The trek through the neighborhood nearest the bus stop was covered by trees. A shallow brook was getting high from rainwater as it flowed eastward towards the river around the backside of the community. The bus stop itself was on the main road on the opposite side of the brook from the gated community David's parents lived in. It was a nice residential area if you were fine with the nine-foot, white-stone wall.
Sighing, David made his way over some stones that dotted one part of the creek, ignoring the bridge that most everyone took to get into the neighborhood. They made their way to a shadowed part of the wall, hidden beneath a big tree. Using footholds made of broken lower branches, and some divots comprised of missing stones from the wall, they climbed up and over the wall.
They weren't as spry as they once were, but climbing over the wall, hidden by the tree, was not overly difficult. It helped that this wall was conjoined by a wooden fence on the other side which straddled the line between two homes: his mom's house, and the old Winston couple next door. Leaning over the wall, David slowly lowered themselves onto the ground from up high, not scraping much as they dropped.
"Still thinking about what'd be like to be in high school," they smirked to themselves. "Crazy magic app." David shook his head, moving through the isles of his mom's small personal garden, and moving to the concrete that surrounded the swimming pool. The deep back yard held five large trees that were near to the opposite wall from the Winstons and created a shade over the propane grill near the picnic table.
"Then again... high school wasn't exactly kind to me," David mused. "Mostly it'd just give me another 20 years... which if I kept all my memories I guess wouldn't be terrible. But—" they sighed, looking themselves over, "—it's not like the world is going to be a great place growing up now." Scratching at the side of their N95 face mask, David allowed some concern for the year that was 2020...
Moving up to the back sliding glass door, David used a small key from within their coat pocket to unlock it and step inside. Closing it behind them, they stepped over to the white box on the wall behind the billiards table and proceeded to type in the deactivate code for the silent alarm. All around them were shelves of books for RPG's and boxes for board games. The one side, two brown leather chairs situated on either side of stand-along chess board.
Moving out of the game room and into the main living space, David confirmed that neither their mom nor her new husband were home. "Match made in hell," David said, rolling their eyes. "Defense attorney hooking up with a cop," he said to himself as if narrating their history. "Dad'd be rolling over in his grave, but fuck it... she's happy," he sighed.
It hadn't been that hard for Grace, David's mom, to continue moving up in the firm over all these years. She'd found a lucrative relationship assisting the local police union and somewhere along the lines her and David had grown distant. Her son was simply unable to get passed what she did for a living and they they still met over holidays and the like. It was understood that neither approved of the other.
They'd moved out and been living in a small studio apartment on their own for many years working various jobs: grocery store clerk, pizza delivery, a call center, and lastly a game store. And that was the job that brought David back home two months ago. The GameShop had told David in no uncertain terms that they'd be expected to wait on customers during the pandemic and that had lead to a confrontation.
David dealt with their situation until a customer who refused to put on a mask got in their face, yelling and screaming. When Mr. Blaustein reprimanded David for telling the customer to leave and then spraying down the countertop and that lady's items before helping the next customer, David told him they refused to die for minimum wage. When Mr. Blaustein pointed out he made more than that, David snidely remarked: "I'm not going to die for a nickel more than minimum wage!"
And then they were fired... which was fine, because it meant they got full unemployment. But David refused to find a new job with the same bad conditions, even though those were basically all their options. It was either die for someone else's net worth, or take up mom's offer to move back home. Which, again, was fine in the abstract... and a lot better off than many people had it.
The main downside for David was that the cop&emdash;Frank&emdash;was an asshole. He refused to use David's pronouns, insisted on a curfew for the nearly 40-year-old man, required chores in exchange for rent, and demanded David call him dad or father. The chores were fine, and David took no issue with doing the dishes and taking out the trash to have a roof over their head. But not using their pronouns was Frank being a dick, and calling him dad was an absolute deal-breaker.
Grace had to have a long conversation with Frank about why Erik was David's father, not him. Still, it showed David where the man's head was: controlling and possibly abusive. When David looked him up online he couldn't find a history of abuse towards Frank's first two wives as they expected. Put simply, David didn't trust Frank, and what articles he could find on the man made him certain he wasn't a rare, 'good cop'.
They expected their mom home first, and they had about an hour to kill before they arrived. With the laundry and the lawn both handled already, David couldn't think of any more chores to do. With that in mind, what did David decide to do with their time?