Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2016 19:20:06 -0600
From: Kurt King <kingkurt1339@gmail.com>
Subject: The New Life of Xander King Chapter 3

	This story contains sexual acts between males below the age of
consent/age of majority (minors), if this offends you or is illegal for you
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	This story is fictional and entirely the work of the author's
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	Thanks for all the feedback! A little note to respond to some
questions I was asked will follow after the chapter!

	In the last chapter, Xander was adopted and taken into a new home,
where he feels overwhelmed and unlocked. A week and a half has passed since
then, and those feelings haven't faded. In this chapter, you'll make a
couple of discoveries about Xander. People are wondering when the third
main character will show up: not yet. Don't worry! He does exist! He's
already been written down (I'm actually several chapters ahead of where the
story is, but I'm probably not going to share more than once every 5-7
days).

	Anyway! On to the story!

~~Chapter Three – Fourth of July and a Runaway~~

[Xander]

	Today's the Fourth of July. A big day with lots of celebrations and
fireworks, and I want to keep myself closed up in the room. Finn, on the
other hand, has different ideas. He showed up at my door right at ten, and
unlike the Scotts, he just walked right into the room. He didn't even
bother knocking, first, just walked right in. I knew that wasn't going to
last, guess I was only allowed privacy for a week.

	"Get up and ready," Finn says. "The barbecue's starting in fifteen
minutes."

	"No."

	"Come on!" He flicks my nose, and I let out a small scream. "Sorry!
Didn't mean to hurt you. Got a sunburn there?"

	The scream was involuntary. I don't like being touched, especially
in my face.

	"Anyway," he says when I don't answer. "Get up and out of your
pajamas and into some clothes, burgers, brats, and beer are being served
today."

	Don't like burgers, never heard of brats, and too young for
beer. If I don't get up, though, I'll probably get in trouble. Probably why
they sent Finn to get me up. If I refuse, they'll probably decide they
don't want me anymore, don't want a kid who doesn't want to listen or obey
or do whatever they want. It's only a matter of time before that happens,
too.

	"Dude, seriously?" Finn asks as I start to get up. He's going
through my clothes. "You need a better fashion outlook, Xander. The thrift
store look might work for you, but you'd look killer in some designer
brands. There wouldn't be a girl at school who'd not be able to keep her
eyes off you. Probably already isn't, no matter what you wear, but if
you've got a style, make it work. Cargo pants work for you, but it's too
hot, do you seriously not have any shorts at all?"

	"Yes."

	I don't wear shorts. Haven't since I was little. And I don't want
the girls after me, I'm not into them. If the Scotts knew I liked boys,
they'd probably hate me and send me back. I'm broken and damaged,
too. They'll not want me after they discover that, too.

	"Wait," Finn pauses, looking at me. "Is that yes, you have shorts,
or no, you don't have shorts?"

	"Grammar, much?"

	"Huh?"

	"Double negative."

	He scrunches his face up in thought, then laughs, grinning at me.

	"You're that kind of guy," he pulls out some clothes, then throws
them at me. "Now get changed, it's a big day ahead of us."

	Now? Here? With him here? I don't like other people seeing me naked
but if he's ordering me to, I have to, and that sounded like an order.

	"Whoa!" Finn exclaims as I start to undress. "I know I said get
dressed, but with me still looking at you? At least wait for me to turn my
back."

	You said to get changed, you didn't say to wait for you to turn
around. I do this time, and then I change. Is he a pervert or not? He needs
to make up his mind. I can't say that, though, it won't end well.

[Finn]

	Much as I want to see my godbrother naked, I honestly wasn't
expecting him to just start changing with me right there. He had no emotion
on his face when he started, too. Well, he looked resigned to doing it, but
I'm not sure why. One of the many mysteries of Xander King, I guess.

	It isn't until he's almost done that I realize that there's a
mirror on the back of his closet door, which is completely open. By the
time I notice it, he's gotten his pants on, and is turned around, picking
up the shirt I'd tossed him, which he'd laid on his bed. His back is
covered in scars. I can't make them out from the mirrored view, though I
can tell that they're both straight lines, all around the same length, and
then circular ones that look suspiciously like burns from my view.

	Suddenly, his reluctant compliance with everything and his scream
when I touched him makes sense. He's been abused in the past. The scars
look old, not fresh, so probably not at the orphanage. At least, not
recently. He doesn't think he's allowed a choice, he thinks he has to do
what he's told, or he'll get a beating. The orphanage told my godparents
that he's well-behaved and doesn't cause problems, but they do think he's
been in fights every now and then, due to injuries that pop up, though he
never says how he got them.

	Talking with one of the other kids at the orphanage, I found out
that while Xander is many things, a liar is not one of them. He'll avoid
answering a question, but he won't ever lie. It apparently annoyed the
other kids, but he always kept his mouth shut when someone did something
wrong. If he's asked if he's been abused, he'll more than likely keep his
mouth closed instead of answering.

	My question is this: how did they get him to even open it to start
with? When he does talk, it's almost always one or two words, and that's
it. I can tell he's annoyed by how much he talks, too. The more words he
says at once, the more annoyed he is at the time. The fact that he said two
words at a time to me says he's annoyed. Should have realized that before.

	I watch him pull his shirt, on, then he turns around and stares at
me. I pretend like I don't notice there's a mirror there, and can't see him
staring at me.

	"You stopped moving," I say. "You done?" He doesn't answer. I
slowly turn my head, then turn all the way around. "Alright, you're done."

	And damn is he sexy in his olive cargo pants, new, black sneakers
(when did he get those? It wasn't while we were shopping, he refused to get
new shoes then), and slightly-oversized button-up. Only slightly. I just
want to unbutton that shirt, put my lips to his, push him onto his bed, and
do far more than just kiss him. I don't, though, and resist the powerful
urge to go down on him. Does give me an awkward boner that will probably
not be missed through my swim trunks. Well, by anyone other than Xander.

	"Ready?" I ask, and he nods, then follows me downstairs and out
back, where everyone's waiting. I spot my sister. "Karma!"

	"Yes?" She spins around, her hair swishing in her tight
ponytail. She's already stripped to her bikini, a hot pink pairing that
shows her body pretty well. There are a bunch of our classmates here. Eyes
of my sister, boys, she's not for you pervs. "Oh, hey, Xander. No
swimsuit?"

	As soon as she says that, Xander has an intense look of fear on his
face. Does he think he's going to be forced to go swimming? According to
Aunt Linda, he doesn't have swim trunks at all. Does he know how to swim? I
bet he never learned, and is scared he's going to be made fun of for
that. No worries, I'm going to fix that.

	Karma grab's Xander's arm, and he squawks, then looks at me as she
drags him away, probably to go meet some of our classmates. I wander off to
find my parents, and find them talking with my godparents by the grill.

	"...birthday's August Eighth," Aunt Linda says. "We're planning a
party, but with how he's is, I think it should be kept as small as
possible. Just us and the twins, maybe one or two other classmates, if
takes a liking to them before. I still don't know what to get him, though,
he doesn't seem like he's going to want anything."

	"So?" I ask, and they all look at me. "Xander's lonely, he doesn't
trust people. Has probably been burned too many times," unfortunately, that
could be in the literal sense, too. "Just get him something decent, and
he'll probably be fine. Doesn't have to be expensive, doesn't have to be
new. Hell, get him a backpack with more pockets or cargo pants or a cake,
and he'll probably be okay. Actually, don't get him a backpack, that's a
good idea, and I know the perfect one."

	"Did you see his room?" Uncle Trey asks me.

	"It's neat and clean," I say. "So he's a clean freak, what about
it?"

	"It's not just neat and clean," Uncle Trey emphases the 'just' in
that statement. "It's abnormally so."

	"Not all preteen boys are slobs."

	"No," Uncle Trey says. "But I doubt the orphanage required him to
make his bed as soon as he got up every morning, to sweep the floor every
day, and keep his bathroom clean enough to eat off the floor of. He washes
his dishes, and had his laundry in the wash yesterday before the maids
could get to his room. Xander doesn't feel like he belongs here, and tries
to do the duties of the maids, as if he feels as if he has to earn his
keep."

	"Just leave him be," I shrug. "It'll take him time to warm up to
the idea of actually having a home."

	"I don't think that's how it'll work," Mom says. "Honey, we know a
bit more about these things than you do, we're adults."

	And I'm also not much older than him, and have probably interacted
with him more than all of them combined. Gah. I wish I were an adult,
they'd probably listen to me, then. They go back to talking as if I'm not
even here.

[Xander]

	It takes forever to be freed from Karma's grasp. She wanted to
introduce me to all of her friends, and I felt closed-in by all the people
around me, and scared of Karma herself. I'm going to be going to school
with most of these people, but I doubt any of them like me. I'm a nothing,
an orphan. I don't belong. They're not going to want me, and it won't be
long before the Scotts realize that I don't belong here and send me back to
the orphanage.

	Once I'm freed from Karma's grasp, I locate Turtle, who was brought
over and is playing with some littler kids, and as soon as I approach, he
charges me, tackling me to the ground and licking my face. I wrestle him
off of me, then lead him to a quiet part of the area, away from the party
and upsetting the kids, and start playing with him. I'll probably get into
trouble for taking him away from the little ones, but Turtle's the only one
who loves me unconditionally. Plus, I can cry into him if no one else is
around, and he won't tell anyone, just snuggle against me.

	Sometime after my tears have dried, I hear footsteps in the grass
near me. I'm lying down, using Turtle as a cushion. Turtle doesn't mind
being cuddled, and I like hugging him. He's snuggled his head against my
chest but when the person approaches, Turtle looks at them and woofs.

	"Hey, there, doggy," the newcomer says. I don't recognize the
voice, but my guard immediately goes up anyway. "Thought there was someone
who'd come out this way and didn't return. I know you're awake, you're
holding your breath."

	I let it out as I open my eyes. I didn't realize I'd held my breath
when he approached.

	The newcomer is a boy about my age, with jet black hair and light
blue eyes, and he looks really familiar. But he's dressed in nice clothes,
not orphanage clothes. He's not in the expensive clothes of most of the
people here.

	"Wait," he squints at me as I sit up, keeping a hand on Turtle's
neck. If I let go, I'm probably not going to make it. "Xander? Whoa, didn't
recognize you there for a moment. It's Garret."

	I stare at him blankly.

	"You spent a few weeks at my house when we were, like, nine," he
says. "My parents and brother didn't like you much, but I didn't have a
problem. We shared a room, but you never talked to me. You also had cookies
or biscuits or rolls or something in your pockets. Didn't know you were
here. How've you been?"

	Now I remember him. He left me alone, just the way I liked
things. Well, that was after we got into a little bit of a fight. Later, I
ran away, and got sent back to the orphanage when they found me. I was
there a week and a half, though, not a few weeks. I don't like Garret. I
didn't back then, either. I get up and walk off, Turtle walking with me,
and Garret follows me up until we get to the room. I close the door, slip
of my shoes, then climb onto the bed with Turtle, lying down and starting
to cry again.

	I hate this. I want to die.

[Finn]

	This cutie walks up to me. He's got black hair and the bluest eyes
I've ever seen, and almost competes with Xander for looks. I wonder if he's
up for experimenting, or if he has started to already. He's got on swim
trunks and a black tee with a bright blue design to it. He's got a
concerned look on his face.

	"What's up?" I ask him. Have to be careful about calling him cutie,
don't know where he stands on that. "Can't find a bathroom?"

	I'm inside right now, trying to find where Xander vanished off
to. Someone said they saw him heading inside with Turtle, and Turtle didn't
bark, which he does if someone knocks on the door to the room he's in, so
I'm not sure where he went off to.

	"I'm not sure," the cutie says. "I just saw someone I used to know,
and when I tried talking to him, he kind of did the same thing he did three
years ago, just gave me the cold shoulder and walked away," sounds like
Xander. "Name's Xander. Well, Alexander, but he goes by Xander," yeah,
that's Xander. The kid looks nervous, probably because of my looks. It does
put people on edge the first time they see me, and I don't recognize the
kid. "Oh, um, I should introduce myself. Name's Garret Blue, my mom just
recently married Adrian Colson, but I kept my last name."

	"You know Xander?" I ask.

	"A little," Garret nods. "He wasn't very talkative. My mom
foster-parented him for about a week and a half before he ran away."

	"He ran away?" I ask. That doesn't sound like Xander at
all. "Seriously?"

	"Yeah," Garret nods again. That one gesture, that little nod, is so
adorable on him. "We'd heard he was a problem kid when Mom took him in, but
she did anyway. Then he and my brother kept going at it, and after about a
week and a half, he ran away. Honestly, I think he just kept getting in my
brother's way by accident, and my brother vented his anger on him. It never
got physical, and Xander never really responded, but he was still blamed
anyway. I was nine, I just tried being his friend, but he didn't seem to
like me very much. I'd been wondering what had happened to him."

	"A lot, I guess," Finn says. "The Scotts just adopted him a week
ago, and he's being quiet and uncooperative in letting people take care of
him, very guarded, too. I'm trying to break him out of that shell, but he
doesn't want to break out of it. At least, I think he thinks he doesn't
want to."

	"Huh?" He looks confused. I forgot I'm talking to a kid in middle
school. Not that much younger than me, but enough to have enough of a
difference in maturity and understanding of others. "He doesn't think he
wants to?"

	"He wants to," I say. "But doesn't know he does. You said he's a
problem kid?"

	"He'd run away from every home he'd been put in," Garret
nods. "Usually in the first two weeks. I think the longest he'd made it was
two weeks before he took off. I don't know what his record is now, but it
made it hard to find him a home back then, and he was only nine. They kept
sending him back to the orphanage, and he seemed okay there. Why do you
think he doesn't know he wants to break out of his shell?"

	"Simple," I answer. "He goes on long walks every day, but rarely
does he go to a quiet place and stay there. He walks through the mall, the
park, through the shopping district. He'll go to a quiet place and stay
there for an hour or two, but he always finds himself surrounded by
people. He wants to break out of his shell, but doesn't know how to. He's
so wrapped up in fear that he's not even aware that he wants to be with
people, that he wants to be around them. I'm trying to help him with that."

	The party ends, and I locate Xander up in his room, Turtle on his
bed with him. Turtle just looks at me, and reluctantly comes with me when
it's time to leave. Xander's eyes were a little red, as if he'd been
crying.

	Over the next few days, I do some research, and find that he'd been
in a total of twenty-six homes in a four-mile radius of the orphanage, and
the longest he stayed in one in his almost-thirteen years was eighteen
days, and each time, it was because he'd run away. He never ran away from
the orphanage. Not once. He'd go on the walks as soon as he was off
restriction from having run away, but they stopped restricting him after
realizing that he'd had no plans to run from the orphanage.

	The last time he'd run away from a home was when he was eleven,
that was the last time he'd been at one. It was the day after his eleventh
birthday, so it's been almost two years since then. From what I can tell,
it seems like he'd actually made a friend there, but something must have
happened, because he stuck to his usual routine and ran away. That was when
he'd lasted eighteen days in one home.

	The orphanage is his safe place, I can tell that much easily, even
if the adults that are my parents and godparents are being idiots and can't
realize it. He likes it there, feels safe there. I realize now that
whenever Karma intruded upon his room and tried to talk to him, she was
invading his safe space. That would explain his fear whenever she
approaches him, and his intense fear when she dragged him away. He doesn't
feel even slightly safe around her because she invaded his only safe space.

	Looking at the emails I got, I lean back in my chair. If things
follow the same pattern, then it's almost time for him to run away. He's
been at my godparents' for fourteen days, ten at the party, and he hasn't
run yet. Odds are, he won't be setting any records, not with how
uncomfortable he appears to be.

	Now that I think about it, why has he stayed so long?

~~END OF CHAPTER THREE~~

	Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it! Any feedback is welcome,
and you're free to not give any as well (if you don't want to).

	Notice something? Xander's got scars, and he's a chronic
runaway. Yup, Xander's never made it in a home. A few people were wondering
why someone who's in the habit of running away from homes got adopted. It's
been two years, and Xander hasn't run away once (but he WAS in the 'safe
place', so he felt secure there). But there's a little bit more to it,
which will be revealed in time.

	Back to his scars: I'd like to know what y'all think happened that
gave him those. I've already got the answers planned, but still, I wanna
know how y'all think he got them. Was he abused? An accident? In a fire?
Something else? If you think it's abuse, do you think it was one home or
several? Speaking of him being in multiple homes – why do you think he
kept running away? Answers will be given to some of the questions brought
up in this chapter over the next several, but more questions will be
created by those answers ( :P ). Keep reading to find out more about Xander
and his new life!