The smaller boy eagerly awaited his mother's arrival. He had been at the table, eating breakfast with his mother like he usually does, when she got a phone call randomly. In one second, she had been laughing with her only son as they ate together, but in the next, she was hurriedly putting on her coat and shoes, apologizing profusely to her small, black haired son for leaving so suddenly. It all happened so fast, that the boy didn't even have the time to ask her what was going on, wherever she was going, she was in a hurry. However, before leaving, she assured him that she'd be back soon.
Of course, this rarely ever bothered him anymore. His mom has been the sole provider for him for as long as he can remember, so at some point he got used to her having to leave so suddenly for work at random times. However, this time, it didn't look like it was work related. Besides, when its work related, than that means that she won't be back for a while, but she said she'd be back soon. Whatever this was, this wasn't work related at all.
The boy was young, but he was actually quite smart, so he figured all of this out pretty easily. Now he waited patiently for his mother to get back home. He sat on the couch, and occasionally he'd stand in the cushions and peer out of the window to look out at the front yard, wondering when he'd see his mom reappear. It was only a matter of time till she got back probably, because she hadn't even taken her purse. Whenever she meant to be out for long periods of time, she'd bring her purse, but she didn't.
Even if she had taken a while to get back, he'd still be waiting. He's grown so accustomed to being on his own for long periods of time, that he's learned to keep himself company with his thoughts. The boy wasn't like other kids his age, many other kids would complain about boredom, and they'd definitely not be able to sit still for so long.
But this boy wasn't like that. Having only one parent is rough, but he learned very quickly to not make things tougher for himself and his mother than they already were. If that meant he had to grow accustomed to being alone, then so be it.
After what seemed like forever, but had only been around an hour instead, the boy heard a familiar car pulling up to the front of the house. His mother told him to not be peering out the window so often, so instead of looking out at her, he stayed sitting down on the couch, kicking his small feet off the ground as he awaited that familiar sound of a key in the door lock.
Footsteps were heard approaching the front door, and soon the sound of a lock being unlocked was heard, and the door slowly opened.
He knew that his mother would be coming back home, but he didn't anticipate her bringing home someone else. She walked in, but behind her, she brought along a smaller child that the boy had never seen before. The child was hiding behind the woman, and she had a small blanket wrapped around her.
The boy's mother had gently closed the door behind the child, as if she was scared to do anything sudden around the kid, and she then turned to her son, "Ray, can you come here a second?"
The raven haired boy was confused, but he complied with his mothers request. He hopped off of the couch, and he walked up to the two kind of slowly, not knowing what was going on.
His mother then turned around to face the child, "Honey, can you take off your blanket, so that we can give you a proper welcome?"
The child didn't move for a second, but soon she, very hesitantly, took the blanket that was wrapped on top of her head off, and it instead fell onto her shoulders. It was only then that the boy could finally see any features of the child. The child had messy, orange looking hair, dull green eyes, and a very scared looking expression. She caught the gaze of the boy standing in front of her, and she hid further behind his mother.
The woman could tell how scared she was, and so she put her hand on her shoulder, "Hey, its okay, my son is quite nice, you don't have to be scared." Still though, the small redhead stayed hidden behind her.
The boy was pretty confused. Who is this girl, and why is she so scared? Ray was used to kids at school thinking he was weird and avoiding him because of that, but this felt different, this girl was actually scared of him. Where had his mother found her anyways?
His mom chuckled a little, "Ray, this is Emma. She's going to be staying with us for a while."
She stayed in this shy state, still hiding, and the boy had no clue what to do. Apparently she'd be staying with them a while, was she going to be scared of him the entire time? He couldn't have that, that would probably be pretty difficult.
So he chose to walk a little closer to her, and to his surprise, she flinched, but didn't move back anymore than she already had. Up close, he could tell that she had dried tear marks, and he could only wonder what had happened to her to make her as distraught as she was. He got closer, and in an attempt to make himself appear more friendly, he slowly held his arm up to her.
"Hi Emma, I'm Ray." He said, hoping that she'd shake his hand so that he doesn't just stand there with an extended arm. She looked at him for a few more seconds, then she glanced over at his hand, before she took her hand out of the blanket and shook his. Ray kept a welcoming smile the entire time, trying his best to make her feel welcomed.
His mother smiled at this exchange from her son, "See? He's nice, you'll be okay here."
She looked back up at the boy, before she pulled her arm back away from him, and for the first time ever, he heard her voice, "Hi.."
If the circumstances were different, Ray might have made a joke about the girl actually having a voice, but he chose not to, since she seemed to be pretty distraught.
"Ray's around your age, Emma, he's just a little bit older than you. I think you'll be able to get along with him." His mother assured the small redhead.
The raven haired boy may be young, but he's incredibly brilliant, so he wondered what this girl has gone through to be so untrusting of everyone. He didn't want to make her feel weird or uncomfortable, however, so he decided that he'd talk to his mother about it later.
After that first meeting, his mother got the girl settled into their home, but for several days afterwards, not once did Ray hear the girl's voice again. It was truly odd to him, she simply refused to communicate for a while.
One day, about a week after she first arrived, someone came to the house for Emma. She left with the person for an evaluation of some sorts, and for the first time in a while, Ray was alone with his mother, and able to speak to her in private.
Despite his age, his mother knew of his intelligence and ability to understand more than most children his age, so she explained what had happened to him. That morning she had rushed off, she had one of her work friends, a social worker, call her about a child being taken out of an unfit foster home. That child was Emma. So she agreed to take her in, and she had to rush to pick her up from the police station that morning.
Apparently, the home she was taken from had been involved in drug activity, and she was only discovered after police were called for gun violence after a deal went south. The poor girl had been subjected to such a horrible environment for a few months.
These were the only details that were given to his mother, and its the only details they ever knew about her previous house. It explained her silence, definitely.
However, her silence eventually ended.
Emma had gone back to their house later that day, and she brought back a bag that held her belongings she previously had, she was barely allowed to have them back since they had to be evaluated due to the nature of her previous house.
The next day, both Ray and Emma had been in the living room, doing their own separate things. The boy was just watching television, while the girl sat at her bag of belongings, looking through all of her things. Despite her never answering him, the boy would always try to strike a conversation with the girl, so this time was like no other, he saw the girl had pulled out a necklace from her bag.
The raven haired boy glanced at her, and in another attempt to talk to her, he asked, "Whats that?"
A few seconds pass by, silence. But it didn't faze him anymore, his mother told him that she'd speak on her own time, and to just keep encouraging it. She warned him that this could take days, weeks, possibly even months, before she'd get comfortable enough to speak.
Having tried, the boy nodded to himself, and turned his attention back to the television.
"A necklace."
This caught the boy off guard, and it took him a second to even realize that she had responded. Slowly, he turned his head to her, and saw that she was looking at him, while holding up the necklace to show him.
This.. had never happened before, usually his attempts at conversation are futile and do nothing, but somehow, this was the one that finally caught. He never thought he'd get this far, so he had to wonder what to do next. He supposed that continuing the conversation would be the best course of action.
"What's it for?" He asked once more, trying to keep the conversation going and see how comfortable she was with it. Although he still had no idea whether this was the right course of action, his mother told him to keep up the conversation attempts, but she never told him what to do after. Whether it is best to work up to conversations and responses, or whether to just full on continue. He figured the latter of the two made more sense.
She looked back down at the necklace, and studied it for a second. Ray wasn't even entirely sure that she'd continue the conversation, maybe that was going to be her only response.
But once again, he was surprised, because she spoke once more, "My best friend." As she spoke, she kept her dull, emerald green eyes on the necklace, as if holding it up in place with her line of sight.
How could he continue the conversation from there? Ray was smart; he was intelligent, but that didn't mean he was the best with social and conversational cues. Would it be a good idea to ask about this best friend of hers, or should he just leave it at that? What if it was a trigger of some sorts? Academic intelligence and emotional intelligence are two completely different things, so this is not something he knew how to handle.
But luckily, he didn't have to make this decision, because before he could speak once more, his mother walked into the room, turning into the kitchen to prepare dinner. She looked over the island that separated the two rooms, and smiled as she saw Emma looking at her things.
"Oh whats that, Emma?" She asked curiously in an attempt to get the girl to speak, not knowing that she already spoke just a few moment before she walked in.
But the redhead didn't answer to her, and everyone continued on with their day.
~
The raven haired boy sat on the couch, hunched over, holding a pack of ice up to his eye. The redhead sat beside him, looking at him in concern.
"Ray, you shouldn't get involved in these fights so much, you always get hurt." The girl said, concern in her voice. The girl was now 9, and she had been staying with the boy and his mother for around two years now. She's been able to get out of her comfort zone within this time, and shes an absolute delight to all those that meet her.
Well, to most people that meet her.
"So? Its not like I'm the one that starts it." He retorted back, looking the opposite direction away from the girl.
Emma furrowed her eyebrows, "Well, you shouldn't finish them either! There are better ways to handle these things.." She said, preaching her nonviolence.
The boy sighed, as he facepalmed with his only open hand, "Em, you are too optimistic and peaceful. The real world doesn't work like that."
"But why not?" She asked, still turned towards the boy, "I think it should work like that. Things would be way better that way."
The raven haired boy chucked, "Yeah, that would be better I guess."
It was silent for a bit after that. The atmosphere in the room was solemn, due to the circumstances. Ray had gotten into a fight with some kids that had been picking on Emma. In turn, they began to insult him, and a small fight broke out, and now the two are home. Mama wasn't happy about being called from work to pick them up. She went back to work, and told the two that she wanted an explanation when she returned.
Eventually, the girl leaned back onto the couch, "Are you going to tell Mama the truth?"
The boy looked up, and thought for a moment. What did he have to lose? It would probably get him in less trouble if he told her that he had been defending Emma, but also he didn't want her to know about the insults the kids would hurl at him.
After careful deliberation inside his mind, he shook his head, "No, I'm not." He knew she'd get mad at this answer, so he inwardly braced for it.
And of course he was right, because the girl then threw her arms up, "What? Why not?! Those guys said some horrible things to you! She needs to know about it!" She exclaimed. Ray noticed that she tends to be quite loud, which is completely different from how she was when she first arrived.
Ray sighed, it wasn't like he didn't know any of this, "Its alright, Em. I don't want to make it a bigger deal than it is."
That set her off. Upon hearing this, the small nine year old girl sat up, "What do you mean? It is a big deal! They were making fun of you.. for not having a dad.."
The boy turned towards the girl, keeping the ice on his black eye, "And they made fun of you for being an orphan. That is worse, so therefore don't worry about me."
"Thats not a good argument!" She exclaimed, now crossing her arms, "Regardless, you need to tell mama! Right now she's just gonna think badly of you, you need to tell her the truth."
Ray looked forward once more, he knew she was right, but he never wanted his mother to worry about him. She had enough to deal with, being the sole provider of a now three person household, she shouldn't have to worry about him on top of everything. But he knew that the girl would never accept this explanation, so he never bothered with it before.
But with her current pestering, and with his injuries bothering him, he felt everything beginning to feel like it was all too much.
"Yeah? I'd rather have mama think badly of me than worry about me." He finally said aloud.
This confused the girl, who sat beside the boy, puzzled by what he said, "But why? Of course shes gonna worry, but you don't want her to think badly of you!"
The boy shrugged, "She'd worry even more if she knew about everything. I don't want her to have to worry about anything more than she has to. So, just leave it at that."
Emma scoffed, "Thats her job! She's supposed to worry about you, she's mama!"
The raven haired boy sighed, he knew she wouldn't understand it. He shook his head, "You don't understand. Things are tough on her as it is, why would I want to make things harder on her? I don't want to keep hurting her."
The redhead backed down once he said this. She only saw it previously as the boy hiding his pain from mama, but she never thought that maybe it was better on her this way. She stayed quiet for a few moments, before she glanced over at the boy, "You think it would hurt her?"
The boy nodded, "She does all that she can for us. Don't you think it would hurt her that despite all of her efforts, we still deal with bad things?" While he was incredibly smart, Ray had a tendency to arrive at the wrong conclusions, or give up easily. Sometimes, overwhelming intelligence comes with a price.
But this made sense to the girl. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt anyone, especially someone as kind and giving as Mama. But still, one thing didn't make sense to her, "Wait, but even if we don't tell her anything, won't she be hurt by the fact that her son is involved in fights?"
Ray nodded, having realized the same thing not too long after this discussion began, "I thought about that.."
Deep in thought, the two stayed silent, and the silence engulfed the room. It was somewhat tense, until the boy broke that silence by speaking up again, "How about this. We tell mama nothing about what caused the fight, and in return, I'll do my best to stop fighting."
This wasn't a great deal, but it did sound like the most appealing option. Emma pondered on it for a bit, she'd have to actively lie to Mama and tell her nothing about what was going on at school. But this certainly wouldn't be the end of everything, so she'd definitely have to keep lying in the future.
But she thought about how this would mean Mama doesn't have to hurt so much, and Ray wouldn't get hurt so much. If it means less hurt for her small family, then she'd do it.
She turned towards the boy, and nodded, "Okay, we'll do that."
This was the conclusion that the tiny children came up with. In hindsight, it wasn't the best deal, and deep down inside, both of them sort of knew it, but it was easier to ignore that feeling that this might not be right.
Emma really did not like lying to Mama, so eventually, the plan changed. In their upcoming years of school, Emma became pretty secretive about her past, to the point where she didn't talk about it at all, not even much at home. Ray eventually did the same, and the two of them were able to avoid being picked on for these reasons. But as we all know, hiding things is not always the best way to deal with things.
~
"University, huh?"
The redhead was snapped out of her trance, and she turned around to look at whoever was behind her. She saw Ray, and a small smile formed on her face, "Oh, yeah, next week.."
The boy looked up at living room ceiling. They were both at his house, Emma was there to see Mama, so Ray hadn't known that she'd be there. The girl was going to begin university the next week, a really big milestone.
The boy looked back at the girl, "Doesn't Norman leave tomorrow?"
She nodded, and once again smiled, but this time sadly, "Yeah, I'm gonna go see him after I leave here, I wanna spend time with him before he goes.."
Ray nodded understandingly, feeling bad for the girl, "Have you guys thought about how you'd stay together through college?" He asked, concerned about what would happen.
Emma thought for a moment, "We've talked about it. Some weekends, he'll come back here, since he'll only be two hours away, and I'll also go over there sometimes." She sounded confident in their plans. This told the other boy that she wasn't worried, just saddened by the circumstances. Of course she would be, though.
Since she was now facing the boy, she decided to sit down at the couch, as standing had been getting kind of uncomfortable. Ray took a seat at the couch as well, and they continued their conversation there.
The boy smiled a second later, "I'm glad you guys are figuring it all out. That boy, he really cares about you, he'll do everything he can for you.. I can tell."
Emma giggled, "Well, hearing that from you of all people is nice.. thank you."
Ray nodded, and it was silent between the two. There, on the couch, they sat, just the same as they had so many years ago, and just like they always would when she lived with him. It was a comfortable silence though.
Until it was broken, that is, when the redhead spoke up once more, "Hey, Ray?"
He looked up, looking at the opposing wall across the room, "Yeah?"
She glanced to the side, "Do you remember that weird deal we made when we were both nine, that we'd hide what was happening to us at school from mama?"
It definitely caught him off guard. They hadn't spoken about that since high school began, why was she suddenly bringing it up now? He turned towards the girl, "Yes? How could I forget?"
Emma was silent for a second, as if trying to think of how to communicate her next thought. The suspense was a lot for the boy, not knowing what she'd say.
"I think that was stupid."
Well, thats a sure way to say it bluntly. The boy had always known it was quite stupid, but why was she telling him now?
He didn't respond, and she instead spoke again, "I think by hiding it, it only made us hurt more. Well, it definitely hurt me more in the end to hide everything. It wasn't our job to protect Mama from hurt, it was her job to do that for us, or at least for you. We didn't have to take on that responsibility."
It was silent once more, and Ray knew that she was absolutely right. They shouldn't have taken things into their own hands.
Once again, the girl spoke up and broke the silence, "I don't think I'm going to be hiding anything anymore. I'm going to be honest from now on, and I think you should be too. If not with everyone, at least with Mama."
He didn't want to be, he was perfectly fine keeping things in for the rest of his life. But this didn't just affect him, it affected everyone else.
"Alright."
~
I thought a chapter like this would provide a lot more context about stuff.
It took me so long to get this out and I'm like??? Lots of things happening with my life, so thats been a big factor why I haven't been writing so much. At this point, I published a story for Norember, but at the rate things are going, I'm thinking of doing the remainder of Norember there, and also turning it into a one shot book so that I'm not stressed about writing everyday. Do y'all like that idea or nah?
One more bonus chapter will come out sometime soon, and it is a completely different feel than this chapter lol. You guys will understand once it comes out. I didn't get to proofread this, so pls bear with any errors lol, I'll try and fix any if I find any.