INDIGO

PART EIGHT

"Yes... we don't have any identification, but he's safe and my son's been taking care of him for, uhm, around a year and half?..." my mom spoke on the phone with social services. Indigo and I were playing card games in the living room, and my mom was pacing around us, randomly leaning down and asking Indigo questions like, "Are you hurt anywhere?" And "Are you sure you don't remember any family members?" She bit her nails as she listened to the social services worker, later telling us there's gonna be a whole complicated process for figuring out Indie's identity. I mean, for all we knew, he could have been a runty 13 year old named Blake, or something, with two depressed parents that lost him one day and eventually gave up the search after years of not being able to find him. I joked about it a lot and called him random names or talked about his family like they were out there somewhere. He laughed with me, but I think a part of him was uncomfortable with it. I wish I could've seen that back then.

"You're going to court!" My mom finally put down her phone after a good 20 minutes. "Going where?" Indigo looked up at her, before snickering and saying to me, "Go fish!" I groaned and reached for the deck. "Well, you're probably going to court. But, basically, it means you have to talk to some people and decide what you wanna do with your future. A professional will help you of course, since you're a kid, but I still feel for ya! It'll be rough," my mom sighed, petting his head. "Can I do braids on you again?" She asked, changing the subject.

"Mooom, leave his hair alone, you have your own!" I passed Indigo a card. "Hush, I like when she does my hair," he smiled, putting down his final pair of cards and clapping in victory. "I don't understand how you can win every single game of Go Fish... it's so unfair," I muttered. "But anyways, so what did they say about him?" I turned to my mom who had taken a seat on the couch. "Too much. My brain is totally fried," she leaned back and crossed her arms. "They wanna interview us, especially you, East, 'bout him and then talked about how in a couple months after, if they can't track a guardian by then, there'll be legal proceedings and blah blah blah," she spoke jadedly before inhaling, "then after that, DNA testing, an investigation and search, and then about the time after all that'll be done, will be when the court jazz will be figured out, then we get to when he'll be 'appointed a guardian' and FINALLY he'll have documents issued, if he doesn't have any already, that is," she exhaled.

"Jeez, that sounds like a lot. It'll probably take months!" my little head hurt trying to process all that. I glanced to my side and it seemed like Indigo's head was hurting more than mine. "Uhhh, all I got from that was the 'blah blah blah' part," he admitted, forehead wrinkled in thought. I laughed and nudged him a little. "Months? No, no, they said this could take, like, two years to get completely sorted," she replied as if she hadn't just dropped a super heavy statement. My face paled.

"Are they going to... take him away?" I subconsciously made a screwed expression, scowling at the thought of not being with him. "No! Ah, well, not completely. I asked them that too, 'cuz I don't wanna lose my second son!" She smiled at him, and he smiled back. I grinned along with them, relieved I wouldn't have to say goodbye. "They want us to get a fostering license, though, but said they'll let him stay with us during that process. He'll probably be out and about a lot even then, seems like they want him everywhere at once right now. Oh, yeah, we'll be meeting with the workers this Thursday," she reminded herself, picking up her phone, probably to put it on the calendar.

"Hey, mom, when can I get a phone?" I gazed as she typed away at hers, "Everybody at school has them!" She peeked over at me and paused for a bit before responding. "That's actually a good idea, I'll probably be having to message you a lot about everything... but, if you do get one, you have to give up your little tablet to Indigo," she said, with a mediating tone. "I'm fine with that!" I eagerly responded, to which Indigo reacted with, "Yes!"

"Let's go shopping tomorrow, we can buy Indigo some of his own clothes. Hmm... after we get licensed and stuff, social services gives us some financial aid, so we'll probably be able to get him a bed and such," she considered. "Do you wanna take over the guest room, bud?" She looked at Indie. "Whaaa? No, I wanna stay with East!" He put an arm around my shoulders. "Alrighty, so do you guys want two separate beds or a bunk bed?" She was scrolling through Amazon on her phone and showing pictures of random bed frames.

"What's a bump bed?" Indigo asked, picking at the dirt under his nails. "Bunk bed," I corrected, "it's two beds stacked on top of each other!" "That one! Let's do that one!" He quickly exclaimed, waving his hands excitedly. I noticed he did that a lot when he was happy. "Bunk beds it is!" My mom chuckled, leaning down and placing her hands on our heads before commenting, "Speaking of beds, you two should get ready to sleep, it's really late."

"Yeah, I'm pretty worn out," I agreed, standing up and stretching my arms. Indigo did the same, putting down his hand of cards onto the coffee table we'd been playing on. "Good night, you two! I love you, East," my mom said as I turned to walk away. I stepped back and gave her a hug, "Night, love you too!" Before rushing off to the stairs. I tugged Indigo into the bathroom so we could brush our teeth, because he always tried to slip away and evade it. Once we were done, we headed to my room and Indigo immediately jumped in bed, claiming the side by the wall that we always raced for. I just shook my head and got comfortable on the other side, feeling too tired to complain about it. I shut my eyes, when I heard Indigo whisper from beside me.

"I love you, Easton." "...what?" "Er- you and your mom always say that before going to sleep- I thought it was, like, manners or something that you never taught me, sorry," Indigo quickly rushed to correct himself. "Oh. Uh... but, I think it still works. I love you too, Indigo," I turned my head to face him, shooting him a crooked smile, before shifting back over and closing my eyes again. He tapped my shoulder, and when I glanced towards him, suddenly he slid his arm over me and gave me a short hug. I blushed a bit from the abruptness, but it's not like we'd never hugged before. "Hehe... usually you guys do this too."

"Pfft, are you gonna kiss me next?" I joked, patting his back. He moved enough to look me in the eye and asked, "What's kiss?" "...go to sleep," I snorted, pushing him away by his head as my face flushed slightly. He didn't pry and just shuffled back into his corner. I didn't know exactly how to explain kissing at the age of 10; I knew it's what couples did in sappy movies, I knew that my mom would kiss me sometimes, and I also knew that friends didn't do it, because that was weird. I didn't know why, though. That's why, in that moment, for just a second, I thought, 'Why shouldn't Indigo and I kiss?' But I immediately cringed at my own curiosity, and shut down the idea. I guess, it's not that I wanted to, because I was way too young to be thinking of that kind of thing, but it was me beginning to realize the fact Indigo and I weren't normal friends, in some way that I couldn't figure out just yet.