Wish You Were Here

Chapter Five and Six

Chapter 5

    "Come on, we'll get you to your room."
    I was finally at home. I lived in a large apartment I used to just share with Sean, but now my mom had moved in, and Riley was staying with us for a while. She was leading me to my room while my mom followed closely. She was really living up to her promise to be a better mom, maybe living up to it a little too much. She was all over me, always asking if I needed anything or if I was okay. She had asked me if I needed Tylenol every time she got a chance, and the worst part is I had only been home for five minutes.
Dad, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. To prevent himself from being a bad parent, he decided that it would be easiest to just leave me alone altogether. I guessed he thought that if he wasn't there to be a bad parent, he couldn't be a bad parent, which is of course a characteristic of a bad parent, and a bad husband I might add. It really seemed to be tearing at my mom, even though she was trying to hide it (Very unsuccessfully, too).
"Do you need anything dear?" Mom asked me.
"No, Mom."
"Alright, love you!"
I continued down the hall to my room and plopped down on my bed. I had forgotten what it meant to be home. Looking around my room, I was instantly hit with a wave of deja vu, for I realized that last time I was in here I was crying from Cole's constant bullying. Last time I slept in this bed was the night before I ended up in the hospital, and that night I had cried myself to sleep, because Cole Mason had me pinned to the ground, nearly choking me and verbally abusing me every way possible. I had thought that was the worst time ever.
But it clearly wasn't.
"Your room is nice," Riley said, interrupting my thought. 
My room was the room that any average dork would have. I had half of one side wall lined with overflowing bookshelves, and the other half had a lounge chair, floor lamp, and a table with a few books on top of it. The other side of my room had a dresser with a small tv sitting on top, and my desk -- you guessed it -- had books on top of it. The back of the room was home to my small twin bed with a plain navy blue comforter set and an art easel I didn't even use.
"It's pretty bland in my opinion, but thanks." I replied to her.
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"That's a ton of books."
"Oh, yeah-"
"I love it."
"Really?"
"I'm a major bookworm."
"Me too!"
"I can tell."
"If there's anything you want to borrow feel free. My room is your library! Well, I guess it's our room this week."
"What?"
"You're staying with us, right?"
"Yeah..."
"So there's no more rooms, I thought you'd be staying in here."
"Sean said I could crash on the couch."
"Trust me, you don't want to do that. Sean likes to come home with girls at three in the morning."
"Oh, wow."
"Yeah. You can totally stay in here, it's not like I can do anything. We'll pull out the air mattress and set it up, it'll be like a sleepover. Not that I've ever had a sleepover though."
"A sleepover with my boyfriend? How could I pass that up?"
She walked over to me and gave me a kiss.
"I guess you can't." I said, smirking.
She sat down in one of the chairs, and it was quiet for a minute. Then, that's when I heard soft crying from down the hall, and soon after I heard Sean's voice.
"I don't think he's coming back. It'll be okay, you were to good for him. He was a jerk anyway, you can do so much better."
"He's probably got a girl over." I said to Riley, and continued listening.
"We've got to tell him, Mom. He deserves to know, can you compose yourself long enough to do that?"
Mom? I didn't know what they were supposed to be telling, or who for that matter, but I had a feeling that they'd be in here in just a moment. I just wanted to know what they were talking about. I guess Riley was thinking the same thing, because her voice interrupted my daze.
"What are they talking about?"
"I...I don't know."

    Not even a minute later, Mom and Sean walked into my room.
    "Honey, I, we, we have to tell you something." She said with a dismayed look.
   
36
"What?"
    Sean glanced at Riley, and she must have understood because she quickly stood up and exited the room.
"Honey, you're not going to want to hear this but you have too."
    "Is it why dad isn't here? Believe me mom, it's not that hard to figure that one out. He decided that being a bad parent was easiest to avoid by just not being here. I get it."
    "Well, yeah, that would be the case but you don't have the whole... the whole story."
    "Well?"
    She began to cry and Sean hugged her. "I'll tell him mom, don't worry about it."
    "No, he, he needs to hear it from me." She wiped her eyes and sat next to me on my bed.
    "The other night, right before you came home, your father started packing his stuff. I asked him what was wrong and he said he didn't want to be around you if he was going to have to change because it would be easier to avoid it all together, so there were no slip ups or anything. Well I told him that was ridiculous-"
    "It is."
    "Well he didn't like that. He said he didn't want to put you in danger, that he didn't want you to be let down again. Atticus he really did have a good intention, but he left me. Not just left me here, he left me for good. He wanted you to have someone who could be with you with good intentions, and he said he came to grips with facts that we weren't-" Her voices faltered, and she managed to say one more thing before she burst into tears. "We weren't meant to be together. This hurt him as much as it hurt me, it's just, he said, and I quote, 'To find love like Atticus and Riley have.'"
    "Mom...I never meant for this to happen."
    "I know. But it happened."
    She turned to Sean and started to sob into his chest. He led her out of my room and shortly after Riley returned.   
    "What was that about?"
    I felt the tears welling in my own eyes. "My dad left all of us...and it's my fault." I started to cry and Riley came over and laid down next to me in the tiny bed, squished against me. She took my hand and tried to calm me down.
    "Atticus, it's not your fault."       
    "Well it sure seems like it."
    "Why would he do such a thing? All of you guys?"
    "He didn't want to risk being a bad parent to me and he also thought that he didn't love my mom anymore. He thought that he needed a romance like ours, and he said that right to her face." My voice began to rise as I got more upset. "I never should have told them about us, I never should've stood up for myself. Every time I do, with Cole, my dad, my mom, it always turns out bad."
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     "You stood up to your parents out of love, Atticus."
    "Well it ended up tearing us apart, and it's all my fault."
    "Don't talk like that. You didn't do anything wrong, and this was all your father's stupid decision.
    "But it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't done anything." I turned to her and, much like my mother, sobbed into her shirt. She continued to hold me and rub my back. "Let it out, Atticus." She held me close and eventually began to sing.    
    "The flowers have wilted.
    The rain is falling.
    The wind is howling.
    I hear you calling.
    You say my name and take my hand.
    I really do not understand.
    Until you say those words to me
underneath the moon.
    Until you I hear your voice speak:
    'I
    Love
    You.'"
    I was silent through the whole song, her voice was like an angel. The sound floated through her mouth and it was like a piece of her heart had weaved its way into her voice and then into my soul. After marveling at her voice the lyrics began to sink in. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard.       
    "Riley..."
    "Yes?"
    "That... That was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. Where did you learn it?"
    "My dad used to sing it to me and my brother when we were kids."   
    "I didn't know you had a brother."
    "I had one."
    "Had?"
    "Yeah... Those were the last things I said to him before he died. I haven't sung that song in years."
    "And you remembered every word."
    "I did."
    "I love you, Riley."
    "I love you too."
    I snuggled into her side and due to her shortness still managed to kiss her on the cheek. She smiled and pulled my lips to hers. I flicked on the T.V. and pulled up netflix.
    38
"Any requests?"
    "How about something funny?"
    "Alright."
    I turned on my favorite Adam Sandler movie and Riley climbed under the blanket.
    "Alright, I know it's Netflix, but I'm still recovering, okay?" I said jokingly.
    She playfully hit my shoulder. "Seriously?"
    We watched the movie and soon enough I fell asleep before her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    "Atticus?"
    I woke up to Sean shaking me awake, Riley on the other side of the bed near the wall.
    "What?" I said quietly so I didn't wake her.
    "Come here I gotta show you something."   
    "Sean, I'd prefer not to get up."
"Please?"
"Is it that important?"
"Yes."
"Fine."  I reluctantly grabbed my crutches from the floor and stood up.
"Come on."
He led me to the living room where there was a teen girl on the couch wearing a formal dress. She was really pretty, but I didn't understand why she was here. She was about 5'3, with medium length brown hair and dark skin.
"Sean I don't care what you did last night believe it or not."
"Atticus, just talk to the dang woman."   
She turned around and smiled at me. "Are you Atticus?" She said in a very country-like voice.
"Um, yeah."
"I've been wanting to speak to you."
"Why?"
"It's about Cole."
"I don't want to hear a thing about him."
"This is important."
"What?" I didn't move from my spot at the end of the hall.
"I need to know why he hated you."
"How am I supposed to know?"
"Exactly. You don't. Because, well, I'm Cole's sister. My name is Amara, and I just need to know a couple of things because I'm making it my mission to find Cole. What were you guys? Enemies, friends, lovers....?"