I Am (I'm Me)
Once they pulled up to the building, Glam seemed to droop; his hair even seemed less fluffy than usual.
“Cmon, Glam. Your appointment starts in a couple minutes.” Ches scratched his chin as he slid out of the van and walked to the door, waiting to hold it open for the blonde. In response, Glam followed him, his hands tucked behind his back as he walked inside.
This shouldn't have been as nerve racking as it was. To be fair, he never expected to be in this situation. Both he and Ches agreed there was no point in dwelling on the past and to ‘live in the present.’ So, why was this so important?
“Hello, I'm Sam. Are you my 13:15?” the therapist said as she walked over, her posture welcoming.
“Yes.” Glam replied with a smile; but was nervously rocking from his heels to his toes.
Ches put a gentle hand on Glam's back, glancing at him with half-lidded eyes. “See you in an hour, dude.”
That was his cue. The woman nodded and began leading Glam to her office.
“Sit, get comfortable.” She chimed, sitting in her own chair. In front of it was a desk with a computer, probably for notes and paper work. The room was relatively small, there was a white noise machine at the door, paintings on the walls and a couch across from where Sam was sitting.
Glam walked over to the couch and sat down hesitantly, he put his hands in his lap and began fidgeting with his wedding band almost immediately; a smile was plastered on his face regardless.
“So, when your friend there worked things out he seemed to call you by a name that isn't tied to anything I have on file. Is there a name you'd prefer me to use?” Sam inquired; her hands ready to type out whatever the man in front of her said.
“Glam.” He chimed, sitting up a bit as he did so, he was attempting to appear as calm as possible. It wasn't a big deal, he shouldn't worry.
“Alright, Glam. Why don't we get to know each other a little?” Her tone was gentle.
She really was a kind woman, but it's always difficult trying to enjoy someone's company when you know you'll be interrogated.
Glam nodded, waiting for a question.
“So, I think an easy start would be asking; what are you here for today, what are you seeking to get out of these sessions?” Sam queried, her hands held together pointing her index fingers at the keyboard, she looked at Glam with a welcoming smile. Whatever the answer was she was ready for.
As easy as the woman made answering this question sound, it wasn't. Glam sat silently for a moment, all that could be heard was the fuzz of the white noise machine.
“Well, I don't think there is a reason. I'm simply here to please my friend.” His tone was jaunty as usual, a part of him knew he needed to be there, but he wouldn't accept that; nor would he admit it.
“I see, well maybe we'll figure that out with our time together, hm?” Sam paused, her pinky finger gently tapping the side of her laptop. “Do you have a family?” Such a simple question, yet a very important one.
“Yes!” Glam nodded as he spoke, his hair fluffing back up with each movement. “I have two sons, my magnificent wife and Ches.” He stopped fidgeting with his ring and rested his hands on his knees.
Sam smiled. “That's wonderful! What are their names?” She noted the family members, ready to add names and any other possible information that might be important in the future. She then left her fingers on the keyboard and watched Glam for a response.
“My eldest son is Dee, my youngest is Heavy, and my wife's name is Victoria.” He said in response, maybe this wouldn't be so difficult after all.
“What inspired those names?” Sam asked, taking note of all the names.
A simple one word response. “Music.” Music really was a very important part of his life, frankly it showed, everything about him sparkled when there was an excuse to mention it.
Sam had an idea, but she needed to finish what she started first. “What's your relationship with your family members?” She asked; this would certainly hold it's relevance in the future.
Glam thought for a moment, his relationships with his family seemed good; strict, but good. “It's alright I believe.” He said, was there much confidence? That was questionable.
“Only alright?” She replied, looking at the laptop. “How come?”
“Well, I wouldn't say ‘only alright’ I help my son Heavy with his homework often, Dee doesn't need help with his homework, he prefers to… distance himself.” Glam paused to glance at a painting on the wall. “However I don't see much of an issue with that as someone his age, he's old enough to have his own secrets. Vicky and I have a good relationship I believe, Ches and I have been close since we were teenagers, we have a strong bond.” he began twirling a strand of the hair that usually rests behind his ear with his finger.
“I see.” Typing could be heard over the white noise machine, the keys were quite loud compared to others. “What exactly is Ches to you?”
“He's a very important friend of mine.” Glam's smile softened, his posture relaxed as well.
“I see.” Sam turned her chair back to Glam, fully facing her client. She was ready to execute the idea she had been putting together the entire session. “I remember you brought up music, that topic seemed important to you. What do you listen to?” She held her hands together and rested them on her desk.
The blonde gleamed at the question, quickly putting his hands back on his knees. “Metal.” He felt like a kid in a candy store.
“Do you have a favorite band?” Sam added to her original question, building up to get some sort of answer to the first question she asked during this session.
“Twisted Sister is my favorite band, I actually named my oldest son after the singer.” Glam said. He expected this to go very differently, it didn't feel very needed but it wasn't horrible he supposed. For a moment he considered this could be a one time thing.
“Is there a song you could relate to or something you feel a particular connection to?” Sam asked.
“I Am (I'm Me) is a good one!” Glam said absentmindedly. He hadn't thought about that song that way in years.
This wasn't going to go in a direction he'd be fond of.
“Alright, let us take a look at the lyrics, hm?” Sam asked, quickly adding a tab, typing through and bringing up a lyrics page.
She began to read out the lyrics.
“‘Who are you to look down at what I believe?’”
The air felt dense, Glam's thoughts already began wandering.
“I'm on to your thinking and how you deceive. Well, you can't abuse me, I won't stand no more. Yes I know the reason, yes I know the score.” Sam read on, finally getting a grasp of some sort of reason this man was in her office, why he was on her schedule. “Hm… so, is there anyone that comes to mind when you think of these lyrics?”
Glam began fidgeting with his wristbands, it felt hot, he could feel himself sweating. His lungs were doing that thing again. God, he hated when that happened. He couldn't help but to laugh breathily “Well I wouldn't really…” he paused, she had him in a corner and he couldn't calculate a way out of it. “I don't know.” He smiled, his eyes focussing on the edge of the desk.
“I think you do know.” Sam said, glancing over at the laptop screen briefly before looking back at her client; she wanted to get somewhere with this session—even if it was very little.
Glam had no intent of telling anyone anything about his upbringing, Ches knew, although it wasn't a big deal; he's Ches! But even then, something wanted to crawl up his throat, so many years he repressed that he feared he couldn't let out anyway. It was best to leave it in the past; yet there was something that wanted it out, something that made it painful to sit in silence.
“My father.” Glam finally let out, his smile dropping slightly as he averted any eye contact by staring down at his hands that were still meddling with his wristband. Regret set in as the words slipped out, but, along with that came relief.
“I see. ” Sam turned to take note on the laptop. “Is there anything that makes you think that way?” She said, her demeanor was patient and calm.
“I don't know.” Glam said again, not removing his gaze from where his hand toyed with the edge of the wristband.
“Do you not know, or do you not want to talk about it?” Sam queried as she turned back to look at Glam, inspecting his overall body language.
Glam chuckled nervously. “I don't want to talk about it.”
“I understand. We can always come back to that another time, and it's looking like our time is up anyhow. I have you scheduled for today next week at the same time, does that sound good, sir?” Sam asked standing up and turning on her heels to the door, readying to walk Glam out to the waiting room.
Glam looked up, he smiled and nodded, quickly standing up and walking to the door.
He walked out and Sam followed him until he was back with Ches.
“So, how'd it go?” Ches asked, putting his hand on Glam’s shoulder as they walked out to the Panther. Ches had always been very physically affectionate—he was especially touchy with Glam. He gave the taller man's shoulder a gentle rub before he let go and opened the passenger side door for Glam.
“Oh. It was alright, I still don't think it's very necessary.” Glam said, keeping his answer short; as per usual. He got into the van and nodded at Ches in appreciation, then watched as his friend shut the door, walked around the vehicle and got in the driver's seat, repeating his routine of starting the car and checking the dashboard before driving.
The ride back was somehow even quieter, Glam stared out the window the entire ride, all that could be heard was Ches occasionally mumbling to himself, and chuckling quietly about something he's remembered.
It felt like it had been hours by time they arrived. As they walked in the door it was 14:50, it had been the exact amount of time Glam said they would take. From what he knew Heavy and Dee would've already eaten lunch, Vicky was probably at the gym. With the assumption that the boys were in their rooms playing video games, Glam turned to look at Ches.
“I'm going to spend some time alone. If I take too long would you mind cooking dinner?” He asked, for once he wasn't smiling, which was odd but surely alright.
Ches nodded, gently patting Glam's arm. “Sounds good. Do you still have-”
“Yes, the Chai is in the top cabinet left to the fridge.” Glam cut him off, giving him a small smile. “Thank you.” He said, walking up the stairs to enter his bedroom; Ches observed that it was not commonly a place that he'd go to spend time alone but who was he to judge.
Well, for the time being there was no harm checking on the kids.
Glam sat himself in bed, book in hand; but he didn't open it, frankly he wasn't certain which book he even grabbed. He watched the wall, finally processing the recent events. That entire situation felt difficult, and suffocating. He had another session in a week, he didn't know how to feel about it. Once he finally blinked he lied down, setting the book on his chest.
Ches knocked on Heavy's bedroom door waiting for a clear sign he could come in, he knew not to invade a teenagers privacy, plus giving a fair warning before coming into a kids room was best; if they had something to hide they'd come clean on their own eventually. Plus even if they did as long as it wasn't hard drugs or something else harmful then it didn't really matter a whole lot.
“Come in!” Heavy said, his voice raised to a low shout. He moved the headphones he was wearing off of one of his ears, trying not to distract from the game he was playing.
Ches popped his head into the room “Hey hey! Whatcha up to, hm? Ahhh” Ches chuckled as he walked over and crouched to look at the computer. “you playing that game with the ogres ‘n what not, are ya winning?” he asked, watching the character on the screen fight something.
“Of course I'm winning! Dee has to find his body though, he died again.” Heavy laughed, then proceeded to stick his tongue out and press the buttons on his keyboard.
Ches didn't quite understand these kinds of games, but he saw the appeal. He nodded then glanced out the window for a moment. The birds were gliding in such a choreographed manner, one over the other, twirling along the sky like a beautiful pool of water, with each turn the water of the sky rippled and–
“Aw, damnit! Dee, hurry up!” Heavy shouted as he began button mashing.
That reminded Ches. He ruffled Heavy's hair, messing up the position of the headphones over his ear; in response Heavy quickly fixed them as Ches went to knock on the door to Dee's room.
“Who is it?” Dee asked.
“Me.” Ches's voice was unmistakable.
“Alright, come in.” Dee said.
And so Ches did just that, making sure to shut the door behind him.
“Could you pause that game for a moment?” He asked, rummaging through one of his pockets.
Dee muted his headset and turned to look at Ches with a sigh. “What?”
With that Ches pulled the rat out of his pocket, proceeding to hand it to the boy. “Look who I brought.”
“Oh! Wait I thought you took my dad somewhere, was she with you the whole time? How did he not notice that? Didn't she crawl out at all during that entire… whatever you went to do?” Dee asked, watching the rat crawl onto his shoulder and rest under a tuft of his hair; he pulled away slightly, still not quite content with it being near his face.
“A magician never tells his secrets.” Ches said with a shrug. “Couldn't leave her at the shop alone anyway… probably get into my chai, or wine, or records, or somthn’...” He trailed off, scratching the back of his neck thoughtfully. After a few moments of staring into a corner of the room he sat on the floor with his legs crossed. “So, how have things been around here? Your dad have any more…” he paused to think of a gentle word for it, squinting his eyes as he did so. “issues?”
Dee sat back down, juggling handling the rat and playing his video game at the same time while also struggling to get his headphones back on his head. “It's been fine I guess, dads been dad. Nothing intense, he's just dad. You know, it's not a big deal.” He shrugged a little to try and keep the rat from crawling onto his desk. “Why?”
“Not my words to share, dude.” Ches held his hands up and shook his head, not necessarily defensively; he was too mellow for that. He then shrugged. “I'm sure it'll come up eventually.” Ches picked a piece of dryer fluff off of himself and watched as he flicked it away and it floated off into another part of the room.
“Alright…” Dee dragged out. He suspected something was going on, but frankly, he didn't care enough to think about it. “So why are you here?”
“Heeeyyyyy.” Ches replied with a quip offense in his tone. “Am I not allowed to hang around? I'm simply going wherever the universe takes me. Anyway, I'm gonna go see what your dad’s got in the kitchen. See you at dinner, kiddo.” Ches stood up and walked to the door then knocked on it. “Or… whenever you come out.”
As Ches exited the room Dee gave a monotonous “Bye.” and the rat squeaked as the door was shut.
Steam, lavender, cherry, aldehydes, the pittering of water, ruffle of a towel, and finally the woosh of a blanket being pulled over Glam’s head.
Feeling physically replenished after the shower Glam decided that all he needed now was to lie down with his thoughts. He huddled himself in the comforter; he'll make the bed when he gets up, the covers being a bit messy wouldn't hurt anyone. He took a deep breath, one that made him feel like he'd been holding it for hours and just now relieved his lungs. What he said really wasn't a very big deal, the question and answer was still relatively vague—not to mention he had hardly mentioned his father. He didn't feel great about it, it definitely had shaken him, but it's not like those days he relives it all; or at the very least remembers things he had long forgotten. What an odd issue, it really wasn't a big deal though, it's not like any of it was still happening, or affecting him in any way. Haha!
Ches was handling dinner, how kind of him. Maybe some rest would do Glam some good.
“Glaaamm.” Victoria had firm hands on her husband's shoulders, squeezing him a little too rough. “C'mon, sleeping beauty, we're waiting on you.” She said, sitting him up.
“Hm… what for?” Glam asked, gently shrugging, imploring for Victoria to let go.
“Dinner, you've been sleepin’ since I got home. Let's go, we're hungry.” Victoria said, a tease in her tone, letting go of his shoulders.
“Ah, right. I believe I asked Ches to cook tonight's meal.” Glam said, getting up, stepping into his poodle slippers, tidying the covers and fluffing the pillow he had his head on moments before. “I'll be right there.” He said with a smile as he went to check his reflection, he was wearing a light pink sweater and silk sleep pants. He grabbed a scrunchie and pulled his hair back into a ponytail; he didn't want to get his newly washed hair dirty at dinner.
“Alright, don't take forever trying to get pretty you already look fuckin’ perfect and I just wanna eat.” She said, walking out and shutting the door.
Glam's face flushed at the comment, then adjusting his wristbands before following his wife out of the bedroom and downstairs into the kitchen.
Victoria sat at the dining table tapping her finger against the table, impatiently waiting for food to be on her plate. Dee put his phone away as he watched his father walk up to the table, Heavy was just as excited as his mother was for something to be presented in front of him.
The aroma of beef, garlic, dill, the slightest hint of apple cider vinegar and steamed broccoli filled the space. Ches was a good cook, Glam knew he didn't go all out this time but he always enjoyed Ches's meals. He sat at the table, squinting at the lack of proper setting, but before he could say anything Ches began putting pelmeni on his plate with a generous side of broccoli.
“There you are, your lordship.” he said, chuckling and gently nudging Glam's shoulder, getting a titter from the blonde. He went to make Dee and Heavy's plates.
“Heeeeyy… why is pap getting served first he just got here!” Heavy pouted, his hands holding his silverware clenched in his fists against the table, watching Ches put food on his plate, turning his nose up as the broccoli was placed next to the pelmeni.
“You know I'll wait for everyone to get their food before I begin eating, Heavy.” Glam reassured, his hands in his lap.
Finally Ches got to his and Victoria's plates, putting the most amount of pelmeni out of everyone else's servings. They both had much bigger appetites than the rest of those at the table, no one complained about their larger portions.
Once Ches finally sat down everyone began eating, after a minute or two Dee decided to break the silence.
“So why did Ches cook today? I mean this is good and all but usually he comes to eat all of dad’s cooking, not the other way around.” He said, taking a bite of the food in front of him afterwards, looking back and forth between the two in question, his eyes half lidded.
“‘yer uh…” Ches glanced over at Glam, putting a pelmeni in his mouth; actually chewing with his lips shut for once.
“I just needed a rest today, thats all.” Glam said, staring at his son, giving him his signature grin.
Dee accepted that answer, shrugging and continuing to eat. It all seemed entirely reasonable.
“Are you sick, pap?” Heavy asked in between chews, his words slightly muffled by the food in his mouth while he rolled a piece of broccoli along his plate.
“Nope!” Glam said with a shrug, then setting his hands back into his lap. He had finished his food already, but he stayed at the table with his family.
Victoria made a couple sounds of satisfaction while chewing before saying “This is good, I always forget you can cook.” food spewed onto the plate in front of her while she spoke, causing Glam to recoil slightly to avoid the crossfire.
Ches shrugged, chomping down a few more bites before saying “It's all about soaking in multiple flavors. Of course I didn't go all out, I didn't exactly have a dinner plan.” he chuckled. “Would've been good with some more time and preparation, like a fine wine… or a grandmother.” Ches rested his chin on the palm of his hand, still chewing on some of his food.
Dinner felt like it had gone on forever, but eventually, everyone finished eating, Glam cleaned the kitchen, and Ches was heading out.
Eventually everyone headed to their rooms, it was getting late and the weekend was coming to an end.
Heavy climbed into bed, working on finding a comfortable sleeping position. His father needing a rest wasn't the most common thing ever, he was probably just tired for some reason. Heavy thought he'd try to wake up early and spend some time with his father, maybe he'd be able to actually sit down and eat breakfast. Glam was always up early, Heavy tended to sleep in. He wouldn't enjoy the experience of getting up but he'd make that sacrifice this once.
24:03, Glam was still awake. All he could think about was the session, he had hardly said anything yet it felt like he said too much. If he had even thought about saying something like that to anyone when he was a child his father would have killed him. Of course that didn't matter, he wasn't a child anymore, his father was dead.
Glam sat up and turned to the side of the bed, his feet on the floor. He stared at the wall for a moment, once he finally decided to put on his slippers and stand up he sighed, walking to the door and leaving the room.
He headed to the front door, grabbing his boots and putting them on, gently placing his slippers next to the coat rack, leaning to grab his long red coat and slipping it on. He grabbed his keys from the mount on the wall and left, locking the door behind him. The grocery store was still open, it wouldn't hurt to go shopping since he couldn't sleep. Maybe he'd find something to make for breakfast that wasn't oatmeal, he didn't even want to think about the grain at that moment. He'd go for a drive with the windows down, maybe play some music. It would be refreshing, and get his mind off things that didn't matter anymore. He got in the car, rolled the windows down and started playing Twisted Sister on the speakers. The volume was low, he didn't want to wake anyone. As he began driving he felt the breeze on his face and in his hair, the moonlight was nice as well.
Eventually he pulled up into the parking lot, frankly he thought it was strange for something like this to be open this late but he wouldn't complain. He got out and locked the car before entering the building. There were a couple people in the store, probably other people who were also having a hard time sleeping. Glam grabbed a basket and began thinking of things the house may need, he didn't bring his list but he had a fair idea. Milk, some baking ingredients, chicken for a dinner he had planned, he also needed more produce, Victoria would probably appreciate having bacon in the house; that had to be moderated of course. As he walked around he passed by the cereal aisle, he didn't care for cereal, most of the time it was overly sugary, Heavy always liked the one with the marshmallows in it, Ches used to give him it when he was a baby. Glam thought for a moment, he didn't really want to cook in the morning, especially since he'd have to stick to his routine of oatmeal on Mondays. He sighed in defeat as he walked into the aisle, the shelves stocked with sugar. He grabbed a box of cereal and flipped it to the back. He read the ingredients, sighed again and put it in the basket. It's not like this would be a reoccurring thing, it wouldn't hurt to have it in the house.
Finally he actually got what he went there for, after paying for everything and having it bagged, Glam left, getting himself home, putting everything away and eventually getting himself some sleep.
6:00, Heavy stopped the alarm he had set, why was he trying to wake up this early anyway? He groaned and turned over in bed, curling himself into his blanket, covering his head to block out the light coming from the window.
About 30 minutes passed when he heard another alarm, he went to turn it off but realized it was coming from Dee's room. It was quickly shut off anyway, Dee had began getting ready. Heavy curled up more into his blanket before realizing what the alarm was for. “Damn!” He quickly slipped out of bed, struggling to get the blanket off of him and quickly getting dressed. Dee walked in as Heavy was getting his socks on.
Dee looked over for a moment, a bit confused “You're up early.” He said, his tone was disinterested as usual, but it wasn't a thing that really happened. The change in routine was a bit of a surprise.
“Yeah, so what?” Heavy replied, grabbing his backpack and walking out of the room before his brother.
Dee shrugged it off, putting his hands in his pockets and walking out of the room, following behind Heavy.
Heavy ran down the stairs, his brother following behind him slowly. He walked into the kitchen to see his father, but he wasn't preparing anything. Instead he was pacing around the room.
“Good morning, pap!” He went and sat at the table, smiling at his father. Dee also sat at the table, taking out his phone.
“Oh, good morning, Dee, Heavy.” He smiled at the two before adding “You're up on time, Heavy.”
“Yeah, I wanted more time to eat before school today.” Heavy replied, he looked like he was going to fall asleep right then and there, even though he hardly lost an hour of rest.
Glam's demeanor seemed to shift, he held his hands together, not sure what to do with them.
“Oh, well um. I have something special for breakfast today, I've heard you mention that you like this.” Glam pulled the cereal out of the pantry, setting it on the table then crossing his arms behind his back and smiling with his brows furrowed.
Heavy gleamed for a moment, but then his expression turned from excitement to concern.
“No oatmeal?” He asked, looking up at his father and fidgeting with his thumbs.
Dee looked up from his phone with shared confusion.
“I know it isn't ideal, but I thought it couldn't hurt for you guys to have something like this.” Glam said, trying to shift the obvious perplexity that this situation caused. He just needed to not make oatmeal that day, that's it. He didn't want to eat it himself at the moment, let alone making anyone else eat it.
He got the milk out of the fridge and grabbed two bowls and two spoons, then he poured the cereal and milk into each bowl then set them on the table in front of his sons.
Dee didn't particularly care for what was set in front of him, but he wouldn't complain. He thought about making a snarky remark, but he decided it was best to leave it alone. He needed to head to school soon anyway.
Dee didn't particularly care for what was set in front of him, but he wouldn't complain. He thought about making a snarky remark, but he decided it was best to leave it alone. He needed to head to school soon anyway.
Heavy started eating, enjoying every bite; but a twinge of concern was still clouding over him. This wasn't normal behavior for his father, he just hoped he'd be better once he got home from school.
Not much time later Glam was finally the only one left in the house, Victoria went to work, the kids were in school, and he didn't have to tutor until later in the day. This is exactly what he needed, an empty house meant it was the perfect time to clean, and maybe indulge in his hobbies, that would get the edge off things. As long as he didn't worry about the next session everything would be great.
Glam pulled his hair up, started blasting Cinderella, snapped gloves onto his hands, grabbed the cleaning supplies and got to work. He cleaned on beat, springing between each surface with a vibrant pep in his step, he hummed the lyrics while wiping everything down to the rhythm of the guitar.
His attitude shifted drastically after the music came on and he got moving, after a couple of hours a majority of the house was spotless. Of course he left his sons rooms alone, he would remind them to clean their rooms later. He didn't want to invade their privacy, privacy was important, it was something that should never be disrespected. His eyebrows furrowed down. Glam caught himself trailing off into his own thoughts, he quickly snapped back to the task at hand, he took the gloves off, washed his hands, turned off the music and headed to his office.
Today would be great as usual!
“Heavy.”
“Huh?” Heavy looked up from his desk, his teacher glaring at him.
Did he miss something? He wasn't really paying much attention, but surely he would've noticed if something happened.
“What do you do with the coefficient, Heavy?” The woman asked with a ticked look on her face.
Heavy blinked and looked around the room for any sort of hint or idea of what the answer was. Alas that got him nowhere other than remembering how badly he wanted to go home. Heavy shrugged.
“What's a coefficient again?” He asked with a sheepish grin.
“Heavy, we have been over this many times. You don't listen.” The teacher said, sighing and moving on to ask one of Heavy's peers.
Heavy didn't particularly listen, but that was because he didn't understand how they were teaching! The school system was fucked anyway. Plus, he had more important things to think about, like the cats on the way home, and how his dad has been acting weird.
He flipped through his notebook, looking for any possible notes on whatever a coefficient was. A majority of each page was filled with doodles, a couple notes strung about in between. He wasn't the best at studying, unless his father was staring over his shoulder. Eventually he did find something on the topic. ‘Constant quantity placed before and multiplying the variable.’ What the hell did that mean? He skimmed through, finally finding an example he wrote for himself; he sighed in relief before flipping back to the page he was on before. Having the notes meant he wouldn't have to go over it with his dad. Dee had much more organized notes, Heavy wasn't sure how he did it.
“Class dismissed.” The teacher said.
Heavy shot up out of his seat and quickly started packing up. That was the last class of the day, he was free—until the next day of course. He didn't have detention that day either, surprisingly enough. He practically scrambled out of the school, then stopped just out of the building. His brother came out a couple minutes later.
“What took you so long? Are we walking Lif home today?” Heavy asked looking past Dee to see if their friend was there.
“No, Heavy.” Dee replied walking past Heavy, signaling for him to follow.
Heavy quickly stepped up to walk beside Dee, playing a game with the sidewalk as he did so.
“Hey, Dee?” Heavy said, jumping over a crack in the pavement.
“What is it, Heavy?” Dee asked with an uninterested tone, he glanced at his brother, putting his hands in his pockets.
“Have you noticed anything going on with dad?” Heavy questioned while he changed his footing to walk beside Dee normally, implying a more serious conversation.
Dee looked up, shrugging a little. “I guess so, but he has his moments.”
“I know…” Heavy paused, stopping for a moment to crouch down and beckon a cat. “I still don't like it, it always feels so out of place.” He said, petting the cat and shoveling a cracker out of his pocket.
“I guess.” Dee added, rocking on his feet impatiently. Eventually he got tired of waiting for his brother and gently kicked him before beginning to head home again.
“Ow!” Heavy shouted, as he stood up he dropped the cracker and began following again when the cat was spooked away by the abrupt noise.
The two got home and continued through the same routine as usual. Heavy luckily didn't have any homework that night, which meant he wouldn't spend forever going over it with his dad. The man in question went through the day customarily as well.
All was well. Nothing seemed off, and it stayed that way for the rest of the week. Once the weekend rolled around again that changed.