Hey There, Delilah

Hey There, Delilah (26)

"But Jell-O's really good," I pressed on, mashing it a little with the spoon. I chuckled when I remembered how I used to play with Jell-O when I was little.

"What?" River asked, dropping his hands and leaning back toward me. I dropped the spoon into the bowl, smiling up at him as I continued to remember the memory.

"Oh, it's nothing. I just remembered how I used to play with Jell-O when I was little. I thought it was a toy, and I'd always get in trouble by my mom, but my dad thought it was the funniest thing in the world..." I smiled sadly, pushing the Jell-O back onto the table.

"Your dad?" River asked, obviously noticing how sad I was when I mentioned my father. "You never really told me about your dad."

I shrugged, sighing and leaning back into my chair. "He just kind of... disappeared when I was seven. My mom said he was dead, but she could never really give us an explanation. She just said he was dead, and there were no questions asked. I just started to go with it after a while..." I explained, crossing my legs.

"I'm sorry for asking," River told me, but I shook my head quickly and smiled.

"No, no. Don't feel sorry. I just wish I knew what really happened, you know?"

River nodded, but he didn't say anything.

"What about your family?" I asked, scooting my chair closer to him. "When are they getting here?"

"They're not," River sighed, shrugging uncaringly. My jaw dropped as I continued looking at him.

"What do you mean, they're not coming?" I asked.

"I didn't die or anything, so they didn't really care. All they care about is money and themselves. They have no time for their reject son," River informed me.

"You are not a reject!" I cried, slapping a hand over my mouth after I did so. I didn't mean to be as loud as I had been. He probably thought I was some type of lunatic now. "You're not a reject, River. You're super smart and you can speak, like, a bazillion languages!"

"You might think that I'm not a reject, but my family thinks I am," River informed me when I zoned back in. "Tanner would even call me Reject River all the time..."

I frowned once again. Why did Tanner have to be so mean?

"I'm sorry," I apologized.

River shrugged. "Don't be. I don't care what my family thinks. After I turn eighteen, I can be done with them. And my birthday's in August, so I just have to wait until then... But after school ends, I'm going to have to make sure I have a place to stay, because there's no way my parents would let me stay at home, even if I wanted to," he explained to me, pulling at the hospital bed sheets. My eyebrows furrowed in sadness as I looked at River. I could tell that he was really hurt by how his family was treating him. It made me feel horrible.

"You really don't deserve to be treated that way," I let out, reaching out and grabbing River's hand. "But don't worry, okay? You'll always have me, no matter what. Okay?"

River nodded, looking a little surprised. "Okay."

If only he knew what I was willing to do for him. I was willing to do everything that Seth had said River was willing to do for me. Now that I finally admitted that I was in love with him to myself, I finally realized just how devoted I was to him. I couldn't even imagine being away from him. I knew that I had to leave eventually to go back to school so that he could sleep and get some rest, but I found that tearing at my heart for some reason. I just didn't want to leave him. I wanted to be by his side.

But did he want to be by mine?

*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~*