Chapter 1
“Just bring that box upstairs!” Jess’ voice rang out cheerfully as she opened the front door, calling behind her. She walked into the room in a rush, her arms full of wide eyed little girl. Chubby legs surrounded Jess’ jean clad waist.
“Cameron! Help! Now!”
His mom’s crazy serious voice worked like a spell. Cameron jumped off the couch, threw down his latest book and rushed over to his mom, grabbing the little girl who was about to fall. His mom jostled the big box she’d been carrying, but lost the battle as it too fell with a crash onto the thinly carpeted floor. Jess grimaced and bit her lip, looking over her shoulder at the tall boy coming behind her through the door.
“I’m so sorry Ryan! I didn’t hear anything break!”
The little girl squiggled in Cameron’s arms. He looked down into her blue eyes. They were wide and glassy. He nodded at her, rubbed her back and said in a quiet voice. “Hi.”
“Ryan, this is my son Cameron. Maybe you remember him from grade school.” said Jess as she hoisted the box again, and headed up the stairs, looking behind to introduce them.
Cameron looked over at the boy standing in his hallway, as he shifted Leah onto his hip higher. The poor kid looked half asleep, Stress probably. But Ryan didn’t even make eye contact as he followed Jess up the stairs, his boots making heavy sounds as he moved.
Cameron rolled his eyes and followed them.
Upstairs he could hear loud noises coming from his room, noises that he chose to ignore for the moment. He took Leah into what was now her bedroom. It had been an empty room where Cameron had kept his books and an old record player, a couch and a TV. But when Jess had told him that she was fostering the Moore kids, she and Cameron had spent all summer transforming it into a tiny girls room. They’d painted it green and yellow (because his mom insisted not every girl loves pink and purple), and added a toddler bed with a blue comforter covered in dancing foxes and bears and racoons. The closet held some of Leah’s clothes already, as they’d been able to move her stuff earlier. A few low shelves spilled over with books from Jess’ teacher friends, a few beloved bedraggled stuffed animals and a random assortment of toys.
Thankfully in the month leading up to the move, Leah had visited Jess and Cameron a few times, with the nanny, so she was at least a little familiar with the house and everything. Cameron turned on the light and sat Leah down on her new bed.
“She’s all tuckered out, poor thing.” His mom whispered coming into the room. “I’ll get her into bed. Why don’t you go help Ryan move the rest of his stuff into your room.”
Cameron nodded, but leaned down and gave Leah a kiss on her cheeks before he left. He was rewarded with a tiny smile.
“Night. silly,” he said ruffling her wispy brown hair. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning. I’ll even make you chocolate chip pancakes with a whipped cream smile.’
“Night, Cameron.” said the tiny tired voice.
He nodded at his mom and left the room.
Ryan passed him going down the stairs and said nothing. Cameron followed the taller boy out the front door. His mom had borrowed a coworkers van to help with the move and Ryan was climbing in the backseat shifting the boxes in the far back to the middle bank of seats. Cameron stood outside the door ready to grab a box. Ryan backed out of the car, turned suddenly and flinched back at the sight of Cameron.
“Shit man. You’re fucking quiet.”
“I’ll take that.” Cameron said evenly, holding his hands out for the box Ryan held.
Ryan shrugged and passed him the box.
“I think that’s my XBox and controllers, so don’t drop it, alright.”
Cameron just nodded and went back into the house, Ryan behind him with another box.
“So...can I game in the room or does it have to stay in the living room?” Ryan said as they stood for a moment in the hallway.
“I don’t care. It’s up to you.”
“Upstairs then. I like to game on my bed.”
Nodding Cameron brought the box upstairs.
The room, that had been his room for the last seventeen years, was almost alien. Instead of just his bed, there were two beds crammed into the space under the window with just a small table in between. His desk had been shifted downstairs, in favor of a new dresser for Ryan’s clothes. A brand new flatscreen hung on the wall and boxes were scattered on both beds.
Cameron set down the box on top of the dresser. Ryan put the box he was carrying on Cameron’s bed. Cameron looked at his bed, wrinkled his nose but bit his lip to keep himself from saying anything.
“I think there’s only two more.” Ryan said, heading back to the car.
Cameron sighed inwardly. What in the hell were in these boxes? It couldn’t be all clothes. Where were they going to put it all? The room had been small for one person, that’s why he had had most of his stuff in what had been Leah’s room.
Jess stood in the doorway looking at her son as he looked at his room.
“It’s only for a year, then you’re both off to college and Leah’s aunt will be finished with her project in Europe and can take her. We can make do for a year.”
Cameron didn’t look her in the eyes, but nodded. When Jess had sat him down at the kitchen table in June and told him that Kate and Daniel Moore were being arrested and going to trial for insider trading, that they had come to her, and asked if she would take the kids when they went to prison his normal affable state had been capsized. Jess had been tutoring Ryan and more or less mentoring him for so many years. She used to joke at staff parties that she had two sons, even though Cameron had never really met Ryan. But she had let him make the final decision on that beautiful June morning.
“I want to take them in, Cameron. But it’s going to be a massive change. We’ll have a three year old in the house and you’ll have to share your room. I’m going to need a lot of help with Leah. But they really have nowhere to go.” Jess sighed drinking her usual lemon tea out of the chipped blue mug she’d had since college. “I will never do that to you unless you agree.” She leaned forward and grasped his forearms, squeezing them. “It’s really up to you.”
He looked out the window into their small front yard. What else could he say?
“Sure. I guess.”
She smiled. “I knew you would say yes. You’re a good kid.”
Now, two months later, he looked back and wondered if he’d made the right decision.
