A Boy with No Where to Go

Soup

As Emily pulled up to her apartment building, she made sure that Henry was okay. He still looked pale, but he was no longer panting which, to Emily, was a good sign. She parked the car and helped Henry out of her car. As she unlocked the door to the building, on of the other people that lived in her building was walking down the stairs. He noticed the difficulty that Emily was having with Henry since he becoming slightly dizzy and offered to help them. "Thank you Mr...?" Emily said. 

"Lance," the man replied. "Jacob Lance." Emily nodded and continued up the steps to her apartment with Jacob and Henry. When they reached her apartment, she unlocked the door and quickly got a place set up for Henry on the couch. He laid down at closed his eyes. Jacob looked at Emily and smiled. 

"Thanks again, Mr. Lance. I don't know how we'd be able to get up those stairs without your help." Jacob nodded and looked at Henry. 

"Anything to help a mother take care of her sick son," he said. Emily blushed. 

"O-Oh, um, he's not my son. I'm just taking care of him for the time being," she explained. He looked at her confused. "His parents are dead and he was living on the street. I gave him my number in case of an emergency and got a call telling me that he was sick." Jacob nodded and ran his hand through his blond hair. Silently, he glanced at her kitchen with his chestnut eyes and spotted some potatoes. Instantly, an idea came to his mind. 

"Well, I know a recipe for some potato soup. That always helped me when I was sick as a kid. Would you mind if I made some for him using some of the things you have here?" he asked. Emily shook her head and let him use the kitchen. As he looked through the things she had, he noticed that he was still missing a few of the ingredients. 

"I can run to the store," Emily offered. Henry's eyes shot open and he tried to stand up. Emily quickly rushed to his side and tried to get him to lay back down. "What is wrong? Do you feel like you need to throw up?" she asked. He shook his head. 

"I don't want to be left here," Henry said. Emily sighed. Jacob watched the two in curiosity. She had told him that she was not his mother, but she sure acted like it. Why was that? 

"It's fine, there's an app that I have where I can have someone deliver the ingredients here. It should only take around 10 minutes," Jacob compromised. Henry relaxed and Emily gave him a thankful nod. Jacob was right about the delivery only taking 10 minutes. In fact, it took less than that time. Emily paid the delivery guy his tip and brought the ingredients to Jacob. He thanked her and began to get to work with the soup. Meanwhile, she tried to make sure that Henry was as comfortable as possible. 

She went to her medicine cabinet and saw that she had some ibuprofen. She took out two of the pills and filled a glass with water. She handed both of the pills to the boy which he hesitantly placed in his mouth. "That should bring down your fever," Emily told him. He nodded and shivered. Emily went to her closet and got him a blanket. She noticed that he was still wearing the same clothes she had seen him in the day they met. She looked at Jacob who was still busy making the soup. "Do you have any clothes that you don't wear anymore?" she asked him. 

Jacob looked up from what he was doing and looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding. "They should be in my apartment. I have most of them stored in a box," he told her. She was about to leave when Henry grabbed her hand and tried to stop her. She smiled at him. 

"I'll be right back," she said to him in a soothing voice. "I'm just goin to go and get you some clothes that are warmer." Henry reluctantly let go and gave Jacob a wary glance. "Don't worry, if Jacob does anything to you, just yell and I'll come running," she told him as she glanced at Jacob who was watching them closely. 

With that, she left the two boys alone to go and find the clothes. There was an awkward silence between the two of them. Then Jacob spoke. "I'm sorry about your parents," he murmured. Henry glared up at him which silenced Jacob instantly. What is wrong with this kid? Jacob thought. Without anything else to say the only sound that was heard throughout the entire room was the sound of the boiling soup. 

Several minutes later, Emily came down with the box in her arms. She set it down on one of the chairs near Henry and smiled at him. Then, she looked at Jacob who was pouring the soup into three bowls. He gave one to Henry and Emily and then took the last one for himself. Emily smiled at Jacob. "Thank you for helping me," Emily said. Jacob's cheeks turned a tinted pink which did not go unnoticed by Henry. He glared at Jacob before giving him a light kick to the ankle. Jacob grimaced and rubbed the sore spot. 

"Henry! That is not a nice thing to do!" Emily exclaimed as she gave Henry a disapproving look. Henry looked down at his soup and mumbled something under his breath. "What was that?" 

"He was looking at you funny," Henry said. The two adults looked at each other and both of them laughed awkwardly. When they were done eating, Emily put the rest of the soup away for later and said goodbye to Jacob. 

"If you ever need me, here's my cell," Jacob said as he handed her a piece of paper with his number on it. She thanked him again and shut the door. Then, she went back to Henry and began to stroke his head. The kind action made Henry sleepy and before he could stop himself, he fell asleep on the couch. Emily smiled at his sleeping form and how peaceful he looked. A small smile crept onto his face as he slept. 

"Thank you," he whispered in his sleep. Emily nodded and pulled the blanket over him more before she went back to her own room to get some shut-eye. While she got ready for bed, she tried to think up what to do with Henry.