Time Change (bxb)

Thirty-Two

Time P.O.V

I'll say it one more time; this could have all been solved if they had just taken me to the hospital in the first place. A magic-free solution without long-trips through the woods to visit a coven of witches and a pack of werewolves, it was the perfect plan that somehow went unheard until now. Since we've gone to their houses, It's only fair if we go to mine too. The final stop in our family-friendly tour.

You could imagine the scene. We walk into the house, and there were my foster parents, sitting on the couch together, relaxing after a long day of work. They both turned to greet whichever one of their kids were entered, only to see another teenager holding their foster son with a hurt ankle. When I tell you they freaked out, they freaked out.

They didn't seem to understand the situation at first, but once everything seemed to click in their heads, the frenzy set in.

"Oh my god! What happened?" My foster mother jumped off the couch, rushing over to us, her eyes zoned in on my ankle. She reached out with a gentle hand out to carefully examine my ankle. Janet, my foster mother, let out a small wince of sympathy. "Honey, it looks like it's broken," She took her hand off of it, rushing into the kitchen too, hopefully, get a bag of ice or something cold.

"Broken?!" I had assumed it was just a sprain; at least, it had initially felt like a sprain.

"How in the world did you do that?!" My only foster sister, Paige, said as she peeked her head into the living room. She let out a laugh, nudging her dad. "I told you he was clumsy," Out of all my foster siblings, Paige was by far the most annoying. She was only a couple of years old when her parents started to foster and eventually adopt me. I guess the instinct to call them still my foster family lingers.

"Shut up, Paige," I snapped at her. I would have attempted to throw something at her if I weren't stuck in Grayson's hold. It was bad enough that I have brought them here in the first place, now they were slowly getting introduced to my annoying family. It could be worse; it would have been all of my siblings.

"Don't tell me what to do!" She snapped back, no longer finding my pain amusing. Paige stormed out of the room, slamming her bedroom door behind her. Vince, my foster father, could only let out a sigh. These kinds of petty fights were normal for siblings. She'd be asking me for something in a little bit like this never happened.

Janet walked back into the room, a small bag of ice in her hands. She had the car keys in the other. At that moment, she seemed to remember that Marcus and Grayson were still standing in the doorway.

"Oh, I'm sorry, boys, thank you very much for bringing Time home. Do you need me to call someone to come and pick you up?" She asked politely, handing me the ice, which I carefully placed onto my ankle. The coldness of the ice felt good against the heat of my ankle. I knew they could both get home through their own means, but when I glanced at the two of them, neither of them seemed willing to leave. Were they feeling guilty? They shouldn't, as there was nothing they could do to change it. My ankle was . . . something, broken or sprained, and their attempts at helping haven't. They've done everything they could, which should have been enough for them. Their facial expressions stated otherwise. "Honey, I'm going to take him to the hospital to get it looked at. Can you watch the kids while I'm gone?" Janet asked, to which Vince immediately agreed. "PAIGE, TREVOR, GREGORY, MOMMY WILL BE BACK IN A COUPLE OF HOURS," Janet moved to kiss her husband before looking back at us expectantly.

The whole time, neither Marcus nor Grayson made a move to leave. I understood why Grayson didn't; he was kind of stuck with the responsibility of holding me. "No, ma'am, we," Grayson quickly eyed Marcus for confirmation. "We wanted to know if we could come with you to the hospital," This threw my foster mother aback. I don't think she expected them to want to follow us into a sterile, depressing hospital, I didn't even really want to go, and they were going to fix my ankle. But some part of me wanted them to remain with me. I couldn't figure out why, but I was filled with sudden anxiety about the idea of them leaving my side.

"Um, boys, I think it would be for the best if you just went on home. I'm sure your families are already plenty worried as we speak," Janet hurried to grab her purse, not wanting to waste any time taking me to the hospital.

'Not really.'

'You wouldn't be saying that if you had met my parents.'

I wanted to comfort them, but it would get weird looks from my foster family. That, and I don't think that either one of them is completely comfortable with their thoughts being at my disposal.

"Would you mind carrying him to the white car in the driveway?" She asked Grayson, who agreed right away. Grayson walked out of the house, holding me tightly to his chest. The car was already unlocked, making it easy for Grayson to place me gently inside. I carefully placed my foot down, already dreading the doctor who would be poking and prodding it more than it has been.

It was clear that I wasn't the only one who was feeling the soon-to-be separation anxiety. As much as I didn't want them to leave, they had to. Janet was no going to let them come along, reasonably so. I didn't know what to say to them. I should be afraid of them, or at a minimum, dislike them. Marcus had chased me into the woods and started the chain of effects that ultimately brought us here, but even with all that, I couldn't make myself blame him. I wanted to, but I couldn't. Something inside me just couldn't come to blame him for it. And Grayson, the innocent bystander in this, has been along for the ride, though I had noticed that there was definitely something going on between the two of them. A closeness that I would have to be stupid not to see it.

"I'll see you whenever you return to school?" Marcus asked, dragging out our departure. I could only nod in agreeance. I wanted to beg Janet to let them stay, but I knew it would do no good. Grayson didn't say anything, an upset look lingering on his face. A sad puppy face.

Janet came out of the house, quickly ending our goodbyes. Grayson closed my door, and within a minute, Janet was pulling out of our driveway, leaving the two boys behind. The further away we got, the more my heart seemed to hurt, and it almost felt like I was longing to be with them.

"How did this even happen anyway?" Janet asked, eyeing me through the review mirror. I couldn't tell her exactly what lead to the events that caused the ankle injury or the events that followed afterward, but I could give a straightforward and believable answer.

"I tripped," It wasn't a lie either. Janet let out a sigh, accepting my answer.

"Keep that ice on it until we get there," I nodded, even though she probably could see the motion. I decided then would be the perfect moment to mention the thing she would kill me over.

"I . . . kind of lost my phone too,"

The woman turned into the literal devil.

A/N:

Man have I been in a writing mood.