I really wished I could call him right now, for both of our sakes. I scrolled through my contacts trying to come up with someone I could call to distract myself. Then one name caught my eye. Maybe I could still salvage the day.
Chapter 26 – Riker
December 31st, 2016
I was trying not to sulk, I really was, but the later in the day it got the more not in the mood I was. I wanted to be happy. I wanted to enjoy the day, but that went downhill steadily since I woke up. I usually didn’t mind babysitting, but being left to babysit on a holiday while everyone else was out enjoying themselves was just plain unfair. On top of that I was still bummed I wasn’t going to have someone to kiss at midnight. The highlight of the day so far had been the twenty minutes where Kit was texting me, but after that everything went radio silent. So here it was nearly midnight and the entire family was enjoying themselves and I was just standing there arms crossed, slightly away from everyone, and sulking.
“Brighten up, kid, it’s almost midnight,” Dad said.
“I don’t have any reason to brighten up,” I mumbled.
“I can give you one.”
“What?” I asked sullenly.
“Turn around,” he said and gave me a nudge until I turned.
Standing there by the back door, hands shoved in his pocket, a little like he wasn’t sure he should be there, was Kit. I smiled and rushed toward him. He reached out just in time to catch me against his chest.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said as he held me tight.
“You’re not late. You’re right on time,” I said before pressing my face into his neck.
We held onto each other for just a moment longer before pulling away. Almost immediately, my mother was handing each of us a drink.
“Sparkling cider.” Then she turned to me. “For both of you.”
“Awe, come on mom. It’s New Years.”
“Yes, that’s why you’re getting sparkling cider and not soda or juice.”
Kit laughed quietly into my shoulder as she walked away. I wanted to make a comment to him about how my Dad would slip me some champagne if I asked for it, but the countdown started. For a handful of seconds, we both counted with, but I had less than a minute before the new year and there was one thing I needed an answer to first.
“Not that I’m complaining, but why are you here?”
“My boyfriend wanted a New Year’s kiss,” he said with just two seconds left. Then before I knew it, we were at zero and we were kissing. My hands were on his hips, and one of his found its way into my hair. And for the first fifteen seconds of the new year, my world only comprised the two of us. When the kiss ended, we stood with our foreheads touching.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“I couldn’t deny you that moment. I love you too much.” He moved his hand to the side of my face and stroked my cheek with his thumb.
“I love you, god, I love you.”
“Kit!” a high-pitched yell broke us out of our little bubble. Before I knew it, Allie was barreling into the two of us.
Kit smiled and hugged her. “Hey, Allie.”
“When did you get here? Uncle Riker said you weren’t coming. Are you staying, or are you leaving again? I think you should stay. I bet Uncle Riker wants you to stay,” she rambled.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down Allie. One thought at a time,” I said.
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
“It’s fine. I just got here a few minutes ago,” Kit said.
“Are you staying?” she asked hopefully.
“I, uh…” he started but was cut off by Ashley who had thankfully followed her daughter over.
“Allie, time for bed.”
“I’m not tired, Mom,” she whined.
“Yeah you are, you just don’t know it. Let’s go. Say goodnight.”
“Goodnight Uncle Riker, goodnight Kit.”
We both said goodnight back and Ashley carried Allie back into the house. My parents were still in the back corner of the yard talking with Jordan. Fireworks were still going off all over the neighborhood, and once again it was just me and Kit.
“So, you’re staying tonight, whether you like it or not, but are you planning on staying longer than that or are you headed back?” I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but I couldn’t help but think he drove all the way here just for one moment before driving away again.
“I haven’t really thought that far ahead. Do you want me to stay?” Kit asked.
“Yeah, of course, but if you don’t want to then I won’t try to convince you otherwise,” I said quickly, trying not to push him if he wasn’t comfortable.
“Well if I’m being honest. The ten minutes I’ve been here are the best ten minutes of break so far for me. So, I reserve the right to change my mind if I need to, but I’ll stay if you’ll have me.”
“Of course, I’ll have you.” I smiled and leaned in for another kiss.
“I should’ve been here sooner,” he said apologetically.
“You’re here now. That’s good enough for me,” I told him.
“So, umm I will stay, but I kind of left the apartment in a rush and I didn’t really pack a bag or anything, so you might have to let me share your wardrobe.”
I snorted and dropped my head onto his shoulder. “Alright Romeo, you can share my closet,” I said. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me in a little closer. I yawned and hooked my chin over his shoulder.
“Tired?” he asked.
“Yeah. Watching Allie all day is exhausting,” I answered.
“You wanna go up to your room then,” he suggested. “Or do you have some weird family tradition that involves staying out here?”
“No, let’s go,” I said, pulling away from him, but taking his hand and leading him back into the house. Once we made it up to the room I found an extra pair of pajama pants and tossed them at him, then a t-shirt. I moved sluggishly to put my own pajamas on, exhaustion quickly catching up to me. When I finally finished Kit had already dropped into my armchair.
“Why are you there?” I asked.
“It was closer than the bed,” he said through a yawn of his own.
I walked over and draped myself over his lap, my side pressed up to his chest and my head resting on his shoulder. Kit draped one arm over my legs and curled the other around my torso. He rested the bridge of his nose softly on my forehead.
“I don’t want to get up,” I said quietly after a minute.
“Don’t. Stay right where you are.”
“But bed, and blankets, and pillows.”
“But me.”
“Mmm, yeah that’s my problem here.”
We lapsed back into silence for a while. It was rare for us to have a quiet moment, one that lasted this long where both of us were content and willing to let the world continue on without us. I was exhausted and I wanted to go to bed, but I didn’t want to move. I didn’t want the moment to end.
“Ri?”
“Yeah?”
“I wouldn’t hate it if we fell asleep right here.”
I tilted my head up a fraction to look at him. “No?”
“Nope.”
He angled his head and lightly kissed me. When he pulled away, I turned my head further in and kissed his throat before settling my head back in its original position. Kit rested his cheek on top of my head. Yeah, this was perfect.
I didn’t want to fall asleep, but I was exhausted, and I knew it was inevitable. Better to fall asleep right where I was, already comfortable, than get up and ruin that.
Chapter 27 - Kit
January 3rd, 2017
Riker rolled and curled into my side, rested his head on my shoulder, and tossed an arm across my chest. I curled my arm around his back. “Good morning,” I said with a kiss to his forehead.
“How long have you been awake?” he asked.
“Long enough.” I brushed a kiss to his lips. “Do we have to get up for anything?”
“No,” he said, then nuzzled
his head into my throat. “I missed you.”
“I’ve been here for two days now.”
“I still missed you.”
I looked down at him for a moment before holding onto him a little bit tighter. Maybe it was time to tell him the truth.
I took a deep breath and launched into the part of the story he didn’t already know, without preamble, “My aunt dragged me back to my family on Christmas, thought the holiday would knock some sense into them and they’d welcome me back. One of my Dad’s friends was over, he always came over for Christmas, but he uh didn’t take kindly to me being there. I didn’t have a chance to find out if my parents would’ve welcomed me back because he started yelling at me instantly. Before I knew it I was on the ground being beat. All I know is my parents didn’t try to stop him. I woke up the next day in the hospital and was there for a couple days until after New Year’s. Six broken ribs, punctured lung, concussion, internal bleeding, stitches on my arm. It was bad. Family and holidays don’t go over well with me anymore. I usually handle things better alone.”
Riker pulled his head back enough to look up at me. His eyes were wide and horrified. I raised a hand to his cheek and lightly brushed my thumb back and forth across it. “Please don’t say anything. It’s okay and I don’t need any pity or anything. It’s just, it’s hard for me, seeing a happy family this time of year, but I’m glad I came. I am. You, you’re family, you’re replacing some of the bad memories with good ones now. So I can’t promise that next year, or even the year after that, I’ll be ready to spend Christmas with you, but I can promise that from here on out I’ll be with you, wherever you are, at midnight New Year’s Eve.”
He smiled—god I loved that smile—and said, “Sounds good.”
“Now as long as we don’t have to be up, can we just lie here, and you let me hold you?”
“Yeah, we can do that,” he said and put his head back down onto my chest. This was good. This was all I needed in life.
We ended up falling back to sleep like that, only to wake up a few hours later to his mom banging on the door telling us we could get away with missing breakfast, but we at least had to eat lunch. So, we finally got up, ate lunch, and played soccer in the backyard with Jordan and Allie. The rest of the week went by without a problem. We went grocery shopping for his parents, because Riker wanted an excuse to drive his car but also an excuse to get away from his family for a little while. We played video games and lounged around watching TV. We went to sleep early and slept in late. And when we finally had to go back, we were standing out by the car saying goodbye to his parents.
“You’re welcome here anytime,” Riker’s mom said as she hugged me.
“Thank you.”
We waited for Riker to finish talking to his father then we switched parents.
“Thank you for letting me show up in the middle of the night,” I said.
“Don’t mention it. You made my boy happy, that’s all I care about.” Mr. Shahayer pulled me into a hug then added, “You’re a good man, Kit Adams. Take care of my kid.”
“I will, I promise,” I said. We pulled apart and he looked at both of us.
“Drive safe boys,” he said.
Then we were on our way, back to another semester.
Chapter 28 - Kit
December 25th, 2011
“Why should I go? They kicked me out! Dad shoved me out. And neither of them has even tried to contact me since.”
Aunt Kelly walked up to me and framed my face with her hands. “Kit, honey, I know what happened, and I know it hurt, but it’s been a while. You’re their son, they’re your parents, I’m sure they miss you and maybe they have come around and they just haven’t figured out how to make things right with you. Maybe they haven’t. I don’t know, but they are your parents and it’s Christmas, if things are ever going to be right between you again today is the best day to give it a chance.”
“What if they haven’t come around? What if they still want nothing to do with me?” I asked.
“Then I’ll bring you straight back here,” she answered. “I won’t force you to stay there and endure anything you don’t want to endure. But I do think you need to try and make things work with them.”
“They kicked me out,” I said quietly. So many things were running through my head. So many things they could say, or that I could say. A thousand different scenarios of how what she was asking of me could play out. I was scared.
“I know. Just give them a chance Kit, one chance,” she pleaded.
I held up one finger and said, “Just one.”
It took another half hour for me to gather enough courage to actually follow her out the door and into the car. I was grateful that the entire drive, instead of trying to ensure me things would be okay, she just let me be. I needed that time to think everything through and to come up with even more courage to step back through the door to my parent’s house.
I stared up at the house when we parked in front of it. It used to be my home, a welcoming, caring environment, not so much anymore. There were so many good memories there, now marred by one bad one.
Aunt Kelly opened my door and looked at me. “Come on, Kit.”
“Do I have to?”
“No, but you should.”
I took a deep breath and got out of the car. The walk up to the door felt like the longest walk of my life. I felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest, and I had to focus extra hard on my breathing to keep myself together.
Aunt Kelly opened the door and I followed her in. I heard my Mom call out that they were in the living room. We walked that direction, but when she stepped fully into the room I froze in the doorway. Both my parents were there, but so was one of my dad’s friends.
“Kit,” I heard my mom gasp. Nobody else got a chance to say anything. My dad’s friend started advancing on me and ranting, “How dare you show your face here. You unnatural little…”
I didn’t hear what else he said. My eyes had gone wide the closer he got. I had frozen, my fight or flight instinct short-circuited. A fist connected with my shoulder and I went sprawling back onto the ground. A kick connected with my ribs next. I screamed, only to have it cut short by another blow knocking the wind out of me. Vaguely, I thought there was another scream, a panicked voice somewhere, but everything around me was already blurring. Another scream was torn out of me, and then another. I sobbed once, then I lost consciousness.
Chapter 29 - Riker
January 20th, 2017
It was nice out, so I decided to wait outside for Jake and Jermaine. They would only be another ten minutes, fifteen max. That wasn’t too long to stand outside and flick through my phone. Besides, the sun felt good. My bag was slung over my shoulder and I was standing on the sidewalk, out of the way, playing battleship on my phone when I heard footsteps approaching. I thought nothing of it until the footsteps stopped, two pairs of them, right in front of me. I looked up to see two guys, bigger, more muscle than me, standing just inches away and glaring at me.
“Do I know you?” I asked. It was a damn stupid thing to ask, but it was the first thing I thought of.
“No, but we’ve seen you around with that boyfriend of yours. It’s disgusting knowing we live near people like you,” one of them said.
“Okay,” I said quickly firing off a text to Jake and shoving my phone in my pocket. “Just leave me alone alright? We don’t actually know each other, so I don’t really care about your opinion of me and I’ve never done anything to you.”
“You existing is reason enough for me not to leave you alone,” the second one spat out.
“Right.” I let my bag drop to the ground. “Well unfortunately, I have somewhere to be, so…” before I could finish the sentence a fist came flying at my face. I ducked out of the way only to take a punch from the second guy in my side. I kicked my bag into the path of the first guy, hoping to trip him up, as I dodged another fist and tried to land a hit of my own.
One on one I probably could�
��ve held my own, but two against one just wasn’t fair and I was mostly on defense right from the start. The problem was that I had nowhere to go. I was backed against a wall, so I spent most my efforts trying to protect my face and stay on my feet. Still, I was taking hit after hit to my stomach and there was nothing I could do about it. I got one lucky shot off on the first guy’s jaw and one on the second guy’s shoulder, but taking those shots was where I made my mistake. As soon as I connected with that one’s shoulder, the first guy had recovered and was furious. He tackled me to the ground. I couldn’t get back up before the first kick struck my head.
I screamed and quickly threw my arms up over my head. There was nothing else I could do anymore except stop them from cracking my skull. It was possible they had already done that though. I could feel blood trickling across my forehead, my whole head was throbbing, and I was very much dazed. They were still raining hell down on the rest of my body, but all I could focus on was trying to keep my breathing even, hoping it would make it all hurt less.
Finally, I was aware of the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps, then the kicks stopped and other footsteps retreated. Hands were gently prying my arms away from my head.
“Riker, you with us?”
I just groaned and tried to roll over. Another pair of hands immediately landed on my torso gently and helped me onto my back.
“Riker if you don’t say something in the next five seconds, I’m calling an ambulance,” Jermaine threatened.
“Don’t. Don’t,” I said weakly.
“Then talk to me. Other than that head, anything major?” Jermaine asked.
He Loves Him Page 10
