“What oh?” Daniel emerged from the fridge with a bottle of coconut water. “Are you seriously drinking this, bro?”
“What makes you think I’m drinking that? Could be Andi.”
Daniel just snorted. “Nice try. Now what is ‘oh’?”
In that moment, the bell rang. Andi went to greet Tyler while George tried to come up with an answer for his brother. Unsuccessfully, it seemed, because while Andi greeted Tyler, he heard Daniel.
“Hey, George, why’s a teenager standing in front of your door? Anything you want to tell us?”
“Shut up, Daniel.”
“Is this a bad time?” Tyler’s voice was trembling.
Inwardly, Andi sighed. It was a very bad time, and if anybody else had been standing here, he would have told them as much. He couldn’t do that with Tyler, though, because it wasn’t the boy’s fault that George’s mother was on the warpath and that his talent was overwhelming him at a time when life itself was difficult enough without any added burdens.
“No, Tyler. It’s fine. Please come in. Do your parents know where you are?”
The mutinous look told him the first order was to send a text message to Chief Norris. While Tyler took off his shoes and George kept Daniel from crowding the teenager, Andi did just that.
Andi: Tyler is with us.
TheBalrog: I’m going to pick him up.
Andi: No. I’ll text when he’s calmed down.
The dots of an answer being composed appeared, vanished, reappeared, vanished again, and then a simple thumbs up came through. Apparently, Chief Norris knew what was wrong and was not in the mood to fight.
“Hi, Tyler, what are you doing here?” George had shoved Daniel back and somehow made it clear to his brother that he needed to behave.
“I had a fight with my mom.” Tyler stared glumly at the neon yellow Crocs that George shoved in his direction.
“Oh, I know that feeling, buddy. Hi, I’m Daniel, George’s older brother.” Apparently, Daniel wasn’t good at behaving.
Tyler shook Daniel’s hand. “Why are you here?”
Daniel grinned. “It’s George’s birthday.” He slung an arm around his brother and ruffled his hair. “The family is here to celebrate.”
Tyler visibly recoiled. “I’m so sorry, George, Andi.” He started trying to get back into his sneakers. “I’ll leave. Happy birthday, George.”
“Thank you, but it’s fine, Tyler. Did you take the bus to come here? It will be some time until the next one leaves. And we’re having cinnamon buns. Are you hungry?”
At the mention of food, Tyler perked up. His talent made for a high metabolism now that it was developing faster. Combined with the natural healthy appetite of every teenage boy, he could always eat.
“I love cinnamon buns.”
“Wonderful. Why don’t you go with Andi, and you can talk about whatever made you come out here while Daniel and I get the buns in the oven?”
Andi smiled at his lover, who had effectively provided them with some space to discuss whatever was bugging Tyler. He brought the boy upstairs into the guest room that also served as a storage room for George’s weights and other fitness paraphernalia. They sat down on the queen-size bed, Andi at the head and Tyler toward the foot. He dragged his left leg under his body and let the right dangle over the edge of the mattress.
Andi waited a few moments to see if Tyler wanted to volunteer some information. When he stayed silent, Andi took over. The boy hadn’t brought any ghosts with him, which was a small blessing.
“So, you had an argument with your mom?”
Tyler stared at his hands, kneading them nervously in his lap. “When you helped me find out what Boyd and Tina wanted, she saw to it that the two were buried together. It was a lot of work, but she pulled it off. They were happy and left me alone. And I thought maybe things would get better, you know? Between us? That she was finally acknowledging the—everything.” Tyler sighed so deeply that Andi had to fight the urge to drag him into his arms. “But when I wanted to talk about it today, like, ask her some questions about my granddad, she told me she didn’t want to remember anything about him. Then I said it could help me, and then she said she’d never let me become what he was. I don’t know what hurt more—that I seem to be an ‘it’ to her like some monster or that my own mother doesn’t want to help me, even though she knows what I’m going through. And Dad just stood there, saying nothing. He’s completely useless.”
Andi closed his eyes for a moment. He knew exactly what Tyler was going through, felt his pain as an echo of his own. Being rejected for who you were was bad enough. Being rejected despite the other person knowing what hardships you were enduring was devastating. It made you feel like a lantern in a hurricane, unable to withstand the forces whirling around you, yet unable to give up, to simply wink out, because then everything that was you would fade away. It wasn’t fair to burden anybody with this, let alone a teenager, still half child.
“I can understand why you see it this way.”
