Shattered

I raked my fingers through my hair and allowed a laboured sigh to fall from my lips as I read the note she had written back to me.
What else was I to expect?
She shouldn't be anything less than angry. This was going to be harder than I thought.
I stopped my pacing and took a seat on the edge of my mattress once more with my notebook and pen in hand. Rebecca wanted answers, I had them. There was no doubt about that.
I took another glance about the rectangular space of the attic that I called my room. There was not much to the layout of this house. A main floor, a second, and an attic was what made up its layers, its outside was iced in peeling white paint and shabby shingles that were about to fall off with the next winter storm to be expected later that year. The house was a complete dump. Not even rats would live here. But it was far away from people, the city, from lights.... however, not the memories.
I picked up the class of whisky I had sitting on my bedside table and took a sip just as I heard my door creak open. Liam peeked his head through with an unreadable expression shadowing his features.
"How's the letter coming along? Did she reply?" he inquired. I let out a humourless snort as I held out the paper to him. The older lad stood over and took it from my hand, and as he read it, a small smirk turned up a bit in the corner. "Wow," he said after skimming through it. "She-um," Liam was struggling with how to reply before, after giving up, he broke into a grin. "At least she wrote back." he offered.
"Thank you for that observation. What would I do without you?"
"You don't need to be sarcastic, you know," Liam said pointedly.
"You didn't need to be redundant," I countered. Liam rolled his eyes as he sat down beside me and took the notebook away so he could read what I had written so far. There wasn't much. He passed it back.
I'm not great with these kinds of things. I'm just not. What would you write to a teenage girl? Or to simplify it: what would you write to a complete stranger?
Answers. Rebecca wanted answers.
She deserved them.
I felt Liam glancing over my shoulder. It was uncomfortable.
"Li," I sighed.
"Hm?"
"Do you mind?" I was doing my best to not sound rude, but it was pretty annoying.
"I could have helped you, you know, but hey what ever you want, mate." He continued to stare at me for a good ten seconds before I rolled my eyes. He knew I wasn't going to waver. With a grunt, Liam finally left me to my letter writing...
Which was going nowhere.
"You know, I had a family once- a whole family- but they were taken from me, do you hear me? They were taken by selfish people and I didn't even get to say goodbye! And now my brother! I'm completely alone. Thanks," I picked up my pen once more, let my mind shut down and began to let my hand take over.

[NEXT DAY]

"Rebecca, I had a family once too. They were never a whole family, but still a family. I have a sister, too. I don't know about you but my family has always been into cooking and sports... Sorry, I'm going on a tangent. My point is: they were taken from you, by someone selfish and full of themselves. I'm sorry.
"You deserve your first answer: The reason why you are not with your brother- your brother has been detained for illegal drug use and possession. Your parents have probably told you he went with family or is in Uni. I'm sorry Rebecca. But please, do not hate the others that are here or your brother.
Like my mum has always told me: to make each day a little better... see beauty even to a garden of weeds. She told me that all the time. The neighbourhood we grew up in was always a bit overgrown and not taken care of, someone just needed to take the time to look at it a second time."
I read this a couple times over. What did he mean Wyatt was 'detained'?
. . .
"Mum, what are you doing?" I ask. I was seven years old.
"I'm cleaning out the flower garden." She says. I nod. I look at all of the weeds that she had pulled. among them were a bunch of yellow flowers.
"Mummy, why did you pull out these ones?" I asked her.
"Because they're dandelions, baby girl." my mum explained. I took in what she said and looked back at her.
"Mum, can I have them?" I ask her, looking at her pile of dandelions. "Why? They're weeds. They're bad..."
. . . . . . .
Dandelions have always been my favourite flower. They weren't weeds to me.
I put his letter in the drawer of my nightstand and made my way over to the boarded window. Pulling back the sheer curtain, I looked out through the spaces between the plywood. The overgrown garden hadn't changed since the several days prior. I had always used to garden with my mum. And I missed it.
What if they let me?
It was worth a shot. What was the worse they could do? Say no?
I crept out of my room. I was going to take a guess. I wandered down the hall. I remembered that the first door was the bathroom. I was going to try the second door.
I opened the door and peeked inside.
It was fairly good sized, bigger than mine. To one side was a pile of clothes beside a dresser, in which had hair products and a couple bottles of cologne strewn across it, the other was a window, but it was not boarded like mine. I strode over, not even bothering to take into account that perhaps the bedroom belonged to someone, nor did I really care. I pulled back the sheer curtain that this room had as well and looked out. There was a large yard of un-mowed grass. Like it had extended several meters out before a rusted wrought iron fence , but after that, it was trees and grass. We were not in London, I thought. But it was sunny. Mid-day. And There were fluffy white clouds in the sky and-
"Rebecca, what are you doing in here?" I heard a voice. I turned to the door but no one was there. "Rebecca?" Then I saw him. It was Niall. He was laying IN the bed, shirtless. Oh shit.
"I-I'm sorry, I was trying to find the kitchen or Louis or-or..." I started. Niall sighed, swung his legs over the side and rubbed his eyes. I felt so bad for waking the bloke up. "I'm sorry, are you mad at me?"
Niall chuckled. He actually seemed friendlier than before. "No, I'm not. It's probably good that you found me instead of him, he's not a big fan of getting woken up."
"Oh," I say.
"Anyway, what'cha need?"
"I- I um, I just wanted to know if, um.." I began. "CouldIshowerandgooutside?" I say in one breath. I squeezed my eyes shut waiting for him to yell at me. But I learned I needn't to expect that from Niall.
"You want go outside?" He repeats.
I open my eyes and nod.
"And shower?"
I nod again.
"Well yeah, you can shower. That's not really much of a question. However I have to ask if you're allowed outside." He said. "I take it you're gonna need clothes." He yawns as he swings his feet over the edge of his bed, stretching his arms above his head as well. "C'mon," he calls as he climbs out of his big bed and out the door. He led me over to a hall closet. He opened up the splintered door to reveal several garbage bags. He took out a small pocket knife (odd that he seems to sleep with one) and tore open a bag. He hardly looked at them. He pulled out a black t-shirt and a pair of black jeans - basically the first two things that were at the top. Then he proceeded to pull out a pair of boxers and handed the pile over to me. "Here, these were his." Then he disappeared back into his room. I put the clothes in my room, and went back to the bathroom.
It had the pleasant sent of cologne my nose as I entered. Let me just say that I've never been so thankful for a shower in my life. I mean, I had to use men's shampoo, but cleanliness was beautiful. I let the hot water run on me for what seemed like hours, but it felt so relaxing. The feeling of being clean was indescribable.
I finally forced myself to get out, to my disappointment. I had to hurry up and get ready before they all started to wake up back. Wrapping myself in a towel that was hanging over the curtain, I opened the door and went to grab my clothes when I collided into someone.
"Ah!" Liam? He covered his eyes as I fell to the floor. "I-I-I... uh, I-I'm so sorry, I forgot my.. 'thought .. was.. in the bathroom" He stammered. He was blindly trying to find the door, apologizing like a madman.
"No, I'm... I-I'm sorry, I didn't realize..." I could feel myself turning red like a tomato. He went behind the door of the bathroom to where the vanity was and began rummaging through one of the drawers. I quickly grabbed the clothes out of my room and was going to go back to the bathroom when I nearly ran into him a second time. I moved to the side to let him pass, he having the same idea. We did that thing where you're sort of like 'Are you going to let me through first or do you want to go? Which way are you going?' It was humiliating because for one, the towel I was wrapped in wasn't very long, and two, we kept bumping into each other, not being able to figure out how to get by one another. Finally, He stepped back, let me go past him and he went on his way. Oh god. Oh my god.
I quickly got dressed. I mean QUICKLY. As soon as I pulled the shirt over my head, I opened the door to find a blushing Liam leaning against the wall.
"Sorry about that, Rebecca." He gushed, scratching the back of his head. "I didn't realize there was a- you in there... Um. . . "
"Sorry," I replied.
"No no no no no, don't be." Liam assured. "Niall tells me you wanted to go out to the gardens?"
I nodded. Liam smiled. "Well there isn't much there but okay, lemme take care of a few things, why don't you have lunch with Louis. He's awake now."
Lunch?

Notes