Guys! I found my Everett! Pictured above 😍😍

Everett’s POV

I climbed back up the fire escape with the small bag I’d gotten from the store still hanging from my wrist.

The fire escape led straight to my window. The window had a lock, but who are we kidding? All the boys knew how to sneak out, including me.

I was still dazed from my run in with Micah. He seemed nice enough, but I’d learned long ago that nice was deceiving. Nice people hid the ugliest lies.

I climbed in the window quietly, trying not to wake Renry. Little did I know, he was already awake.

“Nice to see you back. Thought you’d run away for good this time kid.”

Without making it seem like he’d scared the shit out of me, which he had, I just shut the window and responded “and why would that be so bad? I don’t see why you care. I’m just a burden here like I am everywhere else. The only thing I’m good for is being that asshole’s plaything.” I couldn’t judge his reaction because it was still dark in the room with minimal light coming through the window.

“Everett, I know you’re still freaked out because of earlier but….”

I cut him off which was very unlike me, but I was getting agitated. “This wasn’t the first time Renry! He yells at me, calls me cruel things and he… he….” I held back my tears.

Renry got up and came over to me but stopped before he got to me. “All I want is to be your friend. I do not condone what he’s doing, but him and I… well, we’ve been through some shit together. I can’t just not have his back. On the other hand, if you let me, I can try to make sure he doesn’t hurt you again.” I could feel him looking at me, waiting on a reaction. I just kept my head down. I really didn’t want to be having this conversation right now. I had work in the morning and it was late.

I walked past him and made my way toward my bed. His next words made me stop though. “You’re not a burden anywhere. That’s just what everyone has made you out to be. You need to get past what other people say.” I didn’t dare look back in his direction, but something in me really wanted to trust him. He seemed really genuine in that moment. “Goodnight Ev. Please don’t be sneaking out any more tonight. I need some sleep.” He snickered when he said the last part and headed to his bed. I made myself move from the spot I’d stopped in and continued to my bed.

I got in it and covered my head with my blankets. It was a habit I had developed while living at home.

Maybe Renry could be trusted? Could I even be so lucky? No. He was friends with the asshole down stairs. There’s no way. I couldn’t let myself be swayed by some nice words. It was probably all a plan cooked up by the both of them.

My head hurt, so without another word, I floated into what I hoped would be a dreamless sleep.

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When I woke up in the morning, Renry was already gone. Where he’d gone was a mystery to me, and if I’m being perfectly honest, I didn’t really care.

My head still pounded, but it was much less intense than last night. I went over to the small closet we shared that was on the opposite side of the room from our beds. I picked out a pair of dark blue jeans and a button down light gray shirt.

I went to take a shower and ponder on the events of the previous day. Of all the things that I could dwell on about that whole day, I ended up settling on Micah. Oddly enough, despite our first interaction on the bus, he seemed to have a calming manner about him that made me want to see him again just for a sense of relief from the bullshit I referred to as my life.

As far as the incident with Jason, I was sure it wouldn’t be the last. I just planned to let it encourage me to try even harder to get my own place.

I got out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my waist. I dried my hair and styled it so that it fell to cover portion of my face.

I looked at myself in the mirror and all I saw was someone who wasn’t even strong enough to look anyone in the eye the same way I was doing to myself right now.

Maybe having someone to talk to wasn’t that bad of an idea…..

But Micah was a therapist, and therapists take money that I didn’t have at the moment.

I wanted to be someone who could interact with people like a normal person could. Without it feeling like my whole world was crashing down. I was tired of being that quiet, weird, depressed boy that everyone avoided or harassed.

Maybe that incident on the bus wasn’t just random. Maybe it was the universe giving me a chance to try to heal my broken mind.

I argued with myself for while more, all the while getting ready for work. I came to the conclusion that I would at least try to contact Micah sometime soon, even if it was an insanely terrifying idea to me.

Turns out, yet again, the universe had different plans for me.

********************************

I walked to the bus stop and waited for the damned piece of pollution metal to arrive at the stop.

When it pulled up, I proceeded with my eyes down and made my way to a front seat.

“Hey kid!” a familiar and cheery voice rang out from behind me. I didn’t dare look back.

“Everett, it’s me, Micah.” he said as he changed seats and placed himself across the aisle from where I was seated.

“I know” I mumbled and faced in his direction without lifting my eyes enough to meet his, but enough to finally see his face a bit. His face was angular and attractive. He had facial hair and a warm smile that I could imagine met his eyes. His hair was styled nicely and he just gave off a very kind vibe. “Good Morning.” I forced a small smile.

“You don’t like eye contact, do you?” he said very bluntly. He left me at a loss for what to say. “I’ll take that as a yes. That’s fine. I’ve only encountered that problem a few times before and it was more so because the patient was paranoid about finding their link before they were ready to. However, I get the strong feeling that’s not at all the same reason as yours.” he rambled on, but I was still just amazed that he’d come out and said that. I wasn’t really sure how it made me feel that he’d already pegged my biggest fear.

If we were being blunt, then I decided I could play along. “Your offer to help me was an enticing one for sure, but I don’t have the money to pay you.” I said softly.

“How about I do it for free…”

I was once again speechless. The silence continued until I found some actual words to throw together. “I don’t understand the interest you have in me, but I can guarantee that it is misguided. I’m not special, I’m broken…”

“You’re a challenge, and my gut is telling me you need help, and being that my job is to try to fix people who are broken, I don’t feel that my interest is misguided in the least.”

“But why for free? You just met me.”

“I don’t know what it is, but I feel like I need to do this. Please Everett. Let me help you.”

I thought for a minute. He was legitimately handing me an opportunity to try to heal myself. I needed to put my pride and fears aside. “Alright.” I said quietly.

He pumped his fist like he’d just won a bet. He then held out his hand. I just stared at it in confusion. “You’re phone…” He prompted.

“Oh.” I handed him the small outdated device. He didn’t bother judging me, he just opened up to the contacts and entered his personal number.

“Now send me a text when you need to talk. We’ll set up some times to meet later but for now, we’ll just use this. Alright?”

I nodded and took back the phone that he was handing to me. It was almost my stop. I was surprisingly not that eager to get away from this interaction. He smiled to himself for the rest of the ride. He was proud of himself and I could tell.

When the bus reached my stop, we both stood. Turns out we both worked in the same building, just different places. The building held several businesses. One of them apparently being a counseling center. Mine was the headquarters for an online company that was just taking off.

He walked me to the entrance of my work. I said thank you, then went to walk in. “Everette?”

“Yes?” I replied, my hand still on the door knob.

“I WILL help you, and I promise you, by the time we’re done, you will be able to describe to me the exact color and shape of my eyes without a problem”

I wanted to snicker at his overconfidence, but deep down, I really hoped what he’d said was true. So I just said “Good luck with that” and pushed the door open ready to start another work day.