Hello everyone!
Here is Stained Glass! It is a total of 22,540 words, 71 pages, I love it! First and for most I want to let everyone know that my inspiration for Remy and Zander are from my favorite couple Zilv Gudel and Rourke! They are super amazing and so amazing to watch! If you don't know who they are go check them out on online! Show them some love! There is extras, as always at the end of the story! I hope you all enjoy it and love it as much as I do!
Thank you all for your continued support!
L.Darling
*****
"I'm sorry Remus, in 6 months you will be 19. At that point, you can no longer be a ward of the state. We've stretched the rules for you because we've had space for you and for Lucian, but my hands are tied." Mrs. Elmsy stated as she stared at me from across her desk. She was the guardian of all of us here at the Oakland Home for children where my baby brother, Lucian, and I currently reside. 4 years ago, we were taken from our parents and placed here. Our parents were scum, John and Dawn Wells, are straight trash. They were reported by the neighbors for the millionth time. Thank god for this time they had both chosen to be on benders, and the house looked like it always had. Unless they knew trouble was headed their way. My brother who was 4 at the time didn't understand most of what was going on. I tried my best to shield him from the nastiness.
"Okay, so what about Lucian?" I asked. Lucian was my world. I had been lucky enough to live in a city with a nice center for us and an almost empty one at that. They held out on placing us with a family until we could be placed together. Lucian has separation issues. Mrs. Elmsy sighed shaking her head.
"Ronnie," she began making hard eye contact with me. She had used my nickname; my full name was Remus Bradley Wells. I hated it, so the moment I could I started going by Ronnie. "Lucian will be placed on his own with a family." My breath hitched in my throat.
"You can't do that!" I practically screamed bursting out of my chair. "We are the only thing each other has! You can't take him, please!"
"Ronnie calm down." Mrs. Elmsy grumbled. Waving a hand at me to sit back down. "As I said we've made exceptions for you but on August 12th, you will be handed a voucher for $500 and no longer be allowed entrance to the home, unless for visiting hours if Lucian is still here."
My heart was beating so fast I could hear it in my eardrums. My world felt like it was crumbling when a light bulb went off in my head.
"What if I adopt him!?" I asked once again almost screaming. Mrs. Elmsy lips tighten so much they were almost nonexistent. But she was a 59-year-old woman she barely had anything left as it was anyways.
"I was afraid you'd ask that." She sighed. "Ronnie you'd have to have a house of some kind with 2 bedrooms and a stable job and by law, you'd have to make above poverty level to be able to adopt your brother."
"Done."
"Remus, it isn't that easy." She sighed.
"Okay then help me." I pleaded. She sighed again. "Please."
"You'll need a good paying job, Ronnie. And with you living in the shelter there are restrictions." She explained. "But if you can work with those limitations you could have a nice nest egg saved up by the time you file for custody."
"What exactly are those limitations?" I asked wrangling my fingers together.
"All jobs must be approved by the head guardian, but jobs may only be in fields of futuristic long-term career paths such as business, technology, medical field, and or Culinary, limited to chef or management."
"How the fuck am I supposed to get a job like that!? The only experience I have in any kind of job definitely isn't legal!" I fumed.
"I'm sorry Ronnie but that's a rule I can't bend for anyone." She looked at me I could see the sadness growing in her eyes.
"I'll figure it out." Like I always do, I added in my head. "But I am good for 6 months, correct?" I asked reassuring my time frame. She nodded. I repeated the motion back at her, I stood and walked out of her office.
I started racking my brain on how to even begin. Any job I ever had was illegal. Whether it was helping my parents deal out their pills every month, or it was jacking anything that wasn't nailed down in a store. I had some money saved from skimming the cash that transferred from my hands to my parents, they were always too high to realize a couple of hundred dollars had gone missing here or there. Lucian and I had to eat somehow. Our parents never hit us, but they starved us and made us live in filth. If it wasn't for me dealing their pills, they would have taken them all and we would have been homeless as well. But there were always strangers coming in going from our house. A few times things escalated but I had been able to protect myself and Lucian. I still had issues with simple contact from anyone other than him. A casual bump could send me into a full-blown panic attack. The memories felt like bugs crawling over my skin, I hated it.
As I shook my head hoping it would help clear away the thoughts jumbled inside, I turned the corner. There sat Lucian in his little corner of the playroom building some big thing with the Legos. I stopped to watch him for a bit like I always did. He was smart for his age. But he didn't know how to make friends well, he didn't trust easily. That made two of us. But he wanted to spend his days building things instead of playing with others. We looked very similar. We were both on the skinny lanky side with baby blonde hair, his shaggy while mine was shaved on the sides and long on the top, and strong bone structure. I had big pouty lips while he had soft full lips. I had gunmetal gray eyes and he had dark blue. I also had failing eyesight and needed glasses with a lens so thick they wouldn't fit in normal frames.
"You almost done Lu? It's almost bedtime." I asked while I leaned against the door frame. He looked up with a smile that stretched ear to ear. That smile made my days even the bad ones.
"Ronnie!" He squealed leaping up to hug me. "Whatca get in trouble for this time?" He asked laughing.
"Why is it that I am always in trouble?" I asked wrapping him into a hug.
"Cause it's you silly." He laughed. "Seriously though?"
"Well if you must know Mrs. Elmsy and I were just discussing job opportunities." I explained as we head down the hallway to our room.
"Why?" He asked with a pinched expression on his face.
"Because I need to be an adult if we're going to get out of here together goofball," I said ruffling his hair. I learned a long time ago if I wasn't telling the truth Lucian would know. So, now I resort to telling half-truths on occasions. And with the side-eyed look, I had just received I don't think he was buying that. But thankfully he chose to let it go.
"Where are you going to work?" He asked as we stepped into our bedroom. It was a nice size it fit 2 twin beds one on each side of the wall and 2 desks so we could both have a workspace. We shared the one dresser and the closet seeing as we didn't have much, to begin with.
"I don't know yet buddy." And I had no clue where to start looking.
"Does that mean you won't be around here as often?" Lucian asked has he pulled his jammies out of his dresser.
"Well yeah, but don't worry I'm not going anywhere, and Jackson will be around when I'm not." Jackson was my best friend. He was a volunteer here at the shelter and had been since he was 15, he had been assigned here by the courts for something stupid he did and just never left. He was one of the 2 people in this shelter we trusted. The other being Mrs. Elmsy.
I helped Lu into his jammies and then put on my own. I reached his bed tucking him in. He curled up with his stuff animal giving me a half smile closing his eyes. I wondered over to my bed flopping down. I needed to come up with a plan and fast. I could feel my exhaustion set into my bones as I reached over and cut the light off. Tomorrow I would begin the search for a job and secure the future for Lucian and me. I had already lost so much I wasn't about to lose Lucian, over my dead body.
**
"I've got it!" Jackson screamed. He was currently helping browse the help wanted ads on the computer in the common area. Jackson was a jock. He was tall and lean and full of well-defined muscle. He had warm chestnut brown hair and big emerald green eyes. But he had the personality of a diva. It was fitting considering he was gay. It was something we had bonded over. Jackson was the first and only person I had ever come out to. I was a virgin, and I'd probably die one as well. Lucian was my first and last priority. Dating wasn't even on the list.
"Got what?" I asked scooting my chair towards his staring at the computer screen and began reading what he had seen.
"Jackson that's a help wanted ad for a VP for ZyTech." I sighed.
"Yeah, I know." He replied he must have seen the confusion on my face or maybe the annoyance which made him explain. "If they're hiring for a VP then that VP will need an assistant correct? You could go in there explain your situation to the boss and see if they could help you out. They are always looking for new young blood to corrupt."
"And on what planet do you think that could ever fucking work Jackson?"
"On the planet, The Owner of ZyTech use to be an orphan at this orphanage and is still one of its main benefactors," Jackson said as he pulled up a newspaper article.
Zander Knolls became an orphan at the age of 10 when his parents tragically perished in a car accident. Having no surviving family, he was placed in the Oakland Home for Children. He aged out at 18 but with the help of his mentor, multi-millionaire Charles Stickley, Of Stickley Enterprises, he became the owner and creator of the largest technology marketing and development firms, ZyTech, making himself a billionaire in 8 years. Knolls has also become the state's largest benefactor when it comes to group homes and other at-risk youth programs. Even with all his success Knolls has not forgotten where he came from, as he donated the funds to completely remodel Oakland Home for Children.
Below was a picture of Mrs. Elmsy holding a big check with a grin on her face. I scanned further down the page to realize this was taken in 2015 right before Lucian and I had come to the group home.
"Even if all of this is true there is no way I would be able to even get in that building, Jackson." I sighed immediately pulling myself from the computer screen. "And it's like a billion in one chance I don't get thrown out before I could even speak to the man."
"Aha, but there is still a chance!" Jackson smirked pulling out his cell phone.
"What are you doing?" I asked as Jackson placed his phone on speaker. That's when a female's voice sounded over the phone.
"ZyTech How can I direct your call?"
"Mr. Knoll's secretary please," Jackson said in a gruff voice, clearly trying to mask his teenage voice.
