The Neighbor Next Door

Returning to normal?

On Sunday, TK decided it would be a good idea to get out of the house and do something while everyone was around, having OJ take them all to one of the parks nearby where she lived, and a park OJ used to go to as a child. Currently, he was sitting on a bench, watching his two kids mess around on a swing set. As safe as the area was, he kept an eye on the two of them, because he wasn't going to risk anything. His mom and TestTube were taking a walk. OJ had noticed the two baking yesterday while he was having a movie night with his kids. He noticed them step outside after setting it in the oven, and neither of them storming back in at any point. His mom came back in at some point to get the brownies they had baked out of the oven, TestTube returning a few minutes later, and he could tell the air between them was a lot less tense. Which, he hoped meant whatever talk the two of them went well. He was honestly really glad. He was happy for his sister, really, finally getting an acceptance from mom that she didn't have before. He was glad his family was finally coming back together, rather than the drifting that had started such a long time ago with dad's passing. He was just glad things were going well.

After a little while, his kids abandoned the swing set, going to hang out near the bench OJ was sitting on, Cher sitting down with him, bringing out a small notepad he had brought along to doodle on, while Ry stood nearby, looking for any possible cool branches from the trees in the area.

"So... Do you guys think I can convince everyone that lunch is a good idea when the other two come back over here?" OJ leaned back a bit, resting his arms on his chest area.

"Totally! You already have us convinced, no more words needed!" Ry called out from where he was, picking up a certain stick, and waving it around a bit, as to see if it worked well for whatever purpose he was after. Cher looked over, and giggled; "Yeah,"

"Great." OJ just smiled, looking over to Ry, who walked over to the bench with the stick he had picked out. It had one stray part to it that made it look like the handle to a sword, figuring Ry was probably pretending the stick was a sword.

"Look at this, Cher!" He waved the stick around at a safe distance, having the thought to make sure he wasn't going to smack his dad or brother with it by accident. Cher looked up from his drawing pad with a gasp; "That's so cool!"

"I know right! We gotta bring this home with us!" And with that, both of them looked at OJ, as if asking permission to haul a stick into the car today. OJ blinked, before laughing a bit.

"Sure, just don't bring it into grandma's house, okay?"

"Yeah, okay!"

It was about five minutes before the other two returned to the area, having finished a walk around the area, meeting back up with the others. They all spent a little while talking and hanging about, before they decided to head back to the car, OJ not having to do really any actual convincing at all for lunch to be brought up by his mom. This was a good start to the day. It was also the last full day they were all spending here. After dinner, they were going to be headed back, since OJ worked on Mondays, and it would be better to go back tonight, than really early in the morning. Surely it was going to be a good day, with how it started. He was glad there was no more strained air between anyone.

...

MePhone felt horribly conflicted when he had woken up in the morning. He was just going to shove his dream off from last night, because Gods, why would he need to think about it, because nothing happened, and it wasn't real, but his brain seemed to think it was a good idea to keep replaying it in his mind as he tried to go about his day. Right now he stood, flushed face in hands from a stray thought just after he had fed the cat. He felt so embarrassed. Humiliated, really, at these thoughts, especially considering he still felt like it was wrong having thoughts like this about a guy he still didn't feel like he knew well enough. But here he was, still thinking about it.