Day 18: The gift you didn’t know you wanted // Joey wasn’t taken AU
The Holiday approaching felt hollow. Joey wasn't going home but there was no one here to stay for. Rosanna tried, and he loved her for that but he didn't really blend with Mark and his adopted children. The drunk leading the blind drunks. BUT NONE OF THEM COULD GET DRUNK! It was all very dry, in many ways. He still tagged along.
“Where's the big one?” He asked Rosanna sitting in the back of the van with her, drinking from a bottle of wine they were sharing.
“Tyler? He went home early? Said it was something important.” she shrugs but looked a bit unsettled and annoyed at retelling the news. She took the wine and sipped too. Joey quickly got the bottle back and was sipping again. He wasn't even a fan of wine, but he was lonely. Being with then just made him remember he was going home to an empty bed.
As they walked along in the snow Joey tried to fall behind from everyone, Rosanna and Mark making him as bitter as the wine taste in his mouth. However, the kid kept pace with him.
“What are you doing?” he asks scowling at him. Ethan looks up at him wide-eyed and stammers a bit as he explains.
“I just didn't- you know, you were falling behind and- and -and I didn't eat you to be off on your lonesome and get lost and by yourself.” he started to trail off at the end as his voice got smaller and smaller, fading out to inaudible nothing.
“Thanks, I guess….” he says and keeps walking until he feels a mittened hand slide into the grasp of his glove. He stopped and looked down at Ethan again, who looked up at him with big eyes, fear like he was about to get yelled at. He had no idea why he was being like this, but he couldn't be mad about. He remembered being scared to hold a boys hand once too. Even if it wasn't for the same reason, he'd allow it.
By the time they got back to the creepy van, Ethan had claimed his whole arm and occasionally leaned his head on his shoulder. He even sat with him on the back bench. Joey was too drunk to be embarrassed, too fuzzy in the head to not melt into the snuggling. He sang along to songs very badly with him, giggling as a snuck him some wine. Mark saw but said nothing. They both seemed to be having a good time, finally. A gift from him to the lonely hearts club.
