Love Me Chapter 24
Love Me
Chapter 24
Life-Saver
Caden and Jared talking in the office while Riley is in his room relaxing. They are talking about the people responsible for saving Riley's life. The young man may not last another 15 or twenty minutes if not for these people. If the young man who came across Riley's still form had not found him. Isaac Stone saved Riley's life that day.
"Caden, what would you think about reaching out to the people who saved your brother's life?
Caden is caught off guard by the question from his boyfriend. He contemplates the question for just a second. He quickly responds to Jared.
"I think it would be terrific. I would love for my brother to meet Isaac, the cop, and the EMTs. I think it would be a great idea. How hard do you think it will be to find them?"
It shouldn't be too hard to find the officers and the EMTs, but it might be something else entirely to find Isaac Stone.
"I think Trace might be able to help out in finding the first responders, and maybe I can reach out via the web and find Isaac Stone. Course, Trace might be able to find him too."
Jared says as he wakes up his computer to track down Isaac. Caden gives him a kiss before getting back into the conversation.
"What should we do for them?"
Caden wants to do something for them, but he has little to no clue what to do. He just wants it to be excellent for both them and Riley. Maybe, they could even invite Ryan. Actually, Riley might hurt them if they didn't ask his boyfriend. Jared and Caden start to think about what they want to do for the first responders and Isaac.
"Maybe some light food, gifts of some sort?"
Jared suggests to Caden. Caden thinks about it, and he doesn't have any ideas himself.
"I love the idea of a gift. I just don't know what to buy or make?"
Caden wants to do something nice, but he's just not sure what to do for them. Jared and Caden think things through. Between the two of them, they should be able to come up with a gift idea. Jared's mind is stuck on the idea of a gift bag. In his mind, he pictures a gift bag filled with candy, a gift card, and then something extra, so they remember Riley. Not to mention a little something else, to say thank you for being there when Riley needed them the most.
"I have an idea Caden, but you got to trust me."
Caden nods his head. He knows that he trusts his boyfriend to do something that will look good and something that will be enjoyable.
"Okay, I trust you to make the bags cool."
Caden wants his brother to smile and meet his life-savers. Caden heads downstairs to work on breakfast for the family.
***
As he's working on the meal, he is trying to figure if he wants to keep this all a secret from his brother or let him be in on the planning. It would be cool if Riley picked something to go into the gift bags. The more he thinks about it, the more he wants his brother to be kept in the dark until the last minute. The only thing he needs to do is keep the teen away while arranging everything. Sadly, Caden doubts that Riley will remember any people who helped rescue him from the street where their sperm donor dropped Riley after knocking him to the floor. Riley deserves some kindness in his life. Maybe this will lighten up the young man's life a bit.
***
Jared starts his work the second Caden leaves the room. He gets on his phone to call Trace.
"Trace here; what's up, Jared?"
Jared hopes that Trace can help him out on this one.
"I need your help to pull something off for Riley. We want to surprise him by having the first responders who saved him here at the house for a little get-together. Is there any way you can make help us do that?"
Trace isn't sure what they want him to do precisely.
"Jared, you want me to see if I can find the officers? Do you know the officers' names and the names of the EMTs that responded?"
Jared gets the list off of the computer to answer Trace's question. He reads off the names from Caden's list.
"Officer Jackson Brant and Officer Kaleb Reyes are the officers, and the EMTs are Dixon Woods and Edward Price. We wanted Riley to know who saved his life. He already knows the doctors who saved his life. Do you think you can find them?"
There is a second of silence while Trace thinks things over. He isn't at the police station now, but he will be a little later in the day. The names are quickly written down by Trace.
"As far as I know, both officers are still at the station. I'll have to reach out and see if I can find the EMTs. I'll let you know sometime today if I can work some magic for you guys. Are you going to try to reach out to the guy who found him?"
There is a plan to attempt to reach out to Isaac. Hopefully, they can find Isaac, and hopefully, he'll want to show up to surprise Riley.
"Trace, we really appreciate everything. Yeah, we are going to try and find him."
A light goes on in Trace's mind, and he lets his thoughts spring out of his mouth.
"I think we can try finding Isaac too. Should I go for it?"
Jared still wants to find Isaac, but it would be awesome if Trace could find him.
"Thanks, Trace; I really appreciate it. We'll be home, or we'll have our phones with us all day. So just let us know when and if you find out anything. We'll do the rest."
Jared tells Trace so he knows that he can contact them at any part of the day. The guys want Riley's world to be made a little smaller by doing this party. It's for the teen, but they will celebrate the first responders and let Isaac know that he's a hero, at least in their eyes. It was literally a half-hour for Trace to get back to Jared.
"I'm going to text you everyone's phone numbers. It's all cell phones, so feel free to text them."
Trace tells his friend. Trace's next text contains all the phone numbers Caden and Jared need to reach out to everyone they want to reach out to.
"Thanks, Trace!"
Jared replies to the comments. Now Jared sits down and calls each person they want to contact for the party. Each of the officers, EMTs, and yes, even Isaac agrees to come to the party. Jared is glad that he's gotten that task completed with the thanks of their friend. He has one more thing that he needs to do, and he needs to call his mom to do them a solid favor.
***
He immediately calls his mom's phone to make arrangements for the luncheon.
"Hi Jared, how are you?"
"I'm good, Mom. I hate to call you when I need something. We need a big favor from you. Caden and I were talking about doing a party for Riley. We've invited the cops, EMTs, and the guy who found Riley out on the street. Anyway, the reason I called was to ask you if you would be willing to put together a menu for us and then handle the food for us."
Jared crosses his fingers and hopes that she'll say yes. After all, what would a party be like without food? He knows one way or another they'll have to figure out the food situation if she doesn't agree to do the food. Still, though, he knows that his mom can't resist doing nice things for Caden's brother.
"Jared, you know that I am willing to do anything for Riley. When are you doing the party?"
Jared heads downstairs to speak with his boyfriend. He finds him in the kitchen.
"Caden, when are we doing the party?"
Caden's mind immediately starts running through possible dates. He then looks at Jared and answers that question.
"How about Saturday? That way, we don't have to worry about your mom working, or everyone else will hopefully have the day off as well."
Jared relays that information to his mom, who immediately starts work on the menu. She wonders if Caden will want to know what she thinks should be on the menu.
"Tell Caden I will text him possible menus, and then I'll do the cooking done Friday. Can we do the party around 1:00 pm? That way, I can do some cooking on Saturday if need be?"
She asks her son.
"Mom, that's fine. I'll let Caden know to be expecting your text."
She immediately begins looking for snacks, recipes for parties, and even simple desserts that could be made up and enjoyed by everyone.
"Sounds good, sweetie! I'm going to let you go, so I start looking for recipes."
She lets her son go to start work on the menu.
***
It doesn't take long for her to thumb through recipes online. She plans to do a smoky Spanish chicken for the entrée, mushroom and cream cheese taquitos, soft ginger cookies, and chicken pasta caesar salad. She immediately sends the menu to Caden. Caden glances over the menu and agrees with it.
"Make me a shopping list, and we'll get you the food."
Seconds later, Lisa responded with a big old smile. Caden takes his phone to show his boyfriend.
"Your mom is amazing. I mean, look at this menu."
Caden isn't telling Jared something new. Jared knows his mom is awesome. This menu is just one more thing that makes her extraordinary.
"Caden, I take it that you like the menu?"
Caden nods his head and goes back to work on breakfast.
***
Next, thing that Caden needs to do is call Ryan. Someone needs to keep Riley busy, and who better to do it than his boyfriend. It's what Caden is counting on anyway.
"Hi Caden, is everything okay?"
Caden thinks that Ryan will be excited over what he and Jared have planned.
"Everything is good. I have a little favor to ask of you. On Saturday, we are having a little shindig for Riley. We are, of course, inviting you, but we are also inviting all the officers, EMTs, and the guy who called 911 after finding my brother on the street. We already have confirmation that everyone invited so far has accepted our invitation. We just need to keep him busy that on Saturday so all the guests can get here and so we can get set up. Are you okay doing that?"
Hmm...let's see, spend time with Riley or not spend time with Riley? He doesn't exactly see a problem with this situation. Plus, it would be awesome to see the first responders who helped save his boyfriend.
"Caden, you're asking me to spend time with my boyfriend; course I'll do it."
Caden didn't think that Ryan would refuse him. Ryan loves his boyfriend. He loves Riley.
"Thanks, Ryan, we're going to the party on Saturday at 1:00 pm. You just have to keep him busy till I call for him. Keep him in his room and keep him busy, and then stay for the party."
Caden knows Ryan won't let him down.
"I'll be there."
Ryan is looking forward to the Saturday party.
***
Ryan comes over to the house on Friday at 6:00 pm. He knows the rules in the house. He has to sleep in a sleeping bag and stay away from the bed. Riley and Ryan spend the night watching movies. Ryan is great at keeping things quiet, so much so that Caden puts his trust in the kid. He wants to give in to the urges running through his head. He could wake Riley up and then talk. He then would lead the way into some playing. Still, he trusts Caden and Jared and doesn't want to break that trust. He doesn't want to do anything that might harm his boyfriend or destroy the trust that has grown between him and Caden, Jared, and Riley.
***
Ryan and Riley are still sleeping upstairs when the first guests arrive downstairs. The first guest, Isaac Stone, brought his girlfriend, Kristy Murphy. Caden invited them into the house and then went about introductions.
"Hi, I'm Caden Bishop, Riley's brother. This is my boyfriend, Jared Gunther."
Isaac was all smiles.
"I'm Isaac Stone, and this beautiful lady is my girlfriend, Kristy Murphy. We met at the hospital. She was done in the cafeteria at the same time I was, and she looked really sad, so I went to talk to her, and that is when we connected."
Isaac made many trips up to the hospital, and on one of those trips, something extraordinary happened. He met a wonderful person. Her best friend had been in a car accident and had died on the same day that this handsome guy had taken time out of his day to cheer her up. Caden
He made it up to the hospital a couple times to check on him, but since he wasn't family, they couldn't give information out to him. He made several trips up to the hospital to check on Riley and somehow managed to miss Caden every time he went up. He also prayed a bunch of times for the teen.
"I know he made it out of the hospital, but how is he doing?"
Caden is glad that he wasn't the only one praying for his brother.
"Well, our father hit him, and it landed him onto a hard, oak floor. He bounced off the floor, knocked himself out; he wasn't breathing when you found him. His brain didn't have enough oxygen, so there are some memory issues and some other handicaps. But he is alive and happy, and that is all that matters."
Isaac couldn't agree more. He wonders when he'll get to meet the person he saved.
"Caden, any chance of him recovering any part of what's lost?"
Caden looks down at the floor and then back at Isaac. Isaac already sees the mistake he made.
"I can't say for sure, but if what we are seeing now is any indication, then I am going to say no."
Jared leads Kristy and Isaac into the living room so that they won't see the guests when the boys come down the stairs.
"Oh, I almost forgot, this is for Riley."
Isaac hands a wrapped present to Jared. Caden heard someone else knocking at the door.
***
The next guests to arrive are the two officers who investigated Riley's scene and arrested Mr. and Mrs. Bishop, Officer Jackson Brant, and Officer Amelia Reyes. They were unsure about showing up, but Amelia decided it was for the best. They wanted to support this young man. Especially with what he's been through, besides any friend of Trace's is their friend too. Officer Brant and Officer Reyes have already met Caden, but they haven't met Jared, so Caden welcomes them into the house and leads them towards the dining room as well.
"Jared, Isaac, Kristy, this is Officer Jackson Brant and Officer Amelia Reyes; they were the officers who handled the investigation and the arrest of my parents. Jared is my boyfriend. I'll leave the two of talk with everyone so I can answer the door."
Another knock at the door, Caden again goes to answer it before they can knock again.
***
The next two guests are the EMTs who brought the teen to the hospital. The first EMT is Marcus Foster, and the second EMT is Charles Olsen. If they had been a minute later to arrive at the scene, Riley could be much different than he is now, or he could even be dead. Riley owes his life to these two. Sure Jackson and Amelia did their jobs perfectly; Marcus and Charles got Riley breathing again. Caden introduced himself, and then they introduced themselves. Caden led them into the dining room and introduced them to the rest of the guests and Jared. Jared digs out his phone and gets ready to text Ryan.
***
All the guests in the dining room are settled and talking amongst themselves when Jared gets ready to text a now awake Ryan. Ryan and Riley have cleaned up and are dressed already.
"Ryan, everyone is here. You can head downstairs so Riley can meet the people who saved his life."
Suddenly, Ryan is caught up with emotion at the thought of these people all coming to the house because they all saved a young man's life that day. A young man is Ryan's boyfriend.
"I'm on it."
Ryan types into his phone.
"Riley, Caden says we need to get downstairs so we can eat."
Riley ignores his boyfriend's comment for a second, but then he gets up and takes Ryan's hand for better balance.
***
They head downstairs for what Riley thinks is going to be breakfast. Jared is sitting in the living room to see the teens coming downstairs. As they get to the middle of the stairway, Lisa enters the house via the patio door. Caden thought it was best that she enter the house this way so the boys wouldn't see her. She did her best to cook up as much of the food as possible at her home, and then she'll have a bit to do at the house. Ryan and Riley get to the bottom of the stairs to see Jared.
"Riley, turn around and look into the dining room."
Riley turns around is speechless as he sees many people that he doesn't recognize at all. His brother is sitting with them at the table, so Caden knows them, but Riley doesn't, and it's bugging him.
***
Riley is confused, and Caden can tell that he is unsure about the people.
"It's okay, Riley. They are friends."
Riley hears his brother's words, but he still isn't convinced. Jared walks up to Riley and takes his other hand.
"Riley, these people came to see you. They are all the people who saved you the day that your dad attacked you. There are police officers, EMTs, and the guy who called 911."
Riley is quiet while Caden speaks as he moves around the table, stopping as he mentions each group and Isaac.
"They...they here to see me."
Everyone nods their heads. Ryan drops his hands from Riley's and lets Jared walk with him to the table. Riley is nervous and scared just a little bit. He doesn't know what to think of all of this.
"Jared and I thought you would like to meet the people who saved your life. So we had Trace find them, and they reached out to us so they could meet you."
Caden's voice is soothing and reassuring. Caden walks up to his brother and walks by his side at the far end of the dining room table till he standing next to Isaac. He's there along with his boyfriend and his brother's boyfriend.
***
The last time Isaac saw this young man, he was lying on the ground, totally unresponsive and not even breathing. He was afraid that he had found a dead body. He stayed with Riley until the EMTs loaded him up into the ambulance. If Isaac hadn't arrived to look at a rental not too far away from Riley's house, Riley might have gone longer without receiving aid, and his injuries and his disabilities might be more severe. Seeing Riley standing in front of him makes his eyes a bit wet.
"Isaac, this is my brother, Riley. Riley, this is Isaac Stone. He is the guy who found you on the ground and called 911 after Dad attacked you."
Caden tasted bile in his throat when he said "Dad" but felt like he needed to say it. He still isn't sure how Riley sees their father. With his memory issues, he doesn't remember what he told their parents or what they did to him that day.
"He-he-he called the-the police."
Riley's eyes are also wet.
"Riley, he also called for the ambulance that took you to the hospital."
Isaac's shedding tears. Riley reaches out his hands to Isaac. Isaac stands a few feet taller than Riley, so he squats down to hug the teen.
"Thank you...for-for for...being there."
Riley manages to say as he looks at Isaac.
"I'm glad that you're alive. You-you had me so scared. Thank you for fighting!! I hope we can be friends, my man."
Riley smiles and shakes Isaac's hand. Isaac gives Riley his present. Riley opens the present to find a couple of sketchpads.
"I heard that you like to draw."
The teen smiles, and so does Ryan. Riley's drawings are getting better with time, but they aren't at the level he used to be before the attacks.
"I-I-I do like to draw. Tha-thank you!"
Riley and Caden move to the next group of people.
***
Caden and Riley are now standing next to Officer Brant, and Officer Reyes is sitting. They aren't dressed in their uniforms, so it's hard to tell if these two people are cops or not. Caden smiles at them and nods his head at them. Jackson and Amelia stand up to greet Riley.
"Hi Riley, we are the police officers who investigated what happened to you and arrested your mom and dad. We helped to keep you safe."
Riley isn't sure how he feels about the arrest of his parents, but he likes the part about being safe. Riley turns and looks at his brother. He needs a bit of reassurance.
"Tha...nk you!"
Amelia opens up a bag and hands its content to Riley. Riley doesn't have a lot of coloring books, so he is tickled when he opens up his gift from Amelia and Jackson, the teen smiles. He also got a package of 250 colored pencils.
"Thank you for...for...the presents!"
The teen is happy to have met these guys, but the next guests hit Riley and Caden even more than Jackson or Amelia.
"Thank you, Amelia and Jackson! I'm Riley's boyfriend, and I felt like I needed to tell you how much I appreciate everything you did for my boyfriend. My name is Ryan, by the way."
Ryan is beaming at the officers. He's proud of everything they've done for Riley. They didn't know what to get Riley for a present, so they bought him a t-ball set so he could practice hitting the ball, maybe with his boyfriend, Caden, or Jared. He smiled at it also. Riley moves to the next group; the EMTs, Marcus Foster, and Charles Olsen. Now for Marcus and Charles, this is a sight to be seen; they know that traumatic brain injuries can come in many forms, but seeing Riley up and walking is hitting them hard. The two men begin to cry. They've rarely seen someone with a t.b.i. ( Traumatic brain injury ) doing this good. It's emotional for them to see him up and about. They were unsure when they got him to the hospital if he would survive, so seeing him now is just making their day.
"Are...are...you okay?"
Riley asks Marcus and Charles. They smile and look at him.
`We've seen a lot of people with your injury who aren't walking.'
Charles thinks to himself as he looks at him. Good thing that Riley didn't hear what the emt just thought because he might have cried.
"Riley seeing you made us happy; these are happy tears."
Marcus says as he wipes a tear from his face. Caden is glad that his brother could meet these heroes. They gave Riley a chance to live, and that makes him happy. Charles and Marcus got Riley a plush version of Smoke and a 50 dollar gift card that can be used where the guys may want to go shopping. The surprises are going to keep coming. Caden and Jared step out of the kitchen with gift bags. The gifts are based on everyone's rsvp phone call. They have Riley pass out each bag to their guests. As he did, Riley got hugs and a thank you from everyone.
***
After everyone had received their gift bags, Lisa got ready to call everyone to lunch.
"Okay, everyone, we have food set out in the kitchen."
Lisa smiles as she watches the adults allow the teens to hit the food first. It amazes Isaac to see how much food Riley took. Lisa heard how good the food is several times, which made her smile.
"Lisa...you cook for my birthday?"
Lisa smiles at the teen that she considers to be her adopted grandson. She is glad to have been asked to cook for his birthday.
"You bet, I will."
He is so glad to have her answer. Jared and Caden are okay with him asking Lisa.
***
Caden gets ready to hand out the gifts to the guests. He hands one of the gift bags to his brother and points to where Charles and Marcus are sitting.
"Caden, who-who gets it."
Caden answers him
"Give it to Charles."
Caden pointed to where Charles was sitting. They then did this over again for Marcus. Next up, they did the officers, followed by Isaac and Isaac's girlfriend. Everyone stood and thanked their hosts, followed by thanking Riley.
***
Caden asked his brother if he wanted to say something to everyone. After the meal and introductions, Ryan sat down with his boyfriend, and they started writing up his speech. Riley stood up alongside Ryan, who will read the speech for Riley.
"I'll be speaking for Riley. This is my boyfriend, Ryan. He is my best friend. I want to say thank you to all of you. Thank you for saving my life. I know that I wouldn't be here without you. I love you all! Thank you!"
A couple of the people had tears coming down their eyes. What happens next is Riley speaking from his heart to Jared and Caden.
"Cad-den, Jar-ed, thank you for-for lov-ing me. This, this is my, my family, and-and I love them. Lisa is-is my grandma. I-I love her. Thank you."
Now it's Caden's, Jared's, and Lisa's turn to cry. They have tears in their eyes.
***
After all the guests had left, Riley and Ryan helped clean up after the party. Ryan helps Lisa clean up downstairs and then, Riley manages to talk him into playing basketball. Together, they play ball for about an hour. After an hour, the boys go up to Riley's room and rearrange Riley's belongings.
"It was pretty nice of your brother and Jared to have that party."
Ryan says to his boyfriend.
"You...you knew?"
Ryan chuckles at his boyfriend's question. Riley playful pushes Ryan.
"Je-rk, you shou-ld have...have said some-thing."
Ryan rolls his eyes. Riley gives up and goes back to the job at hand, helping Riley organize his room. 10 minutes later, Caden shows up at Riley's room door.
***
Caden is at the door of Riley's room, and then he enters the room.
"Hey guys, Riley, can we talk for a second."
Riley sat next to Ryan while Caden sat on the floor. He took a breath and then started talking.
"What did you think of meeting the people who saved your life?"
Riley smiles as he looks at his brother.
"I...liked them."
Caden was hoping for more from his brother. Ryan just quietly sits there as his boyfriend and Caden talk.
"You need to write them thank you notes like we do for everyone who gives you gifts."
Riley nods his head to his brother.
"Oh, oh okay, I...I...do that. You...you...you help me?"
Riley is more than happy to do it, but he knows his writing is terrible at best. He would prefer to get help from his brother to do it.
"Yeah, I'll help you, Dude."
As they are talking, Jared joins the group in the room.
***
Jared also joins Caden on the floor.
"Hey, all, what's up?"
Ryan is the first to speak up.
"Not much Jared, we are just talking about the party."
Caden smiles and looks at Riley, and then he looks at Jared.
"We were talking about the fact that Riley needs to write thank you to everyone who attended the party."
Jared nods his head. He agrees with Caden that Riley needs to write the notes.
"I can help Riley with the notes."
Ryan says as he looks at both Caden and Jared. Jared doesn't care who helps Riley with the notes. He just wants it done.
"It's fine Ryan, I just want the notes written."
Caden tells Ryan and Riley.
"Thanks, Ryan!"
Jared says as he takes Caden downstairs together.
***
Ryan and Riley move downstairs to watch television in the living room. They decide against watching tv and turn on the streaming device Caden and Jared brought from the other house. They pick a movie that neither of them has seen before and then cuddle up next to each other to watch it. Caden and Jared are in the office while the teens are downstairs. They are putting together a list of names and a list of addresses for everyone who attended the party. Ryan spoke up and volunteered to help his boyfriend write the thank you notes. He hasn't forgotten that promise either. Up in the office, Caden and Jared start talking.
***
Caden and Jared are up in the office talking between themselves about the future. Jared starts it off by asking a question.
"Hey Babe, where do you see us in five years?"
Caden starts thinking about the question. Caden smiles and hugs Jared and then answers the question.
"In five years, I want to be engaged to you, married to you, and happily married to you. Does that scare you at all?"
Jared may or may not have thoughts of asking someone to marry him whose name may or may not start with "C." He just doesn't have any plans set in stone.
"It doesn't scare me at all."
Jared surprises him by giving Caden a kiss.
"So, where do you think Riley will be in five years?"
Caden asks Jared. Now, it's Jared's turn to think about a question. Jared considers the question carefully before he answers.
"I think Riley will be anxiously awaiting Ryan's graduation from college. I think the guys will be dating. Still, they might be living together, but I doubt they'll be engaged."
They don't have any more questions for each other. The guys relax a little bit before heading downstairs to give Ryan the names and addresses so that the two boys can get notes written. Hopefully, whatever happens next to them won't hurt them too much.