Family Line - Dustin Henderson

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River was awoken by Steve lightly shaking his shoulders, "Hey, River you gotta wake up if you're gonna go to school."

The young boy frowned looking around the confused before he slowly remembered. His fight with his dad, running out, Steve making sure he was okay, he ended up staying the night. 

He'd obviously fell asleep on the Sofa and Steve had placed a blanket over him. Making sure that he was comfortable before he set up a bed behind the Soda to make sure the boy wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night scared.

Steve sighed taking in his tired face and his still slightly puffy eyes, "Okay, how about you stay here for the day and we order Pizza and watch more movies."

"O-okay." River nodded pushing his hair back out his eyes.

"Okay," Steve smiled, "You like sweet or salted popcorn. Actually you know what, i'll just mix them together." He then disappeared off into the kitchen seconds later popping his head back around the door to look at River, "What sort of Pizza do you like."

River smiled slightly at his enthusiasm holding the blanket tightly around him rubbing his eyes, "J-j-just Margherita would be fine, t-t-thank you."

And with that the older teen disappeared back into the kitchen. River smiled thinking back to the days when Billy would sit with him and they'd have a movie day. They hadn't done that in so long.

River could still remember the first time that Billy ditched their weekly movie day. He was only four years old and it felt as if the whole world was ending, he spent the whole day crying in his room. 

Little did he know that this wouldn't be the only time that Billy would leave the his younger brother, and very soon Billy would stop talking to him all together. 

That day hurt the most, he'd spent the whole day trying to get his older brother to talk to him, but that only ended with Billy shoving the shorter boy over and calling him all sorts of rude names.

"Hey, you okay?" Steve at some point had reappeared and was now sat next to River looking at the boy concerned. River sighed looking down at his lap, nodding his head, smiling when he saw the bowl of popcorn placed on the table between them.

"Yeah, i'm o-okay."

The day seemed to rush by, they'd watched so many movies and eaten so much food that River was sure he'd explode. He glanced out the window noticing that it was already dark, he sighed turning towards Steve, "So when are your p-p-parents coming home?"

"I don't know maybe next week. Why?"

"Um, I was just w-wondering, if, uh,i-if maybe I could s-stay here t-tonight? If that's o-okay." The young boy refused to look Steve in the eye instead staring at his hands.

"Yeah," Steve's eyes softened watching how the boy fidgeted nervously, "Won't your parent worry were you are though?"

"No, t-they probably w-won't even notice i'm gone."

"What about Billy?"

"Have you m-met Billy?" River laughed slightly, "I'm p-p-pretty sure he'd much rather die than have me as his b-brother."

Steve shook his head, not sure how to reply to that, "You okay, staying on the sofa or would you prefer to stay in one of the guest rooms."

"Um, a-a guest room. I-if that's o-okay."

"Yeah, that's fine." Steve nodded standing to his feet leading River upstairs. There were so many different rooms, River wasn't sure how Steve didn't get lost. He stopped outside one of the doors, "Okay, so you can stay in here." He then down the hallway, "And that's my room, so if you need anything at all, i'll be in there."