Things Only Go Downhill

Chapter 16

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"Sometimes people pretend you're a bad person so they don't feel guilty about the things they did to you"
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"Where were you? You're late" Jonah closed his eyes and took a deep breath as soon as he heard Mr. Rosner's voice. He forced himself to remain emotionless. Mr. Rosner didn't respond well to anything more or less. Joy or lightheartedness made Jonah too loud for him. Sadness or grief made Jonah too ungrateful. Anger or frustration made Jonah too unstable. Fear or guilt made Jonah too irrational. The only thing he responded well to was soldier-like obedience so that was what Jonah gave him.

Maybe that was why he liked Callie so much. Callie was bright and bubbly. She was a never-ending waterfall of emotions and activities. She was open-minded and was the first person to ever look at Jonah and see someone worth accepting regardless of his flaws. She encouraged everything about Jonah that Mr. Rosner despised.

You see, Jonah was always a weird kid growing up. Mr. Rosner always bought him books to keep him busy and Jonah had become very... Fixated on a few things. Dogs being a big one. Growing him he remembered begging for any book he could get his hands on to learn about different breeds or their development. Everything from how to train them to how their medical operations worked, Jonah learned. Mr. Rosner found it impossible to shut Jonah up about them...

Eventually, Jonah learned his lesson and stopped talking about things he really liked. He limited conversation with anyone to fighting, money, and chores. He still spent any spare minute he had taking care of the alley dogs and strays and he did enjoy that. But then Callie came along and for the first time ever, he had someone that was willing to listen. He had someone that let him be Jonah and it was like a breath of fresh air.

"I was with Callie" Jonah truthfully admitted. He decided not to mention that Callie invited him and Mr. Rosner to dinner. He didn't need him to show up, make a fuss, and make Callie's grandmother hate Jonah more than she already did. "I'll start making dinner"

"Don't bother. You were late so I decided to throw it all out" Mr. Rosner shrugged. Jonah's heart fell to his chest as he locked onto the older man sitting at the dinner table. The light above them flickered and Jonah tried to keep calm despite how much he wanted to scream.

"Why would you do that?" Jonah quietly asked.

"You were gone. I had no way of knowing if you were coming back" Mr. Rosner shrugged as he put his hands behind his head. Jonah wanted to scream at him. To get in his face and demand why he wasted the money Jonah had to earn. Why he had thrown out perfectly good food almost ensuring that Jonah was going to be starving during tomorrow's fights. But he didn't say a word. Instead, he shut down and walked off feeling completely numb.

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"This is Dolly, Glimmer, and Ivy" Dorian announced as he handed Jonah the next photo. There were three queens line up. One was tall and had long curly hair and bright pink and white makeup. Her dress was light pink and polka-dotted. The second was much paler than the other two. She was slender and had long blue lashes and lipstick. Her white dress was tight to her body and had a long slit running from her hip to the floor. And the third had bright green makeup and a tight neon green dress that hugged all of her curves. She wore a blonde wig and had warm brown skin.

"You're friends with drag queens?" Jonah asked in slight disbelief. Dorian nodded and pointed at the queen in the pink dress.

"Dolly is basically my other parent" He admitted before pointing at the one in blue. "Glimmer taught me how to effectively blow up someone's car... Only did it once though..." Dorian mumbled the last part before pointing at the one in green. "And Ivy hid me from the cops in the trunk of her car"