The Ties That Bind

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

(Simon ^^)

     Simon lay in his bed pretending to sleep; he didn't want his friend, and roommate, to know that he heard him crying.

     It had been a long time since Kasden had taken his old teddy bear down from the shelf above his bed and cuddled the tattered old thing. It was so ragged and covered in patches that it was a wonder it held together. It was Kasden's prized possession though; Simon knew how much it meant to his friend. It was the only thing he had left from his life before he came to the orphanage, and he only took it down when he was sad.

     He listened to his friend cry himself to sleep, wondering what could have happened that affected him so badly. Kasden was always upbeat and happy; whatever it was, Simon determined that he was going to make his friend feel better.

<Flashback>

     The first time Simon saw Kasden, he was sitting in the cafeteria talking to Mr. Milton and Father Jacob. There was a little suitcase next to him along with a small backpack, and he was holding that precious teddy bear of his (it had been much less tattered, though tattered still, back then).

     The new boy looked to be close to Simon's age, maybe a little older, but Simon decided right then that he was going to be friends with the boy. Simon was one of the younger boys at the orphanage at the time, most of the other boys at the time being a few years older. A pair of twins who were two years old, and a baby were the only younger boys at the time.

     Simon had been at the orphanage all of his life; he didn't know anything else. He had been dropped off as a new baby. Nobody knew anything about him, except his birthday and his name - which was written on a small piece of paper tucked into the basket that held him.

     He knew that it was probably because of his eyes that he had been abandoned. Other kids at school made fun of him because they were different colors; one was brown and the other was a very pale blue. The kids at the orphanage didn't tease him about his eyes though; they knew what it was like to be teased themselves, having been teased themselves for not having parents.

<End Flashback>

     Simon hadn't thought about any of that in years. The flashback was probably because Kasden had taken down the teddy bear. It reminded the boy of how they had met.

---

     "Good morning, Kas." Simon said when he joined his friend at the breakfast table early the next morning. It was a Saturday, and usually they would hang out together later in the day with their friends from school.

     Kasden barely managed a slight smile as he replied to the greeting. His eyes were still red, or maybe they were red because he had cried some more after he woke up. Simon couldn't be sure since Kasden had already been gone from their room when he woke up himself.

     He didn't want to embarrass his friend, so he decided to wait until they were alone to talk to him about what had upset him the night before. They had always been one another's rock when either of them needed someone to lean on.  

     Simon approached his friend while they were finishing up their morning chores. All the children had Saturday chores that they did, along with their daily tasks - which consisted of making their beds each morning and keeping their area picked up. Saturday chores took a little longer, cleaning the communal showers and bathrooms, sweeping and mopping the common areas, and helping out in the kitchen. It never took all that long to complete them though; they were already used to keeping things in order during the week anyway, so there was never anything really difficult to do.

     "Are you going to tell me what happened last night, or am I going to have to drag it out of you?" Simon was direct, once the two were alone, looking straight into his friend's eyes.

     "Don't you try to bullshit me either, I know something happened. I heard you last night after you came in, but you were gone this morning when I got up. So, talk." His tone was no-nonsense; he could be quite the little Alpha when he wanted to be.

     "Let's go back to the room." Kasden said. "It's not something I want to talk about where someone else might listen in."

     The boys made their way back to their shared room where Kasden sat on his bed, leaning his back against the wall. Simon sat on his own bed echoing his friend's posture, and for the second time that day, Kasden explained that he had run into his mother at the banquet.

     Simon's eyes grew wide but, unlike the priests earlier, he didn't let Kasden get by with just glossing over the main event; he made the older boy go into detail. It wasn't simple curiosity, he really wanted to help his friend, the one he looked to as a brother, and in order to do that, he needed to know everything.

     Kasden told him about the first encounter with his mother while serving the entrées at the banquet, then about swapping tables with Davy, and then the encounter with his mother after cleaning up.

     He also learned that Father Phillip had overheard some of what his mother had said, and he completely misunderstood the conversation. That was why Kasden had left early; to go to 'confession'. Thankfully, Father Phillip had been understanding after he told him what happened. Father Jacob was there too, which always helped since Father Jacob seemed to have a soft spot in his heart for Kasden.

     "Wow, that was out of the blue." Simon exclaimed once he'd heard the whole story.

     "So, what are you going to do about it now, Kas? Are you going to try and find out more about her? I wouldn't be able to stop myself if I ever met my own mom."

     "No. I thought about it all night and I don't think anything good would come out of it." Kasden replied. "She doesn't want anything to do with me, she said so herself; I think I would only get hurt more if I tried to get back into her life."  

     "So, is she rich then?" Simon asked. "I thought these banquets were for rich people."

     "I guess so. She was wearing fancy clothes, and so were all the people she was with." Kasden said. "I wasn't paying all that much attention after I recognized her and then she ignored me."

     "What made you recognize her?" Simon's curiosity was piqued. He knew he wouldn't recognize his own parents, if he ever met them, simply because he had no memories about them.

     "It was her voice. I didn't know I would recognize it, but her voice sounds just like I remembered it." Kasden closed his eyes, thinking about the way she sounded in his memories. Even though she had been less than loving before she abandoned him at St. Jerome's, she had always had a pleasant voice; it was a voice that had once sung lullabies and soothed away his childish fears.

     "I'm a little bit jealous of you." The wistful tone of Simon's words caused Kasden to look over at his oldest friend. "I would give anything to have memories like that. I know you have bad memories too, but at least you have some memories."

     Simon began thinking that his endeavor to cheer up his friend might not have been so good an idea. Now he was sad too. They were two boys who were both unwanted; something they usually tried to avoid thinking about, much less talking about. If you ended up living at the orphanage long enough, it was an awareness that was unavoidable.

     Simon slipped off his bed and joined his friend on the other; he put his arms around the older boy, and they held onto one another as they shared a cry. When the tears finally stopped, Kasden picked up his phone and pulled up Davy's contact.

'Not feeling so hot today. Won't be at the market.' He typed out his brief message and hit send.