Adult-FanFiction.org : Cartoons

Precocious	By : XxSwaggerMcJaggerxX Category: +M through R > Recess Views: 3538 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Recess and do not make a profit from this work.

Chapter List
- 18
- 19
TJ dragged his feet as he walked down the street. With his hands tucked in his pocket, he tried to cheer himself up before reaching Dudikoff’s house, but nothing was working. It looked like Franklin was going to be the thing to put him in a good mood again. He found the soon to be teacher inside his garage hunched over the open hood of his car.
            “Hi, Frankie,” he said, joining him. “What are you doing?”
            “Hey, Squirt. I’m just doing some car maintenance,” said Dudikoff. “It’s gonna take a while.”
            “That’s okay. I can just watch,” TJ said. Franklin nodded, and he leaned against the edge, watching the older man work. He didn’t know much about how cars worked, or cared much to learn, but standing here and watching Franklin was fine. He wasn’t in a mood to talk or do much after what happened at home. Instead, he watched in silence, staying out of the way as best he could.
            At least in silence, he was able to enjoy Frankie’s concentrated face as he worked. He looked so handsome when he was focused on something. It was hot out today, so instead of his button up and tie, Frankie wore a fitted white t-shirt that better showed off his muscles as he worked. Between the dusty air of the garage and the smell of motor oil, he caught of hint of whatever cologne Dudikoff always wore. Maybe today wouldn’t be so bad after all.
            “Alright, that’s done.” Franklin pushed himself up and stretched his back. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and turned to the four grader. “You wanna learn how this thing works?”
            TJ shook his head.
            “Something the matter, Squirt?”
            TJ shook his head again.
            “Just one of those days where you don’t feel like talking much?”
            A nod this time.
            “Ah. That’s alright. I enjoy the company. Feel free to talk if you feel different.”
            After a drink from a bottle of water, Dudikoff leaned over the open hood again and got back to work.
            He was so cool, fixing up his own car. His dad did the same, but TJ was always sooed out of the garage to keep from ‘getting in the way’ when all he wanted was to spent time with him. He might not care much about cars, but it was time spent with his idol. What else did Frankie know how to do? He already knew about the prank stuff, but maybe he could give him some advice about sports, or show him something he can’t even think off.
            He could overlook how blatantly a pervert the guy was. Besides, it wasn’t like the feeling wasn’t mutual. So many nights were filled with dreams of Franklin, sometimes holding him close, sometimes taking off his clothes, even sharing a shower once or twice.
            “Thinking about ordering a pizza,” Dudikoff said. “I’m not gonna have the energy the cook after finishing this.”
            “I can cook!” TJ offered, speaking for the first time in a while.
            “You sure? I don’t mind ordering. It’s been a while since I had a pizza. . .”
            “Yep. I’m sure,” he said, pushing himself off the edge of the car. “I’ll make us something.”
            “Alright. Come get me if you need anything,” Dude said. He turned his attention back to the car. TJ nodded and headed inside. Searching through the fridge, he looked for something that wouldn’t take that long to cook, since he was hungry, too. Finding a pound of beef in the freezer that wasn’t frozen, he decided on making burgers.
            “He must’ve went shopping earlier,” he said. “Does he have any fries—he does!” Grabbing an unopened bag of fries, he closed the freezer and got to work. When he had to cook for himself, it was mostly simple meals. A grilled cheese, mac and cheese, stuff like that with a couple more detailed stuff like chicken noodle soup. Pete showed him how to cook other stuff because ‘he lacked vegetables’, but also how to make burgers.
            After checking to see if the pan was hot enough, he carefully placed the patties into it. On one of the burners on the back was a small pot of oil waiting to warm up. While he waited, he got everything else ready, chopping up lettuce, onions, and tomatoes. He didn’t know what Dude liked on his, but he wanted to make sure he at least had the basics. Smelling the meat cooking, he quickly flipped them over.
            “Wait, the fries, I forgot the fries,” he said, rushing to open the bag. He grabbed and handful of semi frozen fries and dropped them into the hot grease. The normal pop and bubbling from frying something quickly grew louder as the grease poured over the edge of the pot and onto the burner, causing smoke to rise, flames coming soon after.
--
            With his head right over the innards of his car, the strongest thing Franklin could smell was motor oil, and the faint smell of something sweet after he fixed a leak in the coolant system. Soon, he could also smell something cooking that made his stomach growl. The car was done and tuned up, so he closed the hood and wiped his hands clean with a rag.
            Well, as clean as he could. He definitely needed soap and water to get the oil and grease off.
            As quickly as he smelling something cooking, however, he smelled something burning.
            “That can’t be good,” he mumbled, rushing inside. He was met with a wall of smoke pouring out from the kitchen. Coughing, he rushed inside, looking for the kid and to figure out what was happening. What he was greeted with was something on the stove in flames, the fire beginning to stretch onto the walls. And the kid with one hand covering his mouth and another with a glass of water about to be poured onto the stove.
            “Kid, don’t--!”
            But his yelling didn’t come soon enough, and as the water touched the burning grease, the flame erupted, billowing up and outwards. Dudikoff dashed in, grabbing the boy and bringing him to the ground, away from the flames. With his back to the stove, it was licked by the flames before they hit the floor, burning the back of his shirt until there was nothing left of it.
            He didn’t have time to process the pain, however. As lazy and carefree as he was, Franklin did take safety very seriously. Under the kitchen sink, he kept a fire extinguisher just for fires like this. He left the fourth grader on the floor, stunned, as he grabbed it, and quickly put out the fire.
            They coughed as nothing but the smoke remained. Dudikoff opened the kitchen window to try and clear the air.
            “What the hell was that?!” He shouted. “Why didn’t you come and get me?!
            “I-I didn’t want your house to catch on fire—”
            “Fuck the house! Kid, I don’t give a damn about the house! I told you to come and get me if anything happened! You didn’t and look at what happened! If I didn’t smell the smoke and come running in here, you couldn’t been killed! I can buy another kitchen or another house, I can’t buy another one you! What on Earth you thinking putting water on a grease fire?!”
            “I didn’t think it was any different than a regular fire—”
            “What? How could you not know that—”
            Now that the fire was no long the main issue, Franklin felt the burning pain radiating from his back. He barely kept himself up as the pain grew.
            “Your back got burned,” TJ said. He scrabbled to his feet. “I can help—”
            “Go home, Kid,” Dude said with a grimace. “I’m taking myself to the hospital.”
            “But—”
            “I said, go home.” His tone left no room to argue. “We’re done today.”
            TJ nodded, following Franklin out the door. The skin on his back was already reddened, and his shirt was completely ruined. While Dude got in his car and headed towards the hospital, TJ started walking down the sidewalk, thinking of where to go next.
            He could go home.
            No.
            His house was the last place he wanted to be. Heck, he was trying to stay away from his house in the first place. Instead, he continued the walk down the street to the one person he trusted the most. He was disappointed that Pete’s car wasn’t in the driveway, but he was given a key for whenever he wanted to come over.
            So he went inside, and felt a little better, but not enough to feel forget about what happened.
            He trudged upstairs and into Pete’s bedroom, dropping his clothes until he was in nothing but his boxers. He climbed into bed, fully taking in how comforting the familiar blankets, ambient sounds, and even smells, were. Today was terrible in every way, and he wanted to fall asleep and forget it ever happened.
--
            Despite the boy spending time with Dudikoff, Prickly still found him at his doorsteps often enough. He opted to give Detweiler a key after finding him waiting at his doorstep, so it wasn’t uncommon to find him in his living room once he came home, or in his comic book room. Which was he stood by his bedroom door, wondering why the fourth grader was curled up so tightly under the covers.
            Detweiler being in his bed wasn’t out of the ordinary at all, but usually it was with him, and more relaxed, not curled up so tightly, looking as if he was trying to block out the world.
            He let out a deep sigh as he kicked off his shoes and tossed aside his jacket. He climbed under the covers to join him. The bed shifting caused the boy to wake up. However long he was sleeping was not enough to get rid of the red in his eyes. Must’ve been crying.
            “Didn’t expect to see you today,” said Pete. “What’s the matter?”
            TJ didn’t answer. Instead, he moved closer, clinging onto the older mans shirt as the tears returned. While he felt like he didn’t deserve the feeling of arms wrappedaround him and a hand rubbing soothing circles on his back, he didn’t want to pull away from it. Instead, he continued to cry until he was able to form words.
            “I hurt him,” he managed to say.
            “Hurt who?”
            “Frankie,” TJ sobbed. “I didn’t mean to, and I didn’t think a grease fire was any different, but I should’ve and now he’s hurt and it’s all my fault.”
            “You put water on a grease fire? Detweiler, do you know how dangerous that is?”
            “Now I do,” he whispered. “I didn’t know. . .”
            “Where’s Dudikoff now?”
            “He said he was taking himself to the hospital,” TJ said, looking up at him.
            “Did you see how bad it was?”
            “Yeah. His back looked really bad when I saw it.”
            “Damn, that must hurt like hell. He should have called an ambulance,” Pete said. “Why wasn’t he in the kitchen with you before this happened?”
            “He was in the garage working on his car, and I said I’d make lunch,” said TJ. “I should’ve just let him order a pizza.”
            “If he thinks he’s okay to drive to the hospital, then the burns can’t be too severe, I suppose,” Prickly mumbled. “Still, I can’t believe you didn’t know this. Maybe with you being in the kitchen with me so much, I assumed you knew about situations like that. Guess I need to give you a lesson on kitchen safety.”
            “It’s too late for that,” he said, pressing his face into the principals shirt. “He hates me.”
            “I’m sure he doesn’t hate you, TJ.”
            “He yelled at me. He told me to get out and never come back.”
            “Oh, I have a hard time believing that’s what he said.”
            “No, but that’s what he wanted to say, I know it. He hates me.”
            “Tell me exactly what he said.”
            “He said ‘Go home, we’re done here’.”
            “That doesn’t sound like he doesn’t want to see you again. It sounds like since he was going to the hospital, he couldn’t bring you along and you certainly couldn’t wait for him at his place. If he spoke harshly, it was probably because he was in pain,” he offered. “Listen, just give him a few days before talking to him.”
            “Can you come with me?”
            “Of course.” He placed a kiss on the boys forehead. “Did you get hurt, too?”
            “. . .Not as bad as he did.” Up until now, he had been ignoring the pain in his hands. He did pour the water on, and his hands touched the flames that erupted right after, but that was nothing compared to how Frankie must’ve been hurting. It felt like he was complaining about a paper cut while someone else was bleeding out; nothing to be worried about.
            “Let me see,” he ordered. TJ held out his left hand for him to see. Peter carefully turned it over, and winced. A large blister already started to form, going along the edge of his palm and towards the middle. Smaller ones were also forming on his index, middle, ring finger, and thumb, leaving his pinky the only one unscathed. The rest of his skin was red and beginning to harden. “This is pretty bad. Come on, we have to take care of this.”
            Together they climbed out of bed, and TJ followed him into the living room. He watched as the older ma returned from the hallway closest with an impressively sized first aid kit.
            “Did you wash your hands since the fire?” Prickly asked. TJ shook his head. Pete went to the kitchen and returned with a bowl of water and soap. “Give me your hand, I want to make sure there’s no grease left on it. This might hurt a little, but I’ll try to be as gentle as possible.”
            He bit his lip as his hand was washed, but did his best to hide the pain. Moving his fingers hurt, and he tried to keep them as still as possible until now.
            “These spots right here, they’re blisters, and they’re going to swell. Do not pop them, alright? It’ll look bad, but it’s healing underneath, and they’ll pop on their own,” said Pete. He opened a bottle of petroleum jelly. “Don’t use this hand for the next few weeks. You know how to write with your right hand?”
            “Yeah. I feels weird but I can do it.”
            “Good. Now I want you to keep this hand wrapped up for the rest of today. I’ll change this tomorrow, alright?”
            “Yes, sir. Can I stay here, tonight? I don’t feel like going home.”
            “Why? Something going on there, too?”
            “. . .Yeah.”
            “Does it have anything to do with your parents?”
            TJ nodded.
            “Do you want to talk about it?”
            “No, not really.”
            Prickly sighed. “Alright. You can stay tonight.”
            “Thank you.” He looked at his hand. How was he going to explain this one to the guys? “Principal Prickly, I don’t feel like thinking about today. Can I go back to sleep?”
            “Sure. It’s the weekend, anyways. But we are going to talk about this later, okay?”
            “Okay.”
--
            Meanwhile, A few neighborhoods away, Dudikoff returned home to the sight of his destroyed kitchen. Burned drywall and an oven that probably wasn’t safe to use. Despite opening all the windows on the first floor, the smell of smoke and burning grease still lingered in the air.
            “Damn, I have to call my home insurance.”
--
            Showing up with a hand bandaged up raised a lot of questions from his friends, and had him scrabbling for a lie to tell them. He went with a story of trying to catch a pan that fell from a stove. Believable enough, and they didn’t question it
            With one hand out of commission, there wasn’t much TJ could do to get his mind off of what happened as the days passed. Even during recess, where he couldn’t do much since every game involved either using both hands or risked an impact strong enough to break his blisters.
            Those things were getting pretty big, and even though he tried not moving his left hand, it still hurt. Pete said he was considering popping them to ease the pain after a few more days, which TJ was thankful for.
            While he was on the sidelines cheering his friends on, he kept thinking about the incident how Frankie was doing. He hoped the older man was okay. Maybe he had to stay in the hospital. Maybe the burns were worse than Prickly guessed they were. What if he was wrong and Dude really didn’t want to see him again? He couldn’t blame him if that was the case. His family was already mad at him before that whole incident happen, and now he had to go and make Frankie mad at him, too.
            His family was right. He was such an idiot.
            He messed up before, but how was he supposed to make up for something this bad?
--
            “Ready?”
            Outside of Dudikoff’s house, TJ and Prickly stepped out of the principals car. Pete offered to come with him, both as support and to see for himself how bad the damage was.
            TJ nodded, and together they walked to the front door. When it opened, Franklin greeted them without a shift on, and if it wasn’t for the circumstances, it would’ve had the fourth grader blushing.
            “Hey, Pete. Didn’t expect to see you here,” he said. “What’s going on?”
            “I came for moral support,” said Prickly. “And Detweiler told me what happened.”
            “Did he? I should’ve figured. Well come on in, then,” he said, stepping aside to let them come in. “I hope the smell of smoke doesn’t bother you too much.”
            “Did you get an estimate how much repairs is going to cost?”
            The three of them stood outside the kitchen, looking side. The wall and cabinets around the stove was blackened, as well as the ceiling. It looked like Franklin triedto clean up as much as he could, but there was only so much a broom and basic cleaning supplies to do against fire damage.
            “A couple thousand, but insurance is covering most of it. I honestly might use this whole thing as chance to remodel. The money actually isn’t that big of issue, I’ve been meaning to get this kitchen redone. Just wish it wasn’t under these circumstances.”
            “That’s good, at least,” said Prickly. “How’s your back?”
            “The doctor said it’s mostly first degree burns, but there’s a few spots where it’s second degree.” The three of them gathered around the living room couch as Franklin showed them his back. Most of it was reddened and starting to crust over, but a few spots had blisters that TJ recognized like his own. “I can’t wear a shirt as it heals up, so I’m going topless for a while. Nothing strenuous, either. Basically anything that’ll stretch the skin back there, I can’t do.”
            Sure, his hand hurt and he couldn’t do a lot of stuff, but that was nothing compared to having your whole back burned. TJ could keep his hand still, but moving at all meant Dude’s back was hurting constantly. And how was he supposed to treat it when he couldn’t reach back there? He couldn’t put something on his skin like Pete did with him to ease the pain.
            All because of him.
            “I’m sorry,” TJ whispered. “I’m sorry.”
            “It’s okay, Squirt. It was just a bad accident,” Franklin said. “I’ll be okay.”
            TJ shook his head. “It’s not okay, because I hurt you. I didn’t mean too, but I did, and how your back is messed up and it’s all my fault and you hate me, all I do is make people hate me. All I had to do was listen to you but I didn’t because I’m just a stupid kid—”
            “Stop.” Franklin reached over and grabbed the boys upper arms to get his attention and stop his spirally. “Don’t ever talk about yourself like that again. What is this about ‘making people hate you?”
            TJ wiped the tears that streaked down his cheeks and sniffed. That was such a long story, and he didn’t want to think about it, much less talk about it. But it’s what Dudikoff asked for, and he can at least give him that.
--
            He woke up early that morning. Well, earlier than usual, it was a Saturday after all and he would normally be up to watch cartoons at Pete’s house. Being up, he was able to catch his father starting on the yard work in the backyard. That used to be his job but his dad was less that satisfied with how it turned out the last few tries and shooed him away ‘since he couldn’t get it right.’
            Pete thought he did a good job at his place. Maybe he was being picky.
            So he thought, it’s been over a month. Maybe with Pete he got better, and that he just needed to see it. He rushed to get his clothes on and stepped out
            All he wanted to do was help. His father told him to help by getting out of the way, looking at him as if he was the most annoying person on Earth. He’d seen that expression before, far too many times. And while a part of him was used to it, another part still hurt getting that hate-filled glare from his dad of all people.
            But he was loud and clear, and TJ went back inside, to stay out of his way. Right in time to catch his mom getting ready to leave for the grocery store. And to be fair, she asked if he wanted to come with.
            Despite the universal feeling of dread every kid felt when being dragged to the super market by their parents was, he said yes. Between his mom and his dad, he preferred his mom. While his dads hate of him was loud and clear, it was much less so with his mom, so even if he had to be quiet while around her out of the fear of annoying her, it was easier to pretend their relationship was okay.
            He followed her around the store, not asking for anything and grabbing what she told him to grab without a word. And it wasn’t so bad. Nothing wrong happened, and he felt that maybe today just got off on a bad start.
            Until they had to take the bags inside. It went well until the last few bags. It was heavy, but not so heavy that TJ could carry it. As for the bag itself, the bottom fell out, and everything inside fell onto the driveway, breaking eggs, bursting open a couple of cans, and somehow tearing open a loaf of bread, right on time for his father to come outside and yell at him for being ‘so damn clumsy and wasting money.’
            He tried helping putting the rest away, but his mother hushed him out of the kitchen. He got the message, and headed upstairs where he bumped into Becky. Literally.
            She rushed around, grabbing a few things before going back to her room. Peaking inside, he saw her gathering things on the floor for what looked like a school project. Maybe she forgot about it and was rushing to get it done. TJ could relate to that. So he asked if he could help, but was brushed aside, something about him getting more in the way than any help. He turned to walk away, telling her he only wanted to help.
            “Well maybe if you were wanted in the first place, we wouldn’t tell you to go away.”
            And that. That hit him right in the heart. His dad didn’t want him around. His mom couldn’t make up her mind either way. But at least Becky treated him okay. They weren’t close by any means, but he thought up until then that she didn’t hate him. That she was just a teenager, he was just a kid, and those age groups didn’t make for good friends.
            She tried to backtrack on what she said, but it was too late. Those words were already out, the pain was already felt, and he understood. He whispered an apology for annoying her, promising to stay out of her way before going to his room. But even his own space in this hostile house wasn’t enough, and he decided to leave.
--
            He cried against Frankie’s chest as he told him and Pete about what happened that day. He was used to his family’s distain for him. At least one of them had something negative or mean to say about him on any given day, but having them all so clearly state how much they couldn’t stand him being around was too much to handle, and so he left, looking for someone who liked having him there.
            “They were all so mad at me, and told me to go away, so I did and went to you. And then the fire happened and you yelled at me and I thought you were mad at me, too. I thought you hated me like my family does. And I don’t want you to hate me because you’re the big brother I always wanted but I had to be stupid and hurt you.”
            Franklin ignored the stinging pain in his back as he wrapped his hands around the boy, holding him tight. Inside, he was barely containing the growing rage he had towards the fourth graders parents, and by the expression on Prickly’s face, so was he. He already thought of the kids parents as being negligent at best from what he said about taking care of himself when he was sick. But it was so much worse. He never imagined this would be the reason the boy was so quiet when he stopped by.
            “Oh, Kid. I don’t hate you. I could never hate you,” Franklin said. He rubbed small circles on TJ’s back to try and soothe, him, but his sobs remained. “I’m sorry for yelling at you. I was frantic about what happened and the danger you were in. I yelled because I was worried, but that doesn’t make it okay.”
            “I deserved it, though.”
            “A stern talking to, not that.” He loosened his old on TJ, until the two of them could look at each other. “Listen to me. It’s like you said, I’m your big brother, and as your big brother, it’s my job to look after and take care of you. It’s a job I take very seriously, and it’s a job I intend on doing very well. If we could somehow travel back in time, I’d take the hit from that fire again to protect you 100 out of 100 times, and I wouldn’t regret it for a second.”
            He paused to wipe the tears from his kids chubby cheeks.
            “My back will be fine. This isn’t the worst injury I’ve had. Just a few weeks of resting is all I need. You were a lot closer to the fire than I was when I got hit, and I’d hate to know how badly you would’ve been burned if I didn’t react fast enough,” he said. “I’m glad you didn’t get hurt.”
            “I did get hurt, a little bit.”
            “You did? Where? Was it from me tackling you to the floor?” Franklin asked.
            TJ shook his head. This whole visit, he hid his left hand in his pocket, or tucking the palm of it out of sight and towards himself. He slowly turned it towards Frankie for him to see. Bandaged and blisters swollen to almost bursting. The skin less damaged and hardened and scabbing.
            “Jeez, that’s pretty bad. Those blisters look like they’re ready to break open,” Franklin said. “How have you been writing? Aren’t you left-handed?”
            “Yeah, but I can write with my right hand, too,” He said. “They don’t like me writing with my left hand.”
            “Or they just want to make life even harder for you,” Franklin mumbled. “What do you think, Pete? Think we should pop those?”
            “Probably. I don’t think it’ll look too bad underneath.” By now, Prickly settled in the nearby loveseat.
            “Alright. I’ll grab what we’ll need.” Franklin ruffled TJ’s hair before standing and heading upstairs.
            “See? He’s not mad at you,” Pete said. “There was nothing to worry about.”
            “I still feel bad about it, though.”
            “And that’s the be expected. But you’re learning how not to let it happen again, and that’s what matters. I’m going to grab my first aid kit from the car.”
            Biting down the towel, TJ hoped it wouldn’t hurt. He had blisters before, but none as big or as painful as this one. Frankie held his hand on another towel while Pete handed him a needle sanitized with rubbing alcohol.
            “Ready?” Dude said as a warning. TJ nodded and looked away as the blister was poked. “You’re doing good, Squirt.” He moved to the ones on his fingers. “It’ll feel a lot better when they’re empty.”
            “What about you, Franklin?” Prickly asked. “The ones on your back aren’t looking much better.”
            “I know, but I can’t exactly reach back there and get to them, so I’ve been leaving them to pop on their own.”
            “Do you want me to take care of those?”
            “Yeah, if you don’t mind.” Franklin patted the now flat area of TJ’s palms with a paper towel. “There. It’s all out. But don’t peel off the skin yet.”
            TJ nodded as his hand was cleaned and wrapped up again, this time without the awkward feeling of the bandage having to avoid the blisters. He stood while the same was done for Frankie. Peaking inside the kitchen, he looked over the damage again. He never thought he could do this much damage. And all because he waited too long to put the fries in. Maybe he should stay away from cooking fries foods, just to be safe. At least he said money wasn’t an issue. Hopefully that wasn’t just to make him feel better about this.
            “I was thinking of a diner themed kitchen,” Dudikoff said, coming to stand next to him.
            “Huh?”
            “You know, one of those retro type of diners? With the checkerboard floors and red detailing? That type of stuff,” he explained. “I think I’ll go for that.”
            “That’s a bold choice,” said Prickly.
            “Yeah, but I’m a bold guy, if you can’t tell,” he joked. “The whole thing’ll need to be gutted. By someone else, I don’t know shit about carpentry. Do you, Pete?”
            “Not at all. And even if I did, I’m too old to be doing it,” said Prickly. “But I know number of a company that’ll give you a good price. They did a great job on my attic.”
            “Really? I’d like to get that number then. I got money but that doesn’t mean I’m willing to just throw it all away, you know?”
            The two adults walked away to continue their conversation. Meanwhile, TJ stepped away from the kitchen. It was done and over with. Instead, he headed upstairs to kill time. Amazingly enough, he hadn’t poked around much in the other rooms in Dude’s house. Franklin’s bedroom, the bathroom, an office, he’d seen those. Curiosity got to him as he reached a door he hadn’t looked inside of.
            Opening the door, he was met with a room that, while it wasn’t messy, it was filled with boxes and storage containers.
            “Oh, there you are,” Franklin said, reaching the top of the stairs. “Pete went to grab us something to eat. Hope burgers are okay.”
            “That’s fine,” said TJ. “What’s all this stuff?”
            “Honestly? I forget. Probably a bunch of stuff I can do without,” he said. “Did you go home after the incident?”
            “No. I went over to Pete’s house and stayed there for a few days,” TJ said, leaning against the door frame. “I had to go home after that, though. I only have a few days of clothes over there.”
            “Did any of them apologize?”
            TJ shook his head. “I never expect them to, because they never do.”
            “Of course not.” Franklin sighed. “You didn’t deserve to be treated like that.”
            “I know.”
            Franklin placed a comforting handing on TJ’s shoulders. He did his best to let the boy know that he was always welcome to come over.
            “After I clean out this room, it’s going to be empty. I can’t image anything I could use it for,” Franklin said. “Do you want it?”
            “Me?”
            “Sure. You have one over at Pete’s place, right? How about another? I’ll sort through all this junk, clear it out, put on a fresh coat of paint, some furniture, you know, make it yours,” he said. “For if you just feel like coming over, or if your family are being extra giant assholes, whatever the reason. You’ll have a room here for you. How’s that sound?”
            Franklin waited for the kids answer. The fourth grader already had a room at Prickly’s house, and he wasn’t asking out of jealousy. Actually, he was thankful that the boy had a place to go if things got bad. But why not another?
            “Kid?” He asked, after not getting a response. His answer finally came with a hug.
            “Thank you.”
            “You’re welcome,” Franklin said, wrapping his arms around him. “I’d do anything for you, TJ.”
            TJ chuckled. “You said my name.”
            “Have I never said it before?”
            “Nope. It’s okay, though. I like your pet names for me.”
            “I’m glad, then. Now let’s go back downstairs, Pete should be getting back soon.”
            TJ nodded and followed him.
- 18
- 19
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Precocious