Caspian

“You shouldn’t. He isn’t worth going to jail,”

She laughed slightly at that before letting her head fall against the café’s wooden table.

“You okay, darlin’?” I asked, rubbing a soothing hand on her head. She angeled her head so that her chin on the table, and looked up at me from behind her heavily hooded eyes, I let my finger slide through her locks and tucked her hair behind her ears.

“Just tired,” she muttered in response before yawning softly. She pushed aside her glass of water and folded her arms in front of her on the table and rested her head on them before letting her eyes close. I rubbed her head gently and let her rest for a bit.

I had noticed that she was a peculiar girl. She had a weird way of dealing with anger. She never really let it get the best of her, even when she was fuming, just like minutes back when she seemed ready to hunt Rhys down and tear him in half.

January Decembers was afraid of her anger and chased it away every time it dared to ruin her, unknown to the fact that it was, in fact, choosing a dark remote corner of her body to hide until it was strong enough to burst apart.

Whenever she was enraged she pushed those emotions away, and they pushed back all day around. It wasn’t healthy for her, but I understood why she did it.

At her home, she wasn’t allowed to be angry. I assumed in the past her parents hadn’t reacted well to her aggression and it had gotten her beaten up. It explained a lot about her behaviour.

The waitress returned with a tray with our food, and smiled down at January’s posture. “Want me to bring some chocolate for her?” she asked in a low voice, thinking January was asleep.

“That would be nice, thank you, miss,” she smiled up at me as well before walking away. I retracted my hand to adjust the plates and January propped her head back on her chin, and pouted for a moment before smoothening her expression and straightening her back.

“Here,” I slid a burger and the salad towards her but she pushed the burger back.

“That’s yours,”

“This is mine,” I pointed at the other burger before pointing at hers. “That has too much cheese for my liking. It’s yours, my noctiluca,”

“Why do you call me that?” she asked me, curiousity lingering deep inside her eyes.

“Someday, I’ll tell you that,”

“Well, I don’t know whether to take it as a compliment or an insult right now,”

“It’s a compliment, sweetheart,”

She gave me shy smile in response before directing her gaze to her burger and the hesitation in her movements confirmed something I had suspected.

“It’s okay,” I whispered soothingly tilting her head so that she faced me. The touch of her skin against mine burned me, and it took every in me to not pull that girl into my arms and take her elsewhere, far out of the reach of her parents.

She had anorexia nervosa, a condition more common among the girls her age. She probably rarely felt hungry, and puked every time she had a little more food.

I knew her family enough to know that they had caused it. Her father, to be precise. In his every interview, and in our brief interaction, I had noticed his unmissable liking for perfection. He had perhaps forced it upon January as well.

The waitress chose that moment to return with a milkshake and set it on the table.

January looked up at me uncertainly, as if she wasn’t sure whether it was for her. I assumed she had zoned out during the time that the waitress had brought the food and had asked to bring some chocolate for her.

The look in my eyes must’ve given her the clarification she needed because she wrapped her fingers around the glass and stirred its contents with a straw before enclosing her lips around it.

To make things worse, the straw was pretty thick.

January met my eyes and winked before sucking in a relatively suggestive manner. I felt myself get hard merely by looking at her plum lips and the way her tongue darted out to capture any stray droplets.

Oh, God.

I turned my gaze away and started eating the burger. It wasn’t half bad, and provided a decent distraction till January was done with her milkshake.

January took some time to finish her salad but I didn’t mind waiting for her if it allowed me another moment in her presence.

I looked at her eyes and smile, and they made my heart react as if I was a schoolgirl.

“January, listen…” I started, despite knowing that it would kill the mood. “I have been meaning to ask you something,”

“Go on,”

“What’s happening at your home isn’t right. I know you know that, and so, what I want to know is the reason why you haven’t done something about it,”

She swallowed the last bite and had a sip of water before answering. “I can’t do anything about it. If I were to go to the police, my parents would a way out and they’d make things much worse at home,” my heart clenched at how weak her voice sounded.

“I understand. Do you have any…relatives?”

“I have an uncle from my dad’s side. He lives in another city, and honestly, he isn’t much better than dad is. I have an aunt from my mother’s side but she lives in Greece and is into this whole spiritual thing. She’s sort of mentally unstable and claims to see apparitions everywhere and believes that they are sent by God to help her. Honestly, I would rather live at my own house rather than live with either of them. At least the house is empty most of the time,”

I hated how helpless she looked. Hated the faint bruises on her face and arms and elsewhere where I couldn’t see them. Hated her parents. Hated fate for giving a girl as wonderful as herself a family so pathetic. But most of all, I hated myself for not having helped her out till then.

But I was going to change it for her. I was going to figure something out and no one was going to hurt her.

Never again.

***

I was going crazy.

January had a way of making me crave her even when she wasn’t there, and I was certain that I was fucking addicted to her in  twisted way that ensured that no rehab was going to save me.

She was a seventeen year old and I was her teacher, but a certain  part of my body had difficulty understanding that.

I had spent months trying not to touch her unless it was absolutely necessary, and it had somewhat helped. But now that I had felt her skin, heard her beating heart and seen her so close to naked, sanity had chosen to leave my body.

Her smell- a peculiar scent I hadn’t been able to put  name on, haunted me as her form did to my apartment

I wanted- needed her by my side at all times, needed her weird smell and kind smile. Without her, I felt like a fucking plant with no chlorophyll.

In my desperate attempt to just stop thinking about how ravenous she’d looked, I redirected my train of thoughts to another issue: her abuse.

She clearly didn’t have any reliable relatives, making them all unsuitable guardians. Perhaps Lara was right: she was better with Rebecca and Carter.

I decided to keep them far, far away from her until she got to college, but in case things still didn’t get better, I had something else in my mind.

January needed a guardian. There was no law stating that guardian had to be a blood relative.

I knew what I had to do.

“What?” came Kai’s cold voice from the other end of the phone. Kai had always been different from me, Sam and Bella, our sister. When we were young, our mother told us to treat him nicely and comfort him even when he didn’t ask for it- especially then.

Kai was psychopathic. I knew that term and its meaning now. It was weird for me when I first found out about it, but Kai cared. In his own twisted, anarchist, loathsome way, and we picked different countries and stayed far away from each other to never get into each other’s lives again except on Christmas when we were forced. I disliked him because of how apathetic he could get, and he hated me because he hated everyone but mom and it was normal for him.

“I need your help,”

“What is it?” he asked, disinterest leaking from his voice. Despite our indifferences, he always took it upon himself to help me whenever he could, which was always, but I rarely asked him for help.

“There’s a girl…” I started, taking a pause, uncertain as to how I should continue.

“So, Bella’s information was correct. You’re teaching toddlers cause of a girl,”

I didn’t bother to correct him since it was pointless. Instead, I resumed, “She has abusive parents,” I jumped straight to it. “They are powerful people with endless links and connections. I talked to the police but they said that there won’t be much they’d be able to do about it.

I need you to dig up some dirt on them. Illegal activities, tax evasions, anything that could lock them up for a few years,”

“Will do that, brother. Names?”

“Rebecca and Carter Decembers,” I answered and utter silence welcomed me from his side. “Kai?” I called out his name, just to make sure it wasn’t some network issue.

“Mmhmm…” came his incohorent response. Kai never hummed, nor did he ever stutter, and I realized that he must’ve been waiting for me to tell him the name of their daughter. “And their daughter is-”

“January Decembers,” he finished for me, and I froze.

“How do you know that?” I asked him, my voice hard and foreign to my own ears because of how protective it sounded.

No reply came for a few seconds. When he finally spoke, his tone was dismissive, “I have heard of her. The Biology prodigy. Hard to miss,”

He couldn’t have just heard of her. It was impossible. He was in a different country, and while January was popular, she wasn’t that popular, but I couldn’t push it, not when I needed his help.

“Is she a minor?”

“Yes,”

“Then what of her guardianship? Who’ll bear it if her parents were to die?” My silence gave him all the answer that he needed. “Fuck no, Cas, you’re not getting the guardianship. You don’t even know that girl,”

“I know her enough,”

“No,” his voice came sharper this time with the edge of a growl. “You’re not having her guardianship. You’ll wreck her life and break her heart and ruin her.” He sounded ruffled, which was new for him. He rarely displaced emotions. I had never heard him ever care about anything. It was quite unusual for him to be affected by anything.

“Why do you care, Kai?” I asked him sincerely, curious about what had caused his behaviour to change.

“I don’t,” he answered, switching back to his uncaring tone. “I know it would break you if you were to hurt a girl, especially considering how young she is. Whole life ahead of her, wouldn’t want to break her, would you?”

He had a point. If I were to assume the position of her guardian, then I would have to live with her. Every day. Being in her presence for mere hours turned me insane, and I barely restrained myself from touching her in that small time frame.

I could hurt her.

“What do you suggest?”

“Let me be her guardian. You can visit from time to time,” he answered simply.

“You don’t even know her. Plus, unless you’re planning to drop your business and move here, you can’t do that. I won’t uproot her,”

He cursed again before saying, “Fine. I shall dig up some dirt on the two of them and make sure that they stay in there for a very long time,”

“Thank you, Kai,”