closet consisted of a total of three hoodies and one pair of jeans. I had more before Ethan stole them all. He hated me, I couldn't blame him though. I broke up his family. I was the worst brother on earth according to him.

Ethan burst into the garage as I was putting my hoodie on. Unsurprisingly, he had a bottle in his hand. He hopped in his truck, and drove out of the driveway. The stack of tickets went flying off of the tool box in the corner. I scrambled to pick them up, I counted twelve of them. I was almost certain he had run over my jeans on purpose, but I couldn't prove it. Although, I couldn't say I was thrilled to be wearing soaking jeans to school.  Sometimes, brother's just suck.

After a short day at school, I went to Ravyn's house. I went to knock on her door, but when I got there  I suddenly got the feeling that something was wrong. I walked past her window and saw her sitting in her living room with her parents.

She was crying. What the heck? She never cries. I watched in anticipation, curious as to what in the world was going on. She told them something that left the room silent. Her dad stood up and left the room, and she was crying even harder than before. Her mother said something to her, which seemed to leave her shocked.

When I finally realized what had just happened, I wanted to be there for her. I wanted her to know I was there, that I had seen what had happened. I contemplated running in to her, but I realized she wouldn't appreciate being spied on. However, I knew what she had done. She had told them her big secret. She ran out of the room and busted through the front door about fifteen minutes later, a sleeping bag and a Walmart sack in each hand. She ran down the street, directly towards the barn. I began to chase after her, but I could just tell she didn't want company right now. She just needed to be alone.

I decided I should go home, I should at least try and clean up the garage. I didn't like messes. I made it home around four thirty. Just in time to overhear a conversation I never wanted to.

"I wish he would just kill himself." Ethan slurred into the phone. He was drunk no doubt. It was rare to find a moment where he was sober. You'd be more likely to see a penguin in the Sahara. I peeked in through the window, and watched him. He was surrounded by boxes that I assumed were Mikes. I could see the smoke coming out of my old bedroom. I was used to it though, in a few weeks, Mike would do something to make Ethan mad and get himself kicked out. Ethan continued to talk about me, it wasn't pleasant.

I had heard it all before, but it always hurt. There was nothing I could do but listen. I knew that if I went in, he wouldn't stop. But he would get angry. So I just listened.

"His mother was a whore. Left Dad and I alone with him. And now the little bastard wont just leave."

It was true, he had never had a mother of his own. His mother left Dad a month after his birth. There was no denying it. Ethan was an unwanted child. No matter how much his mother didn't want him, there was no way he was as unwanted as I was. I was a child of an affair. Mom and her assistant got a little too frisky one night at a work event. Eight moths later, an unexplained blue eyed, toe-headed baby was born.

Dad knew I wasn't his. There was just no way a black man and a Hispanic lady could have a white as can be child like me. He forgave  her though. I never learned why. But when the two of them died in a car crash a few years ago, I was left in the custody of my older step-brother.

I couldn't help but blame the court system for leaving me in his hands. Yeah, great idea! Leave a thirteen year old kid in the custody of an alcoholic college dropout! Leave him to pay their bills because his older brother can't seem to save money for anything else besides alcohol.

Some people collect coins, if someone was to look into our house. They'd think we collected broken bottles and rat feces. Ethan was a slob. Even my neat freakness couldn't keep up with him.

My eyes filled with tears, I may have heard these words a million times. But no matter how many times you get shot, a bullet hurts all the same.

I snuck in through the back door and tried to carefully walk to the garage without Ethan noticing I was home. I nearly choked on the smoke coming out of Mike's room. Once I made it to the garage, I didn't hesitate to just flop onto the bed. I laid my head in my hands and cried. It wasn't rare for me to shed a few tears. According to Ravyn, I had no control over my emotions. I was about as fragile as a clump of sand. I could fall apart at any moment and anywhere.

I looked up at the antique mirror in front of me. There was a crack in the upper right hand corner from where Ethan hit it with a rock when we were kids. He wasn't always bad.

My sky blue eyes had reddened. The black frames surrounding them magnified my tears. Off-white hair covered my face, and a bright cowlick stuck up from behind. It used to drive Mom crazy. She would try everything to keep it down, she would blowdry it down, straighten it. One time, she got so fed up she just cut it off.  That only worked for about a week.

"What the Hell?" I heard Mike shout from my old room. "Who are you?" He was pounding on the window. The mirror began to shake some more. I heard him slam the bedroom door shut and I knew what was coming. I lifted the garage door and slid underneath it. I slowly snuck around the house to the back. I went to crawl underneath the deck. I knew that if I didn't hide, I would become Ethan and Mike's punching bag. But before I could get underneath, I saw a note stuck to the bottom of the bricks beneath my old window. I ran towards it and snatched it off of the wall.

Barn, one hour.

I immediately ran towards the barn. I didn't want to be early, but  certain didn't want to be home. Trust me, you never want to be around angry stoners. So once I got to the barn, I ran to the back. I sat down and stared at  the hands on my watch. Sometimes, I would just come here and sit. It was really relaxing. I could laugh or cry, without someone telling me I was behaving like a girl or that real men don't cry. In my opinion. Being a man or a woman has nothing to do with it. All that matters is that I'm human.

Once I realized that Ravyn was probably inside, I entered the barn only to find Noah, Ashley, and Ravyn sitting on the benches we had made out of wood and old crates. Ravyn was still in tears. I rushed to her side and just looked at her. Are you okay?, said the look I gave her.

I was so glad she could read me, she nodded her head and smiled. There was something odd about our friendship. She was daring and violent, where as I was quiet and reserved. But I guess that's why we were so close, she was my defender, and I kept her calm.

I reached over and pulled her in for a hug and then I sat down and watched as the rest of the crew arrived. We all took our seats on the benches. We stared around at each other in curiosity, just waiting for one of us to speak. Once I had figured out that Noah had left the note, I stared at him.

My jaw dropped when he told us his plan. But I nearly fainted when Ravyn shouted out an immediate yes.