Once again, this is a three parter. This chapter and the last one are much longer than the first one, since it was just a prologue. I updated earlier than I intended. Why? I just couldn't help it.
Chapter 2 of Journey:
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Kirsten finished the extra cup of tea left over from Ryan's tea bag. Three months ago, she would have never known that Ryan loved Earl Grey. She suspected that if she hadn't asked, he would have never told her.
Placing the cup in the sink, Kirsten rinsed it with warm, soapy water. Sandy made her promise not to clean the dishes before she put them in the dishwasher, but Ryan did it too, so what did it matter?
It was 3:00. Ryan was probably still in the bathroom. When Sandy came in after checking on him, he quietly told her that the kid was still in there, and he didn't want to bother him.
Sandy was gone now, leaving the house empty and silent.
Soon enough, Seth would be home, and he would fill the silence nicely.
Kirsten went to the CD cabinet and pulled out some selections. Squishing them under one arm, she picked up the big bowl of noodle soup and made her way to the door, where she pushed down on the fancy door knob that led outside. She pulled out carefully, but a small puddle of soup settled on her hand nonetheless.
Kirsten waited for it to cool down before proceeding on her perilous journey to Ryan's pool house.
She opened the door without knocking. She would have if she could, but her hands were full, and if Ryan hadn't wanted to be disturbed, he would understand. Or maybe he wouldn't. She wasn't quite sure.
She didn't have to find out, because he was sleeping. He looked completely wiped out.
She figured that she could probably start banging pots and pans around the room and he wouldn't even move.
Kirsten didn't want to admit it, but she liked that Ryan was sick. She knew it was a terrible thing to say, and if the doctor had been wrong about the stomach flu and Ryan was sicker than they thought, she would have completely regretted her words, even if they were only said in her head.
She had wondered before why she liked Ryan sick, but now, looking at his sleeping form, his chest slowly rising and falling, she knew.
She had never seen him sick.
She never had the chance to tuck him in at night. Never got the chance to make him tea and soup when he was little. She didn't even get the chance to take care of him.
Kirsten hadn't gotten the chance to be his mother.
She put the soup next to his empty cup of tea. So he had been out of the bathroom long enough to drink it. That was good.
She walked closer to Ryan's stereo and placed the CDs next to it.
Sitting in a nearby chair, Kirsten ran her fingers over her ring. "Ryan?" Her voice was loud, determined, but it covered her true feelings.
Worry. Excitement.
Although it seemed he wouldn't be waking up anytime soon, Kirsten had the need to keep on trying. She felt like she was a little kid trying to play with a dog who just wanted to lie down and sleep.
"Ryan?" She smiled when his lip twitched. She was winning her small battle.
"Ryan? Sweetie, wake up for a second."
He flickered his eyes, blinking three times more rapidly than he usually did, which was quite a feat.
"Kirsten?" His voice was hoarse, and his blue eyes were dulled with fatigue.
"Hi there... how are you feeling?" She hated how desperate she was, sneaking into his room with the excuse of soup to spend some time with him.
He crinkled his nose. "Not so good."
That seemed the appropriate response, given his appearance. Kirsten motioned him to sit up, and he complied, taking the spoon from her hands. She carefully handed him the bowl, and he took it just as carefully, dipping his spoon into it and slurping its contents.
"I-- I" Kirsten searched for the words with a sigh. Ryan stared at her quizzically, a small half smile on his pale face.
"I brought you some CDs." she finished.
Ryan shrugged. "That's alright. Seth brought me all of his this morning," he paused, smiling. "...after he pulled the blinds up and yelled at me to see if I would wake up."
Kirsten laughed. Seth had done that to her more than once, and each time he escaped just in time to evade a grounding.
"But these aren't Seth's CDs. They're mine." Ryan furrowed his eyebrows. Kirsten had no doubt in her mind that Seth told him about her apparent "lacking in musical taste", seeing as he seemed much too hesitant to listen to a few songs.
"Seth says you listen to Swedish yodeling." said Ryan, deadpanning.
Kirsten snorted. "He is in so much trouble." she muttered, standing up to put all of the CDs in the stereo.
"Just listen, and you'll see. Seth is totally wrong." She shook her head when Ryan laughed softly.
Music echoed around the room, and Kirsten danced her way over to the chair she had originally sat in.
Ryan looked at her. She was holding the remote for the stereo. She paused the music and pointed the remote at him. He moved back a few inches.
"This, Ryan, is Don McLean." She un-paused it, restarting the track.
Ryan heard the voice and laughed. Kirsten glared at him, and he stopped. He couldn't help but snort as the man talked about music making him smile and making people dance.
"What?" he asked innocently as Kirsten paused the song.
"You're not taking this seriously!" she whined.
Sure, he wasn't, but Don McWeirdo was, and so was the piano man who accompanied him, thought Ryan.
Instead of laughing again, he cleared his throat, determined not to disappoint Kirsten. It was a stupid song, and it was long as hell, but eventually Ryan found himself moving his foot ever so lightly against the bed in a rhythmic pattern.
The song wasn't so bad after all, and in the end, he did like the length. Seth's songs ended much too quickly.
Ryan found himself disappointed when the song was over.
Kirsten smiled despite herself. This was what she wanted. She wanted to spend quality time with Ryan. She was about to give him an introduction for the next song when her phone rung in her pocket.
An annoying tone that stopped every few seconds and resumed it's ridiculous humming just as quickly. She thought briefly about changing the ring tone to American Pie, but figured that now wasn't the time. She pointed the remote at the stereo and paused the next song, which had begun without her.
"Can you excuse me for a second, hun?" she said, looking at Ryan and tilting her head. He nodded in response.
As she walked outside onto the patio, she felt the wind wheezing all around her, and was glad that Ryan was inside, where the heat was turned up painfully high.
"I'm cold." Ryan had said, and Kirsten frowned at him. That couldn't be right. The heat was up as high as it could go, and it was 90 degrees outside. That had been when they decided to take him to the doctor.
"Hello?" said Kirsten. She made good use of being away from Ryan by taking his mug into the house. She dropped it into the sink to wash it later as she held the phone close to her ear with one hand.
"Kiki?" Kirsten sighed. 20 years, and that damn nickname still stuck.
"Hello, dad."
"I'm going to need those blueprints in by tonight. Can you do that?"
Kirsten hesitated. She had forgotten about the blueprints. If she wanted to finish them and get them over to her father by tonight, she would have to stay in the house and leave Ryan all by himself. That wasn't an option.
"No, dad. I'm sorry, but Ryan's sick and I have to take care of him." It was the truth, so why did she feel so bad?
She could hear him on the other line, struggling to voice his opinion about her boy without sounding rude. He didn't say anything, just breathed in, then out, then in again, finally sighing in defeat.
"Well... have them in by tomorrow night at the latest, Kiki."
Kirsten nodded at the phone. "Will do." She said goodbye and hung up, checking the messages on the answering machine. A bright red one flashed up at her, disappearing and reappearing in equal intervals.
"Hey, doll!"
Sandy. Kirsten could hear Seth making fun of his father in the background. She could also hear random conversations about shoes and mean girls at school.
"Well, Seth said he needed to go to the mall, so I brought him over. How much time do you need, kiddo?"
Kirsten listened to Seth contemplate comic books and video games.
"Gimme the phone." Kirsten laughed. "I'm gonna need two hours. Oh, and tell Ryan I hope he feels better, and-- uh-- I'm sorry about this morning." Kirsten could barely hear Seth whisper as he continued, "Convince him not to kill me when he feels better."
"What's going on?" Ryan was standing at the door, holding the empty bowl in his hands.
Kirsten jumped. She turned around and stared at him. He looked even paler in the bright lights of the house.
"Nothing's going on. What are you doing out of bed?" She took the bowl from his hands and put it in the dishwasher.
"I just brought the bowl." He sounded so childish, and he hated himself for it. He had waited in the pool house for a few seconds, and then he began to think that she had left to go back to work. He was being selfish, and he knew it, but he wanted her to himself, at least for today.
Kirsten looked down and saw that Ryan wasn't wearing shoes. He wasn't wearing socks, for that matter.
"You're not even wearing the slippers I got you..."
He frowned. Slippers weren't really his thing, but he couldn't tell her that, so he had accepted them anyways. "I-- I thought you were gonna stay in the house, so I brought the bowl."
Kirsten rolled her eyes. "Didn't I say I'd be back in a second?"
Ryan nodded timidly, and Kirsten touched his back lightly, leading him outside. "Hurry," she said. "The last thing you need is to get pneumonia." Ryan didn't answer her, only quickened his pace.
Kirsten closed the door of the pool house and waited for Ryan to get settled on the bed.
"So," She cleared her throat and clapped her hands together, surprisingly nervous. "Shall we continue?"
She had to contain her excitement when Ryan nodded enthusiastically.
Once, Kirsten asked Seth to listen to her music. He rolled his eyes, scrunched his face together in disgust, and shook his head. She never told him how much it hurt to be rejected by your own son. Shaking off the thought, she turned her attention back to Ryan. Even if he was just listening to her old people music out of pity, or even sheer boredom, he was doing it. And that was all that mattered.
He filled in the blanks that Seth had missed.
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See, when I say I'll deliver within a certain period of time, I deliver within said period of time. Even earlier sometimes. Capish? The next chapter will be uploaded in about four days. (my birthday!)