Author's Note: Yay reviewers. But all the rest of you suck. For the first chapter, I got four reviews right away. For this one, I just go my second and third. That's not too encouraging guys. If you don't let me know that someone's reading it then I don't have much of a reason to update, do I? Please review. They really do make my day. I'm really liking this story to. Hope you guys do.
Author's Note (new crap): So I'm really sorry about the confusion with the line breaks and stuff. I put them in when I was writing, I just guess they don't transfer over. Thank you to Onetreehillfan1988 for bringing it to my attention. Hope this is easier!
"Peyton. Peyton. Wake up honey. Come on." Peyton woke up and looked around her room. She was surprised that the intense gaze of the sun hadn't woken her up sooner. She must have stayed up late. She did stay up late. Talking to Revelin. Her brother. Her twin.
They had stayed up the entire night talking and then Peyton passed out. She had felt bad falling asleep when Revelin had obviously had enough energy to stay up for hours longer. She remembered feeling herself falling asleep, listening to him talk. He had a nice voice.
She wondered if he was mad that she fell asleep while he was talking. Did he get upset and storm off into his room, vowing to never speak to his sister again? Peyton pushed herself up onto her elbow. A big blob of darkness caught her eye. She let her eyes adjust to the light and looked again. Revelin.
He was asleep, curled up into a little ball at the foot of her bed. Obviously he didn't get mad and storm off into his room. She should have known he wouldn't do that. He told her that he could never sleep the first night in a new house. He never felt comfortable. He was always afraid that whoever he was staying with might turn out to be some sort of creep. He never felt safe for the first night and he never slept. But right now, he was sleeping. Did that mean something?
As Peyton smiled at her sleeping brother, her dad tapped her on the shoulder again.
"You've got to go. Lucas' downstairs."
"Crap!" She was supposed to go out to lunch with Lucas. She didn't want to leave Revelin but she promised Luke that she would fill him in on what Revelin was like. They could probably always come back to her house afterwards and all hang out anyway.
It had taken him a while to figure out where he was. He was used to waking up in strange places that he barely recognized. There were usually noises though. Sometimes it was just a busy house with a bunch of people, sometimes it was an angry couple screaming over money. Whatever it was, it usually woke him up early. The clock said that it was one thirty and the sun was up so he guessed he had slept in past noon. He couldn't remember the last time he had done that.
"Hey, Mr. Sawyer." He had gone exploring through the house in search of Peyton, but only found her father. It had been three years since he was taken away from his first father, but he still found it uncomfortable to be in the same room alone with an older man.
"I haven't changed my mind, you know." The response startled him. He wasn't sure what the older man was talking about. Revelin just hoped it wasn't anything negative about him. Had he broken a rule? He couldn't remember any rules being laid before him. Although, sometimes he got rules confused with different houses.
No watching TV. Wait, no. It was the other house he wasn't allowed to watch more than a half hour of TV a day in. Or was it this one? No, this was the house with the dog that had to be on a leash if it went outside. He remembered making that mistake in the wrong house and ending up with a broken arm. You had to be careful about rules when you were dealing with people you don't know.
"Excuse me?" he asked the other man, remembering the odd response that had started his rumbled train of thought.
"Yesterday I said you could call me Larry. You still can." So this was a house where he could call the adults by the first name. He was sure he was going to mess that one up a lot more. It was better to be safe and call a man mister than be sorry for insulting him by using his first name.
"Oh, right. Sorry."
"It's alright." There was a long awkward pause. The older man was just sitting at the table tinkering with a toaster while the younger man lingered in the doorway. Not sure of what to do. "How was your first night here? You sleep well?"
"Yeah. I'm really sorry that I slept in Peyton's room. I mean, we were talking and we just fell asleep. I just…"
"Don't worry about it. I just want you to be comfortable." This was a hard guy to upset. That was a change of pace. Maybe Revelin could learn to like that.
"So is Peyton around?" Enough awkward conversation. He was ready to have a comfortable laughing fit with his new sister. He really liked having someone around that he knew he could trust right away. It was comforting.
"She actually went out to lunch with a friend. She should be back any minute though. Are you hungry?" Revelin was about to lie and say no, when his stomach betrayed him. He didn't really like eating all too much. It was just never something that really brought him joy. He wished he was more normal and could eat like a normal person, but there were a lot of things he couldn't do like a normal person. And there was no way he could lie now.
"Yeah. I guess." Larry settled him down at the kitchen table with a bowl of fruit loops and milk. Ten minutes had gone by and he was still in the middle of his small bowl of cereal. Better to prolong the eating experience and avoid anything else awkward.
"Hey guys," Peyton walked into the kitchen holding a food carton full of leftovers from wherever she had been taken to lunch. She probably had no problem eating food. He, of course, had gotten stuck with the anorexic genes.
"Hey honey. How was lunch?" Larry stopped tinkering with the toaster for long enough to look up at his daughter. It was encouraging to know that he actually loved his daughter.
"It was great. Lucas had to go work at the café, but I was gonna go down there and hang out with him. I was wondering if Revelin wanted to go."
"Sure." Get out of the awkward silences? Sure! Why not?
"Cool. Let's go."
"Lucas? It's me… Umm yeah. Sorry about that… Yeah. Well, no… The hospital… No, no I'm fine… We were in a car accident… No nothing bad… Yeah, just a few bruises… He broke his leg actually. Well, I broke his leg actually… No he'll be fine… I was actually wondering if you could come down here… Yeah, he's here. He's filling out paperwork or something… Alright. Thanks Luke… Bye."
"Hey, sweetheart. Did you call Lucas?" her dad asked as she walked back out into the waiting room.
"Yeah. He's on his way over. Did you hear anything?"
"No. But here's the doctor." The man was a short Indian man who talked with an understandable accent.
"Are you here for Revelin Wood?" he asked the two.
"Yes, we are. Is he alright?" Peyton was glad that her dad was doing all the talking. She didn't think that she would have been able to handle everything without him. She was really glad he wasn't leaving for a while.
"Could I speak to you alone, Mr. Sawyer?" The short man seemed to be studying the father and daughter before him.
"What's wrong? Is he alright?" Larry asked as soon as they were out of earshot to his daughter.
"From the car accident, he's fine. He fractured his leg and has a few scratches, but he should easily make a full recovery." The doctor seemed to be studying Larry's face again. As if searching for something wrong.
"Something tells me that that's not all that's wrong though." Larry prodded the doctor after a few moments of silence.
"Actually, there were some other things that I had questions about." More silence.
"Like what?"
"He seemed to have a lot of faded bruising in various places on his body. There were also a few bones we saw that look like they broke but weren't set correctly, if at all."
"I don't think I understand." What did all of this mean? If it wasn't from the car accident, then where was it from?
"With the physical symptoms he has, we have no choice but to suspect some form of abuse. Now if there's anything going on at home that…"
"No! No. We actually just took him into our home. Just yesterday actually. We're in the process of adopting him. He's been in foster homes for the past few years…" Maybe this kid had gone through more than they knew.
"Alright. I understand completely. And I apologize. We just have to be very careful with these things now a days."
"Don't worry. I get it." How could anyone bring themselves to hit a kid?
Fifteen minutes later Lucas showed up at the hospital.
"Peyton! Are you alright? How's Revelin doing?"
"He's with me for like a day, and he ends up in the hospital! I broke him, Luke!"
"Peyton! You didn't break him! It was an accident. It wasn't your fault." Lucas couldn't believe how worried she was over her brother. It was adorable.
"He's just been through so much already. And now I go and put him in the hospital! I'm a horrible sister! I'm not even a sister! I'm just the weird, freaky girl who crashes cars for a hobby and kind of happens to look like him. He's gonna hate me now." Maybe not so much adorable as crazy.
"He's not gonna hate you now." It was an accident. He would understand! If he would forgive anyone after crashing him into a minivan, it would be Peyton.
"Listen, Luke? Will you go and like sit with him for a while? I don't want him to be alone, but I really don't think he wants to see me. Just go talk to him for a while? Please?" He was probably lonely. Peyton still couldn't believe what she had done. She almost killed her brother! He wasn't going to forgive her for that.
"All right. I'll talk to him. I'm sure he understands though. I'm not going to have to really talk him into anything."
"No! Don't talk about me. Just have a regular conversation with him. I'm probably the last thing he wants to here about anyway."
"Peyton…" It was ridiculous how upset she was. It was just an accident. He just hoped that Revelin wasn't the same way.
"Please, Lucas?"
"Fine." He got up to go into the room just as a nurse was coming out. "How is he?"
"He should be fine as long as he gets some rest. He's not sleeping, though."
"Can't you give him anything for that?" If he really needed rest then couldn't they just drug him up?
"We maxed out the levels of everything we could give him to help him sleep almost an hour ago. It was enough to put a small horse to sleep in minutes. But no. This kid has the immunity that ate Hong Kong. There's nothing else we can give him. See if you can get him to sleep, will ya?" With that, the nurse was gone and Lucas was left alone in the doorway of a guy he'd never met. Being the best friend was fun.
"Hey man." The boy in the bed jerked his head around so fast, it looked like it was going to fall off. His eyes looked like he was either doped up or going without sleep for two weeks. It made him wonder why the dude wouldn't just go to sleep. "I'm Lucas.
"Hey." It took a few seconds, but Revelin finally seemed to recognize the boy in the doorway. By name of course.
"How's it going?" Stupid thing to ask a kid in a hospital bed.
"Alright, I guess." Revelin seemed as weirded out as Lucas about the question.
"You like it here in Tree Hill?" Don't talk about Peyton. Don't talk about Peyton. Yes, avoid the topic of Peyton, the only thing the two boys have in common. Instead, have a lovely, meaningless, extremely awkward conversation.
"I haven't really gotten a chance to see anything yet."
"Well, I could always show you around…" Stupid. Eveytime he opened his mouth, something stupid came out. "You know. Not now or anything. Once you're up to it." Great cover.
"Yeah. Sounds good. I mean. I liked what I saw on the ride to the house. Lots of trees."
"Yeah. Trees are good." Lucas just sighed. 'Trees are good.'? He hoped their future conversations went better than this one.
"Yup." There were a few more moments of awkwardness, and then just silence. Lucas looked over at Revelin to see that he had finally fallen asleep.
