Childish

An Old 'Friend'

Jackie, Jameson, Henrik and Anti stared at a bed.

"It's smaller than I thought" Anti pouted.

Jackie gave him a look, "You're child sized right now. It'd be perfect for you!"

"But. . . but you said I'd . . um . . never mind " Anti was starting to get a little emotional but held it in. He didn't want to say it.

"What is it, Anti?" Henrik asked him. It was obvious Anti wanted to argue with a point, "What did Jackie say?"

Anti hung his head and refused to look any of them in the eye. Jackie didn't mean for it to sound mean but it clearly hurt his feelings.

"What is it, Anti?" Jackie tried to persuade him.

Jameson sighed and rolled his eyes at Jackie, knowing how ignorant he was being, 'He wants a bigger bed'

Anti sniffed, "You said I'd be able to live with you all when I grow up again!" his voice strained.

"O . . .OH" Jackie had forgotten about that but he wasn't about to go back on his word, "Yeah, you're right! Sorry, Anti . . . I keep forgetting you'll be. .. big again. Let's go and look at the other beds then, huh?"

The fact that Jackie wasn't arguing put Anti at ease again slightly but how could he forget? It wasn't as if Anti was stuck like this forever!

Leading him on the child harness, Jackie and the others came up to the adult sized beds.

And that's when an associate walked up to them and Anti once more hid behind Jackie for protection.

"Hi there! Is there anything I can help you all with today?"

"No thanks. We're just getting a bed for this little guy" Jackie pat Anti's head.

"Oh well I could interest you in the kids beds? He might be too small for THESE"

"He wants a bigger bed and he's getting one" Jackie halted them, "Something comfortable but affordable."

"Oh . . well okay then! Sure thing! Follow me over this way and I'll show you our-"

As the salesperson continued, Anti just found himself trailing along behind Jackie thinking of other things. He couldn't hold onto their conversation with the massive boredom he felt so he started to mess around with the harness on him and looked around the store and towards the entrance to the rest of the mall.

Fiddling with the harness, he wondered when Marvin and Chase would join them. He felt bad for flinching away from Chase before but he couldn't help it. He couldn't help he preferred Jackie for now. He was the one that saved him. If he hadn't been there, those men would've. .. . well he didn't want to think about it. There were a lot of really sick men in the world.

Not long ago, he thought he was one of them.

'But I'd never hurt a child. . . . and I especially wouldn't ever do THAT to a kid. That's more messed up than what I could ever do'

He thought back to when he had hurt his brothers.

And after everything, they still took him in and saved him.

Once he turned back to an adult, though. . . .

Would they really accept him as much? Would they tolerate him like they did the kid version of him? Did he really even want to turn back into an adult?

'Of course I do. What'd be the point in being a kid forever? Not like I can control it anyway. Marvin's curse will wear off soon . . .. I think, anyway. How long's it been now? A couple weeks?'