Brothers Forever

Chapter Seventeen

Cade and I pull into the parking lot. I park and we get out. We start walking to the entrance. We walk in and grab a cart. We start walking to the room decorations. Cade looks around and sees all the stuff that Target has. Some on the floor and some on shelves. He looks like he has died and gone to Heaven. He walks to the shelves and starts picking out things he likes.

"Cade. Jordan just texted me saying that we need some food. I'm going to go get some things. Do you want to take the cart and pick out stuff you'd like? You can pick out whatever you'd like" I say.

"Sure. Sounds good" he says.

"Alright. I'll meet you back here in a bit" I say. I walk to get another cart and start heading to the food part of the store.

Cade's POV
Kyle walks off to the food aisle and I start getting things I like. Rugs, a new chair for my desk, a comfortable chair for my bedroom, wall art, blankets and pillows. There's a lot of things that I see that I get. Good thing we can afford all of this stuff.

I begin bringing my cart to the aisle with study material in it. I want to check it out and maybe get somethings to help organize my life. Just to be neat and stuff. I pick out some highlighters and planners and such for my desk. After I get what I want I begin to walk away. I accidently bump into a girl who was coming down the same aisle. We both drop a few things when we run into each other.

"Oh my God. I'm so sorry. I was distracted and didn't see what was going on" she says.

"That's alright. As long as we're not hurt, it's all good" I say.

She bends down and picks up my stuff that fell out of my cart. "There you go. That was all of your stuff" she says.

"Thanks. Let me get yours" I say. 

I bend down and pick up all of her stuff.

"There's your stuff" I say.

"Thank you. I'm Alyssa" she says.

"I'm Cade" I say back.

"Nice to meet you, Cade. I see you have a lot of decorations and school supplies. Are you a student too?" she asks.

"No. I just moved into my two brother's house. I'm buying this stuff to decorate my bedroom. Are you a student?" I ask.

"Yes. I'm going into my senior year of college. I start next Tuesday" she says.

"That's awesome. I'm not a student. I just live my brothers" I tell her.

"That's cool too. What do your brothers do?" she asks.

"Well...we actually..." I begin saying but am interrupted by Kyle's voice.

Kyle's POV
"Hey Cade. You have everything you need? Oh sorry. Am I interrupting something?" I ask when I see him. He's talking to someone. I didn't notice that when I saw him.

"Don't worry, Kyle. You're fine" he says.

"Do you know each other?" I ask.

"No. We just bumped into each other and started talking" Cade says.

"Hi I'm Alyssa" she says.

"I'm Kyle" I say back.

"Nice to meet you Kyle. This isn't any of my business but I've noticed some of Cade's gestures. Is he involved on the spectrum at all?" she asks.

"Not like that. He's always been a little different. He was in a group home for eight years. My brother and I recently just got him back with us and we're still trying to figure all of him out" I tell her.

"You know what, I'm a special education major. If you want I can maybe spend some time with Cade. Not as a teacher or anything but as a friend he can hang with. Maybe I can get something out of him" she says.

"I think that would be so good for Cade. It's just been me and my brother with him. I think it would be great for Cade to have some friends" I say back.

"For sure. I'll introduce him to all my friends and he can become part of our group. I'll give you my number and we can work out a time for Cade and I to get together" she says.

"Thank you very much. I'll definitely give you a call" I say

"Of course. Just let me know how I can help" she says.

I go to find Cade in the pillows and blanket aisle. We pick out some more things that we think he'll like. After we go to the bakery and Cade gets a chocolate chip muffin. We go to the lanes and buy all of the stuff we bought. We go back out to my car and load it all. We drive back home and see Jordan still in the laundry room. He's still doing laundry? Wow. That guy has a lot of clothes

"Hey guys. How was Target?" he asks when he sees us.

"It was awesome. I got so much new stuff for my bedroom" Cade says.

"That's awesome, buddy. Do you want me or Kyle to help you decorate?" he asks.

"I'll let you know if I need help" Cade says as he takes all of his stuff up to his room. I walk over to Jordan and help him fold the rest of his clothes.

"I might have found a friend for Cade" I say as I'm folding.

"Really? You did?" Jordan asks with a look of delight.

"Her name is Alyssa. She's a special education major. I really think she could something out of Cade that we haven't been able to get" I tell Jordan.

"That's awesome. I think having friends will be awesome for Cade. It can't just be us all the time" he says.

"She seemed very willing to hang with Cade.

"That's good. When does she want to start?" Jordan asks.

"Any time, really" I say back,

"Alright. Let's give her a call tomorrow" Jordan says

I help Jordan fold the rest of his clothes. We take it all upstairs and walk past Cade's room. His door is shut. We almost check on him but we decide we should let him decorate. We walk into our room and take our clothes off. We figure we have the rest of the night since Cade is busy. We sit in bed and watch Family Guy on Jordan's laptop. After a few seasons, we decide to go to bed for the night. For once we're both feeling optimistic about life for Cade.