Chapter Text
Being released from prison should have been the start of things getting better. Andrew had spent years dreaming of the day he would get to walk out a free man. He’d go home, see his family. See Catherine and Lena and finally see Julia again. It was his mantra to get him through the years spent alone and empty. It had been a very long time since any of his family had come to visit.
Three years and he could count on one hand the times his brothers, his mother had come to visit. He’d written, but he had never received anything back. He scolded himself daily, for being upset, after all why would they come to visit when life kept going without him?
He was scolding himself now, as he realized standing outside those gates that no one had come to pick him up. It shouldn’t have been a surprise. Why would Smurf change her daily routine to pick up her dog? It was a thought that had him visibly shaking his head to make it go away. The guard at the gate helped him call a taxi, and as he got out in front of the ornate house, he felt a sense of dread.
The party wasn’t a surprise. The boy in his room was, and the news about Julia. Though it should have been a surprise, he’d seen it coming. Smurf could burn out even the best of them. She was the brightest, the best parts of him. He’d watched Smurf burn out the light and when she was gone, he’d hoped she’d find herself better than before. Julia being dead, that was the final nail in his own coffin. If someone like her couldn’t fight it all, how could he?
He hadn’t slept that night, or the next, or the one after that. He hadn’t slept in so long he was sure Julia was speaking to him. Whispers of what he needed to do, where he needed to go. It was two in the morning when he threw his phone into ocean, and started walking.
Julia had told him, the one person who might be there; who might know. An uncle, older than him but younger than Smurf. Pittsburgh. That was all he could remember as he walked for days, before getting on a bus that smelled worse than any party. He’d pointedly not touched anything but his seat.
It had taken him a week to end up in Pittsburgh and that was when he realized he didn’t know where he was going. He didn’t know what he was doing. He had a bag on his shoulder, and nothing else and he had no idea where this uncle was. He would find out, but for now, he was so tired. He had sat down on a bench, silently cursing how dirty it was.
He wasn’t sure when he’d fallen asleep, his own body betraying him and allowing him to end up vulnerable. He was only aware he had when he was being gently shaken awake. His eyes opened and landed on what he assumed was an angel. Curly wheat brown hair, big blue eyes, and a face that reminded him of a sad kicked puppy. Pale, dark circles under his eyes, and a gauntness that made his stomach twist with worry for a moment.
“You can’t sleep here. The police come by every hour or two, and they’ll drag you in if they find you.” Came a soft voice with an accent that Andrew couldn’t place and a concern that felt foreign coming from a stranger. “Come on, I know a safe place to go for the night.”