Memories And Battle Scars (Chayley)

Chapter 11

Hayley's POV

I walked into Rider's room and see him crying on the bed.

"I'm sorry!" He sobbed. "Don't take be back there please!"

"Honey," I said as I rushed over to him.

I held him close and rocked him. "You're not going back there okay? You're staying right here with us."

"I d-didn't mean it. He was being m-mean."

"I know," I whispered. "Everything is gonna be okay."

I laid with Rider and held him until he fell asleep. Once he'd drifted off I carefully slipped out of his bed and walked downstairs.

"He's out," I said as I sat down by Chad.

"We have a meeting with his social worker tomorrow," he said without looking at me.

I nodded my head and leaned into his side. He didn't put his arm around me or pull me closer or anything. He just let me lean awkwardly. I sighed and stood up, "what's the problem?"

Chad shrugged.

"Quit being so blunt with me!"

Chad stood up and walked into the kitchen. I wasn't gonna chase him round all evening due to his babyish behaviour so I went up to bed.

2:30am

I felt a warm presence against my back. I turned my head slightly and saw Chad looking tired and groggy.

"I'm sorry," he said.

I didn't quite know how to reply to that comment. I didn't want to say "it's okay," because it wasn't. I just replied with, "how you feelin'?"

"Crappy. All I want is to do good for my family."

"You are doing good for us. You're doing great for us."

"Not when I behave like that."

"I know it's hard hearing about what Rider did but even he is upset by it. He seemed really sorry."

"It's too late for that. The social worker could either let him off easy and let him stay with us or take him out of our lives for good tomorrow."

"You're an ass y'know that?!" I spat as I got out of bed.

"Hayley," I heard him say once I'd left our room.

I creeked open the door to Rider's room and climbed into bed with him. He started stirring, "mom?"

"Shhh, go back to sleep, honey."

"I wasn't asleep in the first place."

"Well... try and go to sleep."

"I've tried and I can't. I'm scared that I'll get taken away. You and Chad are the parents I've been dreaming of all this time. I don't wanna get taken away because of my stupid actions. I promise I'll never hurt anyone ever again."

"You listen to me. You're not going to get taken away, I promise. You're staying right here with your dad and me. I promise nothing bad is going to happen, Rider. I promise."

"You promise," he giggled Mali g fun of the amount of times I said it in under ten seconds.

"I promise."

I cuddled up to his small body and we fell asleep in eachothers arms.

***

"Good morning!" I heard him say.

"Hey, baby," I mumbled.

"Today is gonna be good. I won't get taken away because you promised I won't. And because you promised that, I'll promise never to hurt anyone ever again. It's not like me to do that anyways, I only did it because he wound me up."