Long Lost Brother

Chapter 20 : Tag

Chapter 20

Morning...

Jeff POV

Everyone was going into town today. Mom didn't care if Riker didn't feel good. She was dragging him along anyway. He kept complaining about his stomach and his headache. He looked awful. He had dark circles under his eyes, and he looked like he had no energy.

After we got dressed, we got in the back of the van. I was next to Riker again, just like when we drove up here.

Dad took us into town. He split us up to go walk around. It was him and mom, Ross, Rocky, and Rydel, and me and Riker. And we were supposed to meet at a restaurant in the town later.

"Where do you want to go?" I asked Riker.

He shrugged his shoulders.

"Well then let's go that way," I said, pointing.

I grabbed his arm loosely, and pulled him along.

Later...

Jeff POV

We'd found a park while walking around town. I brought Riker over to the swings. I swung for a little while, but he just kind of sat there, barely pushing himself with his toes.

I slowed myself down, and got off. I stood behind Riker, and grabbed the chains of the swing. I pulled him back, and then pushed him forwards. I kept doing that until he went really high. I got back on my swing, and swung next to him.

He looked sad and tired, and eventually, his swing slowed down, and he just kind of sat there.

I slowed down too after a few minutes, and just sat there, staring at him.

"Riker, let's do something."

He looked at me, obviously wondering what I meant by that.

"Ok, so I really want you to talk. And you don't want to. So what if we made a bet? If I win, you have to talk. And if you win, I'll stop bugging you for the rest of the trip."

"Fine... What's the bet?"

"We'll play a game of tag. The only bases are our siblings and parents. And I'll be it. If I can tag you before we get to the restaurant, then you have to talk. But if I can't tag you, then you don't have to. Also, if you make it to the restaurant, that's also a base. But we're supposed to be at the restaurant in 30 minutes. So I have that long to try to get you. And you can only stay on a base for 5 seconds."

Riker nodded.

"So is it a bet?"

Riker nodded again.

"Awesome. I'll give you a 5 second head start. Go!"

Riker POV

I took off as fast as I could. I'm not getting tagged. Not for anything in the whole world because these are my feelings, and he doesn't need to know them!

I ran through the park, and came to a playground area. I ran up the steps, and hid inside of some tunnel thingy. It was kind of tight since this was meant for kids, but I needed to hide.

I was peeking out the windows of it, and Jeff saw me. I crawled through as fast as I possibly could, slid down a slide, and started sprinting.

I came to monkey bars, so I climbed up. I climbed so I was on top of them. I crawled to about the middle and then made the mistake of looking down.

I quickly looked back up, and tried to steady my breathing. If I fall, that's going to hurt. A lot.

Jeff started climbing for me. I carefully jumped down, and took off running again. How am I supposed to survive for 30 minutes?