Behind Closed Hearts

Chapter 2

James finally got all of his boxes into his room and he plopped back down onto the bed, face down.

He sighed before rolling onto his side and pulled out an old phone from his pocket. It was an old flip phone, black, with tons of scratches down the sides. He opened it slowly, shining artificial light over his face in the dim lighting of his new room.

He stared at the background, a blurry picture of his brother and him, taken by his dad. He closed his eyes. This phone was the last thing he had left from his deceased father.

There was a light knock at the door and James looked up blearily. "Hi," Mrs. Wilson greeted, tucking her black hair behind her ears. She was still wearing a floral apron. "The food's ready but we just need to wait till my husband gets home..."

"Thanks, Mrs. Wilson," James said, sitting up slowly and flipping shut the phone.

"You can just call me Lily and not, you know... mom, unless you want to? But you don't need to. I mean..." she trailed off. "Is that your phone?" Lily pointed to the phone in James' hands.

James looked down and turned the phone in his hand. "Yeah, but it won't get any service soon since our plan is getting canceled. My dad, he gave me this phone just a week before our house collapsed in the storm. I dropped mine out a window, trying to take a picture," he laughed.

"And my dad said I could use his until we could get me a new one." James smiled at the phone fondly. "I haven't changed a thing about this phone because everything else was crushed in the house, including my dad." His smile dropped away and the two just looked at each other.

"Lily!" a voice cried up the stairs, jolting them from their moment.

"Oh, that's Nathen, my husband," she said quickly, straightening her apron and fixing her hair. "We better go down for dinner." She turned on her heal and rushed out of the room.

James rose a little more slowly, dragging himself down the stairs, and into the dining room near the back of the house.

When he entered, Lily was already tucking herself daintily into a chair on one side and Nathen was standing on the opposite side of the room watching James carefully.

Nathen was a tall, large, intimidating man whose glare glowered more heavily than James had ever experienced before; he was immediately uncomfortable.

"You're James," Nathen said shortly, not even in a question.

James gulped, approaching one of the two open chairs. "Yeah," he forced out, looking the man in the eyes.

They both sat down simultaneously but no one reached for any of the food. Instead, Nathen pressed his hands together and studied his new adopted son. "We have to set some ground rules."

"Nate," Lily said weakly.

He frowned at her harshly before turning to James. "You will help with the chores we assign you. You will get A's in school. You will not act out. Got it?"

James nodded as he wrung his hands together in his lap. "Got it," he said just as weakly as Lily.

"Good," he said finally, reaching forward to scoop a mystery food onto his plate. "Because we are expecting a lot especially since Lily here is barren."

"Nathen!" Lily cried out, turning completely red.

James could feel himself heating up as well. "I will try not to let you down."

Nathen glare flashed up at him again. "You won't try. You just won't."

Nodding, James looked away. He quickly scooped a portion of the mystery casserole onto his plate and picked up his fork tentatively.

Back home, he was used to the same rotations of foods over and over again but he forced the thought away. That was in the past; three weeks exactly.

He stuck his fork into the mess and pulled it to himself slowly, placing it onto his tongue. He chewed slowly, staring at his plate. The stuff was tasteless and bland.

Glancing up, James' heart stuttered as he realized that Nathen had been watching him with an expression of disgust. "Eat like a man," he said shortly before returning to his own meal.

James was terrified. He was being judged for his eating habits? So he quickly shoveled the rest of the meal into his mouth, swallowing thickly, and finished the water off in a chug. "May I be excused?" he uttered softly.

Nathen snorted but waved him off. "Help Lily bring some of this stuff back to the kitchen."

Lily quickly dabbed her mouth with a napkin before grabbing up her plate and gesturing for James to follow her. "Come on."

James stood and followed her quickly through the door and into the kitchen. She immediately took James' plate from him and set it into the sink. She turned to him.

"I'm so sorry about that," she began. "He comes off a bit strong and he gets a bit angry after work and..." She shook her head sadly and then pulled James into a bony hug. The woman was so tiny against him. "I'm so sorry," she whispered.

Then she stepped back, wiping at her eyes. "Umm... maybe you should go up to your room. You should get some rest and allow Nate to cool down."

He nodded. "Thanks." He fled out of the kitchen and up the stairs and jerked his phone from his pocket. James was determined to tell Aleks everything that was going on.

He hit the call button just as he entered his room, kicking the door shut, and he flopped onto his bed as it rang. "Thank God James," Aleks answered immediately. "I really needed to talk to you."

James smiled and closed his eyes. "How are things over there?"

"Horrible," Aleks replied. "These people are totally babying me. They made me, like, a three course meal for dinner. And my room! James, you have to see my room. They gave me an Xbox and put it in my room! How messed up is that? We didn't even have anything close to that expensive in our room." Aleks laughed.

"And get this. They painted the room red. Apparently Laura can't have a baby, so she's been saving up for adoption, but I guess they really wanted to skip the toddler and baby ages. They said they had been waiting a long time for this."

The blood drained from James' face but he pushed onward. "I think infertility runs in their family then because Lily is just the same."

"So how is it over there?" Aleks pressed. "How is your room?"

James looked at his four white blank walls and his empty dresser with boxes piled on top. "Oh, just about the same as yours."

"James! They're thinking of getting a dog here! You have to come over and see this thing when we get it! It's a corgi or something. I know you would love it. Remember when we had that dog as kids and you couldn't figure out what to name it?"

Chuckling, James said, "And then you wanted a cat? Yeah, I remember."

"But anyway, Laura said I could have Joe and Dan up to visit sometime soon and we could all hang out and play games on my new Xbox."

"Great," James said, his smile slowly disappearing.

"Great," Aleks repeated back. "Anyway, I have to charge my phone. I'll talk to you later, okay James?"

Disappointment shrouded James' face. "Okay Aleks. Goodnight."

"Talk to you to tomorrow."

They both hung up and James carefully placed his phone down onto his dresser. Maybe he would go to bed early. He didn't feel like doing much of anything else that night.

Suddenly there was a loud bang from downstairs, startling James. A loud booming shout erupted through the house in only a tone that could be Nathen. A high pitch voice hollered back followed by another thud.

James' breathing sped as he listened to the noises booming through the house. But what scared him the most was the sudden pounding steps ascending the steps just outside James' door. James shot off his bed and grabbed at the lock; he silently thanked whoever had put a lock into his door.

Once it was locked, James jumped away and backed up slowly. He flinched harshly as a body hit the door. The knob rattled violently.

"James!"