TWENTY EIGHT
“Are you sure I should be coming to this?”
It had been a strange enough thought for Brad to think about having Thanksgiving with anyone. For most of his life, it had been nothing but another day to him, Thanksgiving, just like every holiday. There had been a few foster homes through the years that had at least tried to do holidays, but as his behavior had gotten worse and worse, and he’d been put in the harsher, strict foster homes, that had happened less.
Julie had celebrated them, but that was the last time that Brad had had that in his life. When it had been just him, it had seemed sort of ludicrous. Better to spend the time working, and that had given him a reputation as being reliable, someone who put work first.
“Of course you should come. Why wouldn’t you come?” Aaron was dressed up more than Brad was used to seeing him, not quite at suit and tie level, which Brad was starting to think might actually take an act of God, but in dress pants which hugged his trim, toned little body in a way that could be quite distracting if Brad let it be.
“I don’t even know them,” Brad managed to get out, dragging his eyes away from Aaron before he dragged him back to bed right then and there. Their bed, since Aaron had, by some miracle, agreed to come live with Brad. “I’ll make people uncomfortable by being there.”
Aaron didn’t laugh, and Brad had learned that Aaron would never laugh at him when he got into these strange little fits of melancholy. It was one of the reasons that Brad had come to trust him enough to let Aaron see them.
“I doubt it. They’re pretty welcoming.” Aaron came over to him, adjusting Brad’s tie minutely and then smoothed his hands down the front of Brad’s clean, snowy white shirt. “Besides, I think it’s past time that you met my sister. Don’t you?”
And no matter how Brad might grumble, he couldn’t deny that reasoning. He hadn’t managed to meet her yet, and since it seemed like this thing with Aaron, by some miracle, wasn’t going to blow up in his face anytime soon, he really should know Aaron’s family.
So just like that, it seemed, he was off to his first Thanksgiving dinner in maybe a decade. And maybe that was okay because he was there hand in hand with Aaron, and when they got there, there were enough people, and they were all very nice, but Brad was able to disappear into the crowd and just watch.
He was more comfortable that way, and so was Aaron, so it was just one more way in which they were completely perfect.
* * *
It was after dinner when people were starting to drift away, that Leah found them. There had been no time for anything but a quick introduction before, and for him and Leah to eye each other, to size each other up, before the party had swept them off in opposite directions.
She was a pretty girl, though, just like Brad would have expected from Aaron’s sister. Was Aaron’s hair that same auburn color under the blood red dye? She had the same smooth, pale skin and wide, dramatic eyes, and if he didn’t know about her history, he never would have believed it. She had this aura of innocence around her still.
But then, he knew that no one looking at him would believe the kind of teenager he had been, either. Or what his life, and Leah’s, would have been like without Julie, who had been invited to Thanksgiving dinner, too.
“Stay in touch,” she had whispered into his ear as they hugged each other tightly. Brad nodded, just a bit guilty because this woman had done so much for him and he had repaid her by ignoring her. By trying to run from his past. He owed her so much, far more than he had given her, and he finally felt like he was stable enough to do just as she requested.
After she left, Leah came up to them, and there was something nervous, furtive, but determined, in the way that she moved. She hugged Aaron briefly and then pulled away to look up at him.
“Hey, can we talk?”
Brad nodded briefly, politely, to them both, and turned to go away. Whatever it was that Leah wanted to say, it was obviously something which should be done in private, only when he took a step, Leah gripped him by the arm and pulled him back.
“No, you can stay, if you want.” Her gaze spoke to him frankly, telling him that they had some of the same histories and that she trusted him, on some level. Not really because of Aaron, but because of Julie, because of their shared history in her house and as survivors of the foster care system.
“Where?” Aaron asked, and if one didn’t look very closely, it would be easy to think that he barely cared about the answer. But Brad could tell, by a thousand little signs, that it was quite the opposite. Aaron shut down the more nervous he got.
“In my room. Come on.”
There was a sort of silence which echoed between them, unaffected by the sounds of the dwindling celebration below, as they walked up the stairs. It wasn’t until they were settled in her room with her perched on the edge of her bed that she looked at them and opened her mouth to speak all at once, the words rushing out of her in a torrent.
“They want to adopt me.”
Brad hadn’t honestly known what to expect. It had clearly been important, but this, this was something else. How many sixteen-year-old foster kids could expect something like that? By sixteen, it was pretty much just assumed that the kid was going to be in foster care until they aged out of it.
It was great news, but Aaron was so still and silent, arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against her desk, his eyes on the carpet beneath his feet rather than on his sister. When he spoke, it was so quiet that they both had to lean forward to hear his words.
“Do you want that?”
Leah hesitated, and who could blame her? Brad could see in her eyes that she did want that, or else she wouldn’t have mentioned it at all. But she also very clearly loved her brother and didn’t want to hurt his feelings, either.
Brad watched as she struggled with, and made, the decision, choosing honesty. Even though it had to be terrifying for her, she swallowed and nodded her head, which seemed to give her the courage to speak.
“Yeah. They’re pretty cool, you know?”
