Life is Not a Movie

Do you remember?

The quick visit to set ended up lasting until almost 12. We were in the middle of a scene when Tom interrupted us, saying how I have school tomorrow. I wanted to finish the scene, but then Joss had to agree with him and I was sent home.

When I got home it was then that I realized that I had biology test to do.

"Damn it." I mumbled, when I finally remembered.

"What is it?" Tom asked, walking in behind me.

"I have biology homework." I closed my eyes and took a breath. I was already tired enough and if I stayed up I wouldn't go to bed until 1.

"That's okay, I'll let you miss first period one time." Tom smiled and made his way to the kitchen. "Tea?"

"No, I can't miss first period, that's biology. It's fine, I'll get it done, the packet isn't that big. And yeah."

Tom put the kettle on the stove while I pulled my homework out of my bag, followed by my laptop. I turned it on and opened up the online text book. Lucky for me, since everyone uses the same online text book, the people before me had highlighted all the answers to the packet.

"Here." Tom pushed a cup of tea in my direction.

I picked it up and took a sip, savoring the sweet taste. It felt nice having the warm liquid flow down my throat.

"I still don't get how Jessa doesn't like tea. Let alone how we make it."

"I know." I laughed.

Tom held his cup up and I clinked mine to his. I continued working on my homework with Tom beside me.

It was around 12:40 when I was finally on the last question. I quickly found the answer to it (thank you snowbunny40, whoever the hell you are) then shut down the laptop. After putting everything back my bag I looked over and noticed Tom wasn't beside me.

Sometime while I was working, Tom had made his way to the couch, so I decided to join him. I sat down beside him and just watched him for a second. He was just sitting there, his head was leaned back and he was staring at the ceiling.

I strained my neck to look at the ceiling, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

I stayed in that position until Tom spoke. "Do you remember when I first brought you home?"

"How could I forget? You told me there was a surprise in the barn, so I took off running, and when I opened the doors, there was Airimis. Just standing there. You told me, what had happened, and I couldn't stop thanking you. Thanking you for Airimis, thanking you for the new house, thanking you for adopting me. When I come to think of it, I still don't think I said enough thank you's. So thank you, again." I laughed at the memory.

"Ya, that was a pretty annoying day." I looked over and elbowed Tom in his side. He chuckled then looked at me. "But that's not the day I was talking about."

I looked at him in confusion.

"I'm talking about the day I brought you home from the orphanage, you were only 12, and at the time I was only fostering you. Remember?"

I turned away from Tom and stared at the floor. Of course I remembered, that's the day my whole life changed. "Ya, I remember that when you picked me up from school, you were scared that people would recognize you, so you beckoned me from the car with the tinted windows still rolled up three fourths of the way. Then, when we got home, you put me in this hideous gray room, with nothing but black furniture." I joked. "After I threw up over that, you knocked on my door, and I remember you standing there. You were wearing a gray suit with a gray tie and I thought it was a bit much, but I told you not to fret. Then we had dinner and watched a movie."

I looked back over at Tom and he was already staring at me. "That's it?"

"I guess." I shrugged. "Why?"

Tom then extended his arm and pulled me into his side. I snuggled in closer and he wrapped his arms around me.

"Well, because I remember everything about that day. I remember waking up that morning from a restless night before. I could barely sleep I was so excited. But I also remember telling myself to calm down. After I did I started getting everything ready. I made sure that your bed was made and that your "hideous" room was clean. Then I remembered how short you were, so I then went around the entire apartment, and moved everything down to within your reach."

"I wondered why the top two shelves in the cabinets were never used." I smiled.

"Well now you know. So, after that, the rest is all details. I went to the store, drove around, blah blah blah. Then, it was finally time to pick you up. I was beyond nervous. So when I showed up at the school, I didn't stay in the car because I thought people would recognize me, I stayed in the car because I was shaking so much, I was afraid that if I tried to stand, I would just collapse." Tom was full on laughing at this point and I couldn't help but join him.

Once we had stopped laughing, he composed himself and continued. "Of course, you know the rest after that, but what you don't know, is that Titan was actually at the apartment that night."

"What?!" I was shocked, how could I have not known that my best friend was in the same apartment as me!

"Ya, she helped me make dinner. She's the one that told me you liked steak and told me how I should tell you about who I am."

"She's gonna get it the next time I see her." I smiled. We're actually supposed to meet up soon, during conferences. I can't wait to see her.

"Anyway, so after we had dinner and watched Thor. Remember, your first Marvel movie." Tom nudged me and I nodded. "I watched you go back to your room and I just sort of sat there, on the couch, and I smiled. I smiled, because I knew since the very beginning, when I saw you jumping in the library, that you were going to play a very special part in my life. But it wasn't until the day before, when that kid broke your arm, that I knew what that part was."

"So why didn't you just adopt me then." I asked. But even I knew the answer to that. Well at least my answer. If Tom had wanted to adopt me straight off the bat I would have been worried, I guess, because here's a guy I've only known for only a couple of months, that I thought was just my friend, but is now going to be my dad. I don't know, it just seems weird. I also probably would have seen it more as a charity than anything.

"Well, you didn't know who I really was, so I guess I just wanted to see if you would treat me the same after finding out. And you did, so that's the moment I knew I had to adopt you."

"Fair enough."

There was a moment of silence and we both just sat there. I could feel my head rise and fall with Tom's chest and I could hear his heart beating like a smooth metronome. Everything was perfect. I was beginning to dose off, when I heard the familiar tweet from my phone. As I reached out to grab it, Tom's hands pulled the small screen from mine and set it on the table.

"You can check it tomorrow. Go to sleep."

I was to tired to argue and to tired to walk upstairs, so I obliged and continued my decent into darkness.