The Boy Who Saved Me

Goodbye

"Babe, I'll be back in an hour or so!" Hank hollered as he ran out the front door of our brand new two-bedroom house. It's was small, but it worked for us because we had a small family. I was still unpacking and trying to decide what color to paint the baby room when he got called into work. I had it down to thee colors mint green, baby blue, or light yellow. We had tried to get him to pick by laying out the colors and letting him roll to the color he liked, but it did not work.

"Ok, Bye, Baby, I see you soon! I love you to the moon and back!" I yelled back to him as he hurried out our front door. I threw my long brown hair up in a bun ready to work some more as Tyler slept in the corner of the room in his baby bouncer.

Hank is an OBGYN and just got called in because a pair of twins were about to pop. We had just moved back from California to a small city in Texas. We finally got pregnant after two years of trying. He finished his residency there, and I was working as a personal assistant for one of the top female pop stars of 2009. 

But, once I found out I was pregnant, I quit my job to be a stay at home Mom. I didn't want to work and have our baby at the same time I felt like he needed all my attention.

We decided to move back closer to his parents because we needed some help. Selena was upset about me leaving, but she told me she understood. If she were in my shoes, she would move back to Texas also.

Another reason for our return was my dad had gotten sick, and I felt that I needed to be close to them. I felt like they should watch their grandson grow up while they still could. I was an only child, and at first, it was hard for them when we first moved to California until they met my now little brother Charlie. He was 14 at the time when they decided to adopt him. He didn't know much about right from wrong and caused a lot of problems but, they made it through it.  He spent several summers on my couch when he couldn't behave. I didn't mind having him but, he and Hank spent several unwelcome nights playing video games.

I walked back into the room to watch Iron man with our now 23-month-old Tyler and found Charlie lying on the floor asleep. So I rolled my eyes and continued unpacking a few more boxes.

"Oh, Ty, I will never get all this done..." I huffed, throwing a dirty dishrag at a box. I smiled down at my sweet boy then walked over to wake up Charlie.

"Hey, if you're going to hide here from mom, then you might as well help," I said as I shoved him with the heal of my foot.

"It's not my fault you and Hank have sooooo much stuff," he groaned.

"So what did you do this time," I asked, putting the mom tone in my voice. As much as my mom was his mom, I still mothered him ask he likes to call it. "I don't want to tell you," he mumbled as he picked up the rocking chair to take it into Tyler's room. "Please tell me it wasn't weed again," I glared at him. As a baby, his parents did drugs, which got him addicted, but once the hospital fixed him, they sent him back with them. It was a mistake on the hospital's part, which we made sure that they couldn't do that to anyone ever again. His birth parents got so good at hiding the abuse that. He had always thought of what he was going through all the kids did. But when my mom found him dumpster diving behind a Mexican food restaurant, everything in his life changed for the better.

"It wasn't mine, I swear! Tommy Jones came over the other day for a study session and pulled it out. He said if I told he would blame it all on me. And no one believes a druggies kids," he finally admitted to me.

"I told you that kid was trouble from the start" I walked over to my little brother and wrapped my arms around him. Everything has been so hard for him, and all I wanted to do was protect him from the outside world.