A Fresh Start

Chapter 38- Graduation Party

Ryan.

"Jesus, TK. Did you win enough awards today?" Shouts Jamie as we walk up to him.

He's all smiles. I think he's genuinely proud of himself, and I adore that look on his face. He doesn't wear it often, but he earned it today.

"Well, I didn't know I'd be winning that last one. Believe me," he says and beams at us.

Trevor, Sarah, and Josh are right behind us, and they all pull him into the center of a massive group hug.

"Did you really not know you were going to win that?" Trevor asks.

"Sure didn't. I didn't even write my own name," he says with a shrug.

"I really liked your speeches," I whisper to him as we all pull apart. "Can I talk to you over here?"

He nods with a bright smile.

"You know how much I love you, right?" I ask.

He suddenly looks worried, "are you breaking up with me?"

"Fuck no. You're just the greatest, and I wanted to tell you." I pull him into a hug, and as we pull apart, I whisper, "let's do photos."

After several group photos, Jamie yells, "TK, where's the rest of your family? Trevor! Josh! go look for them."

They both shrug and start to look around for them. I'm actually looking forward to meeting his siblings and his birth mom. They just need to get here. I start looking around when I feel TK back into me and tense up.

"TK, what's wrong?" I ask, still looking for the rest of his family.

"Dad..........my dad's here," he says and he sounds terrified. I whip around and see him standing there with that same smug smile from the last time I saw him. I hate saying it, but it's TKs smug smile; I just don't see his very often. He starts walking over to TK, and I can see he's trembling, and he can't seem to move.

"Jamie, go find Dan or Alex. GOOOO," I shout. she and Sarah run off looking for his parents. Hopefully they will find someone quickly.

I move to stand in front of TK. His Dad looks at us and just smiles, "I'm here to talk to my son. You can step aside."

"You can fuck off. I know what you did to him," I snarl. I'm not looking directly at TK, but he isn't blinking or breathing. Instead, he's in full TK lockdown/panic mode.

"Are you going to let him fight your battles for you? I raised you to be a man. Talk to me, Tyler. Now!!" He shouts, and despite my massive build, I take a step back. I'm still in front of TK though, this guy isn't going to hurt him again.

"Get away from him," shouts Dan, and I look around to see other families watching this all go down. Mandy's trying to pull TK away, but he's stuck, "you need to go, Robert."

"Like I said to this one," and he points to me. "I'm here to talk to my son."

"The fuck you are. He's our kid. You don't deserve him," shouts Dan getting up in his face. "I was there in the ER. I saw all the broken bones. I know what you did to him."

"Yeah, Dad. Get the fuck out of here," says a voice from behind me, and I turn around and see a man that looks vaguely like TK. One of his brothers and the other one's behind him, holding two boys. "We all got away from You. you're just a worthless, angry, old man."

"Seriously, Robert. Just go." Says a woman I have never seen before. I feel a hand on my shoulder, and I see the taller of his two brothers pulling me back, and they're standing in front of TK, and the girl joins them. The young kids have been handed off to Trevor and Jamie.