March 31st 1990
"You have got to be kidding me!" Jason yelled.
"Calm down, Jason." Antonio said as he was holding the twelve-year-old back.
"No!" Jason yelled. "He knows what he did was wrong and yet he is defending himself?"
"Honey? Calm down. You're going to hurt yourself." Mrs. Dawson said.
"Jason, you need to calm down. Okay? This isn't going to help if you are angry." Gabby said.
Antonio's father was having none of it.
"I didn't do anything wrong. There is only one thing that I did wrong my entire life and that would be fostering my stupid dead friend's son! No wonder they died. They didn't want you, so they burned themselves up." Mr. Dawson yelled.
Jason, who was livid before, was suddenly calm. To Antonio, that was scarier than him being angry.
But for Gabby, it was heartbreaking. She could see the tears that came in his eyes.
"What?" Jason whispered after realizing the full extent of those words.
However, Mr. Dawson was drunk and wasn't holding it in anymore.
"I'm calling social services. I can't take you in. Go live on the streets where you belong."
Jason couldn't hold in his tears anymore.
"Oh what, you're crying now? Well I bet you got that from your father. Just like they heard him crying like a little bitch when he went up in flames."
Jason couldn't take it anymore. He ran upstairs to the room he was given. He packed his clothes in the single backpack he was given. As he went to the window, he saw the badge that his father gave to him for his tenth birthday. He took it and climbed down the window. He needed to get out of this neighborhood. Maybe even the city.