I didn't mean to hurt her.
"Charlie? Charlie what are you doing?" His door was open, his friends were over. I just want to know what he's doing, it smells funny. "Charlie?" I said as I entered his room, it was hazy. His friends stared at me, all of them 14 years old, high schoolers.
"Oh look Charlie, Claire's come to tell on you." Domonic the long blonde haired kid snorted.
"Shut up you fag. Claire, leave. This isn't something a 9 year old should be seeing." Charlie said softly. Concern in his eyes. I just felt so lonely, mommy and daddy weren't home, they never were. I missed them, I missed Charlie.
"Charlie, why can't I stay? Why won't you play with me?" I begged, tears welling up in my eyes. He was supposed to be watching me, why wasn't he? I felt so cold, I don't know why it was so cold.
"Hey, Charlie, let's have some fun, let's play with Claire like she wants you to." Seth, a dark haired, slender, kid spoke up, a malicous grin on his face. I only thought they were going to play with me.
"Guys no, she's my sister. She doesn't know any better, she's only nine." Charlie begged as his friends moved closer to me.
"Hey Claire, you wanna play house?" Seth asked, the stupid smile still on his face. "You can be the Mommy and I'll be the Daddy." He said calmly, while grabbing my arm and pulling me closer. He smelled bad, I didn't want to play this game.
"Guys, don't, this isn't funny." Charlie pleaded. He knew what his friends were going to do. They'd done it to so many others before. This crossed the line, it was his sister.
"NO, no, I don't want to do that. NO."
"NO, stop, don't." Claire screamed as she woke up in a sweat. Panting she sat up. 3:34 the cock flashed. "It was only a dream." She told herself.
Sleep was impossible now, it always happened that way. Claire, even as a child couldn't go back to sleep after a nightmare. She'd just stay up for however long it took for the rest of the house to wake up. She never could explain it.
She threw the comfortor off her and tied her hair back into a pony tail. She walked down stairs, her brother was home. He'd been at some random girls house, he was always doing that. She didn't care, he could throw his life away.
Claire made a coffee and put it into a thermos, she grabbed a track jacket and slipped on a pair of filp flops. She planned to see the sunrise from the overlook in the backyard. It was the one advantage to living on the coast, nice sunrises.
She walked out, it was a cool San Diego morning. It wouldn't last long though, the sun would break through the coulds, heating up the day. She walked to the loveseat swing that overlooked the bluff. She was surprised to see someone there. Her first instinct was Charlie, but she knew it wasn't him.
"Drake?" she questioned softly. He looked back, not expecting Claire to have found him. "Drake, what are you doing here?" She whispered. She could tell, even in the darknessthat he'd been crying. "What's wrong?" She asked like a mother who asked how her kids day went at school. She sat down next to him, taking his hands in hers. He took her hands and just sat there. Words not able to express what he'd just been through.
"Drake?" She quetioned one more time. She knew he'd tell her eventually, but she didn't have time for eventually, something was wrong, and it was important, she could feel it.
"Claire.." Drake gullped, surpressing all forms of emotion the best he could. "Claire, I've fucked everything up this time. I should have stopped him Claire, I should have stopped him." Drake cried, his walls crumbling, he couldn't control himself, he'd become reckless with emotion. Fear, guilt, regret consumed his body. He broke down and cried, his whole body shaking. He'd never cried this hard in his life, not even when his father died.
Claire held him, tenderly running her fingers through his hair, rubbing his back, anything to stop him from crying. It was hard for her to witness it, she knew the kind of pain he was in.
He finally got hold of himself a while later. He pulled back from Claire's embrace, his face streaked with tears. She wiped them away with her thumbs. He grabbed her hand and kissed it, all the while looking in her eyes. How could he tell her what he'd done. He'd just done the single worst thing anyone could have done, even if it wasn't his fault to being with.
"Drake, what happened?" Claire asked, every word covered in concern.
He swallowed hard, admitting it took more guts then anything. "Claire, Mindy's hurt and it's all my fault." Drake blurted, the tears falling once again, only this time silently.
"What? How'd you? Drake? How'd it happen?" Claire asked, Drake hated Mindy, she knew that. But he'd never hurt her, not intentionally. Josh loved her and he loved Josh, as much as a step-brother could, he'd never hurt someone if it'd hurt Josh.
"Trevor got stoned, I didn't notice until we were halfway there. Claire, I didn't think anyone would get hurt, you've gotta believe me. The Camry didn't stand a chance against Trevors Durango." Drake stated, he was cold now, he'd crawled back into his shell, the shell he'd gotten to know so well 8 years ago. "Claire, this can't be happening." Drake sobbed. " I hurt Josh's girlfriend."
Claire sat there frozen. Her whole body paralyzed. He was right, this couldn't be happening. Admitedly this wasn't Drake's fault, but deep down she knew why he blamed himself.
"I could have stopped him, I could have driven."
"Don't blame yourself, it wasn't your fault." Claire said trying to comfort him. She pulled him close to her again. He accepted her support, he needed it. He needed a safe place to collapse, a safe place to cry and Claire was that.
Claire hummed a song that her mom used to sing to her. Drake knew the tune, it was the same one his Dad used to sing to him. He quickly drifted off to sleep in the one place that he knew he'd never feel pain, in Claire's arms.
Okay, sorry that was so short but I'm at a transitional period in this story and I've gotta think about where this is heading. I can assure you though that Chapter six is going to be a good, cataclysmic, long one. There's a lot of stuff that's going to happen, and a lot of your questions (which if you didn't have by now, I'm sure you do.) Will be answered. I expect chap. 6 to be up in a few days, possibly even tomorrow.
peace out