Chapter 7-02
1317 Words
Chapter 7-02
I had risen to my knees on the chair, my excitement getting the better of me, but his lack of answer had me sinking back to my butt, deflated.
"I will help you, but only if you agree to my conditions."
I nodded.
"First, nobody finds out about this. I remember how I freaked when I first found out about my brother; I don't want people to start acting weird around me."
I nodded again. I wasn't sure exactly what kind of help he was going to give me but I liked the idea so I wasn't about to shoot him down.
"Second, it would be temporary. Like, I would just be helping you adjust to working and thinking things through, or until you found a..."
"A Daddy?" I offered. He flushed but nodded. He squirmed a little in his seat, as though the conversation wasn't exactly making him comfortable.
"Yeah, until you found a Daddy or something. Thirdly, you'd have to listen to me. Say if I was telling you not to do something stupid—like when you were trying to stick the knife inside the toaster—you have to listen to me."
"The toast was stuck," I protested. I had made some on my break at work, wanting some jammy toast, but the stupid toaster had tried to eat it. "How was I supposed to get it out?"
"You could have electrocuted yourself, Asa."
"It stole my toast, Joel."
"This is why that would be important; you'd have to listen to me. Agreed?"
"Yes," I sighed, rolling my eyes.
"Good. And in return, I would try and be understanding. I don't know a lot about this but I can try my best. Any problems, I'd be here for you."
"Why?" I asked, frowning. "Why are you doing this? You could just run far, far away and then it wouldn't be your problem."
"Like I said, I don't want to see you hurt. You're a danger to yourself sometimes. Besides, I was thinking maybe understanding it could help me fix my relationship with my brother. We're both winners, right?"
"And I still get to phone you to talk about why crocodiles and alligators are cousins?"
Joel smirked but nodded. "Nothing will change like that. I will still be expecting you three in the morning phone calls—you really need to sort your sleep pattern out, by the way—and random texts. All that will be different is maybe the amount of time that we spend together. I do most of the rotas so I can start putting you on the same shifts as me so I can pick you up and drop you home. At least then I know you'll get home safe. We can also do stuff on our days off."
"I only work three days, though. You work five." I held up a hand and wiggled all the fingers on there just in case he didn't know how much five was.
"Then I'll make sure that my two days fall at the same time that you're off."
"And you'll help me buy a dino?" I asked in excitement.
"You can’t buy dinosaurs, Asa."
"Can," I argued. "That's why I got a job in the first place. They're selling a ginormous one. It's even bigger than me!"
I got paid in two days. I wasn't sure how much my wages were going to be, I just knew that I already owed a lot out. I owed Nicky the money back that she had lent me for taxis and for my night out last night and I owed Kyle some because he had bought me a McDonalds one night after he had dropped me home.
Then I needed to save enough until I got more money. I frowned. I thought getting paid was going to be fun but it suddenly seemed very stressful. How was I going to buy cool things if I had to think about all the things I was going to need rather than the ones that I wanted?
"You... applied for a job so you could buy a giant dinosaur?"
"Priorities on point," I said with a nod.
Joel only stared at me in bemusement. "You are by far the strangest person I've ever met."
"Is strange bad?"
"To a lot of people," Joel admitted. "I've heard some of the guys at work saying things about you. I ended up having a word with them but I know a lot of people will think the same."
"Do you think it?" I asked in a small voice. I knew that people talked about me behind my back. At school, I had always been the hyper kid. The kid who spoke too fast and couldn't keep still long enough for anybody to keep up with me. It had used to bother me a lot but my mama would always hug me and tell me that it was fine. That the right people would love me for who I was, and that I didn't have to change for anybody.
My dad disagreed; my dad no longer mattered to me.
"No," Joel answered after a pause. "I think you're really brave. Not a lot of people are brave enough to be their selves, but you are. You don't care what people think. To me, that makes strange awesome."
I smiled slightly. Joel thought I was brave? That made me really not want to tell him about the rubber duck incident.
"Thank you for not telling anybody," I told him. "I don't mind people thinking I'm weird but I think if they knew then it would make them see me as a bad weird instead of just a strange weird."
"It's your personal business, Asa. It makes it nobody's business besides the people who are involved."
"I know. And thank you for picking me up. Sorry if I made you feel awkward."
"You're my friend. Friends help each other. One day you'll find somebody to look after you the way you want to be looked after, until then, I'll do my best."
I knew he wasn't agreeing to be my Daddy, though I couldn't help but think of how amazing it would have been if he did. He would have made a good Daddy; he was always saying 'no, Asa, don't do this," or 'because you have to, Asa."
That, and he was really kind and goofy and even when he was tired after a shift and I still had more energy than the energizer bunny, he didn't get mad.
"I'll try my best not to do anything else dangerous, too," I promised.
"Just check with me first if you're unsure. Come on, let's check and see if your clothes are dry yet."
Joel had washed my clothes for me this morning because they had dried overnight and ended up stinking of beer and stagnant water. He had let me have a shower and wear more of his clothes until mine dried. The way his shirt—which fit him yummily—fell down to my thighs and the way the arms holes had so much room, reminding me of what little toothpicks I had for arms, fit me showed just how much bigger than me he was. He didn't seem that big standing next to me. I only had to tilt my head up to meet his eyes a little bit. I guess he was bigger than I gave him credit for.
My clothes were dry and I changed into them quietly. I wasn't sure if giving Joel the chance to think over his offer would be enough to make him see what hard work I was and give up on me. I really wouldn't have blamed him but just thinking about the possibility made me sad.
It made me even sadder when he dropped me back off at home.
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