Adopted

“But I like chocolate muffins.” I said out loud, speaking from my thoughts.

“And I like chocolate waffles.” Ayden said back.

I gasped, my eyes filming over with tears as I looked at him. “How could you?” I asked him. “I trusted you. And you just didn’t care. After all the love I gave you, you just betray me? How could you Ayden?”

“You don’t understand Violet!” He yelled.

“How don’t I understand Ayden? Please enlighten me! Because I honestly don’t know!” I yelled, the tears flowing over onto my cheeks.

“There were so many of them Violet!” Ayden yelled in a broken whisper. “I couldn’t stop them all. And we were starving Violet! They destroyed our main food supply!” His tears also spilled over and dragged down onto his chin.

“Why didn’t you ask for help?” I screamed at him.

“It happened too fast!” He screamed back. “One minute we were fine, and the next they were everywhere!” We both started bawling so I took him into my arms.

“Shh. It will be okay. I’ll stop them Ayden. I promise. I won’t let them do this again. I won’t let them hurt you or your people. You’ll stay with me.”

“You promise?” He sniffled, looking up into my eyes.

“I promise.” I told him. “You’re my brother Ayden. This is what family does for each other.”

“Okay.” Fedora-man in the front seat said. I looked at him. “What the fuck was that?”

“It was a heart-felt recommendation of peace and safety Brian, Duh.”

“I don’t know crazy peoples motives fro these things Jimmy!” Brian said, turning back around in his seat. “You expect me to know these things like I’ve been around them my whole life.”

“That’s ‘cause you have you idiot.” The driver said.

“Shut-up Matt.” I turn in my seat to stare at the people behind me. I stayed like that for a few minutes waiting.

“What are you doing kid?” Green-eyes asked me.

“Waiting, and you have really pretty eyes by the way.” I replied.

“Thank you, and waiting for what?” He prompted.

“Don’t ask that Zacky. You might not want to know the answer.” Blue-eyes, who I now recognized as Jimmy, said in a whisper. So far, the man with the fedora was Brian, the driver is Matt, Blue-eyes is Jimmy and Green-eyes is Zacky. Now I just had to figure out the short persons name.

“What if I do want to know?” Zacky continued. I stared that the short person and he stared back. Figuring that my methods weren’t working after 5 minutes of Zacky and Jimmy bickering, I stuck my hand out towards the unknown short person.

“Hi. I’m Violet. Who are you?” I questioned. This was a brilliant plan. Hopefully it wouldn’t backfire. He looked surprised by my suddenness but stuck out his hand anyway shaking mine lightly like I would break if he squeezed too hard.

“Johnny.” He said. I nodded my head and turned back around like nothing had happened. The car was silent after that.

“Violet, what did you find out?” Ayden asked me in a whisper. I know the other people could hear me but I answered anyway.

“The driver is Matt, passenger is Brian, Blue-eyes is Jimmy, Green-eyes is Zacky, and the shortest one is Johnny.” I reported. I could feel all their eyes on me, probably surprised that I knew all their names already without messing up.

“Okay!” Ayden said. “So, Zacky is the driver, Matt is the passenger, Johnny is the short guy, Brian is Green-eyes, and Jimmy is Blue-eyes.”

“No.” I said. “Matt, Brian, Jimmy, Zacky, and Johnny.” Pointing to each one as I said their names.

“How do you remember all this stuff Vi?”

“I have my secrets.” I stopped for a second thinking. “How far away are we from your house?” I asked.

“About a 2 hour drive after the plane.” Matt said looking at me in the rearview mirror.

“Can we stop for food then?” Ayden piped up.

“Chocolate pancakes!” Jimmy screamed out in the back.

“Oh shit. The pills wore out!” Zacky screamed.

“You’ll pay for taking away my innocence Zacky!” Jimmy started pushing Zacky onto the other side of the SUV into Johnny. “Yes! Go to your worst fear evil sorcerer! Go into the hands of the Dwarf!” Laughing Maniacally he kept pushing Zacky into Johnny.

“I had to give you the sedatives Jimmy!” Zacky yelled at Jimmy. “We didn’t want you scaring the children!” Jimmy gasped feigning a hurt expression.

“I don’t scare children!” He yelled. Turning to me he asked, “Do I scare you?” His eyes were big and puppy-like and his lips pouty.

“No. But Brian does.” I told him truthfully. “But can we really get chocolate pancakes? I haven’t eaten since Friday.”

“What do you mean I scare you? I don’t scare people. That’s Matt’s job. And Jimmy’s. Not mine. And why aren’t you afraid of Matt? He’s the big and scary one!” Brian yelled out in confusion as to why I would be scared of him.

“Flesh Eating Turkeys are falling from the sky and are going to Eat You Brian.” I told him in a detached voice, looking through him.

“What? That has nothing to do with our conversation!”

“Matt, I’m hungry. Can we pwease stop for some food?” I said in a baby voice.

“Jimmy! There’s something wrong with your kid!” At that Ayden started to laugh hysterically, holding his sides with his head bowed over his knees, gasping for breath.

“She’s…” He started laughing again but tried to stop so he could tell Brian, unsuccessfully. “She’s just fucking with you!” He finally gasped out.

“You okay Ayd?” I asked worried when he finally stopped laughing with tears running down his face. “I mean, it wasn’t that funny.”

“Yes it was.” Ayden said back to me.

“No it wasn’t.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“STOP!” Brian yelled out. “I can’t take anymore! How did she live with it? All this constant bickering between you two. It’s killing me! Wasn’t Jimmy enough? Why did he have to go and make a spawn of himself? Why couldn’t-”

“Two spawns of Jimmy.” I interrupted him. “Wait a minute! Spawn of Jimmy? I’m not really his kid right?” I asked confused.

“Well, you see kid,” Jimmy started with a perplexed expression. “You are.” His expression quickly turned worried when I didn’t say anything for a couple minutes. Turning back around I looked out the window at the road lines that we were quickly passing by.

“Was my mom just a casual fuck or did she mean something to you?” I finally asked.

“She…” He paused, seeming lost in memories. “She was my girlfriend for two years and she just left. I didn’t know where she went, but she left a note for me. I even looked for her but I never did find her. It was like she just disappeared.”

“If you couldn’t find her, then how did you find me?”

“Miss Talahan called me. Turns out your mom left a note saying that if you weren’t adopted by the age of 15 then you would go to me.” He stated simply. “And what do you mean two spawns of me? I thought I only had one.”

“Ayden is like my twin that is a year older, and with different parents. Also, less responsible.”

“And we look nothing alike.” Ayden added.

“But we make up for that with our personalities.”

“Yeah, but your crazy and I’m not.”

I gasped in mock indignation. “How am I crazy?”

“You just are Vi, there’s no way to explain it. Your either crazy or your not, and your crazy and I’m not.”

“And Spongebob is awesome.”

“That has nothing to do with this conversation!”

“It has everything to do with this conversation!”

“Hey!” Matt interrupted us. “Are you guys still hungry?”

“Sound Check!” Ayden and I screamed in unison. Ayden’s stomach made a loud growling noise and mine made a soft one after his. “Yeah.” We said again at the same time.

“so where are we eating Matty?” I asked.

“Matty?” Matt asked confused.

“Oh you don’t want to go there. They have horrible food.”

“No, we’re going to IHop. But why did you call me Matty?”

“Because everything sounds more interesting with a y in it.”

“Briany doesn’t sound more interesting with a y in it.” Brian said.

“Did I say your shift was over? I said from 6 to midnight. What don’t you get about that? Go back to your corner.” He stopped talking with a confused look on his face and turned back around looking out the window. I sighed heavily turning back to Matt. “As long as they have chocolate chip pancakes I’m good to go.” I stated doing the little taco bell hand motion thing for ‘good to go.’

“They do!” Jimmy screamed in the back.

“Yes!” Ayden and I screamed in unison. Again. Matt pulled into a parking spot and turned off the SUV. Ayden jumped out of his door almost forgetting to open it first. Picking up Sweetie I put her in my jacket pocket and hopped out of the SUV.

“I don’t think cats are allowed in there.” Brian said.

“What they don’t know can’t hurt them.” I stated. “And anyways, I’m not leaving her locked in a car all alone.”

He just shrugged his shoulders and we walked into Ihop silently.

“We need a table for seven.” Matt said to the man at the podium.

“This way please.” The man said grabbing seven menu’s and showed us where we were going to sit. It was a half circle table that could fit six people. The man left and got a chair, setting it at the end. I quickly took it and stared out the window as everyone else scooted into the booth. The man put down our menu’s and everyone snatched one but I stayed staring out the window. “The waiter will be with you shortly.” He said and left.

“Violet.” Ayden said.

“Hm?” I murmured watching a bird circling in the sky.

“What are you going to order?”

“Chocolate Chip Pancakes.” I said not paying a lot of attention to anything other than the bird that was still circling in the sky.

“and what are you going to drink?”

“Mountain Dew.”

“Does she usually do this? Happy one minute, spaced out the next?” Zacky asked. I knew they were all staring at me but I didn’t care.

“Yeah, but she is bipolar. So you can’t really blame her.” Ayden explained. I tuned them out after that just watching the bird wheeling around in the sky. I wanted to be free, able to fly around without a worry in the world.

I was pulled form my thoughts when a delicious smell of chocolate assaulted my nose. Mouth watering I looked down and saw my chocolate chip pancakes and a devious hand about to steam them! Acting fast I karate chopped it hearing a satisfying yelp of pain.

“My pancakes!” I said clutching my fork like a weapon and stabbing it into the pancakes, taking the first delicious bite.

“Nom nom nom nom NOM!” Ayden said every time I chewed my food. “You’re a pig Vi!” I instantly stopped chewing my food looking up into his eyes.

“Bitch please! Give me one of your sausage.”

“Why!?” He whined at me pouting.

“One, you called me bipolar, which I am NOT. Two, you tried to steal my pancakes. Three, you also called me a pig. And then most importantly four, Sweetie needs to eat too.” I NEVER forget my kitten. “Which reminds me.” Turning to look at my new ‘dad’ I asked, “can we stop at Joey’s?”

“Sure kid, but do you mind explaining why?” Jimmy asked looking into my eyes, waiting for an explanation.

“You’ll understand when we get their.” I said in a way of explanation. He gave me a look that said, ‘let-me-know-now’ kind of way. Like the one my mom used to give me. “It’s hard to explain and if I tired you wouldn’t understand and… Yeah.” When he still gave me that look I sucked in a breath of air and said in a rush, “he’s my whore and I need to collect my money or else he’s going to spend it all on cheerios causing the world to slip off it’s axel and spinning everything out of control, thus murdering all the flying zebras.”

“We’re going to Joey’s.” He stated looking at Matt who had a bewildered look on his face.

“Dude… You ARE her dad.” Ayden said. “Cause when she talks like that NO ONE can understand her. Or you have awesome skills, but I doubt that cause it takes a family tie for these things.” As he was talking I had grabbed one of his sausages without him noticing and started cutting it in little pieces. Everyone was paying attention to Ayden except for Johnny who was watching me with fascination. Gently taking Sweetie out of my pocket I placed her on the table next to my plate with the sausage and pancakes on it. She lapped up most of the meat and fell on her side when she couldn’t eat anymore, giving a last feeble ‘mew’ before falling asleep. Hearing lots of ‘Awe’s’ and laughing I looked around me and noticed that everyone was watching Sweetie. And that the manager was glaring dagger of hate at me. Storming up to me in his white shirt and XL dress pants he said in a strained whiney voice.

“I’m going to have to ask you to leave, for there are no animals aloud in this restaurant.”

“Hello to you to Mr. Beckhem.” I replied staring at his red face.

“How the hell do you know my name?” The angrier he got the redder his face became.

“I’m surprised Mr. Beckhem! Don’t you recognize the poor orphan that you gladly took in and claimed you were doing her a favor? I have to tell you though, I never really did like your games. But sadly, as you said, we should leave. Nice to see you again Mr. Beckhem!” I said quickly, standing up and cradling Sweetie in my arms. “Onwards to Joey’s!” I yelled walking out of the restaurant.