Holes of Life
By Samantha Tragedy
Chapter 6 Dad
The next day came all to soon for Ryan. He was truly dreading having to go see what had become of Theresa. He got up and went down stairs to see Parker sitting at the island in the middle of the kitchen. He chuckled at how alike they truly were.
"You ready for today?" Ryan asked him.
"As ready as I'll ever be."
"Well, then, let's go." They went out to the car where Ryan once again tried to engage Parker in conversation.
"So, why don't you tell me about yourself."
"What do you want to know?"
"How about school?"
"I hate it."
"Why is that?"
"Because." Parker stated matter-of-factly as he turned to look out the window. A few minutes later they pulled up to Seth's office and watched as he fought his way down the stairs stepping over boxes on his way. Ryan laughed when he got to the bottom and smirked at his accomplishment, then being so proud didn't watch his next step and fell face first into a pile of packaging foam.
"You so never saw that. Got it?" Seth dusted himself off as he got into the passenger seat of Ryan's car.
"Whatever Seth."
"Hey Parker." Seth acknowledged the kid in the backseat.
"Hey." He replied quietly back. Parker didn't like Seth. Seth was the one forcing him to do this. Seth was the one making him live with Ryan. Seth was the one changing his life forever.
"You ready for this kid?" Ryan asked 45 minutes later as they pulled up to Theresa's house.
"If I said no, would you still make me do it?" Seth and Ryan looked at each other than back at Parker.
"Parker, this is for the best-"
"Yea, save it. Let's just get it over with." He opened his door and began to walk towards the house. Ryan and Seth quickly followed.
Just before they were about to open the door however, it swung open violently hitting the outside wall. It was soon followed by a very angry man whom Seth and Ryan assumed to be John.
"WHERE WERE YOU LAST NIGHT!" The man screamed at the young teen. "JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STAYING OUT ALL NIGHT AND MAKING YOUR MOTHER WORRY LIKE THAT?"
Not waiting for an answer the man made a grab for the kid and was about to punch him when Ryan grabbed Parker's shoulder and pulled him away from the man. Just as he was doing this Theresa came out of the house.
"What the hell-" She cut herself off when she saw Parker and Ryan pulling away from John.
"Parker! Ryan! What the hell is going on here?" Ryan couldn't believe it. She had turned out just like Dawn. He was so stunned that he loosened his grip on Parker, who immediately jumped on John and, catching the man off guard, knocked him to the ground and started hitting him any where he could. For a 14 year old he could hit pretty damn hard.
John started hitting back extremely fast for someone so drunk. Ryan, seeing this, pulled Parker off his step-father and held him back as John started to get up. Seth, knowing what was about to happen, went into lawyer mode.
Stepping forward as he spoke, "Excuse me Mr. And Mrs. Brixus. I'm Seth Cohen, attorney at law.
"You brought a lawyer here boy!" John yelled.
"Excuse me! I have reason to believe that your home is an unsafe environment for children and will be removing all said children from your care immediately."
"What! NO! You can't take my kids! I won't let you!"
"Theresa!" Ryan interrupted still holding onto a struggling Parker. "It's either this and the kids come live with me or we get social services involved complete with foster care. You decide."
At the mention of social services both Theresa and John immediately shut up.
"I'll take that as you choosing me."
"Parker. Go inside and get your siblings and anything you guys want to bring with you." Parker pulled out of Ryan's grasp and went inside.
Everyone waited outside for about 5 minutes till Parker came back out followed shortly by 3 more kids.
The youngest of the 3, whom Ryan knew to be Dylan, was questioning his older brother.
"Parker, What's going on? Where are we going? Who are they?" He asked spotting Ryan and Seth.
"Would you just shut up!" He yelled. At the shouting the younger child immediately began to cry and ran over to the oldest of the girls. Parker instantly felt bad. "Hey, Dylan, come on, I'm sorry I shouted. I'm not mad at you."
"Parker," Ryan said. "Come on just get in the car. We can take care of it later." Seth had already started to walk to the car with the three youngest kids following.
"Fine." They pulled out of the drive way 3 minutes later. Parker sat, looking out the window and trying to forget.
God he thought this guy has got to be crazy taking in four kids when he already has three others. Why does he even want me? I mean he has the perfect life. I'm only going to complicate things. And hitting John is defiantly not going to help the situation either. At least Alana, Erica, and Dylan are the same ages as his other kids. Maybe now they wouldn't bug me so much.
I can't believe I'm leaving. I shouldn't be. I can't believe I didn't tell her. I should have gone to tell her. She'll never forgive me for this. She'll think I'm running from her. But I'm not! I don't want this! I never should have gone to see that stupid lawyer! God! I'm so stupid!
The group arrived back home and after dropping Seth off at his office, Ryan focused on getting them all to his house. He knew this wouldn't be easy. Going from raising 3 kids no older than eight to 6 kids under eight plus a teenager. Oh yes. This would most defiantly be fun.
They pulled up to his house a few moments later and slowly everyone piled out as Marissa came out. Kirsten followed and so did Elliot, Paige, and Bridget. He knew what Marissa had told them- That they were getting 4 new brothers and sisters. And that they were probably going to act differently, at least for a while, until they got used to living like them. Elliot seemed to understand what was going on. After all, he was eight years old. Old enough to understand that not all kids had it as nice as he did.
"Everyone," Ryan said to Marissa, Kirsten, and his kids. "I would like you to meet Parker, Alana, Erica, and Dylan. They will be living with us from now on. Okay?"
After all the introductions had been finished the "new" kids grabbed their things from Ryan's car and went into the mansion the Atwood's called home.
They had enough bedrooms in the house for all of the kids to have their own. Ryan and Marissa weren't sure how many kids they had wanted so they made sure to get a house with many, many bedrooms.
As Kirsten and Marissa took Elliot, Paige, and Bridget to the Kitchen for a snack, Ryan showed his new children around the house.
"Dylan, this will be your room. Marissa will take all of you shopping tomorrow for clothes and stuff to decorate your bedroom and stuff for school, which by the way you all start on Tuesday."
Dylan went into the room and looked around. "Do you like it?" Ryan asked.
"I love it!" The boy smiled and ran to Ryan and gave him a hug.
"Good. It's all yours." This was how it went with all the kids. They all loved their rooms. Ryan was about to show Parker his when Marissa called them all down.
Summer called and wanted to take all of her kids plus all of Marissa's, both new and old, shopping today. It was only one in the afternoon and with everything they would need to buy it might just take them two days. Ryan rolled his eyes but agreed. He had no idea why Kirsten, Summer, and Marissa found the idea of walking around a huge building with nine children between the ages of eight and five to be fun. But he agreed all the same.
"Parker you can have the choice stay here or go shopping." Ryan rolled his eyes.
"Stay."
"Smart kid." Ryan stated. Marissa laughed and walked out the door with Kirsten. Six kids following behind them.
"So, Parker." Ryan started and Parker knew right away that this was going to be about what had happened at his mother's house. "You want to tell me why you did it."
"Not really."
"That wasn't exactly the answer I was looking for."
"Well, what do you want me to say?" Parker was getting frustrated, Ryan could tell.
"I want you to tell me why you hit John."
"Because I felt like it."
"Parker, come on. I know what your life was like okay. I was you not too long ago. I know you did it for revenge, but you need to understand that you're in a different place now. Fighting is not an acceptable form of communicating your anger. Do you understand."
"Yes."
"Are you going to remember this the next time you want to fight someone?"
"No." Ryan sighed. Well at least the kid was honest.
"Okay, Parker. You're in high school right?"
"Yep."
"That means you will be a freshmen at one of the best high schools in the country on Tuesday. This place is going to be full of stuck-up, rich kids, whose faces you are going to want to level-"
"But I'm not going to be able to do that. I'll have to 'control my temper' and be good. Right?"
"Right. Now I told you before this school was good. So I'm going to need to know why it was you hated school before?"
"That's really none of your business." Parker said looking Ryan in the eyes.
"Yes, it is Parker. It became my business the minute you walked through Seth's door. "
"Which I never should have done!" Parker screamed.
Ryan quickly realized that this kid did not trust him not to hurt him or kick him out at a moments notice. This kid was just like he was when he came to live with the Cohen's.
"Parker, If you had stayed at that house you would have ended up either dead, in jail, or just like John. Now you and all of your siblings have a chance-"
"No!" His son interrupted "We had a chance there too! Here it will be worse! WE DON'T BELONG HERE! WE BELONG WITH OUR MOTHER!"
Just then Parker ran out of the kitchen and towards the front door. However Ryan was quicker and grabbed him by the arm.
"You're not going anywhere."
As soon as Ryan touched him, Parker tensed and started to fight him off. But Ryan wasn't letting go.
"Let go of me! I'm sorry I shouted! Don't hurt me! Please let go of me!" Parker pleaded with the man who was his new father.
Ryan's heart broke when Parker said this. With his right hand on Parker's shoulder he pulled the kid into a hug and waited for him to stop fighting. He didn't stop though. For the next five minutes Ryan just held him as he did anything in his power to get away from him. Parker was sobbing by this time and he was getting weaker with each punch.
Finally the kid exhausted himself and relaxed into Ryan's arms. Ryan held him as he cried his eyes out. Neither one saying anything. They didn't know how long they stood there for with Parker's sobs filling the room before Ryan spoke.
"I will never ever hurt you Parker. I don't want you ever to be afraid of coming to me. I don't care what you have done. Marissa and I will always be here for you. And we will never hurt you or your siblings. You don't have to be the parent anymore. Do you understand me?
"Thank you." Parker whispered. "Thank you so much." Then, so quite that it took Ryan a while to realize it was Parker who had said it, "Dad."
A/N Hey everyone! A long update! Okay. I was in a mild car accident last Wednesday and the one before that I was in the hospital. So i will have some more free time and I will try to update again this weekend. As for reviews I try to reply and they motivate me sooo much but it just isn't possible, with my other story as well, to keep up with reviews from both. So please review! But don't hate me if I can't answer!