Unexpected Love (BOYXBOY)

Chapter 14

"So, how's your recovery coming along, Connor?" Dwayne asked.

"Pretty good, I think. I'm still a little sore, though," I replied.

I wasn't really in the mood for the small talk. I felt like the defendant in a murder trial, and just wanted to be read the verdict.

"Well, I'm sure you don't want to beat around the bush, and I don't want to keep you all too late. So let's get right down to it," he said, opening up one of the file folders in front of him.

I figured that was probably the information on the new family I was going to be living with. I was really hoping they would be nice and wouldn't live too far away. I knew I couldn't stay with Ryan anymore, but I'd at least hoped that maybe I would be able to go to the same school. If I was shipped off somewhere else, then even though Ryan had a car, it would still be difficult to see each other as much as I would want. And being young and still relatively new at this whole relationship thing, I knew that that could certainly put a strain on things between us.

"Now, I see from your file that you've been visited by social workers before," Dwayne continued. "I'm sorry that they didn't do more to get you out of that situation, Connor. It shouldn't have come to this. If your case had been handled directly by me back then, I would have definitely tried to do more for you."

"It's okay, Mr. Jacks ... errr ... Dwayne. It's all over now. I just wanna find out what's gonna happen to me next."

I'd been freaking out about this for over a week now. Why couldn't he just get it over with? I'm dying here!

"Connor, I'm not sure if you realize it or not," he continued, "but getting kids placed in good foster homes isn't an easy task. The system is so over-crowded right now, and there aren't enough certified foster homes to take all of the kids we've got. And we've only had a week to work on your case. It's almost impossible to get someone placed right away, and most kids have to stay in one of our group homes for a while."

"You're not sending him to some group home!" Ryan interjected angrily. I'd rarely seen him get angry like that, although it made me feel good that he was trying to stick up for me.

"Ryan!" Maggie scolded him. "I told you to sit there and keep quiet. If you can't, then you and Toby can both go upstairs until we're finished."

Ryan just rolled his eyes, huffed angrily, and slouched back into his seat.

"He should just stay here with us. This is where he belongs anyway," he muttered, though loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Yeah, I don't see why we can't just take him in. He's been staying with us all the time for months now anyway," Toby agreed. "He's finally happy now, and shuffling him around isn't gonna help him any. Plus, we all love him. He's not going to get that at some orphanage or group home."

"Tobias McCormack! Just hear Dwayne out before you go getting all angry," Maggie said.

Toby looked like he wanted to argue, but Maggie silenced him with her glare. It was heart-warming that they were both sticking up for me like that, and I was especially moved that they both wanted me to stay with them, even if I knew that wasn't possible or realistic. I'd learned long ago that dreams like that didn't come true, at least not for me.

"Well, it looks like your friends wanna keep you," Dwayne said with a chuckle. "Would you like that, son?"

Huh? Was he seriously asking me if I wanted to stay here?! He had to be joking.

Even though I was pretty sure he was just kidding around, part of me wanted to scream out, "Yes! Yes! Yes! Please let me stay here!" But I couldn't do it. I wasn't sure if it was pride, my low self-esteem, or what. I just couldn't bring myself to do it.