Chapter 49: Riley DeSilva.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Fosters. If I did, Connor wouldn't be moving to LA, and there would be no stupid hiatus between the halves of the seasons.
AN: please leave reviews.
Connor's POV:
It's been a month since we moved into our new house, here in Davison Michigan.
For at least half of those days, we have been graced with the presence of Aaron Newman, who had taken to sticking to Tim and Wally's side like a fly to flypaper. After knowing him for three days, Jude and I could both already tell that he would be a near permanent fixture in our lives.
We learned much about our sons' friend within the first three days.
He was born into a Kentuckian family, and had lived in Davison for ten of his sixteen years of life. He met Tim on the playground in second grade. Aaron was sitting at a table alone, and Tim decided to sit with him. They struck up a conversation about music, and before the end of the lunch period, they had become friends. Tim discovered very quickly that Aaron was extremely loyal to those he considered friends. He would go to the ends of the Earth and beyond to ensure that his friends were safe and happy.
Aaron was an outgoing boy around us. He talked at a hundred miles an hour, during which he enjoyed affecting a convincing fake Scottish accent and lowered the tone of his voice a couple of octaves for Tim and Wally's amusement. His sense of humor was dark like Wally's. Tim joked that if Aaron were to pull a prank by himself, several people would end up a couple of limbs lighter; and his favorite comedic piece was George Carlin's list of people who ought to be killed, a fact that Wally found very entertaining and delighted in quoting lines from it.
It didn't take him very long to let his walls down around us, but according to Aaron, his personality shifts between what he calls his "private face" and his "public face".
His private face is one that he wears is that of a tired and angry boy, desperate for acceptance and love from his friends and family. From what he has told us of his family, only his mother, father, brother, a couple aunts and a cousin know about his sexuality. This is his true self, as he calls it. A boy who is forced by his own fears to temper himself around a large portion of his southern homophobic family.
His public face was the mask he developed for himself after an incident that happened after Tim moved to San Diego. After Aaron and Riley officially started going out at the beginning of eighth grade, they were caught kissing in the school locker room after gym class. The kids who caught them took a picture of them before they could pull apart, and posted it online. The bullying that followed was even worse than the torture that Tim had endured at Anchor Beach. Taunts. Physical violence. An attempted sexual assault on Riley that resulted in Aaron beating the kid until he could barely breathe.
It was the face he wore when he was in public, or around people he didn't truly trust.
Today, he was over watching a movie with Wally and Tim, and they were all talking about how to get Riley to go see a movie at the movie theater by the hospital.
"Why doesn't Riley ever leave his house?" I asked, curious.
Aaron froze and stared off into space for a moment before shuddering in discomfort.
"Sorry, you don't have to say anything if you don't want to." I backpedalled.
"It's fine. I'll tell you, just give me a second." Aaron said, taking a deep breath before continuing, "We were on a date at the mall. Genesee Valley. I told him it was dangerous, because the place has a gang problem. He wanted to go to the music store, FYE, for your guys' new album."
"I'm sorry..." Jude started to say.
"Don't be. I don't blame you guys. I wanted it too." Aaron interrupted and continued, "I left for ten minutes to go to the bathroom. Asked him to wait for me at the food court. When I went back to get him, he was gone. Found him outside, surrounded by a bunch of assholes. Some stupid gang. Riley was on the ground. They were kicking him. Beating the shit out of him. I lost it. I had my cane, I always did because of my fucked up ankle. I flew into them swinging as hard as I could. Those swine never saw me coming. Most of them ran, but the main one stayed. He thought he could fight me. I had him on the ground within five seconds. I got five good whacks to his head before security finally showed up. I rode with Riley to the hospital. His parents met us there, and they tried to blame me for what happened. I screamed myself hoarse and ended up destroying the conference room we were asked to wait in."
"How bad was Riley hurt?" I asked.
"Three broken ribs." Aaron listed, "Busted elbow, broken nose, dislocated shoulder. The guy that I took down was arrested and charged with a hate crime. He'll never get out of jail."
"That's good." Wally commented.
"Yeah, but the damage is already done." Aaron said sadly, "Riley will barely talk when I go over to visit him, and when he does we always end up shouting at each other."
"Maybe if Tim was there it would be better?" Wally asked.
"Maybe. There's only one way to find out." Aaron said darkly, "I'll call Casey and tell him we're gonna try it."
He pulled out his cell phone and exited the room to place the call. He returned moments later.
"It's on. He's gonna meet us at the high school."
It was a short drive to the high school. It didn't even last five minutes. It was less than a mile distance. We had only been parked in the parking lot for two minutes when a shadow fell over the side of the car.
Tim leapt out of the car and gave the boy a hug.
"It's good to see you, Casey." Tim said.
Casey delivered a soft slap to the back of Tim's head.
"That's for not telling me you were coming back, bro." Casey growled jokingly as Aaron and Wally too exited the car to join the huddle.
Casey Jensen was a whole head shorter than Aaron, and had a long head of brown hair that stretched to the middle of his back. He had the beginnings of a full beard and mustache. His brown eyes held the same mischievous spark that Aaron's did, although much more vibrant. He spoke with a deep voice. The muscles visible were enough to tell that he was an athlete, as Tim had told us he played football and lacrosse.
According to what Tim and Aaron had told us, Casey was a very outgoing boy with a bit of a clownish streak to his personality, and was confident in almost everything he did. He liked to pull pranks on people. His third day of school this year, Aaron told us, he planted a stink bomb in the cheerleading coach's office and left no evidence that it had been him.
He was also very combative. One of the Jocks with a low IQ pulled on his ponytail one day in class, which resulted in a brawl that Aaron had to step in to break up. Later that day, somebody called Casey a rather insulting name for a Native American, which Casey happens to be. Together, Aaron and Casey scared the living daylights out of him, to the point where the afro adorned trouser stain let out an incredibly girly screech. They joked later that he had screamed like a little girl, maybe five or six years old, with pigtails and a frilly skirt.
Tim released Casey from the embrace and pointed to us all as Jude and I got out of the car.
"Casey, this is my new family." Tim introduced, " My brother Wally, and my dads, Jude and Connor Stevens Adams-Foster."
"Yeah, I heard about what happened from Aaron." Casey muttered angrily, "They fricken beat you?"
"Yeah," Tim confirmed uncomfortably, "It's not a big deal anymore..."
"The hell it isn't a big deal!" Casey said, his voice breaking halfway through speech, "They h-hurt you! And they get away with only a long stay in prison? It's bullshit!"
"Now isn't the time, Case." Aaron interjected, "He doesn't want to go into it."
"Sorry." Casey said sheepishly, "So what's going down? Why are we all here?"
"We're gonna try to convince Riley to leave his cave for a few hours." Aaron deadpanned.
"HAA!" Casey exclaimed, "Good luck with that."
"Yeah. Maybe Tim being back will help?" Aaron said hopefully.
"Guess we'll have to wait and see." Casey responded.
"Where does he live?" I asked.
"In the trailer park. Timber Heights." Casey responded, "Tim can show you where it is."
We all piled into the Aston, Wally having to sit on Tim's lap because of the lack of room. We pulled back out onto Oak Rd, and took a right. We turned left into the trailer park and drove up the long winding street to the trailer park. Tim directed us to Riley's home, which was in the very back of the trailer park. When we arrived, the driveway was empty, so we pulled into it and shut the car off. We all exited the car and approached the door.
"Wait here for a minute." Aaron said, "I'm gonna go in and try to talk to him first."
We did as we were asked, and Aaron entered the house.
Ten minutes later, we stood at the door waiting.
"Okay, this is taking too long." Tim finally said, "Let's go in."
I gently opened the door and we all shuffled inside silently.
Aaron stood in the center of the living room, in the midst of a heated conversation with another boy. The boy had short ginger hair. He was of average height for his age. He was skinny, basically of a similar build that Jude had when we were that age.
"Just go away, Airy." Riley mumbled.
"That's never worked, Riles, and it won't start working now!" Aaron said, "The boy I know would never do this kind of thing. I know he's still in there somewhere!"
"The boy you knew." Riley scoffed, "The boy you had a crush on? The boy you started dating back in seventh grade?"
"YES!" Aaron shouted.
"He's gone." Riley said darkly," He doesn't exist anymore."
"That so?" Aaron scoffed, "And how's that?"
"He destroyed himself!" Riley shouted, "I'm not the boy you knew, Aaron! I'm nothing! I'm a shadow of what I used to be, and even the shadow is starting to slowly burn away!"
I looked at Tim, Wally, and Casey. Wally looked confused, while the others looked horrified. Tim moved closer to me, and I pulled him into a side-hug.
"NO HE'S NOT!" Aaron exclaimed angrily, waving his arms around him, "He's NOT GONE! He's just COWERING behind a mask of RIDICULOUS fear, anger and rage induced false bravado that is ten miles thick at the thinnest point! But I have all day! Hell, I HAVE THE REST OF MY LIFE TO CHOP THROUGH IT!"
"Why must you make this so hard on yourself?" Riley asked brokenly.
"BECAUSE I FUCKING LOVE YOU! OKAY?" Aaron screamed.
Riley was stunned into silence.
"If I can't fight for the boy I love, then what is the POINT of even LIVING AT ALL?" Aaron screamed, his face turning red and his eyes going bloodshot from the failed effort to hold in his tears.
Riley stared at him.
"You... y-y-you love me?" He muttered.
"Of course I do, Riles." Aaron whimpered, "You really thought I didn't?"
"You've never said it before." Riley mumbled.
"Just because something is unspoken doesn't make it true." Aaron said softly, mirroring my thoughts, "I love you, Riley. I always have, and I always will. If I didn't, I would have given up a long time ago. I would have given up the relationship when we were being bullied at school. But I didn't. I beat the shit out of anybody who hurt you. I stood up to your parents and went with you to physical therapy after the bashing. I love you."
"We all do, old friend." Tim spoke aloud, finally entering the conversation.
Riley jumped and whipped towards the voice, leaping and cowering behind Aaron.
Riley's had bags under his eyes that immediately said that he hasn't been sleeping well. When his eyes landed on Casey, he relaxed slightly. He studied Tim for a minute, and you could see the moment he recognized him, because Riley's eyes widened to a comical size.
"T-T-Timmy?" He muttered, "Is that really you?"
Tim nodded, and slowly, cautiously, he moved to approach Riley.
He hadn't even moved a couple of inches before Riley bounded across the living room and wrapped him in a hug.
"It's good to see you Riles." Tim mumbled into his shoulder.
It was at this moment that Riley noticed Jude and I standing there.
His eyes widened even further.
"Holy shit." He muttered.
He then proceeded to do exactly what Castor did when meeting James and Lars for the first time.
He fainted.