The Golden Couple

Chap. 67

I wasn't expecting to open Bryce's front door and see Steven Anderson standing on the front porch.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Everything in his voice spoke heartbreak.

"I didn't know how," I admitted.

"Move."

And so I did.

I followed him inside, but paused in the living room, letting him go back to Bryce's room.

"Who's that?" Josh asked me.

"Steven."

Regina just let out a sigh, closing her eyes.

"I'm going to go and lie down," Regina said quietly, before slipping out of the living room.

"Want to watch some TV?" Josh asked me, grabbing the remote before I had the chance to answer.

Steven emerged from Bryce's room almost an hour later, his eyes bloodshot.

"Come watch some TV," Josh invited.

He took a seat on the floor in front of the couch in front of me, his upper body slumping over.

"I suppose he's awake now then," I said to Steven.

Steven let out a humorless laugh. "Yeah I guess you can say that."

"Just watch some TV and hush," Josh ordered.

We finished watching the current episode of Law and Order: SVU in silence.

"How could you not tell me?" Steven asked, his voice broken.

"Because I didn't want to see you like this."

Steven ran his hand across his face, rising to his feet.

"Sorry but we don't allow emotionally charged people to leave the house," Josh informed him. "So you're stuck here until I deem you okay to drive again."

He paced the floor, agitation seeping through his body in the form of muttering under his breath and shaking hands.

Josh shot me a concerned glance to which I could only shrug.

I knew Steven at a surface-level. I'd been there for moral support after his dad's death, but our relationship didn't go much deeper than that.

"This was such a bad fucking idea," Steven spoke up.

"Whoa, language," Josh stated. "You're what, like 16?"

"I should've known that this was a bad idea," Steven continued, unfazed by Josh's reprimand.

"What was a bad idea exactly?" I questioned.

"I'm 16-years old," Steven said, whirling around to face me.

His eyes were bright with tears.

"I'm not equipped to handle this many meltdowns in a day," Josh muttered, more to himself than to me.

"And I've already lost one person to cancer this year," he continued. "I can't go through it again."

"Shit," Josh muttered.

"I should've walked away when I found out," Steven continued on in his ramblings. "I don't even like Harrison. Why didn't I just leave when I had the chance?"

"Steven," I said, standing up to attempt to comfort him.

But he just turned his back to me, clearly distressed but disinterested in my consolation.