Despite the good start to their evening, things took a bit of a dip after Ben and Alex changed back. Jeremy’s interest in them slowly waned, and eventually (after several episodes of Adventure Time), he asked if he could go back to his bedroom.
Jeremy was content to sit in his bedroom playing with his action figures, but Ben managed to convince him that playing Monopoly would be more fun. Still, Jeremy kept looking at the digital clock beside his bed, as if he was in a class he hated.
Ben and Alex tried to keep him engaged, asking questions about what kinds of movies he liked, or what his favorite subject was in school. But they ended up doing most of the talking. They finished their game just in time (with Alex owning most of the board), as the doorbell rang downstairs. Alex went to answer it while Ben and Jeremy finished putting the game away. The smell of pizza wafted up to the room soon after.
“Want to go downstairs?” Ben asked. Jeremy shrugged. He was folding one of the Monopoly bills into a paper airplane.
“I don’t think your mom wants you to eat up here, and get the carpet all messy.” Ben said. That did the trick, and Jeremy followed Ben into the dining room.
“Dinner is served!” Alex said, placing the box in the middle of the small circular table. Ben got plates from the kitchen cabinet, and then a jug of jug from the refrigerator.
“You’re not still sore because I won are you?” Alex asked Ben, handing him a slice.
“Please, you just got lucky. You’ve never been able to beat me at anything before.”
“Not true sir. I got an A in Biology last year. And what did you get? Oh that’s right a C minus.” Alex laughed.
“Count your lucky stars you weren’t picked for football. Otherwise I’d tackle you to the ground next chance I get.” Ben said, with a sly wink.
“Do you play any sports Jeremy?” Alex asked. Jeremy sat in his chair with a long string of cheese hanging out of his mouth. He shook his head and swallowed.
“No, but I like baseball.” he said.
“Ben plays on the junior varsity baseball team.” Alex said. That renewed the spark of interest in Jeremy’s eyes, as he again stared at Ben like he was a god.
“Really? What position?”
“Center field, sometimes second baseman.” Ben said.
“Is playing the outfield hard?” Jeremy asked.
“It depends. But generally speaking it’s not too bad. You have to run a lot though, and deal with the sun on certain days. Most right handed batters tend to hit into left field, but left handed batters usually strike down the center of the pitch.”
“I’m left handed.” Jeremy said, waving his left hand.
“You’d probably give Ben a run for his money then. During practice, he always looks like he’s asleep in the outfield. Most of our school’s players are right handed.” Alex teased.
“I do not fall asleep. I’m just thinking.” Ben said sourly.
“Liar. You get that same look on your face as you do during history or math. Completely spaces out.” Alex laughed.
“Says the guy who couldn’t catch a baseball if you dropped it in front of him. I beat Jeremy could bat circles around you.” Ben retorted.
“Uh, actually I’ve never played before. At least not on a team. Just in the backyard by myself.” Jeremy said.
“I’d be more than happy to play with you. Alex too, if he had any hand-eye coordination.”
“There are more important things than catching or dropping balls. I’m fairly good at batting.” Alex said, double entendre intended. The two share a sly smile before going back to their meal. The look doesn’t go unnoticed though.
“Can I ask you two a question?” Jeremy said, watching the two carefully.
“Sure, as long as it’s not about Algebra or Pre-Calculus.” Ben joked.
“Are you two like boyfriends or something?” Alex almost chokes on his pizza, and Ben nearly spews his drink across the table.
“I don’t have a problem with it, just curious.” Jeremy said, worrying he might have implied something bad. He wasn’t sure why the two looked so surprised.
“No, it’s fine. We just didn’t think you, uh, knew about that kinda stuff.” Ben said.
“One of try classmates has two dads, they drop him off everyday. And, well, you kinda act like them.” Jeremy said. The parents in question were to normal humans. Each from a family who moved into Moon Lake, and someone else volunteered to become the family were.
“And you, uh, get it?” Alex asked, unsure how to phrase the question. When he was Jeremy’s age, he didn’t understand a thing about girls, or boys in this case. He wasn’t sure what he felt towards the opposite sex, but it wasn’t what people expected him to. He felt those things about the boys in his class, which would confuse most nine year olds.
“I think so. I mean, it’s all just feelings right? Some guys feel things about other guys, and some feel things about girls. No big deal.” Jeremy said before returning to his meat.
Alex and Ben stared at the kid for the longest time. Then started their own private conversation, whispering so softly they could barely hear each other.
“The kid makes Eric look like the prom king.” Alex whispered.
“I know. No wonder he has trouble making friends.” Ben said.
“Think we should say anything?”
“To who?”
“I don’t know, his mom? Your mom? A specialist?” Alex said with a bewildered look on his face.
“Let’s not make a side-show out of him. I’ll talk to my mom about Jeremy’s… logic?” Ben said, not sure what to call Jeremy’s definition of what they knew was love.
“Are you two okay?” Jeremy asked, noticing how Alex and Ben were looking at each other strangely.
“Huh? Oh we’re fine. Just talking about something that happened at school.” Ben lied.
“Okay…” Jeremy said a bit confused. He shrugged off the weird feeling he had and went back to his meal.
----------------------------------------
Later that night…
Gina Watson pulled into the driveway of her home, a little tired from the dinner with the lawyer. There were still some things to sort out regarding her husband’s death. It was painful on multiple levels. And made it blatantly clear John Watson was dead and never coming back.
The lights in the living room were on, and she could see the TV lights flashing on the ceiling. She slipped her key into the door and announced her return.
“I’m back.” she called into the house. Ben and Alex quickly jumped up from their position on the couch, and went to greet her.
“Did you have a good night?” Ben asked.
“Good isn’t the right word. Productive, sure.” Gina said nothing further than that. She didn’t want to burden the two with details of her misery.
“Where is Jeremy?” she asked, noting that he wasn’t with them at the moment.
“He fell asleep about fifteen minutes ago.” Ben said, gesturing for Gina to follow him and Alex back into the living room.
The boys had been working on homework, which was sprawled out on the coffee table. They agreed to let Jeremy watch a movie of his choosing if he changed into his pajamas. And as long as he kept it PG-13 or below (he tried to Netflix “We’re the Millers”). So Jeremy settled for the second Harry Potter movie instead. Gina came home just as the movie reached the scene with the giant spiders. Ben was happy to stop the movie, as spiders of any size gave him the creeps.
“The big bag wolf afraid of some overgrown arachnids,” Ben thought, extremely embarrassed by his irrational fear.
Jeremy was curled into a ball in one of the lounge chairs, with his Star Wars blanket draped over him. Gina took a moment to enjoy the sight before asking Ben and Alex how things went.
“Good. Played a Monopoly, ordered a pizza, the change is on the kitchen counter. And we washed the dishes. Jeremy showed us his collection of trading cards and then asked if he could watch a movie.” Ben summed up the evening quite nicely.
“I hope he didn’t bore you at all with those things. His father introduced him to trading cards, and ever since he spends his allowance on them.” Gina sighed.
“No, actually I used to collect them too. Well just the baseball cards. Never got into the Yu-Gi-Oh or Pokemon stuff.” Ben said.
“Really?”
“Ya. I play on the JV team at school. Jeremy seemed really interested in playing, we offered to teach him.”
“Well that’s news to me. Thank you for the offer. And for doing such a good job watching Jeremy.”
“It was easy. He’s a nice kid.” Alex said. Ben nodded in agreement.
“A pleasure to watch. If you need me, or us, again just call. You have my number right? Or at least my mom’s.” Ben asked.
“Yes Martha Anderson gave me both. I’ll let you to get packed up so you can get on with your night. Again thank you.” Gina said.
Ben and Alex collected their things quietly and slipped out the door so Gina could move Jeremy back into his bedroom. He started to wake when his mother pulled the blanket from his lap.
“Mom? When did you get here?” he asked, rubbing his eyes.
“A few minutes ago. How was your evening? Did you have a good time with Ben and Alex?”
“Um… ya I guess I did.” Jeremy said after thinking it over. He looked around for them, but they were already gone. He remembered watching the TV and the two working on homework before he drifted off to sleep.
“Let’s get you to bed, we can more tomorrow.” Gina said, helping Jeremy to his feet.
“Okay. Night,” Jeremy said. He pulled his blanket over his head and went upstairs to his bedroom. It didn’t take long for him to pass out in bed, for whatever reason he was very tired.
Downstairs Gina did a quick inspection of the house. If she hadn’t seen Ben and Alex leave, she would have never known they were there. The dishes from their dinner were stacked neatly in the drainer, and the change was under a salt shaker on the kitchen counter like they said it would be.
Gina went into her room, kicking off her heels as she walked to her own bed. She took out her phone from her purse and dialed. She wasn’t sure if Francis would pick up, since it was late and she might be busy.
She was, sort of. Francis and Samantha were tangled together in their bedroom, taking deep heavy breaths. Her phone began to buzz on their nightstand.
“Hello?”
“Dr. Twist? This is Gina Watson.”
“Oh, hello. How are you? Is it safe to assume you’re home?” Francis said, sitting upright.
“Yes, Ben and Alex just left. I just wanted to let you know, those two did a fantastic job with Jeremy. You should be very proud of your son.” she said.
“Thank you. I’m glad things are working so far. Will you need Ben for anything in the coming days?”
“Not until after the holidays.”
“Do you have plans for Thanksgiving?”
“We’re going to my sister’s place in Olympia.”
“I hope you enjoy yourselves. Oh, on a side note, I wasn’t sure if you wanted to do any sort of formal counseling? I know Ben said he’d act as a sort of go-between, but maybe you wanted Jeremy to have a more formal sort of therapy.”
“Not at the moment. Jeremy seems to be opening up to Ben on his own, he told him he wanted to learn how to play baseball. Something he’s never once mentioned to me. I don’t want to jump the gun.”
“No of course not. But that’s good. He’s comfortable around Ben, and the two share some interests.” Francis said. Her biggest concern had been that Ben wouldn’t have anything in common with Jeremy. Martha has said Jeremy was a lot like Eric, and Eric had about as much interest in sports as Francis had in the opposite sex.
“You must be tired, I’ll let you get on then. I just wanted to say thank you.”
“Don’t, I’m happy to help and I know Ben is too.” Francis said. With that, the two said goodnight, and hung up.
“Sounds like things are going well.” Samantha purred next to her wife. Francis nuzzled her head against Samantha’s shoulder, purring herself. She didn’t want to talk about that now. They would have all of tomorrow to talk about work things. Right now was reserved for her and Samantha.