Finding Jaime

Chapter 15

Jaime wasn't very talkative at dinner, but he ate. He actually ate more than I'd seen him eat since he'd come to live with us. I was starting to worry since he hadn't eaten much. But he chowed down at dinner and thanked Meagan when we were done.

We went over some house rules over dinner, one of which was helping after dinner. I asked Jaime to help clear, Marvel's job was to wipe the table and Saint helped dry.

While I was putting away any leftovers, the doorbell rang.

"You and Jaime can go," Meagan said to me. "Say hi to the guys for me."

I went to answer the door. Patrick, Joe and Andy came into the entryway and called out hello to Meagan and the kids.

"Hey guys, come on in," I said.

I called for Jaime and told the guys to head downstairs.

Jaime came out of the kitchen.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"The guys are here. Come downstairs. Meet them."

He looked wary. Like he wasn't sure he wanted to.

"Come on. They're a big part of my life and therefore a big part of yours. Or, they will be."

Jaime sighed and followed me downstairs.

Andy had already sat himself behind a drum set I had. Joe was sitting on the couch and Patrick was sitting in an chair.

"Andy," I said, smiling. "This isn't band practice."

"Forgive me for being in my comfort zone," he smiled back.

"So, guys, this is Jaime. My son," I said. Jaime rolled his eyes.

"Jaime, this is Patrick, Andy, and Joe," I introduced them and they waved and said hi.

"Jaime," I said. "Come, sit. Grab a chair or the couch."

Jaime sat on the bottom stair to the basement.  Basically as far as he could be without being out of the basement.

"So," Patrick said. "You into music? Who do you listen to? Do you play any instruments?"

Jaime looked over at Patrick.

"No. I don't. And I listen to pretty much anything. MCR, Linkin Park, some older stuff like the Stones."

"Cool. Good taste," Patrick smiled.

Jaime rolled his eyes again.

The guys asked him questions, trying to get a conversation going, but Jaime wasn't biting. He wasn't going to make this easy on them either. I wondered if he harboured some anger towards them as well. They weren't in a relationship with Tanya. I wondered if he blamed them for taking me away from his mom.

"I'm tired," he said suddenly. "I'm going to bed."

He got up and went upstairs without saying goodnight or goodbye.

I sighed.

"Nice kid," Joe said.

"Rude kid," Patrick said, frowning.

"I'm trying to cut him a little slack right now," I said. "He literally buried his mom today."

"Still," Andy said. "What's with the attitude? The hostility?"

"I don't know. But I will find out. Just because I'm cutting him some slack doesn't mean I'm letting him get away with stuff. He's hurting and I don't know what he's feeling in general. Maybe he blames you guys for 'taking me away' from his mom? I mean we left on tour when she was pregnant with him. We'd just had our breakthrough. Although she broke up with me. But, she's  not here to defend her actions. And Jaime has to both take my word for it, and figure things out on his own."

"Maybe. And I get wanting to cut him a little slack, especially today, but that kid is angry, Pete. You gotta help him," Patrick said. "Or get him some help."

"I will. I will. I just need him to trust me a bit more. Right now I'm still mostly some guy who got his mom pregnant and then ditched for 15 years. He's still coming to terms with a whole lot of upheaval.

It doesn't help that I caught him trying to steal my hubcaps two days before finding out he's also my son."

"What?!" Andy exclaimed.

"Yeah. The night I got the letter from Tanya telling me about Jaime, I drove down to Santa Monica, to the pier, just to clear my mind, think, get some air, before talking to Meagan. I caught three kids trying to steal my hubcaps. I managed to catch Jaime, but he got out of my grasp just as the police showed up. Two days later, I'm at the courthouse to meet this long lost son, and it's the same damn kid."

"Pete, you can't let him go around stealing hubcaps or getting into trouble," Patrick said.

"I know."

"What are you going to do about school for him?"

"For now, I'll keep him at his school. He's had enough upheaval. We'll see how that goes. Worst case, we'll transfer him to a school up here if it isn't working out."

"Where does he go?" Andy asked.

"Santa Monica High, I think," I said.

"Good school, from what I hear," Andy said.

"Yeah. I'm going to go in and talk to the principal or his teachers if I can on Monday."

"Yeah. You should find out what kind of student he is. Is he in trouble at school. That kind of stuff," Patrick agreed.

"There is so much I need to learn," I said. "I have 15 years to catch up on."

The guys stayed a little longer. We talked about some ways to help Jaime, some music we were working on, touring, video shoots and the like.

When they left I went upstairs to get ready for bed. I went down the hall first to Jaime's room and knocked on the door before opening it. He was curled up, under the covers, his face slack in sleep. I got an idea of the little boy he'd once been, seeing him asleep. He had his fist under his chin, which I remembered Tanya used to do. I smiled. He was so much like his mom.

He frowned just then, and rolled onto his back, letting out a slight snore. He kept frowning and started groaning.

"Mom," he mumbled. "Mom, come back."

He started writhing around as though he were running. I sat down beside him on the bed and gently shook his shoulder. His eyes flew open and he looked around. He saw me and glared at me.

"What are you doing? What do you want?" He asked.

"I just came in to check on you. You were having a bad dream. Want to talk about it?"

He rolled back over onto his other side, away from me.

"I'm fine."