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chapter 2

"ahahahah Eli I love your family..." he tells me letting go of my body.
"If only you'd love me" I muttered.
Chris takes Maggie from my arms and she smiles at him trying to grab his nose with her tiny hands.
"You my dear need a new shirt! Come on baby girl!"
He's going to be a great father one day I tell myself. He could spend a whole day without ever getting bored of children. It proved very helpful for me and my younger siblings because sometimes it's hard looking after them all the time.
I go find Marco in our living room who's already drawing a man.
"Hey bud... what you drawing?"
"Don't look!!! You can't look right now!!!" He yells pushing me away from the drawing.
"Okay Marco... Can I still draw on another paper!" He smiles up at me and giggles.
"Oki!" then he screams through the house " Christopher where are you? Come draw with me and 'Jah!!!"
My best friend walks in the room without Magz. I silently question him as to why my little sister is not in his arms.
"She fell a sleep the minute I put her down to put a shirt on her! Hey Marco, what's up? What you drawing?"
"Hi uncle C..." the boy replies shyly " You can't see it right now but I'll show you in a minute!"
Marco always like to draw and I imagine a lot of kids like to draw but him he would do it all the time even in class. It got him in a lot of trouble because he would try anything else before Christopher came along. He showed him how to draw letters and then how to name the things he was drawing. He worked his magic until Marco finally liked writing and reading. Since they started learn letters together Marco had referred to him as Uncle C.
We all sat down and started to drawing things. My own was of a boy with his back to the viewer looking out at the sea. A couple of birds were flying and flowers were around the boy. At least that's what it was supposed to be but since my drawing skills were mediocre the drawing became a bunch of squiggles my friend laughed at when he looked over my work.
"I'M DONE!!!!!!!" Marco finally said. He picked up his work and ran to the kitchen to stick on the old refrigerator. It was a picture of 15 peoples with their names written beside them.
"Look this is Eric and Mirela, that's Juliette and Donald, that's everybody and then there is you Elijah and Uncle C with Jamie and Gabrielle together!"
I took in the drawing for a moment. The couples were holding hands and Christopher and me were included in the couple hand holding. Even my little brother thinks we are together! This is getting really bad I tell myself.
"It's a great picture buddy..." I tell him because I don't want Chris to realize this upset me. He always knows when I'm upset which in moments like these can get really aggravating.
"Okay Marco I think it's time to pick up and then we all need to go to bed. You wanna stay over C?"
My brother stomped away muttering things while my friend nods.
"Yup sure! Hey M do you want to go brush your teeth with me? We'll put you in bed after."
"Yay! Can you read me a story El?"
I smile, it's hard to make my brother want to go to bed and I'm happy I don't have to fight with him today.
"Yeah sure buddy! I'll go pick it out right now so hurry up and go brush your teeth with uncle Chris."
Everybody walk in their own direction. I walk to Marco's room to pick up his toys before they come in the room. By the time they walk in I'm sat on his bed with a book in hand.
"So what book are we reading?" Christopher asks me more for Marco than himself.
"Harry Potter! Yesterday we got to the second chapter of the second book and now we're going to read the third one or at least try..."
After Marco climes in and he has all the right teddies in the right place my best friend lays in the little space that is left.

...

We've been reading for ten minutes and I can see my little brother is closing his eyes more then he is opening them.
"Okay honey I think we're done for today. Sleep tight and come see in my room if anything is wrong okay?"
"Okay good night!" He says sleepily.
"Love you..." Christopher and I say at the same time kissing him on his forehead before walking towards the door.
"Love you daddy..." Marco replies already half asleep.
My heart sinks, I can remember I got to say that to my father while he couldn't say it to his own dad ever again. I hated that my parents had died and left the smaller ones still so young. I loved them so much and I know how hard it was sometimes living without your parents. Chris had heard what my baby brother had said and was now hugging me.
"I'm sorry Elijah... I'm so so sorry... If I could take back what they did I would! I hate seeing you like that..."
I don't want to let go of him because I feel so safe. Feeling his heart pumping, feeling his muscles flexing when he moves his arm to make me more comfortable in our embrace, feeling his breath on my hair, it all makes me so calm and safe. I can't think of anything when I'm this close to him and It's hard to think of ever being without him but I know it's going to happen.
"Go to your room Eli and I'll go check on the others. I'll see you in there okay?"
I nod in his chest not even wanting to talk. He lets go and I feel a sudden breeze of cold air. I look around and my friend is already in one of my siblings bedroom checking if they are okay. Ophelia is standing behind me and she looks at me a smile plastered on her face.
"When are you going to start dating already? I mean you two it's like even more than a bromance it's real true love I know you would do anything for him and the same for him. You could be the perfect family you know like with Marco and with Maggie. Why don't you just tell him you're in love with him I mean at least he already knows you're gay and shit so why not just tell him?"
"Because he doesn't like me that way... Plus I would never want to lose him because I love him... I don't think I could manage without him in my life. I like better being in love with him as a friend than not at all... Now go to bed you have school tomorrow and I'm not waiting for you again!"
She walks off and I go to my bedroom. I get my PJ's on and by the time I come out of my bathroom he's already in bed waiting for me. Let's be clear when I mean waiting for me in bed it's simply because we don't have anymore beads and well our couch is very uncomfortable.
"Are you better now..?" I get in the bed and get close to his body with out really touching it afraid of making it weird.
"Yeah it's just hard sometimes... How were the other ones doing?"
"Great... I changed Magz and put her down again in the crib over there" He says pointing to the baby bed laying in the corner of my room. I was most around at home and I hated leaving her on protected after my parents died. It was hard enough to protect everyone I didn't need a child on it's own. I loved her to much to lose her.
"Elijah when are you going to tell them how and why they died... O ... she should know she is old enough and even you knew when you were her age..." I changed positions to look at him in the eyes.
"They will never know if I have anything to do with it! They would be even more in danger when they know than if not. I'm not going to let them get taken like my parents. Chris I know it's hard not telling them and letting them think my parents died in a stupid car crash but it's better than what really happened."He looks at me with a sad smile. He knows how I'm feeling probably remembering how hard it was when I told him what happened. Why does life have to be this complicated.
I turn so he could spoon me and when I felt his arm on me I drift off into dream land hoping to wake up to a world where I'm with him and where my loving parents are still here...
I love them so much!