Trouble in Tiltown

The photograph returns

As Amber awakens, she glances to me and then Scott. Her eyes widen before grasping him into her tight arms full of warmth and relief. I watched them hug each other with a smile before she looks up to me again, her smile disappearing.
"West." She says aloud before Scott moves to sit next to her as they both stare at me.
"Hi Amber. It's nice to see you guys again." I sigh with relief. Her eyes shift down to the right before she looks to me again with widened eyes.
"Where's Laurence?" She inquired me.
Scott looks up to his mother with concerned blue eyes, "Who's Laurence?" He asks.
"Laurence is a friend." She says with strictness with her eyes narrowing at me.
"Look, I was given an option. It was either to save my family or him." I admitted to her as I hung my head low, facing my dirty filled nails.
"You can't leave him! He's just a teenager!" She scolds me as she rises, Scott doing the same.
I stand, as well to stop her from leaving.
"You don't think I know that? We're going to save him. We just need a plan or else we're all screwed." I reply.
"We don't need a plan. We're going to save him and that's that." She says before she attempts to rush out of the room, before she trips. I rush to lift her before she meets the hard ground as she uses my arms to stand up straight once again.
"Thanks. I guess I'm still a tad bit weak." She laughs it off weakly. I rush to the fridge before making up some sandwiches and some glasses of water before handing one to Scott and Amber.
"Maybe y'all should start eating up and get some rest." I smile as her eyes light up with happiness. She walks over to it next to our son and the both of them begin chowing down.
"You've always been the cook here." She laughs as Scott smiles at the two of us.

Before too long, the both of them ended up falling asleep together on my mattress. As I watched them sleep in peace, a soft knock appears on my front door. My eyebrows furrowed as I made my way up the ladder, being met with a Jerrick wearing a grin. Behind him stood Kat with a smile, pleased to see me.
"What're you guys doing here?" I whispered to the two of them.
"Well, we're here to retrieve you. We need to get Laurence out of that place and take my father down." Jerrick explains to me. I glance back as Scott and Amber remained quiet in their sleep before I looked at the two of them.
"You can do this, but I can't. I have my family back now and I can't risk losing them again." I say to them. Jerrick and Kat exchanged confused expressions before looking to me again.
"You are back with them? Why didn't you grab Laurence on the way out?" Kat questioned me now.
My tongue found it's way around my cheek as I grew impatient with the two of the friends.
"I was given a choice, okay? We're done here, leave me alone." I slam the door on their face as I stand my back against the door as I listen to them, muttering to each other.
"I can't believe how selfish." Kat spat with anger clear in her voice.
"No, not selfish. He did what anybody else would've done. Saving Laurence is our job, not his." Jerrick replies back to the fierce Kat before I hear their footsteps distance themselves from my front door and through the grass that refused to stop growing around my shed of a home. I sigh to myself heavily, wondering if I had done the wrong thing. Attempting to not let the negative thoughts take over me, I head back down the my family who slept safely and calmly. Walking around through my home, bored for the first time almost ever, My hands end up finding their way through the books where I stored photos inside. The first few pages was of me when I was just a little boy. In one photograph, I stood proudly with my uncle who wore a grumpy expression across his face. I had a rather big fish in my hand in front of a lake. The next photos displayed like any other regular photos until I came across one. I was standing off to the side by a playground slide with a sly grin, and going down the slide was a blonde haired little girl. My eyebrows crinkled together as I tore the photograph off to read the back of it.
"West and Elouise at the park."  I don't remember ever having this photograph in this book. My eyes trailed over to my family who was still sleeping comfortably.