Destroyer of Time: Pyrokinesis

Chapter Eight: Close Encounter

It was a school week again. Guess I didn’t have a choice but to stand up now and dress. Before I did that, It was a school week again. Guess I didn’t have a choice but to stand up now and dress. Before I did that, though, I stared at the ceiling of my room first and looked back at yesterday’s event.

We arrived at my house, noticing that my dad’s car wasn’t in the garage. I guessed I was fortunate that I didn’t need to talk to my dad so soon. After all, I just made up and walked out on him at the same time. I just had to speak to him later when no one was around.

We went to my room, and after a few minutes, my console was already on full throttle.

Three hours passed...

     “God, my back hurts,” Nick complained, stretching.

     “We’ve been playing for WHAT---?” I shouted because I couldn’t believe that time flew by so fast. “We’ve been playing for three hours, Nick. Three hours!" I scrambled up, already panicking as my thoughts raced on all the tasks I still had to do. "I haven’t even finished my homework for Bio. Mrs. Schumick will kill me,” I said to Nick, who continued doing his stretching exercises. 

     “Chill out, Dude! It’s fine not to do your homework once or twice. You can catch up to it anyway. You have a perfect GPA, Hunter. I'm starting to feel like I should call you "robot boy." Not that it will make much difference in what state you are now."

I glared at him. “Nick, don’t lecture me because, as far as I know, you've never done your schoolwork since third grade. You’re just lucky cause there happens to be an actual brain inside that big fat head of yours. Why don’t you use it better, huh? Did you know that you have a low average this semester?” I asked him. Nick was trying to become a doctor, too, just like me. 

     “One mad genius is enough between the two of us. Who’s gonna help you if you go insane?" He finished his stretches and stood up. "Who cares about school, anyway? They just teach us a lot of stuff that we're probably never gonna use in our lives. The experience is out there. Not in some crappy laboratory or drabby lecture halls. We need to live it to gain it. That's why I only use my brain to learn things that would help me,” he replied dryly.

     “Well, I guess it's your life, so you decide what you want to do with it. I just want the best for you, man. Not that I want to sound like your mother,” I countered. 

     "Thanks, bro. As you know, my mom will never say things like that,” he smiled sadly. 

     Now, what have I done?

     “Ye—a…a…yeah. What I mean is that you should be more---" I started.

     “I know what you meant, dude. I’m just screwing with you,” he said with a grin. I knew what façade Nick was playing around, but I just let it go. It was a sore spot, and I didn't want to keep pressing on it. 

After a few minutes of cleaning up, we went down to look for food. I was starving after three hours of non-stop gaming. It was already two in the afternoon, and we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. 

     “So you’ve finally come down, huh? I’ve been waiting for you to come down. I didn’t want to disturb you while you were busy doing something,” my dad said, startling both Nick and I. He was standing at the backdoor leading to the backyard.

     “Well, Nick and I were just playing. Why are you waiting for me?” I asked once I recovered. 

     “So, you’re Sander’s son. You’ve grown bigger. The last time I remember seeing you was when you’re still just a little boy. Well, I guess you’d been here a lot of times, but I just didn’t notice you. Just like when I didn’t notice my son for the past few years,” he told Nick, totally ignoring me. I wasn't sure why I was so irritated by that.

     “Nice to finally talk to you again, Mr. Pendigram. The last time you’ve talked to me was when I was just seven or eight. At least, you’re paying attention to your son now. Unlike some parents who forever ignore their kids,” Nick said, shaking my dad’s hand.

     “Just call me Uncle Ron and don’t give your parents a hard time. Just give them some time, and I bet they'll come around too,” my dad said.

     “They better make it fast,” Nick whispered, but I still heard it. I looked at Nick, but he averted his gaze.

     I guess Nick's still touchy about the parents' topic, so I better change it.

     “Why are you waiting for me, Dad?” I asked my dad once more.

     “Well, it’s about why you ran out this morning so suddenly? I got worried when you didn’t return immediately,” he said in a serious tone.

I heard Nick snort behind me. “He just ran to my house to ask me if I had something to do with the fire incident at that club last night. You see, we were there last night at The Party, and I got rejected by the club owner when I tried to apply for a job, so this dumbo thought that I might have some connection because I kinda have a motive,” Nick explained.

     “Hey! You didn’t need to make it sound so crude,” I said to him, elbowing his arm.

     “I see. So Hunter rushed out of our house because he was concerned about you. I discovered another thing about my son today: Kind,” my dad declared, nodding his head.

     “Dad, you don’t need to say embarrassing stuff like that,” I told him, scratching the back of my head.

     “Well, I told myself that I would learn more about you, so I’m just taking notes. Anyway, based on what the police said, they haven’t found anyone who’s guilty yet, so you better be careful because that criminal is still on the loose," my dad advised.

     “Don’t worry, Uncle Ron. We’re big boys now. So we can protect ourselves. What’s our taekwondo belt for if we can’t defend ourselves?” Nick said coolly. Well, it was true. Both Nick and I had black stripe belts. One more level, and we will have black belts. Wait, I totally forgot about it! Nick and I will have a promotion fight next week Friday to finally get our black belts. 

     And here we are, playing games all day instead of practicing!

     “Nick, our promotion fight is next week. We should train because I don't wanna lose. After all, this is the black belt we’re talking about,” I said to Nick, who just raised his eyebrows.

     “Hunter, we can take them on with close eyes. We’re better than those black belt guys, you know. We don’t need practice,” Nick said confidently. 

     This cocky bastard will get his ass kick.

     “Yeah, right. Let’s just wait and see when you get your butt kicked,” I told him.

     "You wish,” he remarked. “I better get going because I have something to do, okay? See you at school tomorrow. Later, Uncle Ron!” 

     "Take care, son," my dad replied.

He waved at me and went out of the front door before I could get another word in. I looked back at my dad, who started discussing what kind of meal he was going to cook tonight.

As I went back to the present, I recalled Nick waving at me. Nick never waved at me before. Well, I guess my instinct radar was just on edge a lot of these days. I sighed and went to school.