Chapter 2

An annoying loud beeping noise woke Tate from a dreamless sleep only to present him with a shit filled day of school. Practically smashing his alarm clock, his fist slammed down on the off button and it went crashing to the floor. He buried his head in his pillow and hoped that he didn't wake his mom. He didn't have the patience to deal with her this morning. She always knew exactly how to piss him off the most. He searched through his closet as the cold air in the house licked up his slowly awakening body sending pings of pain through his body. A soft knock sounded at his door.

"You okay?" Addie asked as she rubbed her eyes. Tate quickly slipped his shirt on and walked over to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and guiding her back into her room.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry I woke you up. Go back to sleep, Addie. I'll see you when I get home from school." He whispered tucking her back into bed and leaving quietly. He slinked back into his room and tugged a sweater over his head. Once he was ready, he hoisted his backpack onto his shoulders and stepped outside into the crisp morning air. He sniffled softly and squeezed his eyes shut in hopes that he would wake up from this shitty dream he was convinced he was in and his dad would be sitting at the edge of his bed waking him up for a new day to come. But when he opened his eyes, the iron gates in front of their property stood closed. A quick walk down the street and his bus emerged from around the corner only to stop right in front of Tate.

The bus smelled of leather and body odor making practically everyone, minus a large boy sitting in the front of the bus who was obviously emitting the smell, wrinkle their noses. As Tate spotted an empty seat, he noticed the people around him. While he sat he began assessing them and placing them in their proper cliques. The cheerleaders and jocks all sat together, talking loudly about the upcoming football season in the back of the bus. A group of nerds were discussing the new laptops the school received last week. A few goth kids sat in the middle of the bus with their headphones blaring screamo; incoherent words surrounding and annoying the more gentle kids around them. The last group he noticed was about three guys and two girls dressed in leather jackets, vibrant hair colors, and big jewelry all talking about upcoming band concerts. Some that Tate found a little interesting but weren't worth going to due to other bands that would also be attending.

Once the bus came to a stop in front of the school, everyone exited in a frenzied fashion. Practically stepping over each other and knocking kids smaller than them over. Tate pulled out his schedule to find that he had chemistry first class followed by English, algebra, phys. ed., lunch, art, and journalism. The only class he was excited about was phys. ed. He ran track at his previous school and Westfield High seemed to have a pretty promising track team.

Throughout the day, Tate grew bored with his classes. He knew everything they were teaching so he got in trouble when he wasn't showing much interest. When a teacher called on him for and answer, he chuckled at their annoyed looks when he was correct. Around fourth class, he pulled out his iPod and played some Nirvana to make the day go by faster, which worked to his surprise.

Before he knew it, he was back on the bus staring at the same people as this morning, all with tired look. Except the nerds who were one the last section of their homework for the rest of the week. It's Monday. What the hell are you going to do for the rest of the week? Not like you're getting laid. He chuckled to himself at his thoughts. But seriously, why do nerds always want to finish their homework early? It gives them more time to do what? More homework? Tate didn't really understand it. But when he got home and started doing his own homework, he began getting it. It was easy. He ended up finishing three weeks' worth of homework. Not because he didn't have anything better to do. He just didn't want to deal with his mother. Once he figured he was finished acting like a nerd, he walked down the hall to check on Addie.

"Hey, Addie."

"Tate!" She jumped up from her table and gave her brother a big hug. "You've been locked in your room all day. What were you doing in there?" She raised her eyebrows suggestively and Tate laughed.

"What's with the suggestiveness in that expression?" He gently pushed her shoulder.

"We're you and Violet hanging out?" She smirked.

"I haven't seen her since yesterday."

"Really? I just saw her a couple of minutes ago. She said you were busy with nerdy homework stuff, I think her expression was." Tate grew confused. How did Violet know he was "going nerd" on his homework? No one came in or left his room while he was in there.

"What are you talking about? She wasn't in my room." Addie smiled with a glint in her eyes.

"Yeah she was." She replied in a sing-songy voice.

"You must not have heard me come in and leave. You were concentrating pretty hard." Tate whipped his head back and he jumped a little.

"Okay, you've really got to stop sneaking up on me like that." Tate said breathlessly. Violet simply chuckled and walked away into Tate's room and sat on his bed. He didn't move, though. Just stood there confused. Addie walked up behind him and gave him a nudge forward out of her room and closed the door behind him. With only one place to go, he entered his room, closed his door behind him, and sat back in his desk chair.

"How did you get in here?" Tate asked.

"The front door." Violet answered slyly.

"Which is locked."

"You lock it yourself?"

"Yes." For some reason, that was not the answer Violet seemed to be looking for. Her cheeks grew slightly pink and her hands clenched around her blue flannel shirt that laid over a floral dress. She stood up and went to leave the room just before Tate captured her wrist. In a flash, Violet grabbed hold of his and tugged his sleeve up to reveal a series of old pink scars on his wrist. Tate recoiled his hands. No one knew about his old habit. Not even Addie and Beau. Especially not Constance.

"What are those?" Tate knew Violet was changing the subject away from how she managed to get into the house, but he didn't care.

"It's none of your fucking business." Tate shoved Violet's sleeve up her arm to find that her wounds were much fresher than his. "And you're one to talk." He spat at her.

"Fine!" If Violet's eyes could shoot lasers, they would have blown Tate's head off. Half expecting her to stomp out of the room, Tate released his grip on Violet's wrist but she didn't leave. She simply shook her head and sat in the middle of the room. "What's your story?" She asked him, obviously annoyed. Her voice was tainted with annoyance, but he followed suit and sat down in front of her.

"Moved from the east coast, father left, mother's a cock sucker, new school, same old shit. Yours."

"Moved from the east coast, dad cheated on my mom, mom was raped, thrown out of school."

Tate cocked his eyebrow. "Where from the east coast?"

"Massachusetts. You?"

"North Carolina." Tate nodded. Violet simply stared at him. "You alright?" She seemed to snap out of whatever trance she was in because she smiled a little and nodded to his wrist.

"When'd you do that? It looks old." Tate simply chuckled.

"Yeah. I was about, six when my dad left and that's when I did it."

"Why'd he leave?" She seemed genuinely curious which made Tate chuckle.

"He left because my mom's a cock sucker. Literally. She use to go out of town every so often, claiming it was something about a business meeting and he found out that she was sucking some guy off where ever she went. He left me alone with a cock sucker. Can you imagine? How sick is that?" He laughed aloud. Violet just listened. "The world is a filthy place. It's a filthy goddamn horror show. There's so much pain, you know? There's so much." Violet sat, sort of in awe at his words, something Tate didn't really understand. "What about you? Yours look recent." Violet cleared her throat and chuckled.

"Mine's not exactly an interesting story. Just can't stand my parent and all the shit I've been through but that's not something I'd like to share." Tate could understand that. Telling your whole story to some stranger could be weird even though he'd done just that. But he didn't care. He didn't care if people knew about his past. They probably just shared the same views of his mother as he did. That she was a bitch who drove his father away.

"That sucks." He replied. Violet nodded in agreement.

"So what were you slaving over earlier?" She asked.

"Homework." She chuckled at him. "Figured since I know it already I might as well get it out of the way." She seemed to agree thought.

"So you're a nerd?" Tate chuckled. He thought the same thing while he was doing his work.

"No. But I can be an overachiever." A small paused swam across the room as a loud thud sounded from upstairs.

"You know, you're brother misses you. He told me that you don't go see him much anymore."

"You've talked to Beau?"

"Yeah. He cracked open the attic door and asked me to play." She chuckled.

"That sounds like him." Tate smiled up at the ceiling. "Guess I shouldn't keep him waiting, huh? Care to join me?" Once Tate was safely on his feet, he extended his hand towards Violet, which she took with a blush on her cheeks.

"Can't. Should probably be getting home. Don't want the parentals to get all pissy on me." For some reason, Tate didn't want her to leave. The voice in the back of his head told him to trick her into staying longer or something but his mind didn't work fast enough.

"'Kay. See you tomorrow?" He said simply.

"Yes, you will." And she, once again, disappeared down the hallway. Tate just stared in that direction and mentally facepalmed when he realized how pathetic he was.

With a sigh, he made his way to the attic door and pulled it down, climbed the stairs carefully, and caught a little red ball just before it fell through to the floor below them.

"So I hear you've been missing me?" Tate chuckled. A dark shadow crawled out of the darkness and smiled up at Tate and wrapped his arms around his waist. If Beau could stand up properly he could probably measure 5'9". Just a little shorter than Tate. But he couldn't stand up so Tate knelt to his level and hugged him properly. "I'm gonna have to think up some way for you to ask me to come up here if you want me to so you don't miss me too, too much." That seemed to make Beau happy. He started clapping and laughing. "You like that idea." Tate stated, pointing to the other end of the attic. Beau walked and waited for his ball, which only took Tate a millisecond to roll back down to him. "You know where the roof of my room is from up here?" Tate asked. Beau quickly crawled around on floor until he sat down and smiled.

"Here." He said happily. Tate just chuckled as Beau rolled the ball to him.

"Alright, well. If you want me to come up here, just knock three times on the floor. I should be able to hear you." Tate smiled and their continued their game for about an hour until he couldn't avoid the subject any longer. "So you talk to Violet?" He mentioned.

"Yeah." Beau stated. "She nice."

"Yeah, she is. What else have you two talk about?" Beau shook his head.

"Secret." Tate shook his head.

"Hey, I'm your brother. You're not supposed to keep secrets from me." Tate chuckled.

"She made me promise." Tate could understand that. But he still wanted to know. He'd ask him tomorrow. Maybe he'll open up then.

"Dinner time!" Constance's voice rang throughout the house. The mean went similar to how it did the previous night. A small fight, Tate rushing to leave the table, but just as he was about to leave, Constance decided to be a little motherly.

"So how was your first day at school?" She asked.

"Fine." Was all he said.

"Wait, I want to hea—"

"I'm tired. Going to bed." And that's when the conversation ended. He didn't want to get into another fight. He knew if he did he would do something he'd regret in the morning. So he ascended the stairs, discarded his pants and shirt into the corner of his room and crawled under his covers, slipping into the darkness of sleep. But tonight, his dreams were filled with the strange girl who always broke into his house; Violet.

Okay, I hope you're all liking it so far for those who are reading.

Thank you for the awesome comments I've received. I was so excited when I saw that people are actually reading this story and liking it. :D

Thanks, loves.

xoxo