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Here is Part Two of Exact Words
The next morning, Ryan woke up with a splitting headache and a killer hang-over. He looked around, trying to figure out exactly whose floor he had passed out on. Then he remembered. This time it had been Ty’s folks that were gone for the weekend. As a general rule, Ryan didn’t like to drink as much as he had the night before. He knew the tendency to drink to excess ran in his family, and was determined not to end up like them. Last night had been an exception to the rule.
Yesterday at work had been tough. He gotten stuck waiting on a large table of water polo players and their parents. He endured the adults’ questions about if he was that charity case the Cohens took in. However, he could barely stomach all the remarks and demands of the jocks. They ran him ragged all the while making snide comments about him, his mom, Chino, you name it. He knew not to expect a tip from any of them, but he hadn’t expected them to complain to his manager about his unfriendly attitude. He had never wanted to punch someone or something so bad in his entire life. He had needed blow off some steam and calm down. He had jumped at the opportunity to go out that night.
He groaned and tried to roll over enough to check the time. What he saw made him groan all the louder. Depending on how you looked at it, it was either very, very late or very, very early. Ryan knew if he didn’t get moving in a hurry, the Cohens would be up before he even got home. There was no way he could sneak in the pool house if they were all in the kitchen having breakfast. He tried to ignore the pounding in his head, while he got up to go find his bike.
It was an unusually hot morning and the hangover was just making everything feel worse. He biked faster to try to make some time. He was so hot and tired, and his head hurt so much. And since when was getting to the house such a steep climb? Now that he had made it home, it couldn’t hurt to rest a bit; just for a minute
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Kirsten was awakened by the phone ringing.
“Hello,” she answered groggily.
“Yes, Kirsten, this is Julie. I just need to tell you that I realize that you are doing a good deed taking in that boy...”
“His name is Ryan and why are you calling me at,” Kirsten looked at the alarm clock. “Julie! It is only six-thirty in the morning and it’s Saturday!”
“I am aware of the time and the day, Kirsten. As I was saying, even though charity can be a good thing, we have certain standards here and they are just not being kept.”
“Julie, would you please get on with it? What are you talking about?”
“I am talking about that boy, Ryan, being passed out at the end of your driveway.”
“What? Are you sure?” Kirsten couldn’t believe it. She had thought Sandy had talked to him.
“Positive. He is lying there like some drunken, homeless vagrant. It’s disgraceful. Out of respect for our friendship and the kindness of my heart, I am willing to overlook it, this one time. But I am telling you if it happens again I will be forced to call the police. Kaitlin is entirely too young to be exposed to such things.”
“Thank you, Julie. Sandy and I will make sure it never happens again,” Kirsten promised as she hung up the phone.
She was livid. Sandy had left early that morning to go surfing. He could get pretty focused when the waves were good, but certainly he would have noticed Ryan lying in the middle of the street. That meant Ryan had gotten home after Sandy left. Thinking about what time that must have been only made her angrier. She threw on her robe and headed to the front door. She took a small detour to the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water out of the fridge.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Ryan sputtered as he received an unexpected cold shower. Seeing Kirsten loom over him, he knew he was in trouble, big trouble and swearing at her couldn’t have helped. “Kirsten, I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was you.”
She didn’t acknowledge his apology. “Pool house! Now!”
Ryan had never seen Kirsten this angry; not even when Seth passed out after the fashion show. He grabbed his bike and went up the hill as fast as he could, with Kirsten following closely behind.
“Get your things together,” she ordered.
Ryan’s heart sank and his stomach twisted in knots. He should have known that the comfort and security he had allowed himself to feel could never last. Every time anything good ever happened in his life, something would come along and screw it up. No, he corrected, he would screw it up. He had promised no more trouble and he had blown it all, to hang out with some guys from work. The words of his mother’s many abusive boyfriends came back to haunt him; he was getting just what he deserved.
He didn’t dare look directly at her when he asked, “Are you kicking me out?”
“Oh no, you don’t. That puppy dog look is not working on me today. I said get your stuff together. You’re moving into the guest room now. The pool house was a privilege and your recent behavior proves you don’t deserve it.”
Any relief that he felt over not getting kicked out was short-lived when they heard Sandy pull in the driveway.
“You have fifteen minutes to get your stuff together and meet us in the kitchen. This discussion is far from over. And for your sake,” she looked him directly in the eye, “you better not be one second late. Am I making myself clear?”
Ryan barely got out his stuttered “yes ma’am” before Kirsten was out the door and heading to the kitchen and Sandy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Sandy was just beginning to make the morning’s coffee when he heard the pool house door slam and saw Kirsten come storming towards the house. He was curious and slightly concerned at what Ryan could have done to make her that mad. He also couldn’t help but be a little relieved that The Kirsten’s wrath wasn’t directed at him this time. He had just gotten out of the doghouse after making one too many remarks about her father.
“What’s up, honey?”
“I thought you talked to Ryan about keeping such late hours. Because if you did, he didn’t listen. He just got home.”
“Are you sure?” Sandy didn’t want to believe that Ryan would deliberately disobey him.
“Sandy, Julie called and was more than happy to tell me that he was passed out at the end of our driveway.”
Sandy almost spit his coffee across the kitchen. He couldn’t help it. The thought of Julie Cooper finding Ryan in that condition was simply too funny. He could just imagine the look on her face.
“This is NOT funny. She threatened to call the police if it happened again.”
“His probation,” Sandy said more to himself than to Kirsten. The severity of the situation sunk in. “Where is he now?”
“He’s packing.”
Sandy was literally speechless. He knew she was mad, but he had no idea. He thought Kirsten was really starting to care for Ryan. What could the kid possibly have done to deserve this? He only hoped she would calm down enough for him to persuade her to change her mind.
Seeing his expression Kirsten let out an exasperated sigh. “Oh for crying out loud, not you too…. I’m not kicking him out. He is moving into the guest bedroom, permanently.”
Sandy was actually happy to hear that. He had never wanted the kid out there by himself in the first place.
“I know the pool house was my idea to begin with, but it wasn’t a good decision once we decided Ryan was staying. He is a fifteen year old kid, who has obviously had no parental guidance or supervision. The seclusion of the pool house is simply more responsibility than he was ready for.”
A small cough alerted them to Ryan’s arrival. Kirsten checked the time, it had been exactly fifteen minutes since she left the pool house. He stood in the patio doors still dripping from his impromptu shower that morning. All his possessions had been hurriedly shoved into a spare pillowcase. Kirsten’s heart gave a little tug. Ryan had been a part of her family for over two months and he could still fit everything he owned into one pillowcase. He didn’t even have a proper duffel bag. Kirsten vowed to fix that, but for now she needed to focus back on the problem at hand.
This time it was Sandy’s turn to lecture Ryan. “What exactly do you have to say for yourself, young man?”
Ryan was a little shocked at Sandy’s reaction. He knew Kirsten was mad, okay more than mad, but he had figured on Sandy blowing it off. Especially after their talk the other day. Between Sandy’s stern tone and the infamous “young man” phrase, Ryan knew he had figured wrong.
“Do you have any idea how much trouble you could have gotten in to with this little stunt? Julie Cooper almost called the police.”
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.” He should have guessed Julie Cooper was to blame for him getting caught. She had been gunning for him ever since he had dared speak to her beloved Marissa. He was reminded again of how glad he wasn’t dating her daughter. Bitch.
“Excuse me?” He was startled by Kirsten’s voice, he hadn’t realized he had said that out loud.
“Um, sorry about the language.”
“You should be sorry about a lot of things. I’m going to let that last slide, because well, we are talking about Julie Cooper. As for hours you’ve been keeping, I thought we discussed that.”
Ryan was ready for that comment.
“You never exactly told me I couldn’t stay out late. You just said to think about coming home earlier.” The excuse sounded even lamer now that he had said it out loud. Sandy jumped on it immediately.
“Don’t even pull that one on me, Greg Brady. You knew damn well what I meant. You just chose to twist it to your convenience. You’re grounded for two weeks.”
“Technically, I did come home early. It was six in the morning. That seems pretty early to me.”
“Smart ass Seth-like talk just earned you another two weeks. You won’t be leaving this house without permission. When your grounding is over, you will have a strict curfew. You are to be home at eleven on weekends and nine during the week, and when I say home your butt better be in this house, not at the end of the driveway. Is that exact enough for you?”
Ryan had never been grounded in his life. The last thing Dawn or her boyfriends ever wanted was for him to be home more. First he lost his pool house, then they grounded him for a month, but now, they expected him to be home when it was practically still daylight. What would be the purpose of even going out at all?
He didn’t want to be ungrateful. He really did appreciate all that they had done for him. But he was used to much more freedom. He stayed out later than eleven when he WAS eleven, when Trey first let him hang out with the older guys. For that matter, he was out later than that when his mom dragged him and Trey to the bars when she wanted to go out, and couldn’t leave them home alone. Ryan didn’t think he would be able to follow these new rules.
“I understand about the drinking. I’ll be more careful next time.” He almost shivered from the icy glares he received from that comment. “What I meant to say, is that I will never take another drink until I am of the proper legal age. But I don’t see what the big deal is about staying out late. My mom never cared what time I came home.”
“Yes, and it was those fine parenting skills that led you to stealing a car, ending up in Juvie, and getting kicked out of the house.”
Ryan literally winced at Sandy’s words. The memory was still too raw. Ashamed, he put his head down, refusing to look at either Cohen.
Sandy realized that he had gone a little too far. He hadn’t meant to bring up his mother’s leaving him behind. “I’m sorry, kid. I shouldn’t have said that. It’s just that with the threat of the police, and your probation, and child services constantly hovering over us, I got scared. We don’t want to lose you.”
Ryan just nodded his head, he was still staring at the floor.
Kirsten noted Sandy’s change in approach. She had also decided that Ryan had received enough tough love for one day.
“Ryan,” she said, much more gently than she had all morning. “We realize you haven’t had this kind of supervision in the past, but things are different here. You are part of this family now, and we worry about you. We don’t like the thought of not knowing where our son is. Sandy and I set these rules because we love you and want to keep you safe. Okay?”
She couldn’t believe that she actually said that. She remembered her own mother had used some of those same words when she was a teenager. She also remembered how stupid she had thought they had sounded at the time. She hoped they had a stronger effect on Ryan than they had on her.
Ryan had never felt so rotten in his life. He had betrayed the Cohens’ trust and by doing so had disappointed them. And yet, instead of drunken threats and violence, they stood there talking about love and family. He knew he would probably never deserve them, but he vowed to try harder.
“I get it and I really am sorry. I won’t do it again, I promise.”
Kirsten heard the sincerity in his voice and noticed the moisture in his eyes. Her heart ached at the thought of how few times in his life he must have heard words of affection.
“All right, sweetie. Why don’t you go up to your new room and change clothes, you’re dripping all over the floor. Later we need to discuss how we can change the room and make it yours, especially, since you are about to spend a lot of time in there.”
Sandy couldn’t help but add, “I don’t know about you kid, but I think picking out paint samples and bedspreads are the worst punishment yet.”
Ryan nodded and gave them a small smile before heading upstairs.
Sandy gave his wife a kiss. “I think this time we got through to him.”
“I think we did too, honey, in more ways than one.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Ryan had barely reached the top of the stairs when he saw Seth. It was obvious he had been eavesdropping the whole time.
“Man, that totally sucked.”
"Yeah, I guess you could say that.”
"What do you mean? You just got yelled at by both parents, grounded for the rest of the summer, and worst of all, you got the pool house taken away from you. Now you’re stuck in the house with ‘rents who will majorly cramp your style. What doesn’t suck about all that?”
“Your mom just called me her son”
The End
The next morning, Ryan woke up with a splitting headache and a killer hang-over. He looked around, trying to figure out exactly whose floor he had passed out on. Then he remembered. This time it had been Ty’s folks that were gone for the weekend. As a general rule, Ryan didn’t like to drink as much as he had the night before. He knew the tendency to drink to excess ran in his family, and was determined not to end up like them. Last night had been an exception to the rule.
Yesterday at work had been tough. He gotten stuck waiting on a large table of water polo players and their parents. He endured the adults’ questions about if he was that charity case the Cohens took in. However, he could barely stomach all the remarks and demands of the jocks. They ran him ragged all the while making snide comments about him, his mom, Chino, you name it. He knew not to expect a tip from any of them, but he hadn’t expected them to complain to his manager about his unfriendly attitude. He had never wanted to punch someone or something so bad in his entire life. He had needed blow off some steam and calm down. He had jumped at the opportunity to go out that night.
He groaned and tried to roll over enough to check the time. What he saw made him groan all the louder. Depending on how you looked at it, it was either very, very late or very, very early. Ryan knew if he didn’t get moving in a hurry, the Cohens would be up before he even got home. There was no way he could sneak in the pool house if they were all in the kitchen having breakfast. He tried to ignore the pounding in his head, while he got up to go find his bike.
It was an unusually hot morning and the hangover was just making everything feel worse. He biked faster to try to make some time. He was so hot and tired, and his head hurt so much. And since when was getting to the house such a steep climb? Now that he had made it home, it couldn’t hurt to rest a bit; just for a minute
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Kirsten was awakened by the phone ringing.
“Hello,” she answered groggily.
“Yes, Kirsten, this is Julie. I just need to tell you that I realize that you are doing a good deed taking in that boy...”
“His name is Ryan and why are you calling me at,” Kirsten looked at the alarm clock. “Julie! It is only six-thirty in the morning and it’s Saturday!”
“I am aware of the time and the day, Kirsten. As I was saying, even though charity can be a good thing, we have certain standards here and they are just not being kept.”
“Julie, would you please get on with it? What are you talking about?”
“I am talking about that boy, Ryan, being passed out at the end of your driveway.”
“What? Are you sure?” Kirsten couldn’t believe it. She had thought Sandy had talked to him.
“Positive. He is lying there like some drunken, homeless vagrant. It’s disgraceful. Out of respect for our friendship and the kindness of my heart, I am willing to overlook it, this one time. But I am telling you if it happens again I will be forced to call the police. Kaitlin is entirely too young to be exposed to such things.”
“Thank you, Julie. Sandy and I will make sure it never happens again,” Kirsten promised as she hung up the phone.
She was livid. Sandy had left early that morning to go surfing. He could get pretty focused when the waves were good, but certainly he would have noticed Ryan lying in the middle of the street. That meant Ryan had gotten home after Sandy left. Thinking about what time that must have been only made her angrier. She threw on her robe and headed to the front door. She took a small detour to the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water out of the fridge.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Ryan sputtered as he received an unexpected cold shower. Seeing Kirsten loom over him, he knew he was in trouble, big trouble and swearing at her couldn’t have helped. “Kirsten, I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was you.”
She didn’t acknowledge his apology. “Pool house! Now!”
Ryan had never seen Kirsten this angry; not even when Seth passed out after the fashion show. He grabbed his bike and went up the hill as fast as he could, with Kirsten following closely behind.
“Get your things together,” she ordered.
Ryan’s heart sank and his stomach twisted in knots. He should have known that the comfort and security he had allowed himself to feel could never last. Every time anything good ever happened in his life, something would come along and screw it up. No, he corrected, he would screw it up. He had promised no more trouble and he had blown it all, to hang out with some guys from work. The words of his mother’s many abusive boyfriends came back to haunt him; he was getting just what he deserved.
He didn’t dare look directly at her when he asked, “Are you kicking me out?”
“Oh no, you don’t. That puppy dog look is not working on me today. I said get your stuff together. You’re moving into the guest room now. The pool house was a privilege and your recent behavior proves you don’t deserve it.”
Any relief that he felt over not getting kicked out was short-lived when they heard Sandy pull in the driveway.
“You have fifteen minutes to get your stuff together and meet us in the kitchen. This discussion is far from over. And for your sake,” she looked him directly in the eye, “you better not be one second late. Am I making myself clear?”
Ryan barely got out his stuttered “yes ma’am” before Kirsten was out the door and heading to the kitchen and Sandy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Sandy was just beginning to make the morning’s coffee when he heard the pool house door slam and saw Kirsten come storming towards the house. He was curious and slightly concerned at what Ryan could have done to make her that mad. He also couldn’t help but be a little relieved that The Kirsten’s wrath wasn’t directed at him this time. He had just gotten out of the doghouse after making one too many remarks about her father.
“What’s up, honey?”
“I thought you talked to Ryan about keeping such late hours. Because if you did, he didn’t listen. He just got home.”
“Are you sure?” Sandy didn’t want to believe that Ryan would deliberately disobey him.
“Sandy, Julie called and was more than happy to tell me that he was passed out at the end of our driveway.”
Sandy almost spit his coffee across the kitchen. He couldn’t help it. The thought of Julie Cooper finding Ryan in that condition was simply too funny. He could just imagine the look on her face.
“This is NOT funny. She threatened to call the police if it happened again.”
“His probation,” Sandy said more to himself than to Kirsten. The severity of the situation sunk in. “Where is he now?”
“He’s packing.”
Sandy was literally speechless. He knew she was mad, but he had no idea. He thought Kirsten was really starting to care for Ryan. What could the kid possibly have done to deserve this? He only hoped she would calm down enough for him to persuade her to change her mind.
Seeing his expression Kirsten let out an exasperated sigh. “Oh for crying out loud, not you too…. I’m not kicking him out. He is moving into the guest bedroom, permanently.”
Sandy was actually happy to hear that. He had never wanted the kid out there by himself in the first place.
“I know the pool house was my idea to begin with, but it wasn’t a good decision once we decided Ryan was staying. He is a fifteen year old kid, who has obviously had no parental guidance or supervision. The seclusion of the pool house is simply more responsibility than he was ready for.”
A small cough alerted them to Ryan’s arrival. Kirsten checked the time, it had been exactly fifteen minutes since she left the pool house. He stood in the patio doors still dripping from his impromptu shower that morning. All his possessions had been hurriedly shoved into a spare pillowcase. Kirsten’s heart gave a little tug. Ryan had been a part of her family for over two months and he could still fit everything he owned into one pillowcase. He didn’t even have a proper duffel bag. Kirsten vowed to fix that, but for now she needed to focus back on the problem at hand.
This time it was Sandy’s turn to lecture Ryan. “What exactly do you have to say for yourself, young man?”
Ryan was a little shocked at Sandy’s reaction. He knew Kirsten was mad, okay more than mad, but he had figured on Sandy blowing it off. Especially after their talk the other day. Between Sandy’s stern tone and the infamous “young man” phrase, Ryan knew he had figured wrong.
“Do you have any idea how much trouble you could have gotten in to with this little stunt? Julie Cooper almost called the police.”
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.” He should have guessed Julie Cooper was to blame for him getting caught. She had been gunning for him ever since he had dared speak to her beloved Marissa. He was reminded again of how glad he wasn’t dating her daughter. Bitch.
“Excuse me?” He was startled by Kirsten’s voice, he hadn’t realized he had said that out loud.
“Um, sorry about the language.”
“You should be sorry about a lot of things. I’m going to let that last slide, because well, we are talking about Julie Cooper. As for hours you’ve been keeping, I thought we discussed that.”
Ryan was ready for that comment.
“You never exactly told me I couldn’t stay out late. You just said to think about coming home earlier.” The excuse sounded even lamer now that he had said it out loud. Sandy jumped on it immediately.
“Don’t even pull that one on me, Greg Brady. You knew damn well what I meant. You just chose to twist it to your convenience. You’re grounded for two weeks.”
“Technically, I did come home early. It was six in the morning. That seems pretty early to me.”
“Smart ass Seth-like talk just earned you another two weeks. You won’t be leaving this house without permission. When your grounding is over, you will have a strict curfew. You are to be home at eleven on weekends and nine during the week, and when I say home your butt better be in this house, not at the end of the driveway. Is that exact enough for you?”
Ryan had never been grounded in his life. The last thing Dawn or her boyfriends ever wanted was for him to be home more. First he lost his pool house, then they grounded him for a month, but now, they expected him to be home when it was practically still daylight. What would be the purpose of even going out at all?
He didn’t want to be ungrateful. He really did appreciate all that they had done for him. But he was used to much more freedom. He stayed out later than eleven when he WAS eleven, when Trey first let him hang out with the older guys. For that matter, he was out later than that when his mom dragged him and Trey to the bars when she wanted to go out, and couldn’t leave them home alone. Ryan didn’t think he would be able to follow these new rules.
“I understand about the drinking. I’ll be more careful next time.” He almost shivered from the icy glares he received from that comment. “What I meant to say, is that I will never take another drink until I am of the proper legal age. But I don’t see what the big deal is about staying out late. My mom never cared what time I came home.”
“Yes, and it was those fine parenting skills that led you to stealing a car, ending up in Juvie, and getting kicked out of the house.”
Ryan literally winced at Sandy’s words. The memory was still too raw. Ashamed, he put his head down, refusing to look at either Cohen.
Sandy realized that he had gone a little too far. He hadn’t meant to bring up his mother’s leaving him behind. “I’m sorry, kid. I shouldn’t have said that. It’s just that with the threat of the police, and your probation, and child services constantly hovering over us, I got scared. We don’t want to lose you.”
Ryan just nodded his head, he was still staring at the floor.
Kirsten noted Sandy’s change in approach. She had also decided that Ryan had received enough tough love for one day.
“Ryan,” she said, much more gently than she had all morning. “We realize you haven’t had this kind of supervision in the past, but things are different here. You are part of this family now, and we worry about you. We don’t like the thought of not knowing where our son is. Sandy and I set these rules because we love you and want to keep you safe. Okay?”
She couldn’t believe that she actually said that. She remembered her own mother had used some of those same words when she was a teenager. She also remembered how stupid she had thought they had sounded at the time. She hoped they had a stronger effect on Ryan than they had on her.
Ryan had never felt so rotten in his life. He had betrayed the Cohens’ trust and by doing so had disappointed them. And yet, instead of drunken threats and violence, they stood there talking about love and family. He knew he would probably never deserve them, but he vowed to try harder.
“I get it and I really am sorry. I won’t do it again, I promise.”
Kirsten heard the sincerity in his voice and noticed the moisture in his eyes. Her heart ached at the thought of how few times in his life he must have heard words of affection.
“All right, sweetie. Why don’t you go up to your new room and change clothes, you’re dripping all over the floor. Later we need to discuss how we can change the room and make it yours, especially, since you are about to spend a lot of time in there.”
Sandy couldn’t help but add, “I don’t know about you kid, but I think picking out paint samples and bedspreads are the worst punishment yet.”
Ryan nodded and gave them a small smile before heading upstairs.
Sandy gave his wife a kiss. “I think this time we got through to him.”
“I think we did too, honey, in more ways than one.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Ryan had barely reached the top of the stairs when he saw Seth. It was obvious he had been eavesdropping the whole time.
“Man, that totally sucked.”
"Yeah, I guess you could say that.”
"What do you mean? You just got yelled at by both parents, grounded for the rest of the summer, and worst of all, you got the pool house taken away from you. Now you’re stuck in the house with ‘rents who will majorly cramp your style. What doesn’t suck about all that?”
“Your mom just called me her son”
The End