There's A Place For Us

Chapter 12:Timothy

Hugo and I walked hand in hand to my Aunt’s hotel. We were careful about it just in case people were uncomfortable with it. The last thing either of us needed was to get beat up. When we arrived at my Aunt’s hotel we took the elevator up to the floor her room was on. When she opened the door, she hugged me and smiled at Hugo.

Hugo sat by the window looking out as I told her how we’d met and what had been going on. I cautiously relayed the s****l assault story to her, and Hugo doesn’t say anything. I don’t know if he trusts me or if he was just not trying to think about it. Aunt Sam looked back and forth between us. I told her we’d gone to the police, I told her about failing my mid-term and how I hated all my classes. I told her that even though Hugo had given me the idea that I’d seriously thought it over. That I honestly didn’t think university was for me, or at least not right now. I told her I didn’t know what I wanted instead but I knew I didn’t want to continue something I hated.

Lastly, I told her how I and Hugo felt about each other.

“I’ll tell my Mom eventually, we still need to have the main conversation about my whole sexuality. If I throw this at her I’m not sure she’ll be as open about it,” I explain.

“You like each other, the circumstance shouldn’t matter if no one’s getting hurt and you both want it,” she reasoned. “You both deserve love and understanding and you seem to have found that in each other, for different reasons, of course, but nonetheless.”

“I have an idea,” she continued. “Maybe I could foster you.”

Hugo looked away from the window at her hopeful but sad.

“I used to do it, remember Timothy?” she replied.

There had always been kids coming and going from her house, I thought she was babysitting them all when I was young but as I got older I learned they weren't there for a few hours, they were there because they had nowhere else to go.

I gripped her hand.

“Please,” I murmured looking her in the eyes.

“I’ll have to get in contact with his social worker and the city since he’ll have to come back here for court,” she reminds me. “But I will try.”

Hugo looked conflicted about it, like he should be happy he could be so close to me, yet, holding back because it wasn’t a sure thing, yet. My phone rang then. I pulled it out and it showed it was coming from the Maine Police Department. I looked up at my aunt. I got up and walked to the window where Hugo was sitting and placed a hand on his shoulder as I answered.

“Hello, is this Timothy Winter?” the officer asked.

It was neither of the officers we’d been interviewed by, this one was male.

“Yes,” I answer.

“Is Hugo Hades there with you?” he asks.

“Yes,” I answer again.

“Can I speak to him?” the officer asks.

I offer the phone to Hugo. He looks at it and then up at me.

“They want to speak with you,” I explain.

He took the phone slowly and cautiously as if he could crush it in his hands or something. He put it to his ear and spoke, “Hello?”

“Hello, Hugo,” I heard the officer respond gently.

I could hear both sides of the phone conversation as I sat down next to him.

“Your social worker misplaced your file and by the time she got a replacement you were gone from the Hunt household. She filed a missing person’s report but because you were a foster kid and the circumstances you left under they figured you’d run away and would come back. So, they set it aside and nobody got back to it,” the officer explained lightly.

I sighed, it was their job to get back to it, I knew social workers were underpaid and overworked but these were kids, I’d heard about foster kids dying due to this ignorance. It never affected me until now, when it was somebody I cared about who was the kid experiencing the ignorance first-hand. Why would Hugo go back to the place he’d been hurt? Humans are taught to run or fight danger and Hugo had already tried fighting Seth the night it happened and it hadn’t worked. So, his only other option was to run and why would he go back if nobody would be there to stop Seth or help him? Why wasn’t his case more of a concern if he was fourteen at the time? He didn’t have a record of running away as far as I knew so why would they think he’d run away this time?

“Also, Seth accused you of the s****l assault,” the officer continued.

“That’s what he told Maggie, and Colton Hunt, yes. It was a lie,” Hugo stated coldly.

“I see, the thing is it’s on record, he’s been to therapy for it. He’s described it quite similar to you,” the officer continues.

He had been there, he’d known what he’d done, why wouldn’t he try to garner more sympathy or maybe proof or defence in case Hugo did attempt to come back like he was? He was a monster.

“The one thing you have going for you is there are other reports,” the officer continues.

“What do you mean other reports?” Hugo asks.

“Of foster kids and kids at the university, he’s going around r****g and breaking into their rooms. They don’t all name him as the assailant but some have named him as a person of interest,” the officer clarifies.

He had continued, he’d hurt more people after Hugo. There had to be evidence some were in his mass of victims. If he couldn’t be charged for the things he’d done to Hugo maybe they could get him on something else.

“The social worker should be in contact with you soon, have a good night, Hugo,” the officer bids and gives Hugo the social worker’s phone number so I know to pick up the call. I hand the number off to Aunt Sam so she can call her later. Hugo hangs up the call.

“There are other people. He did it to others. He accused me. He went to therapy and lied his face off to a therapist,” Hugo exclaimed annoyed.

“He can at least get charged with false reporting if nothing else,” Aunt Sam reasons.

“They believed him and sent him to therapy. I got kicked out and lived on the streets,” Hugo continued to exclaim.

It was the first time I’d seen him mad at Seth rather than scared. It did seem ridiculous and quite far to go, but also plausible to keep up his image and innocence. I could see a judge buy it in a TV show or movie and send Hugo to jail for false reporting and r**e in turn.

I wonder how good Seth’s act was. He made his parents and a therapist believe. His parents had years to come to trust him, I understood standing up for your child but Hugo was also their child for the moment he was there. He deserved an ounce of the trust they gave Seth but they wouldn’t even consider it.

The therapist had no reason to trust him so he had to use the story to hook them. As long as it sounded believable and real there was no reason not to treat him. I wonder if he cried when he talked about the incident like Hugo did. They would have all been faked tears, of course, to make her believe. Therapists often pushed to hear more about the issue so they could figure out what was bothering their patients. Maybe the therapist sensed discrepancies in his story but didn’t want to risk their career to find out the truth.

If you think someone’s report is false, it’s a big step especially if you are wrong. The person could sue you, and Seth already had his parents on his side and if they had lawyers, which it sounded like they did, considering the situation fighting the battle would be that much harder. Especially, without the star witness, which was Hugo because he was the one being accused and he was missing as stated by the police department.

“Don’t worry about it right now,” I told him quietly. “You should eat, you haven’t eaten since yesterday.”

I heard his stomach growl, “And something tells me you are hungry,” I continue.

He smiled at me embarrassed.

“I’ll make something for you boys, okay?” Aunt Sam says.

We both nod and I follow her into the kitchen.

“Take it slow with him,” she whispers.

“I know. I already scared him off once, I’m not inclined to do it again,” I tell her.

She looks at me.

“I got mad at him for telling me to quit school, I didn’t think it was reasonable at the time. It’s still not really. I didn’t say he had to leave but he left, for a week, I missed him,” I tell her.

“I still think it’s a bit crazy, what are you going to do?” she replies.

“I can get an internship somewhere with my experience, I need to figure out what I want because I don’t know what I want right now. I don’t think I ever wanted to go to university it was just part of the plan. What I was supposed to do, or thought I had to do,” I explain to her.

“Whatever you decide we’ll be here for you, just know that,” she answers.

“I know that, I think I always knew that, I was just scared,” I reply.

“It can be scary to tell people what you want especially if it’s not what they want,” she agrees.

I leave her to cook us dinner and go back to Hugo. He still sitting in the window seat staring out, I noticed it was snowing. I thought about how we spent the early hours of this morning, how wonderful it was.

I sit down beside him and take his hand. He looks over at my hand and his eyes trail up to my face.

“What if it doesn’t happen? Me, getting adopted by Sam?” he asks.

“You have my number, I could give you my e-mail, once we’re both settled, we can call or e-mail each other and figure out where and when we can see each other,” I reassure him. “I told you I’d look for you before we had this, I promise I will, okay, Hugo?”

He snuggles into me and I wrap an arm around his shoulder.

“You’re not alone anymore,” I whispered. “You’re not going to be homeless again, either, not if we can help it.”

He turns his head and kisses me gently on the cheek. I beam at him afterward. We eat my aunt’s food and shortly after leave to make the walk back to my apartment. We lay in the bedside by side and for the first time, it’s because we like each other not because Hugo needs a place to sleep or a safe place to escape the nightmares of what Seth did. I let Hugo take the lead in any kissing or touching so I know he’s comfortable and I’m not pushing him. I pray it all goes well with the adoption, the court, and the sentencing. I hope Seth goes to prison for a long time. I hope Hugo can heal and get past it all after it’s dragged back up again by people who don’t have as much understanding, sympathy or patience for how traumatic it must have been for him and Seth’s other victims. Maybe Seth’s parents won’t be able to foster any more kids either due to their negligence. I just hoped they realized their mistake and the damage they’d truly done both to Hugo and those other victims who wouldn’t have suffered had they taken action when Hugo had told them what happened two years ago.