Slutgarden

Harley’s POV.

“So, he’s coming home today?” Aimee said to me as I shut my locker.

I turned around to face her, taking a moment to reply. “Yeah.”

Aimee nodded, showing that it was okay for me to go on. She knew there were other things I wanted to say, but didn’t.

“My fucking mom has planned this dinner for him. I mean, he fucking gets out of rehab and he gets some fucking welcoming like he’s a war veteran. Its fucking stupid. I bet you if I got out of rehab, I’d get nothing but stares and awkwardness.”

“Gosh, calm down tiger.”

“What?! I can’t help it! They treat him like a fucking landmine! Doing everything at his beck and call, just to not upset him. Because he has a ‘short temper’. I have fucking bipolar disorder, is that not enough for them?”

She failed to say anything, I looked at her. She had her books pulled to her chest, wrapped in by her arms. Her brown eyes stared at the floor. Sensing I was staring at her, she looked up. Pulling her red hair behind her ear. “Will Frankie be there?”

Rolling my eyes I muttered, “Of course.”

Giving each other a half smile, we began to bid our goodbyes for the day. She was heading to her brother’s car and I was getting on the bus.

My stomach did back flips as I realized when I got home Derek would most likely be sitting on the couch. I was so glad to see him. I mean, he was basically my brother. But…what he had done. Lied, stolen, all of that? Had left me…speechless. He had changed so much since he found solitude in those capsules. The capsules that numbed him, tired him, did what he said was “everything” for him. But in my eyes, all they did was make things more difficult. Make him distant. Make him closer to Frankie. Make his eyes vacant. Like…he was dead.

Frankie. This was all her fault. And after all the times she had fucked up, they still let her in the house.

As the big yellow chariot pulled up to my house, I yanked the earbuds out of my ears that were playing “Nazi Halo” by Jack Off Jill and made my way off the bus, nearly tripping over peoples’ feet as usual. Nobody really cared about making things easier for others anymore, did they?

My stomach lurched. Her gold Chevrolet was in the driveway, I knew he was there. Sitting on the couch. Vacantly staring off into the distance.

I nearly ran into the house, looked around.

My heart almost stopped.

He was sitting at the island in the kitchen, on a stool. He was fiddling his thumbs and looked up when he heard me slam the door. He had a smile on his face, his brown eyes lit up.

I ran over to him and hugged him, clutching onto the back of his black t-shirt.

“Missed ya, sis.”

“Missed you too.”

*

Derek’s POV

I breathed in the scent that was of my little stepsister. I missed her a lot. I missed actual hugs like this a lot. Not like the shitty marketed hugs they gave out at “rehab.” My smile was so fake though. I just…I couldn’t go back…to that…place.