FicWad

“Bandit, you have to talk to your mother.” Gerard seriously was like a broken record, always repeating the same pointless thing.
“I don`t have anything to say to her.”
It had been almost exactly like this before, when Gerard had left us all those years ago. The red haired man had persistently called me, sent letters and emails, but to no avail. I never contacted him. I had wanted nothing to do with him. I still didn`t.
At least, I kept trying to tell myself. But it was hard to live under the same roof as someone you had begrudgingly missed for so long and even I, cold hearted, cynical Bandit Lee was finding it harder with each passing day to ignore his kindness.
“She says that she realises now that sending you here was a mistake and…and that she is going to pick you up in two days time.” He seems saddened by this, almost like he would be sorry to see me go.
Then I realised that actually, I didn`t want to leave.
It was strange, I had came here all guns blazing, prepared to be the child from hell, expecting to hate every last millisecond spent here in their company, but recently I had found myself almost… well almost, maybe, kind of, possibly…well enjoying it here. Hollie or Hozzie as I had started to call her, my red haired, make up free younger half sister was funny, and cool. She didn`t ask questions, which I liked, she just took me for what I was; a broken misfit who wasn`t sure where she was headed anymore apart from straight down.
Tierney was surprisingly nice, she didn`t really give me any reason to dislike her, apart from being married to Gerard. She even offered to cut and dye my tangled mop of blue hair for me the other day, in her salon. I had refused of course, but it was a kindly, entirely unexpected offer all the same. And Gerard well, I suppose that after spending the past month or so here with him my deep burning hatred of the man who had fathered me had lessoned, I still wasn`t quite ready to forgive him though.
And Eden, the beautiful, quirky teenager with the sparkling eyes and the way her smile could make me feel as though I was almost flying, I certainly was fond of her. Head over heel if I was being honest.
Maybe, just maybe, I thought to myself as I watched Gerard leave, placing the phone down on my unmade bed with a sigh, I could learn to move on, let go some of the anger and be myself again. The real me who loved life and her family, the young, carefree child that was desperately trying to break free of this cold, twisted prison. Maybe, just maybe, things would be alright for once.
…
“I told you, Bee, it wasn`t so bad here.” Eden grins smugly, flicking me gently on the shoulder with her left riding boot which she had taken off so that she could follow the black mare, Nyx into the sparkling, icy forest stream.
“I guess you did.”
I hated to admit that she was right, that things hadn`t been as bad as I was expecting, nowhere near in fact. I had came here against my will, determined to make Gerard and his new family`s lives a misery just as he had done to me, when in fact I had been welcomed with open arms. I didn`t want it, I didn’t want them to care about me, because that would make it harder to hate them, but slowly and to my horror, I had began to feel some of my long harboured hatred and anger ebb away like the tide.
“You guess?” Eden teases, getting right up in my face, shocking me by placing a swift, barely there kiss to my button nose. I blush and turn away, using the excuse of having to fix my deep purple nose ring, not wanting her to know how much it had affected my now erratically beating heart.
“Alright, I like it here. Happy now?”
The taller girl grins, “Yes. Now tell me why you`re happy, seeing as you were so determined to hate it here.”
“W-well I…Hozzie is kinda cool, my room is purple, my favourite colour, erm I don`t have to go to a normal school so I can just goof off all day here with…” I gulp, "with you.”
“With me?” Her unfairly pretty face lights up, her eyes gleaming with mischief and trouble.
“You’re the best friend I`ve ever had,” I admit softly, hoping that she wouldn`t notice the disappointed way I said friend.
“I wish you didn`t have to leave, Bandit.” Eden says, melodic voice full of sorrow. “Why does everyone have to leave?” A single tear slips ndown her perfect cheek.
“Now who`s the pessimist?” I joke to hide my own sadness.
“When I found you in the woods that very first day, Bandit Lee, I was so lost, just as lost as you were. You were cold and sarcastic, ready to hate everything that got in the way of your revenge fuelled rampage, but still I found myself drawn to you.”
I am shocked by her honest words, wondering, hoping if it meant she felt the same way I did.
“Don`t forget me, Bee.” Eden whispers, and chastely presses her lips to mine, pulling away all too soon.
“I won’t, I could never do that, Eden.”
She grins sadly, “That`s what they all say.”
“Besides,” I begin, words spilling recklessly form my painted mouth, “I`m not going anywhere.”
She was stunned, more stunned than I was. “But you aren`t happy here with your dad, you hate him and his family and you-“
“I am happy here, with you,” I flash Eden a hesitant smile and lower my gaze to the sweet grassy river bank, “I- and I…don`t hate him, not anymore. I was just angry, I didn`t understand before, now I do. I know now what it is like to care so much for someone that you simply can`t stay apart from them. I wish he hadn`t done what he did, but I forgive him. And I forgive mom too, for sending me here because it brought me to you, it helped me learned to forgive and…and learn how to love and trust again.”
It was true, entirely true, every last word. For the first time in what felt like a lifetime of hate, anger and misery, I was finally happy. I know knew that someone somewhere wanted me; I had found where I belonged.