Look at Me

Her small arms were wrapped tightly around him, her face was buried in his chest. She was holding him like she was afraid HE was going to leave…
Hayden smoothed his over Paige’s silky hair and noticed, for what felt like the first time, how truly vulnerable she looked. A skinny little figure clutching onto him like the most important thing in her world. Hayden had never been remotely important in anyone’s world before. No one had ever really seen him. Maybe that was partly his own fault, because he’d rather be invisible then be seen as a freak. But Paige didn’t see him that way. She just saw him.
Hayden’s heart beat like a nervous birds wings inside him as his lips opened. And the it finally came out. The Truth.
“My mom was a junkie and a drunk and God know what else. She couldn’t hold down a job and we moved all the time. Then she met Jack Kindle. She married him when I was around thirteen and we stayed put since then. But Jack was a drunk…. and when he got drunk he got angry. Then he hurt people. My mom…me…I really don’t think it mattered to him.
Well, last night my mom called me. She was crying and screaming for me not to come home. Maybe, I should have listened. I guess shouldn’t have cared what happened to her. But I couldn’t just do NOTHING. So, I ran back home and she was there. But, she was dead…
And he’d killed her. He came after me, but something happened then... I think I shifted. But I just don’t remember it.”
Hayden paused and realized he was holding so still his muscles ached. Paige was still firmly in his embrace though or… rather he was in hers. She hadn’t pulled away or screamed or inched slowly toward the exit.
Paige just lifted her face up. Her eyes shimmered like a choppy lake in the summer sun. She blinked them rapidly, but a stray tear slipped down her pale cheek.
“I’m sorry Hayden,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
He smiled sadly and said, “It’s over now. They can’t touch me any more.”
Paige recognized her own words and smiled sadly back.
Holding him impossibly closer, she asked softly, “What’s going to happen now?”
“They’re sending me away-”
***
“What?” Paige exclaimed, cutting Hayden off. “Taking you where?”
His mouth twisted in a sort of frown as he said, “A boy’s home in Brookfield. A place called Our Lady of Sorrows. I think it‘s Catholic...”
Paige gripped Hayden so tight she was probably cutting off his air supply. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Maybe, because she was afraid to say what she was actually thinking.
Don’t leave me….
Not when I’ve just finally found you…