Misfits

one

I was shoving around the dirt with my shoes as I sat on my suitcase, hoping it wouldn't crush under my weight and leave me in the middle of nowhere with a loose pile of clothes I had to carry around to make me look even more like an idiot.

I had arrived by train about an hour ago, and while everyone had walked away towards the parking lot or headed into town I was still sitting here, looking like a lost sheep and feeling more out of place than ever before. The place felt deserted now since not a single car had driven by for the past half hour. This had caused me to half-heartedly believe the people here drove horse-drawn carriages instead of real cars, which was probably untrue yet not so hard to believe considering I was practically in the middle of nowhere.

It seemed like the modern age had not quite reached this town. The station's building looked as if it would fall apart any minute, with plaster that was half crumbled away and wooden window-frames that had long ago lost their color. No people, no cars and a remote old station – everything that was missing now to complete the picture in my head was a single tumbleweed rolling down the street.

A sigh left my lips when I pulled out my phone for what had to be the hundredth time today, checking the time again only to see that a whole minute had passed since I had last checked. That was progress. It meant I had to wait less for another minute.

Yet that didn't tell me when my wait would end.

I briefly considered calling the number mom had sent me once I had left this morning, yet the thought was quickly dismissed again. He would show up, even if I had to wait for another hour. The first thing I said to him after ten years of absolute silence wouldn't be a friendly reminder to pick me up from the station.

So I opened Angry Birds instead to pass the time with the pointless game. Ruby had forced me to download it, and even though I wasn't one to invest a lot of time in games on my phone, I had never bothered to delete it. I was thankful for my own laziness now. The game wasn't much fun, but it was enough of a distraction to pass the time.

My thoughts travelled to Ruby and I wondered what he was doing now. Probably laying in bed, high as a kite while watching bad horror movies to enjoy the last day of summer break. At least that was what we did on lazy Sundays. Actually, every day spent with Ruby was a lazy day. He wasn't one to find joy in physical activities, and while I didn't mind occasional games of soccer or walks, he preferred his bed over anything else.

The realization that I had to go to school tomorrow without Ruby being there still managed to worsen my mood, even though it had already reached a new low-point. I sighed again and put my phone away. I would probably learn to ride horses and start running around with blades of grass between my lips anyway, so there was no point in thinking about home anymore.

I was here now, something that couldn't be said about my father, and mom and her now ex-husband could relax wherever they currently were and take their thoughts off me, the liability, like they had put it. Fucking dumbasses.

Sudden movement caught my eye, and I turned my head towards the old pickup truck that rolled around the corner. The sight of the vehicle with its faded paint and dirty windows wasn't very gracious, yet it perfectly fitted into this old town even if it wasn't a carriage.

The truck stopped, and my heart picked up its pace when the man behind the wheel stuck his arm out of the window to wave at me. Even though I had been waiting for him for more than an hour, it was surreal to think that my father was here, right in front of me, waving out of an old pickup truck that my great grandfather could have owned.

I got up and grabbed my suitcase before walking over to the vehicle, skeptically glancing at it the whole time. Was it safe to get in? What if it crashed under the additional weight? My suitcase looked stronger than the truck.