We have spent most of the afternoon walking around the mall. So far, Greyson has picked out two new games and a pair of shoes, which I didn't mind buying for him. It feels good to spend money on someone other than yourself.

Right now, I'm sitting nervously in the food court waiting for Reese and Greyson to come back from the restroom. We never did come to an agreement on how we were going to handle the matter, nor do we know how to bring it up.

The only thing we did agree on was that this should not have happened. We should have been more careful.

I've been in this position many times, but with adults. I've had to persuade them to keep their mouth shut, whether it was a being paid off and/or in desperate time, have had to use physical, sometimes deadly force to enforce it.

But none of that is going to work in this situation. This is Greyson we're talking about for fucks sake. He's a kid. A really nosy kid, who needs to know that putting his nose where it doesn't belong is stupid and dangerous.

I sigh and rub my temples. I can already feel a headache coming on. I really hope Reese has figured something out.

I look up just in time to see both of them walking towards me. "What the hell took you guys so long?"

I felt like I've been sitting here for, forever.

Reese rolls his eyes and pulls out a seat for Greyson, before taking his own. "Well sometimes people have to take a shit," he says pointing towards Greyson. "He stunk up the entire restroom."

"What? No, that was all you," Greyson quickly counters. "I can't poop in public restrooms."

I don't care where I'm at, if I have to go, I'm going.

"You can't poop in public restrooms?" I chuckle. "What do you do when you have to go?"

Greyson glances over at the table next to us and blushes. I follow his line of vision to see a girl his age staring at us.

Reese ruffles his his hair and laughs. "Don't get embarrassed, she probably didn't hear a word we said."

Greyson's face gets redder. "Will please stop?" He grits, causing us both to laugh loudly.

This kid is too easy. "Will you lighten up?" I ask. "Reese is right, she's too far away to hear what we are talking about."

"Can we please talk about something else?" He begs. "Anything is better than this."

Reese and I share a knowing look. "Alright, we can talk about something else, but first, how about we get something to eat?" I ask. I haven't eaten anything yet and I'm starving.

"Sounds good to me."

"What do you want?" Reese asks.

"I don't know. Maybe Chinese?"

Reese shakes his head. "I don't even know why I asked," Reese mutters getting up from his seat. "What do you want?"

When it comes to Chinese, Reese and I pretty much eat the same thing. So he can pick. "Surprise me."

Reese nods before strolling off, leaving Greyson and I alone.

At first I didn't notice it, and just thought he was looking around, killing time while we wait for our food, but that thought changed when our eyes connect for a brief moment and he quickly reverted his eyes to his hands. This kid isn't stupid. He knows that we know.

As much as I want to say something, I don't. He already looks scared and I don't want to scare him anymore.

Reese comes back and sits a try on the table and hands us our food. I glance over at Greyson's food and smirk. He got the same thing as me. Orange chicken. It seems like the more I hang out with this kid, the more things I find out we have in common.

***

"Could you throw this away?" Reese asks while piling all of our garbage in the tray.

Greyson whines, but does what he is asked anyway.

"He knows," Reese whispers, when Greyson was out of hearing range. "He's never this quiet."

I nod my head in agreement, keeping my eyes trained on Greyson as he throws the trash away. A young boy, who I don't recognize approaches him. "Glad I'm not the only one who noticed."

Greyson laughs at something the boy says and begins talking. This is the first time Greyson has laughed since we left the house.

I finally tear my gaze away from Greyson and look at Reese. "He's scared," I tell Reese. "I don't want him to be scared of me."

Reese glances over his shoulder before leaning in. "I don't want him being afraid of me either. We have to fix this. We have to tell him everything will be okay and that we forgive him."

"I know," I whisper yell. "And where are we going to talk to him about it, hmm? We can't do it here, too many people."

Reese ponders around with my question for a second before answering. "The park," he says. "There isn't many people at the park around this time. That would be a great place."

I look up to see Greyson waving bye to his friend before making his way back to the table. He sits down and takes a sip of his pop.

"Who was that?" I asked, trying make conversation.

He tenses at my question and looks between Reese and I. "Just a friend from school," he answers hesitantly.

I don't like the way he is acting right now and think that it would be best we were to leave. I stand from my seat, "Ready?"

Without saying anything, Greyson grabs his bags and heads towards the exit. I can't wait to get this over with.

***

We pull into the park and sure enough it's empty. Well pretty damn close. Only a handful of kids are playing, while their parents converse with one another.

"Did you bring me here to kill me," Greyson asks out of nowhere. His voice wavering. "I already told mom that I wouldn't say anything and I meant it."

We both whip around in our seat to look at the terrified child. His body is tense and his eyes are wide.

"What? No," Reese damn near shouts. "I would never hurt you. We would never hurt you."

I can't believe he asked that. "We just want to talk to you about it, that's all." I try to reassure him.

"Why? I already talk to my mom about it."

"We just want to make sure you're okay. "Reese sighs. I'm glad he's taking the wheel on this, 'cause I'm afraid I may drive us straight into the river. "We want you to be able to talk to us about it and not be afraid of us."

Greyson's eyes jump from me to Reese. "You couldn't have talked to me at home about this? He asks a little more confident. "I felt like you guys were feeding me my last meal or something."

Now that I think about it, it does seem that way. We got him out the house and took him to the mall, bought him a few thing and fed him his favorite meal. Now we drove him to an almost secluded area.

I couldn't help but to laugh. This is not how I imagined how this would go.

"I don't think this is something to laugh about," Reese sneers. "Can't you see that he is scared?"

"I can't help it," I laugh. "This all went to shit the moment we stepped out of the house and we didn't even know it."

I hear Greyson snicker. "It went to shit when you asked me to go shopping with you guys."

"Language," Reese scolds, causing me to laugh harder. Reese gives me an annoyed look. "You're not helping."

"Actually, he's doing a better job then you are," Greyson states with a smile. You can tell he wants to laugh.

Reese stares at him in disbelief, but doesn't say anything.

"So if you're not going to kill me, can we please go home?"

"No," Reese starts. "You need to know that what you did was wrong and if we were anyone else, they wouldn't care that you were a kid. This is a dangerous world we live in-," he points between him and I. "And when we are talking, you don't eavesdrop."

I have to give Reese a lot of credit right now. He's handling this a lot better than I thought he would for being a man-child.

"I get it and I'm sorry," he says. "I promised mom that I wouldn't do it anymore and I won't. What more do you want from me?"

"I want you to see the seriousness in it Greyson," Reese shouts. "Your mom would have my head if anything were to happen to you."

Wren would kill both of us. "Same here," I add. "I don't know what I would do if anything were to happen to the three of you."

And that's the truth. In the little time that I've been with this family, I fell in love them.

"Besides, it's not us you have to worry about if you get caught. It's your mother," I tell him. "She was very worried when she was talking to us about it."

You can see the guilt on his face. "I didn't mean to worry her, but I don't regret telling her."

Silence fills the car. The kid does have a point. He didn't have to tell her, but he did.

"I think he gets it, Reese. I don't think there's any need to drag this on."

Reese mutters something under his breath and turns the face the front of the car. He starts the engine and pulls out of the parking lot.

Wren is going to have a field day with this when she finds out. I just don't know if the field day is going to be good or bad.