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One
13th birthday
Bark flies off the tree as I smack the large stick against its trunk again and again.?
“Stupid town.”Whack.?
“Stupid house.”Whack.?
“Stupid wannabe family.”Whack, whack, whack.?
My arms ache with every swing, but I can’t seem to stop myself. There are too many emotions flowing through me to stop now. Why did this have to happen? Why??
No one is going to rescue me. I don’t know anyone here—this isn’t my house.?
The tears I’ve tried so hard to hold back begin to fall. I’m not usually a crier, not even at my mother’s funeral. But today I’ve reached my breaking point.
Who wouldn’t?
My black sheep of a mother passed away, leaving me an orphan at twelve years old. Being told you have no known living relatives, shipped off to a foster family in a town where I know no one, and then said family not recognizing your thirteenth birthday, even though you know damn well they have all your paperwork, would push anyone to the edge. Silly me for hoping for a family who actually cared about me and wanted to get to know me. To gain the type of family I’d always wanted, but apparently will never have.Fuck this place…
“Aahhhh,” I yell out, smashing the branch harder this time. It ricochets in my hands from the force, and I fall to the ground.
“You can beat that tree all you want; you ain’t gonna hurt it,” a voice says from behind me.
Turning around, I see a figure standing nearby, the moon illuminating his frame and dark hair. It’s a boy, possibly around my age.
“What’s it to you?”
“Well, for one, you’re loud as hell. You’re going to wake the whole damn neighborhood,” he says, taking a few steps closer. The single bulb from the back porch sheds some light on his face and the black eye he’s sporting.
I nod my chin in his direction. “Did your tree hit back?” I quip.
“Something like that…” He peeks over his shoulder at the worn wooden fence.
Bringing his attention back to me after several seconds, he reaches his hand out in my direction. I instinctively take a step back.
He must notice my hesitation because he flips his palm, revealing a square picture I’d recognize anywhere. It must’ve fallen out of my pocket while I was going to town on the tree.
“You dropped this,” he says, handing it back to me. “Name’s Lennox. Everybody calls me Nox. What’s yours?”
I don’t answer right away. I’m too busy staring at the faded Polaroid in my hand. Written in small script on the bottom isJade and Veronica.It’s a picture of my mom and her baby half-sister who I’ve never met or know the slightest thing about. I like to tell myself she made it out of the hell that was my mother’s home growing up and is living her best life like I plan to one day. He takes my silence as me excusing him, heading to the hole in the fence.
“Emerson,” I yell to his back. His steps pause. “And thank you.” I hold up the faded Polaroid and wave it in his direction.
He takes a few steps back toward me. “No problem. You seemed too distracted to realize you dropped it. Feeling any better?” Nodding his head to the large stick by my feet, I shrug.
“Not really.”
Another step in my direction brings him back into the glow of the porch light. His strikingly green eyes are focused on mine and, for just a moment, I feel a wave of calm wash over me. One I haven’t felt in a very long time.
I’m not sure how long I stand there under his watchful eyes, but when he speaks, I jump slightly at the sudden sound.
“I think I know something that might help… Well, better than hitting that tree,” Nox says, reaching out his hand to mine. As I stare at his outstretched hand, a smirk appears on his face. “Do you trust me?” And for some reason, I think I might.
With a quick nod, I place my hand in his as he leads us through the hole in the fence. We walk across the backyard toward a large tree, and he looks my way in time to see the face I make.
“It’s on the other side of the tree.”?He lets out a low chuckle.
