Bouncing Baby Boy

Opening his eyes, the white ceiling stared at him. He blinked his eyes a few times, but didn't bother looking around the room he was in. He had become so used to the design of the ceiling to know which room he was in. Hearing the door open, he turned his head to look in the direction of the door and standing there was his father.

"Heard you had a fight at school today."

Hearing this, Riley averted his gaze from his father. Riley looked pissed off, but as soon as he heard his father's footsteps as the man approached him, the angry look was gone. His father sat on the bedside, but Riley refused to look at him.

" Want to tell me what happened?"

Riley smiled, but a bitter smile it was.

"The school already told you, right?"

"Hmm."

"Good. Then I believe my side of the story is not important."

"Yes."

Riley scoffed, he really had had enough of this. He turned to face his father and opened his mouth to let out his anger on his father

"How....."

He suddenly went quiet when he saw someone else enter the room.

"Mom."

He tried to smile, but to smile became hard for him, since his mother was looking at him with a disappointed look. He found himself questioning if she had always been disappointed in him, but he knew he could never get the answer to that, since he could not even get her to speak with him.

After a minute of looking at him with disappointment, she stepped out of the room and went back into her room.

Now in her room, she took a stick of cigarette, lit it up and took a puff. She looked stressed as she looked at the mess she had made in the room. On the floor were quite a lot of old oil paintings. Just some while ago, she had scattered her room in search of a particular canvas. She had planned to give it to Riley as his birthday gift, but after finding out that he got bullied again, she changed her mind. Picking up the canvas from the floor, she blew away the dust that was on it and carrassed the old painting of her Riley when he was just a baby with her fingers. She had a sad smile on her face as she thought back to the past.

*****

16 years ago

*****

"Congratulations Mr Thompson, your wife has delivered a baby boy."

The doctor stood there smiling, holding the baby in his arms.

Mr Thompson exchanged glances with his wife who was lying on the hospital bed, while her husband sat by her bed. They both had confused faces. It did sound like something was off with what the doctor said.

"Is there something wrong with the child?"

"Huh!"

The doctor became confused. This was not what he was expecting to hear, he expected some excitement from them, not such a question.

"Heh, why would you ask such sir?"

He looked at Mrs Thompson when he saw her mumbling some words, but he could not figure out what it was she was mumbling.

"You didn't use the word bouncing."

"Sorry?" What she said took him by surprise.

"There was no bouncing in what you just said. Is there a reason why?"

The doctor looked at the couples and smiled, finally understanding why they looked confused before.

"Not at all sir. He is a bouncing baby boy, there has been no defect so far, I'm sorry for making you misunderstand my words."

*****

Back To Present

*****

"Just who would have thought he really was not a bouncing baby boy."

She said out loud and took a deep sigh.

*******

Riley was now alone in the room. He sat up straight and closed his eyes. Tears rushed down his cheeks. He could not believe his father didn't dare support him, even though he nearly died. After having cried for some while, he wiped his face with his palms and got up from the bed. Opening the door, he looked around to make sure no one was in the hallway. He stepped out and closed the door behind him, before rushing off to his own room.

Opening the door, he saw someone at his bedside table.

"Hey." he called out to the person.

The person turned back to face him.

"Oh, it's you." Riley said with a relieved expression.

"Of course, who else would it be if not me."

They both smiled and gave each other a hug.

"What happened, were you crying?" Richard asked the moment he looked at Riley's face after the hug.

"Me, crying? Oh no, I was not crying. I mistakenly poured water into my eyes when I was washing my face.

Richard smiled as he watched Riley lie.

"Seriously?"

"Of course, I'm not lying."

"Well, I never said you were lying."

They both chuckled. Riley sat on the bed while Richard stood by the window.

Riley tried so hard to keep a smile on his face, even though he was hurting at the moment, he didn't want to add to his big brother's trouble.

" Jokes apart, what really happened?"

It was clear that Richard was not buying that cool look Riley was trying so hard to fake.

"Hey, relax, I'm fine, it's just an everyday stuff I go through." he replied with a chuckle.

But Richard had had enough of him acting cool even though nothing was near cool.

"Whenever you return back to school, I would come pick you up myself as soon as you close. And if I ever come across those idiots who take pleasure in bullying the weak, I would make sure to end their journey of life."

"Relax man. It's all my fault in the very first place."

"It ain't your fault, it never had been your fault, it's that fool's fault for dating you even though he already had a girlfriend. And even if he was gonna do that, he should had let you know and ask if you would be okay with it. How on earth did he even decide that all on his own. What a selfish brat he is."

"Well, it's my fault for not noticing."

"Noticing what? They kept their relationship a secret, so just how were you supposed to notice."

Richard looked pissed off, and he really was pissed off. Only he knew the pain Riley went through when he found out that Everett was already in a relationship with someone else.

They both stayed where they were, looking into each other's eyes with anger. Richard was angry over the fact that Riley kept on putting the blame on himself, while Riley was angry cause Richard kept on bringing up the past he was doing his best to forget.

They remained that way for some minutes, giving each other a deadly stare until Riley's stomach grumbled out loud.

They both blinked their eyes and looked away.

"I would go get you something to eat."

Riley watched Richard step out of the room and all he could do was sigh. He laid himself on the bed and stared at the ceiling. A feeling of contentment rushed through his body. He was finally out of that hell of a place.