We walk into a restaurant called Keggs. Its actually a bar too but its really cool. They tend to have bands come play on their tiny stage and its really relaxed here. Basically everyone is in a good mood.
"Lief, have you ever been to a restaurant before?" I ask him, looking down at the boy holding my hand. He shakes his head. I lift him onto my hip as we get to the counter. "Well this will be your first time then." I give him a kiss on the cheek.
We find an empty table and get settled before we agree on getting a pizza. I go to the counter and order it before going back and sitting down.
"The place next door sells churros. You guys wanna go there for desert?" I ask. Asheley nods and Lief looks confused.
"Churro?" he asks.
"You don't know what a churro is?" I ask him. He shakes his head. "Well then I'll have to get you one then. They're really yummy. Covered in sugar and cinnamon and sometimes they're filled with cream," I tell him. His eyes go wide and dreamy making me smile.
"Otay, daddy. I want one," he says happily.
A few minutes later the pizza is brought to our table and we start eating.
"So what do you think about starting school?" I ask Lief.
"I don't want to go to school," he mumbles, looking down at his food.
"Why not? It'll make you smart and you can make tons of friends," I tell him. He shakes his head.
"Everyone is mean to me. The teachers say I'm not smart and the other boys hurt me. The girls just laugh," he basically whispers before his shoulders start to shake a bit as he sniffles.
"Hey, its okay. Those people were mean and stupid. Don't worry, this school will be a lot better. Its the school I went to and I'm gonna see if you can have the same teacher I had. She's really nice and gives lots of candy. Don't worry," I tell him. He crawls in my lap and hides his face in my shirt. After a little bit I get him to finish his food and we're all done we walk over to the place next door and go to where they sell the churros.
"We'll have three churros, please," I tell the girl. She smiles and puts in the order before spotting Lief, who's trying to hide behind my legs.
"Well aren't you a cutie," she says, leaning over the counter to get a better look at Lief. I look down at him to see he's blushing while clutching the fabric of my pants.
"Say hi," I tell him. He shakes his head and goes behind my leg more. I lean down and pick him up but he hides his face in my neck but still peaks at her a bit.
"What's his name?"
"His name is Lief. He's a little shy," I tell her.
"Thats an adorable name. How old are you, Lief?" she asks him. He holds up four fingers, the way I showed him. "Oh wow, thats great!"
We get our churros and Lief tells me they're his favorite now.
Asheley's phone rings and she looks at it. I'm guessing she got a text from Dane because she tells me we should go to my parents.
"Sounds alright to me. Haven't seen them in a little while anyway," I tell her. She nods.
After we finish our churros we go to my car and I drive to my parents house just outside of town. Dane is lucky its a friday night and I don't have anything tomorrow.
We get to my parents house at around seven o'clock so they should still be awake.
I knock on the front door and a moment later it opens up to show my adoptive mom. She gasps and smiles big, immediately hugging me tight.
"Hey, mom. Whats up?" I ask.
"Me and your dad were just talking about you guys! I'm so happy you're here. How are you sweety?" she asks Asheley.
"I'm great, Mrs. Charles! Graham's roommate had a date tonight and we haven't seen you in a while so we decided to come visit. How are you?"
"Oh I'm wonderful. And how's my little Lief?" she asks. Lief shrinks a little in Asheley's arms at the attention.
"Lief, do you remember your grandma Joy?" I ask him. He shrugs, which means he doesn't.
"Oh, thats fine. We can get to know each other better now," she says happily. "Can I hold you?" she asks him. He peeks at her a bit under Asheley's chin, looking her up and down and inspecting her before he decides she's nice enough. He leans away from Asheley and towards mom. She grins as she takes him into her arms.
"Wow, I've never seen Lief warm up to anyone that fast before," Asheley says. I nod in agreement.
We go inside and decide on watching a movie. Lief falls asleep on me half way through the movie and after its over we start catching up. I tell my parents that Lief is gonna start pre-school soon and my parents are gonna try some diet thing to help them stay healthy and stuff since they're apparently starting to get old.
My dad is in the middle of saying something when I black out. I know I black out because the next second Asheley is crouching in front of me, her hands holding my face.
"You back, yet?"
I nod and feel myself start to slump slowly. I hate when this happens. Asheley kisses my cheek as she runs her fingers through my hair gently.
"What happened?" I ask.
"You were talking but then you froze. It was just an absence but you were pretty tense," dad tells me. I nod.
"I'm sorry. My meds are messed up right now. I need to get it handled," I mutter, running my shaky hand through my hair.
"Why don't you just get the surgery?" mom asks.
"Because it costs a lot and I can't take the time off for it," I tell her.
"You have epilepsy. They have to let you take the time off and your insurance will cover it. You are capable of getting this surgery, you just won't do it. Why won't you?"
"Mom, I'm scared. Okay? I just don't like the thought of someone poking around inside my brain, literally. And I hear that you have a lot of seizures the first little while afterwards. It's just too much work for a maybe."
"Honey, its okay to be scared. I'm sure everyone who gets that surgery is. But its not a 'maybe'. It's a 'you'll never have a seizure again'. Doesn't that sound great?"
"Look, mom. It really does sound great. You don't even know how bad I wish I didn't have to deal with seizures anymore. With having them at random times and drawing so much attention to me. I hate that at work everyone is scared I'm gonna just keel over. Or at school my teachers are always keeping an eye on me to make sure I don't have a damn anyuerism! It sucks, believe me I know. But its just not worth it. If it makes you happy I'll do a little bit more research on it," I tell everyone.
"I think researching it is a good idea," dad says.
"Okay. Now lets change the subject, please."
"Will you be spending the night?" mom asks, rubbing my back gently.
"If you don't mind," Asheley says.
