Give A Little More

Chapter 10

My first glimpse of LA in 6 years was an unusually gloomy one. The clouds hung low and they sky looked pale, almost dead. "Welcome to Los Angeles," Our pilot said, "It's cloudy 72 degree October day, I hope you all enjoyed your flight." Riker looked out, "Looks the same as it did when we all left." "Yep." I said, throwing Riker's jacket over me quickly. I put on the engagement ring and stepped into the airport. The security guards hung behind us a good way, letting us move about like teenagers that have spying parents. We got through security and went to the front where we were told a car was waiting to pick us up. "Surprise!!" I heard in front of me. "Mom!" Riker jumped away from my grasp and ran towards a shorter blonde woman. "Mommy!" Rydel shrieked, a noise I had never seen come out of her.

All of them went running to their mom, leaving Ellington and I back behind them, smiling sheepishly. Ellington's parents had moved over to England after he had left home, he kept in touch with them, but they rarely visited. My parents of course wouldn't be here, My dad and step mom didn't know I would be here. "I thought you all would never come back!" A man said, I guessed their father. Then I saw another one who looked like the four siblings come around and give hugs, "Hey Ry!" Riker smiled, giving his little brother a hug. Riker and Ryland skyped a lot. Ryland was 17 and living at home finishing up high school. Ryland's eyes moved to me, "Is that her?" he asked Riker, Riker nodded, motioning me to come over. "Harper, this is my Baby Bro Ryland," "Nice to meet you." I smiled, shaking his hand. He smiled back at me.

"Who is this Riker?" The woman came over and smiled preciously at me. Riker beamed, "This is Harper, she was Rydel's roommate in College?" He said, trying to jog her memory, "You met her once when you all came to visit." "Of course!" The woman said, "I'm Stormie, these crazy kiddos mother." She came in for a hug. "Oh," I said, "It's a pleasure to see you again." I said, watching her take my hand. "Are you and Riker um," She looked down at my hand. 'Shit!' I thought. "Oh my god!" She squealed, almost the same noise Rydel made, I saw where she got it. "Riker Anthony, you got engaged and you didn't tell me?!" She clapped her hands together, "Oh Harper I am so excited! We're so happy to have you in our family!" Everyone else stopped in their tracks to look at us. Riker and I exchanged an uncomfortable glance.

'We can't lie to his family.' I thought, 'But I gotta put up the persona.' I told myself. "Yeah." I managed a smiled, "We got engaged just a few days ago... We wanted to wait until we were here in person to tell you!" I beamed, taking Riker's hand. "Yeah..." He smiled, "And I'm really happy..." "Me too..." I added. "Yay!" Stormie clapped her hands,"This calls for celebration, dinner everyone! Let's go out!" We looked back to the guard a little bit behind us who nodded, "Okay," I said, looking at Riker and then Rydel. "Let's go!"

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"Well, Ellington, Harper, tell us a little about yourselves." Their father, Mark, smiled at us. We sat around the dinner table at one of our favorite places to eat, In 'n Out Burger. Ratliff looked at me and started talking, "Um, well, I'm originally from Baltimore, so this is really new for me to be here... I went to College with Riker and Rocky here and then started working with Rydel and Harp at the uhm, we worked together." He caught himself. "And when they decided to move back home, Rydel asked me to move with them and I couldn't pass up the new opportunity..." He sighed, lying. Ellington didn't want to leave Baltimore at all. He was silent the entire flight here and Rydel could barely get a smile out of him.

"Rydel," Their younger brother said, looking across the dinner table. "Yeah?" "Are you and Ellington dating?" He asked bluntly. Rocky spit out his water and started killing himself laughing, along with Ross and Myself. "No," Rydel smiled, "We're, um," "Good friends..." Ratliff finished, looking at her sweetly. Ross laughed, "Beneficial friends..." He burst into laughter, taking the other boys with him. "Not an appropriate dinner conversation!" Stormie scolded the boys, bringing them back to earth. Riker's hand found mine then. "Regardless of your relationship to each other, we're so happy you're here Ellington..." Stormie concluded, shooting Rocky and Ross a look. "Thanks!" He smiled, reaching his hand under the table, I'm sure to catch Rydel's hand. The rest of us had yet to tell Ratliff and Rydel that we knew they were even sleeping together.

"We're so excited to have you all here," Stormie smiled, "I can't wait to help you with wedding plans!" It was me who choked then, coughing over my water and looking pleadingly at Riker. "Mom," He smiled, "We just got engaged, we'll give it a little while... We wanna get setlled here first." "That's understandable..." She said, "So, all of you, where are you staying, you have a place you know!" She smiled. "Actually," I said, I had figured out our story by now. "I came up here a few weeks ago and closed on our house... Rydel came with me, but we wanted it to be a surprise so we didn't tell you we were here. We've got a place." I smiled. "Oh, well wonderful! Can we help you unpack?" Riker stepped in, "It's really okay Mom, we're gonna take a couple of cabs and you can come over tomorrow?"

"Okay..." She sighed, "We'll get going then and I guess let you get settled..." She looked sad. Ross hopped up, "Mom," He smiled, giving her a hug, "We're adults now, we really know what we're doing..." He looked around at our faces, each one did not in fact know what it was doing. None of us had any clue at all.

They all said goodbye and left, leaving us to get into the car with the four guards that would be near us all the time. They were big men, all bigger than Rocky, the tallest of the Lynch boys. There were two for the night and two for the day, one for each household. They had specific instructions to keep an eye on us, which meant no staying out late, no dangerous activity, and they had to at least know anytime we went somewhere away from the house.

"Mr. Lynch and Harper?" One of them said, "This is your home." He handed us each a key and some codes on a sheet of paper and parked the big black suburban in the driveway. Riker, Ross, and I's house was blue with white trim and it looked beautiful and beachy. We went inside to see it, decorated with beach type, happy, sunny furnishings, nothing like our style or our apartments back home. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a pool, just like Creighton promised. Rydel, Ellington, and Rocky's house had three bedrooms, three bathrooms and a pool also. It was beige with white trim, almost identical to our house right next door.

I had offered to let Rocky live with us with Ross in his bedroom, but he insisted on living with Rydel and Ellington. We all knew after two nights of sleeping in his room, he'd sneak out and sleep with Rydel in the Master Bedroom every night after. It was beige with white trim, almost identical to our house right next door.

"We'll let you all get settled and just call us when you get up in the morning... Watch the time difference." One of the guards told us. He stepped outside, closing the door behind him, leaving us six collapsing on Rydel, Ellington, and Rocky's sofas. All of our things were still in boxes in our living room next door, so we let them sit. Our somber mood set in and I couldn't believe we were actually there, under super vision, not allowed out alone, and I sighed loudly, "Home Sweet Home..."