CHAPTER 13

               I got up earlier than anyone else, sneaking carefully and quietly upstairs, so I didn't wake anyone else. There were only a few people up yet, but at least Aidan was one of them. As I headed into the living room, Aidan summoned me over to sit next to him, so I did. I'd never really thought about how hot he looked.

               "Hey baby, how are you this morning?" Aidan asked, handing me a hot and steaming cup of coffee.

               I put my feel up on the old coffee table in front of us, and held the cup close so that it would warm me up, "I'm good. How about you? Did you sleep well?"

              Aidan reached around behind me and held me close, "I did sleep well. I'm just trying to wake up, I've got to go back out for another shift."

              "Aww, and they don't let us girls go out on watch either," I commented as I started sipping my coffee. I strangely enjoyed the bitter taste.

              "No, no, no," Aidan said through his light laughter, "That would make the job all the more enjoyable."

              "Yeah, bummer. Wouldn't want you to enjoy it or anything," I replied as I took an even bigger sip of the coffee, almost burning my tongue, "That's alright, you're free to fool around with me when you get back.

              Aidan's eyes grew wide as he just grinned at me. We were about to kiss when the others came into the room. I watched as Sean, Ryan, Luke and David walked into the room with their coffee and sat down on the couch opposite of ours. Each one of them had coffee and some sort of breakfast. Breakfast in this house ranges from bagels to Twinkies.

              I smiled as I turned my head away from them for a moment so they couldn't see me blushing, and then turned to look at them, "Good morning."

              They all nodded at me as they sipped their coffee. Luke didn't seem phased by the taste or temperature, and was gulping his coffee so fast I thought he would drown in it. All five of us just watched him as he took the whole cup at once, not even stopping to take a breath.

               Ryan laughed at him as he finished, "Good stuff?"

               He set his coffee cup on the table next to him and laid back, "Caffeine, the legal drug."

               We all laughed slightly at that. Caffeine worked well in large doses, if your body could handle it. Mine did well on caffeine for a while, until I had overdosed on it several times. After that, I couldn't take much caffeine without getting sick. For now one cup was more than enough.

               Aidan looked at his watch and nodded to the others, "Alright, lets head over and trade out now."

               Aidan stood up and put his cup down quietly on the coffee table, and turned to look at the others. I watched as all of them tied their red bandanas on their heads and psych each other up. I sat on the couch and watched as Aidan explained everything to them, making sure they all knew what border they were patrolling this time.

               I stood up and gave Aidan a little squeeze, "You make sure you come back, now."

               Aidan smiled back at me, "Don't worry, we'll be back."

               Without any thought, I leaned forward and kissed Aidan. I could hear the other four whistle and cheer on Aidan, but I didn't really care. Aidan was my man, and I didn't feel ashamed to show it. Katie said I'd have to get comfortable with it if I wanted to learn her way of making money. I didn't really feel much anymore, I was becoming a new person.

               I watched as Aidan and the group left, telling me that they'd be back in four hours. I just decided to sit back and wait for the group they were replacing to come back. The room was now empty, and there wasn't any sign of anyone else. The sun was barely coming up. It's alright, I enjoyed being able to sit in a quiet room and just think.

               I looked over at the clock sitting on the television, showing that it was only five minutes past six. It was a really fancy clock, too. I figured they'd stolen it, but then again they'd probably stolen everything in this house. Not too many people can afford this much nice furniture and a television in every room. The clock also showed the date, which was the twenty-second of February. I was surprised to realize that my fourteenth birthday had come and gone, and not even I remembered it. I had turned fourteen on the third of this month.

               I sat quietly on the couch as I sipped my coffee, enjoying the feeling of warmth it brought to me. I'd never really enjoyed coffee, but this cup tasted wonderful. Perhaps it was just the fact that Aidan had given it to me. Either way it warmed me, and woke me up enough to be useful.

               I finished my cup, and carefully grabbed the other five and carried them into the kitchen, setting them down in the sink. I kept my cup out, I wanted one more cup before I quit. I was just now starting to feel the effects of the caffeine, and I wanted more. I was lucky enough to get almost another full cup of coffee from what was left in the pot.

               I sat back down on the couch and watched as the steam raised up from the coffee in a hypnotic wave. The smell of it told me that it was definitely the bottom of the pot, since it bared the smell of burned coffee. I guess now I learned that you can burn coffee.

              I looked up as I saw Katie and Des stumble into the living room. Both of them looked as if they were still asleep. I almost thought they were as I watched them walk into the kitchen to start another pot of coffee, and then come back to plop themselves down on the couch next to me, without even looking at me. I just watched as they sort of just stared off at the black television screen.

              Katie finally turned to me, "Hey Taya, you got up early, didn't you?"

                         I smiled and nodded at Katie as I offered her and Des my cup of coffee, "Yeah I did, had to see Aidan off."

              Katie put her hand up and pushed the cup back to me, "No, it's ok, the next pot will be finished in a minute."

              "Alright," I said as I shrugged my shoulders, taking a sip of the coffee. Yep, definitely bottom of the pot.

              Des leaned forward so that she could see past Katie, "How on earth can you get up so early?"

              "I always have," I replied as I started picturing images in the steam rising from my coffee, "I always had something that needed done at my last home."

              Des fell back against the couch, laying her head on the back of it, "Ahh yeah, I remember now. You had demon parents too, didn't you?"

              Katie sat in the middle, turning her head back and forth as Des and I talked, "Hey, don't say that! I'm not sure 'demon parents' is strong enough."

              Des and I laughed. I laid my head on the back of the couch like Des did, and Katie ended up doing the same. The three of us just lay staring at the white ceiling for a couple minutes. I had too much caffeine already. My mind was running a mile a minute, but my body seemed lifeless.

               "I remember my parents," Des said, "I was always in charge of taking care of my little brother. He was only two when I left."

              I rolled my head a little and looked past Katie to Des, "I don't think a little kid would have survived in my house."

              Des sat up and took a drink of her coffee, "He was perfectly safe, I was the one who wasn't."

              I sat up and set my coffee cup down on the table, making an ugly face as I rejected the nasty stuff, "How's that?"

              Katie slid off the couch and headed out the room, "I've got to go and get dressed, I'll see you in a few minutes."

              Des looked over at me, I could see that her eyes seemed glazed over, "My parents wanted a boy, that's all. They were so upset when they found out that I wasn't a boy, and would have certainly aborted me if I had been young enough."

              "Wow," I said as I stared her in the eyes, "My parents just had me in charge of making sure breakfast was made and on the table by the time they got up. And throughout the day, I'd have to do all the chores around the house while my mom stayed in her bedroom and read books, or watched television for hours."

               Des shook her head at me, "What did I do wrong?"

               I leaned forward so that I had the cup clasped between both hands, "I don't even know what I did wrong... They always told me that I'd been bad, done something wrong, but they wouldn't tell me, they'd just punish me for it."

               Des leaned forward like I had done and just shook her head, "You know, as hard as I tried to get them to love me, they never would. I was just the nanny."

               "My birth parents loved me," I said as I fought back tears, "I just wish they hadn't died."

               "I'm not even sure I know what love is anymore," Des said as she let some tears fall off her cheeks.

               I started crying a little bit too, just because I couldn't stand to see anyone cry, "I can't tell you that either."

               Des moved over so that we were sitting shoulder to shoulder. For several minutes the two of us just sat completely still, thinking over what we had just said. I couldn't honestly say that I knew what love was. I wasn't even sure I loved Aidan, I just acted the way I thought I was supposed to act.

               Des just stared at the floor, "I was in charge of caring for him whenever he needed anything. For the longest time he felt like my kid, but I knew he wasn't. Whenever we had to go somewhere, they'd leave me in the car and take him inside. I was an embarrassment to them."

               My tears really started to fall now, "My parents just left me at home whenever they went out. I was only allowed to go to school. The teachers and the principal knew that someone was going on with me, but they didn't seem to care. I don't think anyone really cares anymore."

               Des wiped her tears back with her sleeve, "I don't either. But this gang... this family, is the closest thing I've come across yet."

               I smiled as I stared at the steam that was slowly dissipating now, "Yeah, I've never had anyone go through this much to make sure I was safe and that I knew I belonged."

               "I just wish I knew what we did wrong... what I'd done wrong..." Des said as she leaned back against the couch and wiped her face over.

               "We were born," I replied, knowing that was the answer no matter how you put it.

               Des and I wiped our tears off quickly as we heard someone coming down the stairs. It was Katie, with Meghan in tow. Katie headed in and sat herself down on the other side of Des, taking a big gulp of her coffee. But just as Katie and Des had done, Meghan headed straight to the kitchen, poured a cup of coffee, and then came in and sat down next to Katie.

               Katie looked over at us, I knew she could tell we'd been crying, "So, what have you two alley cats been talking about?"

               I took another sip of my coffee and stared straight ahead, "We were discussing where we'd gone wrong."

               Des laughed slightly, and so did I. I turned to see Katie's eyes, and I could tell that she wasn't amused whatsoever. Meghan still had a blank stare on her face, and seemed to be completely unaware that the three of us were even there with her. That in itself made me laugh.

               Katie turned her head away from us and looked at Meghan, giving her a jab in the ribs with her elbow, "Jeez, can we even remember where we went wrong?"

               Finally Meghan laughed, only after she had elbowed Katie back, "Ooh don't get me started. I think I went wrong in several places."

               The four of us just sat in complete silence for what seemed like forever before the front door opened. It was Garrett, Matt, Jamie, Trent and Marco coming back from their shift on the beachfront. I could tell by the way they looked that it had been a bad night.

               Marco looked over at us and shook his head, "Man, they are so asking for trouble."

               Katie stood up and went into the kitchen to pour each of them a cup of hot coffee. All five of them took the coffee willingly and breathed in the hot steam. One by one they piled onto the couch on the other side of the room from ours, but Katie decided to join them.

               Trent looked straight at me, and then back to Katie, "They were so far beyond the borderline this time. I think they know where we're based at."

                Matt held up a fist and waved it in the air, his knuckles were bruised and bloody, "We chased them out like a fox out of a hen house."

                Marco shook his head at Matt, "Yeah, but this fox will be coming back with an army next time."

                "As soon as Spencer wakes up, we're going to break the news to him," Jamie said. I could see that he had a fat lip, and a scratch on his right cheek.

                "Oh no," I said as I looked over their faces, "They actually got into another fight?"

                "Yeah man!" Trent shouted as he moved his hand over his left cheek, revealing a wide scrape, "They started it. They knew what they were starting, but they did it anyway."

                 Trent shook his head and looked over at Garrett, who was just staring at the floor, "They ambushed Garrett here. There were only two of them, though. I think they thought we'd still be watching solo."

                 Marco clenched his right fist tightly and shook it in front of him, "They know now how many we have in a group, and they'll be ready for it next time."

                 We all froze as Spencer entered the room. He didn't go off for coffee or sit dazed like the others had, he just looked straight at Marco. Katie looked over at me and motioned with her head that we needed to leave the room. Des and I had no problem with that, and left our coffee sitting on the table as we joined Katie in the kitchen.

                 I started warming the water for the rags, so that we could clean them up again. Katie grabbed some ice bags out of the freezer and laid them on the counter. You'd think we'd done this before or something. Des went straight for the butterfly strips just in case we needed them. Meghan just sat with her arms crossed at the edge of the kitchen, listening in. We waited in the kitchen until we saw Spencer walk out of the room, and headed back in.

                  "So," Katie started off, "What are we in for?"

                 I handed the warm, damp rags around and let each of them clean themselves up, "Yeah, how bad is it?"

                 Marco shook his head, "I've never seen Spencer like this. He's not sure what we're going to do. The Tags are six times the size of our gang, we don't have too much hope."

                 We all ended up sighing at almost the same time. They knew more about how bad that was than I did, but I knew enough that when the leader loses hope, there really isn't too much hope left. I bit my lower lip and set everything on the coffee table.

                 Katie looked over at me and shook her head, "This is bad, Taya."

                 I shrugged my shoulders slightly, "There's nothing we can do?"

                 Katie looked over at Marco and then back at me, "I don't know yet, we'll have to wait and see."

                 Marco looked past us and out the window, standing up suddenly. The other four in his group did the same, all of them going straight to the window. Katie, Des and I looked at each other a couple times, not sure what was going on. Meghan had a seat on the couch and continued drinking, her coffee. She didn't seem to care. Katie, Des and I shrugged at Meghan, and ran to the window to see what they were looking at.

                  "Oh my God," I said as my mouth dropped open, "I know those people."