Stay With Me (On Hold)

Chapter 17

I've had enough drama so far, so this chapter won't be as sad~ :)

Sorry if there's grammar mistakes, I was tired and had a headache while writing this. I feel like I'm dying lol

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Bowden pov

I slammed my head on the table and groaned. I've been trying to do this one math problem for twenty minutes. For the rank of "Conqueror of Hysteresis", what is the derivative of (22x'3)*(3x-2)-cos(x)? What?

"Having trouble?" I looked up. Henry looked at me then at my paper.

"I don't understand any of this." I frowned.

He sat down beside me and slid my paper towards him. He examined it slowly. "I can help. Do you have any notes?"

"Mhm. My teacher gave me the notes for the rest of the year."

~~
I'm not even gonna bother explaining that math problem.
1. I'm terrible at explaining
2. That's a random problem I got. I don't even know what it is
3. Who the heck wants to read about how to do math on wp
~~

Henry pov

I explained the math problem to him slowly, watching him as he attempted to work it out. A small pout appeared on his lips and he stopped writing.

"I can't do it." He whined.

I sighed and took his paper. He stared at the paper as I wrote down most of the problem, leaving only two steps of the problem left. I gave it to him and watched as he attempted to find the answer.

"Is this it?" He asked after about ten minutes.

"Yup! Good job. Is there anything else I can help with?"

"No, I think that's it. Thank you." He smiled.

I nodded and walked to my office. Anthony had been talking to everyone about finding Ashton and Bowden. Nearly all of my coworkers sent me their papers on what they found out about them, like medical files or something.

I sighed and threw the papers in the bin next to my desk. Why can't they just let this whole thing go? It's been years since they've touched the Hertz family. Their son got away, why are they so focused on that? It's ridiculous.

"Henry?"

I looked at Bowden, who was peeking his head out from behind the door. "Yes?"

"Uhm... Would you want to go do something today? I figured since Ash and Owen are out doing stuff we could do something too."

I hummed. "What do you have in mind?"

"I'm not sure." He frowned.

"Go think about everything you want to do. We can leave in an hour."

"Okay!" He beamed and hurried out of the room.

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I parked the car at the ice cream parlor. Bowden smiled when he saw where we were. He grabbed the door handle and exited the car, I'm quick to follow.

"Bowden." I grabbed his shoulder and turned him around. "We still need to be careful. Okay? If either of us see anything or anyone suspicious, we leave."

He frowned and nodded slowly. "I want this to be over..."

"I know. It should be over soon." I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and walked him inside.

"What flavor would you like?"

"Cookie dough, please."

"Okay, go find somewhere to sit. I won't be long."

I walked up to the counter. "Hello! What would you like?" A blonde girl with brown eyes asked.

"Two cookie dough."

"Alright. That'll be $3.50." I grabbed my wallet and pulled out some money and handed it to her. She placed it in the cash register.

She grabbed an ice cream cone and placed multiple scoops of the ice cream inside. The same process was repeated for the second one. She handed them both to me. I nodded a thanks and walked over to Bowden.

I handed him his ice cream.

"Thank you!" He beamed.

"You're welcome."

We ate our ice cream rather quickly. I listened to Bowden talk happily about his friends, telling me a lot of stuff they've done together. It sounds like they're protective over him, which I'm happy about.

"All done?"

"Mhm."

"Alright. I have a quick errand to run and then we can go to the park."

"Okay!" He smiled.

We exited the building and got in my car. I waited for Bowden to buckle his seat belt before I started driving.

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We arrived at the park, both of us exited the car. Both of us walked on the sidewalk until we reached the park entrance.

"I'm gonna go swing!" Bowden ran to the swings and sat down. I chuckled, walking towards a picnic table and sitting down. I pulled a piece of paper out of my pocket and examined it carefully.

I glanced at Bowden then turned my attention back to the paper.

I sighed, walking over to Bowden, a nervous feeling settling in my stomach.

"Hey, Bowden?" I sat on the swing next to him.

"Hm? Hi."

"I need to talk to you about something."

"Okay."

"I know it's hard for you going through all of this mess and uhm... having to relive certain moments from years ago. Especially with what happened as Ashton's house, but I uhm..." I trailed off, looking at the folded paper in my hand then handing it to him.

I watched as he unfolded it and read it carefully. His eyes widened slightly.

"A-Adoption papers?" He looked at me, his eyebrows furrowed.

I nodded. "I heard what you said the day I brought you all to my house. You wanted a family again. I do too..." I trailed off.
"You're like a son to me, Bowden."

"I am?"

"Mhm."

We stayed silent. Bowden kept his attention on the paper. I stood up. "Listen, if you don't-"

He immediately stood up and wrapped his arms around me. I was taken aback before slowly wrapping my arms around him as well. "Bowden? Would you want me to-"

Before I could finish, he nodded quickly, keeping himself pressed against me. "Yes."