Taking My Shot- Adopted by Hamilton

Chapter 23-Not so Happy Thanksgiving

Riley's POV

The next three days went by rather quickly, Lin, Alex and I would hang out during the day and at night Lin and I would would go to the show and Alex would stay with Sebastian since the babysitter they had was gone for the week since Thanksgiving was on Thursday and Vanessa had a case that she had to get processed before the holiday so she was off working all day. All week I had been dreading Thanksgiving, it's not that I hate the holiday I mean I haven't celebrated it in since I was 11 and I know from experience that the first holiday after losing someone is the hardest so I knew this would be hard for Alex, but before I knew it it was 11pm on Wednesday night and in an hour it would be Thanksgiving. I was sitting on my desk chair looking out my window to the city, there was snow on the ground pushed against curbs and sides of buildings from the past few days but there was also new snow falling. It was falling on the black street slowly making it white and it was covering the dirty snow making it look clean, it was like it was playing a dirty trick on society by trying to cover all the imperfections and look pure but we all know in just a few hours it would be just as dirty as the snow it was covering. I watch it falling and it reminds me off the first time it snowed after my parents died, I was 12 and I was sitting in a window sill of my first foster home. I remember it was so cold that I couldn't sleep, the family I was living with poor and their power had gotten turned off so we had no heater and no light once the sun went down. I remember sitting in that window sill freezing and seeing how pure the snow looked, it falling on everything yet never making a dent. It was a calm falling; drifting to the cars, trees, houses, street lights and the road. Silently falling creating fluffy pure white paths. I wonder if this was what heaven was like, I had never been religious, I still really wasn't, but I always believed that you would go somewhere after you died and I hope that my parents went somewhere good like heaven. They both died too young for how great of people they were, my dad was 50 and my mom was 43. My dad had dark brown hair and a beard that matched, he loved baseball and would always have me watch it with him even though I had no idea what was going on but I liked it, just me and my dad hanging out and me laughing at him every time he would jump off the couch after a home run was scored. He always wanted me to get into a sport but I was never good at them, I was a theater kid so acting, singing and dancing was my forte, so we comprised and he would take me to my dance classes and practice with me, which was more of me teaching him how to dance since he had no idea how to. My mom on the other hand loved that I was an actor and a singer since that was one of her hobbies when she was in high school. Of course she wanted me to become a doctor like her or a lawyer or something important like that but I knew deep down inside I would never be able to do that and it killed me not telling her what I really wanted to do for the rest of my life, which was theater. I had no resentment for my parents because of what they wanted for me and I look back on it now and I know my mom would've supported me if I would've told her what I wanted but I was too young and scared at the time to know that. If I had just one more day with them I would want to tell them thank you for being such amazing parents and supporting me even if I didn't see it at the time. I feel a tear slip out of my eye and roll down my cheek I don't stop it and before I know it more tears are rolling down my cheeks. I continue staring out at the snow and I feel just as cold as I did that night in my first foster home sitting on that window sill, I feel numb.

****

I open my eyes and no longer see the snow falling out of the night sky but I see sun shining through my window. I'm also no longer in my chair, cold, but in my bed with the blankets around me, warm. Alex must've seen me asleep on my chair and moved me, speaking of Alex. I look over expecting Alex to be sleeping next to me but the bed is empty, he must've gotten up before me I flop back into bed and look up at the ceiling not really wanting to have to deal with this day. It gives me too many memories of my parents and I really don't want to cry today, especially in front of Alex, I need to be strong for him right now. I pick up my phone and check the time, 7:06am, why I am up so early? I decide that I can't go back to sleep and start scrolling through Twitter trying to ignore starting my day for as long as possible. I'm looking through everyone's tweets wishing a happy thanksgiving and then I see a tweet from Lin: