"Has he been down yet?" Sandy looked to his beautiful wife and shook his head.
"Nope. I haven't heard a peep."
"Why don't you go talk to him?"
"I just don't want to rush it. Let him come down when he's ready."
"He's probably hungry. And what time did he take his pain medication last? He has it for a reason. He should be taking it every four to six hours like the doctor said." Sandy smiled at his wife's concern over a boy she didn't even know. It didn't really matter that she didn't know him, though. He was already family. They didn't really have a choice about that.
"I think he's gonna be fine. He can…" Sandy paused as he heard footsteps on the steps, so did Kirsten. The last thing Ryan probably needed was to walk in on Kirsten and Sandy whispering about him.
"Hey! What's going on? Are you guys talking about me? I'm not hiding Summer upstairs. I have no idea what you're talking about." Sandy sighed at his son's revealing rambling. He left the situation up to his wife and just laughed.
"Go home, Summer!" Even through her stern voice and eye rolling, Sandy could tell that she, too, was amused with their son.
"Bye!" He resisted the urge to ruffle his smiling son's hair as his girlfriend ran down the stairs and fled the house.
"So? What are we talking about?" Seth looked rather pleased with himself as he sat at the counter so instead of ruffling his hair, he smacked him on the back of the head. It only made Seth laugh and widen his smile.
"Have you seen Ryan?" Seth just shook his head.
"I assumed he was sleeping because the only reason I can imagine existing for skipping breakfast and lunch is being unconscious."
"Maybe I should go check on him."
"The door is locked. I mean, Rosie, not me, tried to get into the guest room and it wouldn't open." Sandy didn't even try to figure out what really happened and just rolled his eyes.
Almost everything Ryan owned was shoved into three boxes. He didn't own much besides clothes, but it felt strange. These people had so many things that they could fill a mansion with them, and everything Ryan had could fit into a corner of one of their extra rooms.
He wasn't really sure what else he would have, anyway. He had had toys when he was little. Not as many as Rosie had just in the living room, but he had enough. Seth probably didn't have a lot of stuff. Sure, he had tons of video games, but they didn't take up a lot of space. Ryan shook his head and tried to fall back asleep one more time.
He had been awake three more times since he went downstairs for the pills in the middle of the night. He wasn't sure if he was really exhausted or if he just really didn't want to have to deal with anyone. He had showered the first time he woke up and organized and folded all of his things the second time. Now he had nothing to do but focus on the hunger in his stomach.
Every time Seth, Kirsten, or Rosie made any loud noise, Sandy had assumed it was Ryan coming down the stairs. He almost fell out of his seat when Ryan had appeared next to him in the kitchen.
"Well, hey. I didn't hear you!" Ryan mumbled a 'sorry' and froze in his tracks. Sandy forced himself to keep his mouth shut so he wouldn't spook Ryan away. The boy was like a wild animal. Sure he couldn't run as fast as one, especially with being hurt, but Sandy was just as defenseless to stop him.
"I was just going to get something to eat." His voice was quiet as he stood before Sandy in sweatpants and a t-shirt, hair sticking up in all directions. He looked somewhat different. Not as tired, cleaner. Sandy took it as a good sign of adjusting well. He smiled and nodded.
"Do you need any help?"
"Nah, I was just gonna make myself a sandwich." Again, he just stood there.
"Sure! Help yourself! Let me know if you need help finding anything." Sandy went back to reading the newspaper, or at least pretending he was reading the newspaper.
He remembered back to what little he knew about wild animals: to get them to trust you, you had to quietly sit still until they realized you weren't a threat. And that was just what Sandy had planned on doing. He also observed Ryan, just as someone studying wild life would. He watched how he was still limping, but not as much from before; he observed how Ryan moved as little as possible to find and retrieve what he needed and what little noise he made; he also noticed how his eyes darted back over to Sandy every few seconds. He forced himself to remain unassuming and relaxed.
Ryan was almost done making his sandwich. He was never really picky about what he ate. He was used to just eating whatever was lying around the house. Here, he had options. A lot of options. He almost preferred Sandy making him his lunch just because he didn't have to decide what he wanted. Sandy just threw a bunch of stuff on bread and gave it to him. Ryan decided to just do the same thing. He grabbed some sliced turkey, threw on some mayonnaise and a piece of cheese and called it a day.
He had just begun wondering if he should sit next to Sandy to eat when his wife blew into the room with the little girl.
"I'm hungry!"
"Rosie, you just ate lunch."
"I'm hungry!" Ryan stood still as he watched Kirsten give into her daughter and place her on the counter while she rummaged through the fridge. She pulled out a tube that Ryan recognized from commercials as yogurt.
"Here. Rosie and I are going to the store. Ryan, do you need anything?" He almost chocked on his first bite of lunch and shook his head, confused. "Is there any food you like that we don't have? Or anything you need for the shower? You can just use the stuff Seth has in there, but if there's something different you like, I can pick it up for you." Ryan swallowed, wishing he had put more mayonnaise on the sandwich.
"No, I'm fine. Thanks though."
"All right well if you think of anything have Sandy text me. And I left a laundry basket outside your door. Why don't you throw your dirty clothes in it when you get a chance and I'll wash them when I get home." Ryan opened his mouth to object, but the woman was on a roll. "Oh and are you allergic to anything?" Ryan closed his mouth and shook his head.
He had no idea what had happened but the girls were already out of the kitchen. He glanced at Sandy who quietly laughed and mouthed something that looked like 'sorry!'
"And Seth is grounded for the rest of the day!" And with that, they were out of the house.