I'll never tell (Zach)

[Deleted]

Every kid needed a home.

That was why she did this. Larisa had been on her own from an early age. Even when she found her father, she was more acclamated to be on her own than anything. But it was hard. Extremely hard, and it wasn't anything she thought that kids should go through. So every time she found a kid who needed a home, she provided a home for them. Sure, her house was packed with kids. Jenna's room now had she and Brittany and Larisa would be adding a third girl in the room soon; the attic was split into two so that Connor and Cassy could each have their own space, especially since Cassy had a baby; their only empty room would soon be filled when she had the quints, and JJ's room would now have another occupant.

Max had shown her the boy's picture. He was seventeen and lived all alone in the YMCA. Larisa's eyes had filled with sympathy for the boy. She couldn't just let him stay there! The very pregnant, very huge woman approached the Y now that she had the room set up for another kid. She didn't even tell JJ or Johnny. She just did it.

She signed in and got her helper tag. With that, she wandered into the halls. She had a basket on her arm; a picnic basket full of goodies. She didn't want to just walk in and say "hi, Zach? you're coming with me." No. She had to do it much better than that. As she walked, she smiled at each resident and pulled out a muffin or brownie and handed it to them. When she was sure she spotted the boy, she walked up to him and walked around to face him. "Hi. You want a cookie? A brownie maybe? I have peanut brittle" she said with a sweet smile. Oh, she'd soften the boy up, and she'd coax him to go with her. He needed someone, after all

[Zachary Briar]

Zach had barely been able to get out of bed that morning. All that he wanted to do was lay there, beneath his blanket and never come out again. He felt that way often. His night had been riddled with nightmares. Blood, needles, his father's voice, all bouncing back and forth in his mind. He was taunted and troubled. And when his eyes finally snapped open, he felt the onslaught of a migraine. It made him close his eyes again and when he finally woke for good, and crawled away from the bed, he had been shaky and weak. He hadn't eaten, not in a while. But, the constant hounding from the voice told him it was a bad idea to consume anything. But, he needed to. His body was weak and running on nothing. He spent his time lingering in his room, trying failingly to draw in order to mellow himself out. But everything he drew, he wanted to crumple up again. He finally left the room, and it was when he was in the hall that a woman approached him.

He stared at her for a minute, blinking slowly to adjust to her. He was confused. When she mentioned food, he heard his stomach growl. It didn't do that often. He had become so immune to hunger that he rarely felt it at all. He could have probably eaten an entire basket or more of food. That was the problem. He could eat one hundred things, though then he'd have to find some way of ridding of it after. Trying to focus less on the food, he looked at her curiously. "Hi," he replied; she seemed nice and he didn't quite understand why she was being nice to him. No one should be, not really. "Sure, I'll take one," he said, because he was starving and the voice could protest all it wanted. He was hungry and damn it, a cookie sounded good.

[Deleted]

Nobody knew the things Larisa went through as a teenager. Johnny knew to an extent, but not really. The second she found out she was pregnant with JJ, she played musical family members. That much, her friends and family knew. But what they didn't know was the month she spent between her family in California and her grandmother. The hitchhiking, the spending of nights with men she didn't know just to get the money she needed to keep going. The nights on the cold floor of the truck stop restroom because she didn't have money to waste on comforts like a motel. Stalking the bins behind fast food places to eat the food that was prepared then out too long without being bought. It was a time in her life that Larisa never wanted to look back on. It was also something that she never wanted kids to have to go through.

When he accepted, she lifted the towel to let him take anything he wanted. "They're home baked," she said with a smile. "Do you want to save some for your family?" she asked the question, in case she was wrong. But he looked exactly like the boy in the picture. Still, she had been wrong before. And she had embarrassed some poor kid because she thought he was the one she was looking for. She wasn't going to make that mistake again. "I'm Larisa," she introduced herself, keeping that same kind tone. He looked like a sweet young thing. She hoped it was Zachary. And if he wasn't, then she'd offer anyway, if he needed a place to stay. She was like a kid holding a puppy. She wanted to take him home!

[Zachary Briar]

Who was this woman? Zachary didn't understand for even a partial second why she approached him or thought it was appropriate to offer him food. But, because the weakness wouldn't fade, he reached into the basket and withdrew a cookie. He forced himself not to study it too far, seeing instead of food, a mix of ingredients, calories and a reflection that was torn apart by a voice that no one else managed to hear. He shook it off and took a bite, his body in desperate need of something. He tried to calm himself though, instead of just scarfing the cookie like a hungry dog. Frankly, she could have left the basket in front of him and he would have probably cleaned it out in an instant. He really couldn't afford a binge right now, but it was where his body was headed. His eyes went up again at the mention of a family and he shook his head.

"My family's gone." He replied, and it wasn't untrue. They were gone; off in New York, at home, living a life that Zachary was never suited for. They were the ones that left him here, or they left him there and he found his way here with ease. It wasn't ideal, but nothing was. And he tried to fit in with the rest of the people; he tried to go to school, live among the general population in a way to hide what he was. A monster. A freak. Someone that people would fear if they knew half of what went through his head on a daily basis. "I'm Zach." He replied.

[Deleted]

Larisa's eyes softened. Gone. Poor child. Shaking her head, she held the basket out again. "Go on, take as much as you want." She knew from experience how little you could end up being able to eat when you were on your own. Looking around, she eyed the stairs and looked back at Zach. "Come sit with me. I want to offer you something." She told him, her voice kind and compassionate. She then stepped over to the staircase and sat down on the third-to the bottom step, waiting for him.

Already, her mind was spinning as she tried to figure out how she was going to bring this up. She didn't want to make him feel like a freak. She remembered that feeling all too well. Then again, she didn't want him feeling like a charity case. She knew that when she was a teenager, she had hated people trying to take care of her. Still, he was a child. He needed someone to take care of him. She would have to find a middle ground. As her eyes studied the dark-haired boy, she tried to figure out just how to do that.