Perry
Aly continued to cry in my arms as Aaron wrapped a fluffy blanket around us. He hadn't said what had happened but whatever it was, didn't make me feel good. When his sobs had finally started to slow down, I asked Aaron to grab a small bag of ice. When he came back I pulled back ever so slightly to gently place the ice onto his face. He instantly flinched when the cold touched his skin, making me run my free hand gently on his hair. It made me furious to see bruises and dried blood on his innocent face. How could people hit each other, especially a child?
As Aaron sat behind Aly on the couch, I took the bag of ice off his face after a few minutes. I then gently wiped the few remaining tears away before asking, "What happened tonight Aly?"
He looked down at his hands that were bawled up into the fluffy blanket. "My foster parents found out I've done drugs since rehab. They found Allen dealing and went bananas. They started beating on him until he told them whose he's been dealing to. They marched into my room and demanded I tell them about the drugs. When I tried to deny it, because I was scared and didn't know what to do, they lost it. They kept saying how ungrateful I was and then they said they wanted me out." His eyes started to fill with tears again before he shut them. "They said they were going to try and find someone else to become my foster parents. Apparently Allen and I had disgusted them so much they couldn't even look at us anymore." He then looked back up at me as he whispered, "I didn't know where else to go."
I then wrapped my arms back around him while pulling him into my chest. His fingers clung onto my back as he cried harder. "You are always welcome here. And no one is going to hurt you here, I swear."
Angry tears were forming into my eyes as I held onto Aly harder. "I swear I haven't done heroin, please believe me."
"I do believe you Aly," I said while tightening my arms around him.
"My foster parents didn't believe me."
"We believe you," Aaron's voice said as he wrapped the blanket more around Aly. "And always will. Can you tell me the name of your foster parents?"
Aly took multiple deep breaths before he whispered, "Drew and Kate Wilson."
I scrunched my eyebrows at Aaron, silently asking what he was planning. He simply shook his head before standing up. "I'm just going to grab some food, I'll be right back."
With that he left, giving me a sneaky suspicion he was up to something. When the apartment was quiet I looked down to see Aly completely passed out in my arms. Suddenly remembering Cleo had texted me earlier, I gave her a quick reply before resting my head onto the couch cushion. I sadly shut my eyes before pulling the blanket closer around us. Having Aly in my arms made me realize that even though I've lost kids, there were still kids out there who needed me. I felt connected to Aly because both of our parents weren't the best. And if I wasn't there for him, who would be?
Aaron
As I walked up to the large house in front of me, I could feel the anger bubbling up inside of me. It upset me that someone could hurt a child, especially one they were fostering. What the hell was wrong with people? I wasn't sure if Perry would be okay with what I was doing, but I knew he wasn't okay with what those people did. I may have pulled a few strings with a cop I was pretty close with, since I had interviewed him multiple times. At first he was really reluctant to give me any information and flat out said no when I was trying to find an address. However, when I told him these people had hurt children, he gave it over.
Now here I was, running up the steps before I was pounding on the door. After a few minutes the door opened and an angry man was looking at me. "Can I help you?" He spat out as a woman walked up behind him.
"Are you Drew and Kate Wilson?"
"And why do you want to know?" The woman angrily asked as she put her hands onto her hips.
I then noticed the knuckles on this man were red and bruised, pissing me off even more. Aly's bloodied and bruised face popped up into my eyes as I grit my teeth. "How dare you hit a child?"
The man then slid his hand into his pocket with a scowl on his face. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"You son of a bitch," I muttered while walking forward and punching him in his stupid face. The woman flinched as her husband stumbled back and held his jaw. "How dare you take a child into your home only to hit them?"
"You don't know what you're talking about," the guy spat as he walked back over to the door. "I didn't take these kids into my home only to have them drugs under my nose!" He yelled.
When I suddenly heard footsteps upstairs I asked, "Is Allen still here?"
"No," the woman said. "He's not."
I laughed a dry laugh while looking at her stupid face. "Like I'd believe you. Allen!" I suddenly yelled while shoving the guy out of my way. "Allen, my name is Aaron and Aly is with me. Please come with me so you're safe."
"I told you he isn't here," the man said when footsteps were suddenly bounding down the stairs.
I watched as a boy wearing a black sweatshirt and ripped jeans ran down the stairs. He also had deep bruises all over his skin, some hiding under his shaggy blonde hair. When his foster parents looked over at him, he flinched and ran behind my body. "Not here huh?"
"You can't just take him," the woman said.
"I can and I will. You want to try and stop me? Go ahead, but I can guarantee you'll look worse than these kids."
She glared at me as I gently ushered Allen out of the house. "Fine," the man said from behind us. "Take those two drug heads. They'll probably just overdose anyway."
Allen flinched next to me as I stared at them. They reminded me so much of Perry's parents I couldn't take it. There was no way I was going to let Allen stay here, so I swallowed my anger and led him to my car. After making sure he was in I walked around and got in before driving away. Glancing to my right I saw Allen simply staring straight ahead as he was breathing rather heavily.
"Sorry for randomly taking you out of there," I said while slowing down for a stop sign. "After I saw what happened to Aly, there was no way I could leave you there."
"You're the ones that have been really nice to Aly?" When I looked over at him he quickly wiped his eyes while looking down at his lap. "I heard Aly talking about you guys before."
"Aly first talked to my fiancé Perry, who actually went through a similar situation."
Allen nodded as he started biting his nails. "I remember when he gave a talk at school. He seemed like a cool guy."
I smiled while saying, "He is. And Allen I want you to know, you're going to be safe tonight." He looked back over at me, his brown eyes wet with tears. He gave me a small smile before looking forward again. I then noticed more bruises were sprinkled over his pale neck, making my fingers tighten on the steering wheel. "So tell me, what do you like to eat?"
"You mean like fast food?"
"Whatever you'd like."
This time his face lit up with a large smile. "Really? Drew and Kate never let us eat that. They practically force organic shit down our throats. Oh, uhm. Sorry for uh, cursing."
"Don't worry about it. And you know what? You're not around your foster parents so you can eat whatever you'd like."
He smiled again before directing me to a local fast food restaurant. After buying lots of random food, I watched as he started shoveling fries into his mouth. "God this is good," he moaned while taking a bite of a burger. I simply laughed while putting some fries into my mouth.
We sat in a comfortable silence while we ate our food until he put his hands onto his stomach and sighed. "Thanks for buying that."
"Of course. Can I ask a personal question?" He simply shrugged while taking a drink of his lemonade. "How did you end up in the foster care system?"
He made a sour face while placing the drink in between his legs and started to play with the straw. "I was given up as a baby and I've been in the system ever since. I've jumped around from house to house; I guess it's just my norm now."
"And how did the drugs start? If you don't mind me asking of course."
"No, it's fine. I started doing drugs awhile ago, mainly because I wanted to feel something. I was getting sick of having to go through every single Mother's and Father's day alone. So I ended up with the wrong crowd and they got me into drugs. It felt almost nice in a way, because I had this group of people who were always around me. Eventually I stopped caring about stupid holidays and now I guess I'm a little shit." He gave a harsh laugh as he leaned his head on the headrest. "It's my fault Aly kept getting drugs; I shouldn't have dealt to him. He didn't deserve it."
"And you think you did deserve this?" I asked while stopping at a light before looking over at him. He was frowning as he glanced up at me, his face looking so innocent.
"Better me than anyone else. Even though Drew and Kate were mad at me, they were actually paying attention to me. They're really busy with work so Aly and I usually end up alone. When you're alone so much nothing really bothers you anymore."
I frowned while looking at him, the protectiveness inside of me coming out. "You won't be alone tonight."
He gave me a small smile before looking back out the windshield. Once I finally pulled into my parking spot, I helped Allen out of the car before we walked inside. I smiled when I saw Perry and Aly sleeping on the couch, as Allen carefully placed the food bags down onto the coffee table.
"Can I eat another burger?" He whispered while sitting down onto the other couch.
"As long as it won't make you sick."
He smiled while sticking a random fry into his mouth. "Where's your bathroom just in case?"
I laughed while showing him around the apartment before plopping back down onto the couch with him. As I quietly turned the TV on, I looked between everyone in the room. Perry had his arms tightly around Aly, who was snuggled up into a blanket. Allen was watching something on TV while eating another burger. I had really never thought of having a family before. But looking around at everyone in this room, I felt happy. I wasn't sure what was going to happen tomorrow but for now, everything was perfect.