Dramatic Child Stars

Twenty-Eight

Percy,
July 28, 2021,
9:47 pm.

I met Bryn for the first time when I was 10. I'd maybe caught a glimpse of her a few times before that, but as a general rule she was almost never on set. Riley didn't seem to want her there, and although he asked for her when throwing fits, he never seemed to actually want her there in a real way. When she did show up with his mom to pick him up after shooting, he'd rush out the door with her. On those days he never even told me goodbye. The first time I really truly met her was when I came over a few days after their dad had died instead.

Back then, Riley was not emotional about it. I found that incredibly shocking given how overtly emotional and explosive the little boy could be about other topics. If not for the increased way he'd spend time staring off into space, I would have thought that he genuinely didn't care. He just looked alarmed instead of sad.

Bryn was different. She was very obviously devastated. While Riley seemed to fold in on himself, she seemed to fall apart instead. I vividly remember how she looked when I walked in for the first time. She was crying while Riley held her hand and just watched.

I'd see Bryn a bunch after that because of my presence in Riley's home. Unlike us, she went to school during the day. On days when I'd be at Riley's house when her bus was getting back, he'd rush to his bedroom window to watch her get off the bus and walk her way up the driveway. He never went down to greet her, but I distinctly remember thinking it was sweet that he watched for her. I also remember thinking all the time that she was actually really pretty despite what some people had said about her face. At one point during this time I got brave enough to ask about the mark across her forehead. Riley told me that it wasn't his fault and to never to ask about it again. Years later Bryn would tell me, and I would look at the relationship between Riley and his mom, and I'd totally understand it.

There's a possibility that Riley's distance from Bryn was intentional. He talked about Bryn like she hung the moon. He never tried to hide how much he loved her. He regularly talked about playing when the were little and when they shared a room. Outwardly, he made it clear she was important to him, but I rarely saw them actually interact much beyond greetings in passing. As a result, I hardly spoke to her too.

That was until we got back from Miami.  We'd watched the report about Darnell on the news together so it's not as if we were ignorant when we returned home. Riley was well aware of what had been said about himself and his mother had demanded our return so we weren't oblivious. He was not surprised to see his sister and his mom at the airport.

I hadn't managed to get Riley to do anything other than deny the allegations at that point. It had been almost 48 hours and I was actually freaking out about how calm he was being. It wasn't the weird frozen and shocked calm he'd had after his dad died. He was completely unphased this time. He was joking and laughing and simply pretending we'd never seen anything out of sorts on that television, and it was alarming.

As soon as we saw his mother coming up the terminal, Riley darted away into the nearest bathroom. I had no reason to stick around, since I was going to be picking up my own car in the garage and taking myself home. I hovered for Riley's benefit instead because I'd wanted to make sure he made it to his ride. That meant I stood awkwardly with his mother and Bryn while Riley stalled.

Then his mother decided she had had enough of waiting for him, and she marched off to go intrude on the men's bathroom. Bryn was standing there tapping her foot nervously and staring around at the  airport as if the walls were liable to jump down to swallow her poor troubled brother.

I looked at her and said, "He says it isn't true."

Bryn blinked twice and then sighed in a really tired way.