Tyler's P.O.V
"You know when you called him a rent a cop it took a lot for me to not bust out laughing." Daniel says letting out a little chuckle.
"Well he is, I don't think I should have gotten suspended though. He shouldn't have grabbed me." I take a sip of my apple juice. "Yeah he shouldn't have, and you shouldn't have been suspended for defending yourself. But you didn't bring the lighter to school right? You were telling the truth when you said you found it right?" he asks going all cop on me.
"Yeah I went to the bathroom before second period and found it on the floor. Sometimes I find little things and pick them up, it's just something I've always done", "Well, I guess I'm glad you found it and were able to defend yourself but maybe let's not just pick things up off the ground and take them anymore". I let out a little sigh, "Yeah I need to stop" I nod.
I look to the side and see James coming towards our table wearing what he had on earlier plus a black apron. "I switched tables with Cindy. Definitely not so I could be your server, totally other reason" he says with a smile.
I smile back at him, "So what'd Mr. Allen say?" he puts his hands in his pockets. I look over at Daniel and then back at James, "I'm suspended for the rest of the week so my Christmas break starts tomorrow" James' face drops.
"SUSPENDED!" he yells and I flinch back, "James." Daniel says in a warning tone. "Sorry I didn't mean to get loud" he closes his eyes and takes a breath.
"Why'd he suspend you that's so uncalled for" he throws his hands out. "He didn't really believe that I found the lighter, he thinks I brought it from home and was intending to harm someone" I shrug.
"That's so stupid. Anyway, what can I get ya'll to eat?" he pulls out his little pad and a pen. I order Mac n' Cheese and a fruit cup and Daniel orders his 'Usual' whatever that is.
James writes it down and then disappears to the back. "So I don't know how to say this without it sounding bad but, why did you and Chris adopt so many kids?" I mess with my straw wrapper.
"Well Tyler, I've been where you have. I was put up for adoption when I was a child, I got adopted into a nice family they were the only thing I had to ever consider a family. I also had an adopted sister who they had adopted when she was a baby. But when she grew up my parents wanted to keep us being adopted a secret from her. But one day she had found the papers and flipped out, she thought I hadn't known as well and so she told me and of course, I had to tell her that I knew. She got really upset and committed suicide. Our parents were devastated but sort of blamed me, saying I should have just let her think I didn't know." he pauses ls and takes a sip of his drink.
"Then I came out, somehow that was worse than me telling my sister I knew we were adopted. They didn't talk to me for a while, it was crazy living in a house with them and them acting as if I wasn't there. Then I was able to move out and still they didn't talk to me, then me and Chris got married, and a week after they called asking if I was still gay. I told them I had just married a man and that ended all contact with them."
James brings our food then goes to another table. "A month or so after we got married we adopted Felix and Dallas, a year after that Addy, then Oscar, then Finn, then Vivi, then we were happy we didn't think we wanted anymore kids. Then four years later Chris came home from work talking about a client he had that day who was fostering two teenagers and were going to get rid of them. That's when we adopted you two." I put my fork down.
"That's a lot to take in" I let out a sigh. "We would have had more, Finn had a sister who would be Vivi's age but she was killed in a car accident. So he's very protective of Vivi now." I nod, remembering when Kyle broke up with her and he was mad. "I do feel a little bad for Viv, everyone has someone the same age as them and that will graduate in the same class as them. You, Greyson, Addy and Finn are all together, Brooklyn has Oscar and Dallas. Then there's Vivi, all by herself next year." he takes a bite of his sandwich.
I take in a spoonful of Mac, "So I've told you about my adoptive parents. Tell me about some of your foster homes, Greyson's talked about them some but I want to know your experiences" he takes another bite.
Oh, why would he want to know that? "Well, I guess I need to start at the beginning. When my mom was pregnant with us they thought it was just Greyson, I hid behind him the whole time so they weren't aware of me until he was born. Our parents loved both of us they weren't the problem. The problem came when we went into foster care and no one wouldn't adopt us because they only wanted one not two and the system didn't want to separate us because we're biological siblings." I stab my fork into a strawberry from my fruit cup and eat it.
"We went from home to home and it was the same, they wanted to adopt but only one, not two. And I was not the one they wanted to keep, it was Greyson, everyone always wanted Greyson. We never stayed long, when we were fourteen we stayed with a family for three months and that was the longest we had ever stayed and it was the worst home we had been at." I sigh.
"Why was it the worst?" he leans back and rests his back against the booth seat. Oh, come on Daniel don't go all cop on me, "Just a lot happened, I was a child so I didn't monitor my diabetes great and didn't know how to really cope with my autism, had a surgery that I had a terrible recovery with." I finish my fruit and sit back like him.
"What surgery?" he tilts his head a little, Daniel I'm gonna need you to stop with all the detective questions.
"Oh, it was nothing really" I shrug hoping he'll believe me. James comes over and puts our ticket on our table, "So is it okay if I steal Tyler when I get out of school tomorrow? My parents want her to help decorate our tree." he looks up at Daniel.
"Give me a good reason to let you" Daniel crosses his arms across his chest and raises an eyebrow. I can tell that he's joking but by the way James tenses and the color kind of drains from his face I can see that he doesn't know that.
"Um... well... you see-" Daniel cuts him off, "I'm kidding James" he laughs.
"Okay, phew" he lets out a sigh and goes behind the counter. Me and Daniel get up and go to the counter and he pays our bill.
"You know he's scared of you right?" I ask as we walk out the door, "Oh I know, and he should be." Daniel says unlocking his car.
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Happy day after Christmas! I hope everyone had a great Holiday.