"Boys, can you come down for a second?" Rayland offered to go to Weston's house while Paul had a serious talk with his sons.

Hayden had gotten back from school a few minutes ago feeling better than ever. It was the first day since middle school that he wasn't bullied, he reminded himself to thank Rayland later.

"What is it, dad?" His sons came down the stairs. Paul led all of his sons to the family room.

"I'm sorry." Paul sighed out, the rest of the room was confused by the apology.

"Sorry for what?" Micheal asked with furrowed brows, the expression causing wrinkles to appear on his forehead.

"I'm sorry for being a shitty father," His sons were about to speak but he continued. "Before you interrupt, let me finish. You all went through a loss as well and I was selfish. I didn't realize you were going through pain as well and I completely neglected your feelings." The air filled with silence.

"Dad," Liam broke the silence, Paul's head whipped up in surprise. "We weren't the best sons either, you just lost the love of your life and we made your life harder than it had to be. We are the ones that should be sorry." He sighed, ashamed. All of his brothers nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, we all took our anger out on you and you didn't deserve that." Micheal sighed.

"But I promised that we would stick together and I broke that promise. I will never forgive myself for it. You all were coping in your own ways and the first thing I did was criticize you." Paul said, looking down at his hands. He didn't want to see the disappointed faces surrounding him.

He was shocked when he was wrapped in seven pairs of arms. All of his children were quietly hugging him, salty liquid running down their faces. They sat for a while, just crying.

(Assume all dialogue from Weston's family is in Spanish.)

"Weston, what did I say about bringing peop- mi cariña, is that you?" [My Sweetheart] A sweet Spanish accent rang through the room. I looked at the brown haired woman, her presence putting a smile on my face.

"Madre, I missed you." [Mother] I ran up to her giving her a giant hug, she immediately reciprocated the action. The warmth only a mom can provide.

Sofia Alonso, a mother figure that I was missing in my life. In the three years I've known them, they were the closest thing I had to a family.

The word family was almost foreign to me. I haven't had a family since I was seven and I barely remember them. The memories are gone and they were the closest things to family; the memories were the only thing giving me hope that there were people out there that cared. But like I always say,

Hope only leads to disappointment.

The Alonso's gave me new memories. They didn't replace my old memo filled with new ones. They were my family and I was theirs. Blood or not.

We were interrupted when I heard the pattering of footsteps and small arms wrapped around my legs.

"Valentina, hey princessa." [Princess] I cooed to the little girl. Her lighter skin visible due to the bright kitchen and her brown curly hair hanging down above her waist.

Valentina, the youngest member of the Alonso familia. She's like the little sister I've always wanted.

"Raylie, you're here." She squealed, squeezing me tighter, I laughed and put her six year old body on my hip. I tickled her stomach and she let out an adorable giggle.

"Forgetting someone?" I heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, Al," I gave him a hug. "And thanks for the ride the other day." He silently nodded in response, his dripping, curly hair bouncing up and down.

"So what brings you to Virginia?" Sofia asks me. I give them a brief rundown of what happened in the past month excluding the run away, I didn't want to worry them.

-

"Uno!" Valentina squealed.

"You cheated." Weston pointed a finger accusingly at his younger sister.

"No I didn't."

"Yes you did."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Did too."

"Did not- wait." Weston pondered on his dialogue, realizing he had been tricked by his sister that was ten years younger than him.

"Uno out, I win." She smirked smugly at her older brother. Weston looked in disbelief as his sister.

"It wasn't your turn." He exclaimed, dramatically throwing his hands in the air. Val laughed in her response, covering her mouth with her small hand.

"Well if you were paying attention, I skipped you, meaning it was my turn again." She said smugly, crossing her arms. Weston held his mouth agape, watching as she walked out of his rooms.

"She showed your ass," I started laughing at him, he playfully glared at me before joining in on my laughter. "I missed her." I sighed. Weston's laughter faltered, his attention shifting to my change of mood.

"She missed you too, used to talk about you everyday. Asking if her 'Raylie' was going to come soon." He mocked her, causing me to chuckle. "And I missed you too." He smiled at me.

I missed me too.

I changed ever since Weston and his family left. He was my only source of happiness, my only reason to keep going, and he was gone. I stopped laughing, stopped smiling and stopped trying.

What was the point?

"Rayland? Is anyone there?" Weston jokingly waved a hand in my face, snapping me from my trance. He gave me a worried look but I waved him off. He didn't look convinced but let it go, nonetheless.

It was around four when we both fell asleep, my head on his shoulder and his hand on mine.

"Oh my fucking gosh, answer the damn phone." Weston grunted next to me, I shot my eyes open, hearing the sound of my ringtone.

I checked my phone, realizing it was nine at night. I had ten missed calls from Paul, three from Micheal, eighteen from Liam, two from Jaxon, one from Jaylen, seven from Hayden, and surprisingly one from Linda. I dazedly answered the phone, greeted by a worried stepfather.

"Rayland, are you okay?" He sped out, the voices in the background slowly died down. I let out a loud yawn, rubbing my eyes with my unoccupied hand.

"Yeah, I'm good. See ya!" I was about to hang up when I was interrupted by a booming voice.

"Don't you dare hang up this phone young lady." I sighed, Weston was stifling a laugh next to me. I smacked the back of his head, stopping his laughter immediately. He then pushed my shoulder, making me crash into the side of the bed. We fought on the bed, completely forgetting the man on the phone.

"Ow, idiota." [Idiot] Weston groaned, rubbing the side of his arm. His black hoodie sleeve moved up and down, the soft material rubbing against his skin.

"Is that a boy?" I heard Jayden scream through the phone. I glared at West while he was still whining.

"Bye," I quickly hung up, despite the protests on the other side of the phone.

"Can you drive me?" I asked Weston. At first he refused, it only took one pleading look for him to eventually say yes. I have that bitch wrapped around my finger.

I rolled out the bed stretching my arms over my head. As I was getting up, I fell flat on my face. Weston was busy laughing at me while I noticed a brown box under his bed, covered in paint and stickers.

"Hey, what's this?" I pointed to the box, his laughter slowly started to fade but the smile never left his face.

"Remember when we first met?"

Flashback:

I sat on the floor of the library, my legs stretched out lying on top of each other. The small diversity of books was not interesting enough to pique my interest. A multitude of crafts set up around the room, none of them seemed to be of age for me; finger paints, coloring books, more crafts directed for younger children.

It was around lunch time but in my week of starting this new school, I had no friends to spend it with.

"Hey." A dark brown haired boy called out to me, he was immediately shushed by the old librarian who put her wrinkly fingers to her cracked lips. He smiled sheepishly in return, muttering a quiet apology.

I shyly waved, grabbing a book by a nearby shelf, covering my embarrassed face with it. He only laughed at my attempt to hide.

"What are you doing, silly?" The boy laughed at me, causing me to laugh with him.

"What's your name?" He asked me. It took me a while to remember ever since the accident.

"R-Rayland." I pathetically stuttered, I wanted to slap myself then and there.

"My name is Weston." He smiles at me, holding his hand out to shake. I flinch back unconsciously, he pulls his hand back and showers me in apologies. I assured him that it wasn't his fault and I wasn't expecting it.

"Well Rayland, do you want to make a craft with me?" He points over to a craft table. I hesitantly nod as I let him guide me to the table. He asked me which one but I shrugged and he led me to a table.

The table he led me to was covered in colorful art supplies and old cardboard boxes. He smiled at me as he pulled out my chair.

"You didn't have to do that." I sat down, he only smiled and shrugged it off.

"So, what's your favorite color? Mine is blue." He asks, picking up a blue marker. I showed him an archaic smile.

"Really? Mine too!" I said enthusiastically, I put my head down in embarrassment. He laughed at me, blood rushing to my face.

"You're adorable." He continued laughing at me, I sunk further in my chair. This made his laughter echo through the library, the wrinkled librarian shushed him again making me giggle. He looked at me, making his already existing smile broaden.

We decorated the box with miscellaneous items, we made sure they were all blue.

-

"Why is she always following you around?" One of his friends questioned. It had been a few months since our first encounter and we've been inseparable ever since.

"Yeah, she's such a nuisance." I heard in the distance from his other friend. I was about to walk away when I heard his response.

"Spell nuisance," Weston challenged, his friend thought for a moment but stayed silent. "Unless you want us not to be friends anymore, I suggest you leave her name out of your mouth." He said walking in my direction, not noticing I was standing there.

"Stupid assholes." He muttered, looking down at the floor.

"West." I whispered only loud enough that only he could hear me. His head snapped up at the sound of my voice, his brown eyes holding so many emotions.

"Look Rayland, they didn't mean it okay..." He said, obviously lying through his teeth. Every time he lies, he avoids eye contact, blinks rapidly, and speaks too fast.

"You really expect me to believe that bull?" I gave him a deadpan look, he held a guilty expression. "You didn't have to do that, I don't want to be the reason you lose friends." I try to walk away but the raw emotion in his voice prevents me from walking away any further.

"Rayland, please. Who cares about them anyway. You're the only one I need." He smiled at me which caused me to reciprocate it. He held out his arms, causing me to run into them.

"You don't care I'm around you all the time?"

"No, because you're Sombra, my little shadow."

Flashback Over:

"How could I forget? You were such a fucking white knight." I sighed dramatically. He rolled his eyes at me, opening the box in my hand. Memories of our friendship replayed in my head. The box was filled with pictures, small toys, everything before he moved. I lifted myself up from the ground, taking a seat on his bed.

I pulled out a picture from when I was ten and he was eleven, a year after we met. His arm was wrapped around my shoulder while we both shot fake smiles at the flashing camera. I remember it took Sophia (Weston's Mom) fifteen minutes to convince him to take this picture. I smiled at the vivid memory in my head.

"You were so cute in this picture," I cooed at his younger self, he playfully glared at me with his lips twitched upwards. "What happened?" I asked with a serious expression, his slight smile immediately dropping quickly.

"Hilarious. You are so fucking funny. Oh my goodness, hahahaha." He responded in a monotone voice. I stuck my tongue out at him which caused him to push me a little too hard resulting in me falling on the floor with a thud.

"Ow."

___________________________________________________________

2112 Words

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Happy Pride Month.